I agree, and am curious to know what he’ll get.
A maglite will fulfill most of those conditions.
> SD05 …. ring switch
I like the SD05 a lot as a loaner, but it takes some coddling.
If he’s willing to store the battery outside the flashlight, so he won’t have the Hall sensors draining the cell.
Otherwise, that’s an annoyance.
It’ll get a mixture of indoor and outdoor use. He still lives on my parents farm so he uses whatever they have around. He HATES tail-switches so unfortunately that eliminates most Convoy lights even though they are otherwise right up his alley. The requirement is that it must at least fit in a jacket pocket and he specifically said “no big heads.” He has seen and held a D4V2 and doesn’t like how tiny it is. Says he wants the light to “fill his hand.” I think his requirements are a bit silly too but I am hoping to buy him his dream light anyway.
The more I consider the more I think I should just get him a TC20 V2 and glue shut the charging port as some have already suggested. What I'd like to find is a 21700 tube light with no charging port, a good boost driver, and side switch but we'll see.
I do appreciate everyone who is bringing ideas.
Doesn’t that one have an inferior driver? What are the other differences? Convoy isn’t the most helpful when it comes to performance metrics.
Maybe you can find a used Sofirn SP33 V2. 26650 but otherwise it is what you are looking for.
I had completely forgotten about that issue as it doesn’t affect me. If I recall correctly users complained that turbo stepped down when the light was only warm to the touch because the M3 uses a NTC to regulate temperature. I just ran a quick test with my M3 and turbo steps down after a little over a minute. Some people removed the NTC thus removing temperature regulation to allow the turbo level to run indefinitely (or until it breaks I guess). It was a little confusing at the time as I asked Simon about it and he said there was no difference in temp regulation between the M3 and the M3C although the M3C seems to hold turbo longer and at another time he said the M3 did not use a NTC. It’s possible he just misunderstood.
Your brother thinks one light can do it all, and by extension you’ve fallen into his trap. We all know that one light can’t do it all. Get the wurkkos Fc11 in 4000k and tell him to try it for 2 weeks while you work on finding one that will throw a little bit farther for looking across the field. The FC11 will do 90% of what he needs. And then yeah maybe dm11. And then a good 18650 headlight with a wide beam pattern and 4000k again. That’s three birthdays.
Yea I think we’re going to have to ignore some requirements. I was talking about it last night with another brother and we concluded the same thing—that he thinks he only needs one light. Realistically for optimal usage you need at least two. I’ll update this thread with whatever we end up doing though. Thanks everyone for the suggestions!
Interesting. Will a standard cell like a Samsung 40T fit properly in this light? I assume that the included cell is longer than average.
EDIT: Actually, nevermind. Seems like Imalent has some serious reliability problems with that model.
The included protected battery is long but according to review standard 21700 cells work fine.
I haven’t owned one myself so can’t speak to reliability.
I just read the Amzn reviews and FWIW I suspect that the proprietary battery was probably the source of some of the problems expressed, so a Samsung 40T might even be better.
GLW Search
Just an update for the curious, finally pulled the trigger and bought my brother a light. Actually, another sibling and I worked together and bought him two. We ended up ignoring a lot of his “requirements” and instead used common-sense to pick two lights that would fill different roles.
We got him:
- Convoy M3-C, 6500k
- Wurkkos FC11, 5000k emitters, green host.
His initial request was basically for a grail light (that doesn’t truly exist) which he expected to fill every possible role. What he is getting is a “serious business” light for when he needs sustained output and a pocket light for carrying.
I’m actually wondering why he didn’t want a Convoy light with a tailswitch.
Because he strongly dislikes tailswitches. Otherwise those would have been first on my list.
I have both, good lights.
The FC11 is a beater light for everyday situations, the M3C is a lumen monster so lots of light in a not very throwy light.
The M3C has a few flaws that are a headache, the charging circuit is glitchy and the light just shuts off on max output when the battery gets to about 50% instead of just going into a lower mode.
Both are not very throwy but unless you need to light up more than a city block away they will do fine.
Jeez I hope the M3-C flaws are not present on every unit. To spend that much time deciding and then choose a light with built-in flaws… :person_facepalming:
It probably is, i’d ask Simon if i were you before it ships.
Well this review seems to show a continuous runtime Convoy M3-C review | High power flashlight with 4300 lumens
Others on BLF have corroborated my observations.
Also if the battery is full and you put it in max it lowers to about 1600 lumens then stays there (hence 1lumen the test is fine) but if you start it on full with a less than 70%ish battery then you will hit the issue.