Yes, DB, that was my take away too. I ordered some GAs since it can’t be seen by the ordinary eye. It’ll still be plenty bright I would think.
What I mean is that if I want to show off with every last bit of power I can toss in the high drain cells.
Although there is really no need, unless you have another light right next to it you will not be able to tell the difference, even then it would be a hard task to see the difference.
Between the GA’s and the C6’s is a difference of 8% of lumen output. Visually that appears to be 4% brighter. How adjusted your eyes are to the dark will make a far larger difference then that.
Now the VTC6 being a high drain cell will run it at max power for a bit longer but they will also die faster.
Are you 100% sure you do not want 219c 90cri 4000k for an emitter?
It should lower the cost and give better light.
I am sure it will be a popular mod but the LED choice was set a long time ago in the thread and it will be an XP-L 3D tint. Now if we could get some W2 bin LED’s that would be truly amazing but the plan is V6.
Great results. Yeah, the GA's look ok to me. Especially since I'll probably get that buck driver and beat all those numbers with it anyway :). In a buck that tiny voltage drop of the GA's just won't make any difference and there's no more limit to output voltage, until something cooks. Ok, to be fair you can't beat those numbers by much without burning leds anyway.
Well, the XPL's can go pretty high in current, much better than the XM-L2's from my seeing/testing. 6.5A should be no prob for an XPL that I've tested, think anyways, not sure if the newer ones are worse though.
Not sure what you are hinting at with the buck driver, but sounds all good - would love to see it. If you are referring to the Texas Buck driver series here, the OP sounds like there's a way to go, but not sure if that's accurate.
Yeah, he is talking about that driver. The driver is finished but it has yet to be tested. It works on paper though.
Due to the almost $40 cost needless to say I won’t be testing it anytime soon but it is available for anyone that would like to.
If the cells and LED’s were wired in series you could most likely get at least an extra amp or so out of those XP-L’s with a normal FET driver.
So besides a subtle difference in output (and potentially quite different tint) we wouldn’t see much difference in the easier-to-perform and reasonable runtime mods, right? In other words, is 6000 lumens from four 18650 cells approaching the ceiling for a light that doesn’t turn into a makeshift firestarter or drain cells in a short time? I’m hoping so and can’t wait to get my hands on the two I signed up for.
I had intended on modding one, but don’t know if it would be worth it without some serious drawbacks ($, heat or runtime).
This light will come so maxed out to start with there will really not be anything to mod.
The only real mod option for most will be an XHP35 upgrade, which the driver from the upcoming BLF GT should fit this light and work with the XHP35 (or you could use the texas buck driver or other options as well).
The other path to take for modding would be 219C 90+ CRI LED’s.
Personally I think I will do one with XHP35’s and the other with 219C’s.
There's a few lights out on the market with 6,000 lumens or higher ratings in as small, or smaller package than this one. A big part of the idea of this group buy was to get that kind of power in the hands of people who cannot mod a light, and a whole lot cheaper than the lights having this capability.
The plan is to ship the light with an aggressive turbo timeout, maybe 3 minutes or so, but the turbo timeout can be set to a wide range of times, or disabled, up to you. So is it a firestarter if properly configured and/or properly used? Of course not.
You can run it on protected Panasonic B's as well, which will cut the amps and output down even further. Not sure yet what the production springs will be, but that will make a big difference as well. If it's just single steel springs on protected Pana B's, maybe it would do ~4,000-4,500 lumens or so - much less amps/heat, etc. than the top end cells like the VTC6's and 30Q's.
So the difference between stock/lowdraincells and maximumtuned/highestdrain cells is only 1.5 times more light, which is visually 1.25 times. Sounds like a well done light! 
(the F3X that I modded two weeks ago went up to 2.5 times the stock output, that is a considerably less well done light)
Jos, test that F3X now with 2 different kinds of cell, you’ll see a similar result. It was so horribly puny in stock form there was a helluvalotofroom for improvement. 
I’ve always loved how the FET driver allows some control simply through cell choice. Loan a light, stick a lesser cell in it for safety. Get it back, put in the hot rod cells. It’s like two totally different lights.
Thanks for verifying my thoughts. This is going to be one high-value and high-performance light!
Any news from Thorfire regarding driver & firmware ?
Oh boy.. Dunno for sure bout the stock/low drain cells, I'm only speculating. I got a couple sets of protected cells though, nothing bought recently though, but I can test them to verify.
Also got a set of 30Q BT's a drained to 3.6V - I'll test those as well - The MIller asked for 3.6V tests.
No new news from ThorFire yet I've heard. Did get a pm from them, but turned out to be a review request for a bike light 
.
Ok , thanks Tom
I’m interested.
I think XHP50 or 144 would be an option too.
Will the light have the dual-footprint-mcpcb?
And is there a solder-point for a Zener-Diode?
Using some XHP50 LEDs is what I want to do with my second Q8.
It does not appear that the dual footprint will make it into the proudction light at this point sadly. So an XHP50 mod is possible but it will require more effort then most will want to put into it.
The Texas Avenger drivers are released now with drivers able to drive XHP50 and XHP35 LED’s. The stock driver will only be able to be used with 3V LED’s.
Thx for info about batteries and 18650GA.
One question about diffuser, will we have it as an add on. I would love to use it as a camplight sometimes ?