In 2021, I'd like to see the arrival of 21350 cells with decent capacity, decent performance.
Also would like to see the 1-series MCU starting to show up in lights running Anduril2. 3 pin programming, small footprint, factory calibrated temperature, up to 32 KB code space, and a lot more I/O pins are just a few highlights.
I see many people discuss about future technology.
Are there any new flashlights that we can expect to look forward to in 20201? I hope it is good year for everybody.
In the year 20201 hmm, hope we have some leaps and bounds in LED and possibly shift into using supercapacitor’s rather than batteries for a full charge in seconds maybe something that can produce what the MS18 can on a keychain.
But in all seriousness I would like to see more refinement and adoption with LEP technology.
I know some people think the thing is ridiculous but I got the Lumintop Nano GT today and man it’s pretty amazing how much light this little sucker puts out. I wonder how big a light and battery would’ve needed to be 30 years ago to achieve the same throw distance
Someone should start a “I like to argue with people” thread. Heehee
Actually I ask this question because I saw recently that some manufactuer making some interesting new release:
- Emisar looks like they have a new ‘9.3’ flashlight with 9 flood and 3 throw leds, but no official detail
So I am really looking forward to the new flashlight released soon! Do you know of any other new prerelease flashlight?
The new T1R is deceptive. It's got a bigger head diam than the E01, so with the long tube option, it's not so small at all. With the short tube, it's just stubby, not small.
Back in 2019 we were hoping that 2020 would be the year that USB-C would move from being the exception to the norm. We started off with just 1 or 2 manufacturers using it (eg Acebeam) and now the likes of Convoy and Sofirn include USB-C instead of micro USB.
I think the same kind of thing is going to happen with regulated buck and/or boost drivers. We see very smooth run time graphs (after the turbo step down) on the more expensive options but a gradual decrease of output on most budget lights. This means much worse efficiency on the cheaper options. Recently more manufacturers have started using better drivers. Fireflies have their 6A (I think) driver in their new light. Sofirn have some dual cell lights, which will have a buck driver. Convoy and Sofirn both have an XHP70.2 light, which will have a boost driver.
I think 2021 will be the year that we see lots more buck/boost drivers, leading to more lights with higher efficiency, as well as the 6V or 12V XHP70.2 and XHP50.2 being used in more lights.
What do you mean by an encoder?
From what I can tell more area of Light Emitting Surface is way to get more performance as the days of waiting for a significantly brighter bin to be released (eg. from P4 to Q5) might be over. So I’m expecting crazy amounts of emitters in 2021 (eg. Astrolux FT04S and EC03). I suspect cool white SST40s and XHP50.2s will still be leading the charge, and 6V XHP70.2s of varying tints will still be a mainstay. Samsung’s LEDs will continue to slowly become more available.
Might be stating the obvious but will post anyway.
THIS!!
A few things I’m hoping for in 2021 that I think are somewhat realistic :
The thing I’m most looking forward to is seeing what BLF members come up with. The people contribute to open source hardware and firmware, work with manufactures to make new BLF designs and special additions available, the modders and makers who share their creations, and the people who share their knowledge to help others are what really make the flashlight hobby fun for me.
I would add, that both SST-20 and SST-40 should exist in 95CRI for 4500K, 5000K, 5700K as well.
Based on a talk with an insider person, BlueSwordM mentioned, that we will maybe expect some expansion, but that was quite a bit some time before, so I would greatly appreciate, if that would eventually happen soon from now.
I’d like some more 14500 lights on the market. Currently this niche seems widely neglected by manufacturers, and with the recent addition of new 1000mAh cells with high discharge rate, it seems like there are some new, unexplored possibilities.
An Olight Warrior Mini variation with 14500 (Warrior Micro?) and slightly toned down output, comparable to S1R II, plus a choice of non-green-tint emitter, sounds very good to me.
I hope to hear more news on Manker’s new electronic zoomie based on liquid crystal lens
+1 on this too! Lately, I really like EDC'ing the ThruNite T10TV2 CutleryLover with a 14500. It's almost perfect - compact size, takes abuse (titanium), nice pocket clip, looks great, decent tint w/NW XP-L (ok but should swap to something warmer, high CRI), pretty decent power.
I think some new ways of collecting and dispersing heat is the main item to be dealt with now. Leds and drivers have already out-paced this problem. One problem is to remove the heat without using the flashlight body. I hope to contribute something to this problem soon. 
But this is an unproven attempt we will see soon.
Sounds amazing! Where did you hear about that?
High Cri 9080 Leds XM and XP size < 2700k
