There’s always a gamble, my first batch Q8 lacked proper QC and came with torned and wrong screws and the driver sat not flush, at the time i thought it was quite expensive (now i know better) but that is fixable.
A 250 dollar LEP light is a whole other story.
Keep in mind this is not a proper BLF designed light groupbuy with BLF community input, its a groupbuy from someone trying to make money through BLF.
I can imagine not being happy with the fact it doesn’t come anywhere near its ratings and that’s exactly where reviews are for.
I am very happy with all active BLF members and this community which make those nice things happen.
Yep, I think that price would make a big difference for me. To be fair, the group buys here for more expensive lights have been sampled first by knowledgeable members.
Me too, thanks so much to everyone here for their expertise and openness.
Exactly. This is even happening in software development. They used to do everything to get it right before releasing it. Now they throw it over the fence and wait for users to start reporting bugs. I even read an article by an ex-Microsoft employee that was on the Windows team, he talked about they used to have a massive lab with tons and tons of real hardware dedicated to human and automated testing before updates and new releases. He says that it’s been almost completely gutted, and the beta testing is essentially now the responsibility of users.
Exactly. Chinese companies do th9s and have been at it for a while. R&D is done in house, but testing is mainly done by end users or beta testers. It’s easy cheaper and you have a diverse group critiquing the product. Like SB said Software companies do this all the time with apps and video games. They send beta versions of existing or new software to select end users to user and report bugs.
To me that’s fine, but if I buy a potentially lousy or faulty project with quality issues that’s advertised as a final release, I’d be pretty cross. If someone could get a sample to test before doing the GB that’s good, but on a $250 or more light? Unlikely.
For me the problem isn’t with flashlights that haven’t been tested, but lights that doesn’t even exist outside a spec sheet with theoretical values and MAYBE a 3D render.
Then the final product performs poorly not only due to subpar components choice but a flawed design to begin with, because it was design outside-in and plagued with design over purpose elements.
“Groupbuy for a new mistery light, 6,000lm 475kcd 21700 usb C powerbank function! Anduril 2! $1X9.99!”
I feel like most brands aren’t even trying anymore, they just grab a bunch of components and put together another generic looking flashlight with the correct spec to please us, zero innovation.
Good topic. Unfortunately though, only opinions can be shared here. My 0¢ on the matter is so much of this new conduct annoys me greatly, and I don’t support it with my dollar. That being said, I do think it could be helpful to everyone if people understood that a large number of members here aren’t fans of the trends in GBs and generic, thoughtless new products.
We can add that to a layman reading a specs sheet the light will never perform in real life like advertised, the ill advised FL1 standard allows manufacturers to make ridiculous claims, turbo for 2 hours at 3500 lumens in a pocket flashlight , yeah right.
But still each their own, if people are going for those group buys they have a reason to exist. Only people should not be complaining about their untested flashlight not being the perfect light that was promised. At least I never do that when I join in.
Maybe someone with both versions can give the real answer, I can only speculate.
From a certain die size up, the light from the edges does not enter a TIR optic in a favorable way and beam artifacts appear. I get the impression that the SST-40 is on the edge of that (the edge of the hotspot shows some minor irregularities), if it is worse with the XHP50.2 then this optic was not designed for these big leds.
I bought the original FT02 at the time, that was a battery killer that made it unusable, it was one of my worst purchases ever. I posted about the flaws, cursed Banggood for the sloppy design and pitied myself, but never complained about the group buy itself, it was an untested light I was going for.
I never buy anything (flashlights or otherwise) unless it has some track record for reliability, durability and out of box quality. Doesn’t matter if its a discounted group buy or regular priced single buy.
My stance would not change even if its a $30 GB for a $200 light.
I almost bought a Meote FM1 from BG. It was the result of a cooperative between BG and Meote. Highly anticipated, however, it had issues or of the box- quality control was hit and miss, poor beam, and issues with flickering. It comes with the territory though. New product with probably limited testing on pre production samples before shipping the final product. Those issues should be worked out and fixed in later production runs though.
I've been lucky that most of my lights from group buys are ok and still working, but now I just sit and wait for them to be tested first and even wait out for a newer version that fixes all the short comings