Most powerful light for least amount of money?

LED Flashlights – General Info
62

WolfA your English is very good and you convey a solid point

I would not trust the nitenumen for charging, sorry
A S2+ seems about the same in terms of brightness (and I only compared it to my 6*7148 one)
Budget for a charger for the same $20.

63

IMO, these are two of the most practical flashlights, which is why nearly every flashlight aficionado has one or both (or several of both).

The 18650 form factor provides plenty of power in a relatively small package.

The C8 is built for throw and well-suited for outdoor use.

The S2+ has a much more well-rounded beam that makes it a good general purpose flashlight for use around the home.

(If you pick up the S2+, I’d recommend getting the slightly warm 4C tint - I think of it as a “hint of golden sunrise”.)

64

Yes a warmer tint is so much nicer on the eyes, good advice!

65

777funk I definitely don’t want to come off as rude to you, but I noticed you asking what an XML is then suggesting you would just pop an XHP into your maglight. Please understand that this would definitely not be a beginner mod in any way. You said you have heatsinks lying around but I doubt they are something viable for a torch. Before you jorney down the rabbithole of building a XHP maglight for your first build, possibly spending more to accomplish this then you would to buy a prebuilt light (and learning many new ways to cuss) , please take the advice of others here with the torches suggested.

And definitely read some build threads here if that sort of thing interests you.

Best Wishes

66

On the many recommendations of a C8 or similar none has seemed to grab your attention.
Let me point out that you will be going from roughly 168 lumens with your maglight to 1000 lumens with the venerable C8.
Let that wash over you for a minute. :smiley:

67

Convoy C8, (led of your choice), 8*7135 driver.
www.aliexpress.com/store/product/Convoy-c8-strong-light-flashlight-cree-xml-u2-t6-torchy/330416_826040641.html

Flashlight parts:

Thorfire VG10—Not the brightest—$15.00 with code

BLF Code deals:

I think ready made would be the cheapest option for you. However you are the decider.

68

Tech is at a point right now where it is easy to produce more light than a reasonable design can dissipate the heat from This gives some choices, include a turbo high output mode often including a timer to automatically drop to normal after so many seconds or when the heat rises above some level, manually turn the flashlight off when it heats up, or settle for max light output limited to the lower steady state level.

Personally I like, normal, high, firefly, but I am also happy with an Olight i3s EDC.

69

XML T6? With all that is out now for cheap, that is your brightest single light?

70

Well yeah, its maybe a year or so old, but as it is I very rarely use it vs my EDC i3s and I don’t even have a 10440 in that right now.

I played around with the T6 when I first got it, but for the most part it was just annoying to everybody around me who were not all that excited to see me light up that tree down the street.

71

No problem and not taken as rude. I started another thread asking if an XHP35 (or 70) could be hard wired to 12V and it appeared that it can be done. I’m an EE with a background of “rigging things up” since I was a small child.

I have plenty of aluminum heat sinks that I can shape to fit my needs and enough common sense to tell if it’s working or not.

I have an old Maglite that I’m tired of… might as well give it a shot. If it doesn’t work as planned, I’m out $6 on the XHP35 or $18 on the 70 (MtnElec). Might work… of course might not! If not, I can always order a C8. Looks to be a highly recommended (and I’m sure great!) light. Maybe I’ll order it with the LED from Simon or Richard.

72

I’m going to go with Simon I believe due to all of the positive recommendations here. How do I get his BLF discount?

I’ll be ordering a C8 and some LED’s to play with.

73

Send him a message at AliExpress that you’re a member of BLF and he’ll inform you how to do it.
AE payment system can be a real PITA

74

Sent him a message. Hopefully he gets it.

75

@777funk: you sound like you may actually get into light modding/building quite easily. Great! I hope you have as much fun as we do around here - even though a lot of us just enjoy stock lights.

You will certainly be surprised the first time you wire a decent led to a 18650… or a couple of them. Be careful with your eyes, these tiny electronic components can blind you easily. What you want to do is called ‘direct drive’ - DD. That’s turbo on many flashlights. The led sucks all it can from the battery(ies). But that’s not the way to go for too long though because of the heat and led lifespan. And that’s why you want to control how much current goes into the emitter. Hence the driver…

Please let us know what you do to that venerable ML! :wink:

76

I’m going to agree with Angler here … It seems every new person here thinks he’ll just pop a new emitter in their old Maglight and end up with a new light .
After looking at numbers of mods over the years on the site it’s clear they are a pain .Enough of a pain that my old mags will probably never get modded .i always liked a maglite but ,that was many years ago .I used to like solarforces too :slight_smile: …I would never suggest a maglite as a first mod ….never !

77

The C8 is the brightest light I’ve ever seen. Thanks guys.

I also bypassed the regulator board on mine. Off/On is all I have now. But it’s bright!!

78

777, I’m pretty new here, but you have a really good light IMO.

We recently moved from our quite literally daily use SunLight SL6s and SL4s which are old technology Quartz halogen bulbs with rechargeable C cells to LED lights. The first C8s I bought were counterfeits. Even so I liked the light a lot. So much light in such a small package! If you bought from one of the quality vendors I have no doubt you got a real one.

I also recently got a Convoy L2 from Mountain and it’s a beast, and Richard states that in his description of it. It’s much larger than the C8, but it also not just lights up out beyond 100 yards, It lights up out at 100 yards BRILLIANTLY! I have no idea just have far that beam lights up. I can only test out to 100 yards. Right now I’m using 18650 batteries in it, but it’s designed for 26650(?) which are larger and will also be heavier.

I do NOT miss the SL6s and SL4s!

I do like the tailcap that allows me to change the brightness, and even mode. I have the, what I call “simple” tailcap (driver?). Wait for it to blink then tap to change modes. I mostly keep it on the mode w/o the flashing and SOS. One charge of the battery lasts a full month as long as I just use the low and mid brightness settings.

79

For one possible good quality bright, cheap deal with a little DIY, I'd buy:

Together, bout $28.50, but easy to put together. You can save around $4 if you buy the bare driver board and parts kit, reflow yourself. If you do it right, you will get a true 1,700 to 1,900 lumens OTF on a good cell, like the Samsung 30Q, and have a pretty much state-of-the-art setup in terms of the top tier LED and latest, greatest driver, and firmware with advanced features. The C8 will handle the heat much better than a tube light, and certainly much better throw.

Cheaper yet, do it with no driver - just a 17mm blank driver board for like 65 cents, and you can do it for about $19 . Still great host, best single cell LED out there. To max out your amps and lumens, should use 20 AWG wires though, and wire bypass the springs - that will be in the 1,900 lumens range then.

PS: Your hand will do the temperature monitoring, and your eyes the battery LVP: when you see the output getting lower and lower, time to charge your battery.

80

Thank you Tom. I actually ordered an XM-L2 (or maybe just L) from Simon Mau when I placed the order for my C8. Isn’t that the LED that’s currently in there?

Also, I bypassed the driver board and it’s pretty bright! I can see a good 200 yards clear as day. Haven’t tried further.

81

Well, the U4 bin for the XM-L2 is the brightest bin, not commonly available. Don't think Simon has them. MtnE, Intl-outdoor, and Cutter has them - all good well know reliable source for LED's. I built 3 Yezl Y3's with them, and got 1,900 lumens measured in each.Forget the percentages, but a U3 is maybe 5% lower, than a U2 5% lower than that (T6 even lower). If you buy a XM-L2 light and they don't say, it's probably a T6, possible a U2 from a good source.

Simon is a very good reliable source for lights, but he doesn't specialize in the latest LED's.