At the risk of beating a dead horse.i need some direction on picking out a good thrower that doesn’t have a pencil beam like a deerelight put it this way my dream light is one of RMM ’ S heavily modded BTU SHOCKER which I can’t afford so I’ll set the limit at 70.00 $ usd battery configuration doesn’t matter as long as they are 18650 and possibly of modding in the future any input is greatly appreciated.
HD2010 or Small Sun T08
If you can stretch your budget $20 and can wait several weeks, get the BTU Shocker from Banggood for $90. This light is supposed to be going out of production, so if you really want this light, you should get it...or gamble that the replacement will be better and affordable.
It's a great thrower out of the box, and you can do a couple easy mods here and there to increase throw. I'd start off with buying a trio of emitters on Noctigon's, dedoming them with gasoline, and getting them installed. Just that alone will greatly increase throw and still have a decent amount of flood.
HD2010 is the go to classic. Good throw, but usable spill too. Very moddable. ~$30. Or the Jacobs A60 for around half the price.
I went threw the budget thrower phase, had them all (still have several) the. I bought an olight SR51 for $45, converted it to parallel cells, installed a dedomed XM-L2 on a Noctigon and a BLF17dd driver with my custom 3 mode FW and it couldn’t be a better light, it’s stopped my search for a good thrower. Does 1700Lm and 135kCd with great runtime from the 2p cells. The extremely high quality reflector, lens and overall build quality is worth more than $45 alone and the stock light is no slouch either but my version is pretty incredible for the price.
If your interested in the mods PM me anytime…
HD2010 hands down. Stock it’s not bad, but you can mod the crap out of it. Tom E has mine pushing 200 to 210 kcd. Haven’t found anything that can out throw it for the price.
Could guys tell who makes the high quality original or clone and where to get at a decent price?
Get a modded dedomed convoy L4 or HD2010 from Tom E. It is going to be portable and still very throwy (100k or 200kcd).
And will Tom E make it for I imagine he has a long waiting line, please let me know asap as I got my monthly check and before it’s gone I would like to get one toy .
Maxtoch SN6X-2X. $75 (but there was a GB where it was $5 cheaper), around 95-100klux/1m stock (modded over 200klux) and really good quality. theres $10 cheaper model thats within your budget called SN6X-2S -the same brightness (around 1000 OTF lumens), quality but slightly less throw (around 80klux/1m) but it’s still much more than HD2010 or ZY-T08.
Yes - the new upgraded Maxtoch SN6X-2X with the BLF mods standard pumps out 112-122kcd out of the box, and mine with just dedoming read 237kcd. The SN6X-2S phantom also refers to now reads about 96kcd with the ugrades. Well past HD2010 and T08 - though they are fun lights to mod.
Modded 2Xs = 330-400cd.
The HD2010 is on sale at Tmart, not the good driver but if you're thinking of swapping driver and emitter anyway it's a good deal. I bought it for $24.60 this afternoon but I just checked the page and it's $26.06 now. 
http://www.tmart.com/UItraFire-CREE-XM-LT6-8W-1300-Lumen-5-Mode-LED-Flashlight-Gray_p135765.html?
They have coupons for $30/50/100 purchases, too.
TMart had about three different models of HD2010 when OL did the group buy. And then during the gb the supplier changed one and it was no longer as inspected by OL. So Id be careful ordering a HD2010 from Tmart. IIRC there were surface issues (no plate under LED star, or thin plate) for heat transfer in one of them. Driver and LED type in the others.
I might have part of it wrong, its from memory, but its in the OL HD2010 GB threads (again, IIRC, there was 3 threads too). An interest thread, an order thread, and a complaints thread. But as youd expect, complaints were in all 3 of them. It got bad enough that in the end OL was ready to throw in the towel. All that prep (ordered one of each, inspected, communicated and obtained assurances with TMart), and still it didnt really help. Quality was all over the shot.
Hi Gj.
Can you explain a little why you say the HD2010 in your link does not have the good driver? I have been wanting an HD2010 for some time now and I find the current price offering very tempting.
BTW, they have a FREE5 coupon code valid till end July4 (today) which gives a 5% discount.
TIA.
Im not GJ but I can offer you an answer. Sometime in the past, a business makes a light, lets call them company A. Then, company B comes along and copies it. We might buy from either company (its hard to know really as its an example, but its demonstrative). That light becomes popular, company C and D come along and copy, either the original or the copy from company B or maybe even company D copies company Cs version. They make it look like the original, but not necessarily contain the same parts. In fact, they may be very different lights where it counts… like the driver.
No name
Ultrafire
Tangsfire
Singfire
Uranusfire
to name but a few. Even with the one name like Tangsfire, that does not mean they are the same, or that the same place made them. Names mean next to nothing.
To complicate it further, they might all be made in the same place by the same people, and thus they look alike. But they are made to different standards depending on the person ordering them. I could for example order say 1000 of them for a set price, while someone else might order a better built batch and pay more than me. Funnily enough, he might end up with a worse light. Its a lottery, they seem to put in whatever they have, despite the agreement to use X part.
The HD2010 I believe fits all the above.
You will more than likely get the East 92 driver, I have 7 or 8 HD2010’s and all have the East 92 driver except the one I got during the last Tmart group buy. The kicker, I think the one without the East driver is the brightest but it is XM-L2 and most if not all of the others are XM-L. Have Fandyfire, Tangsfire, and unbranded and all from Tmart except one Fandyfire from Lightscastle. The non East driver has next mode memory which is not good.
I think that's the one I got during the OL GB. It looks the same, grey, no logo, machining details in the enlarged photos. Of course, what actually shows up is anyone's guess but that's what my Spidey-sense is telling me. You pays your money, you takes your chances. I haven't seen poor machining issues with any of mine so far, although the GB one I got had different pill threads so wouldn't fit VoB's copper pill.
Yep, grey, no logo, but that thing throws.
The one I got from the GB without the East 92 driver doesn't have next-mode memory.
I think the driver in mine from that GB was blue colored.
OL group buy, I got the East 92 driver (IIRC it is blue), XML, black, no name.