RaceR86's flashlight collection (Update 23.09.2013, collection pictures)

LED Flashlights – General Info
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Thread about my flashlights. Feel free to ask any questions you want about my lights. :)

HERE IS A SPREADSHEET SHOWING ALL MY LIGHTS.

Some info in the spreadsheet may be a bit off, and not super detailed.

I have around 50 lights.. Probably modded the equivalent to 150+ in order to try various stuff. Some have been sold. Lots of lights have been modded a bunch of times in different ways.

Green background. Not up and running at the moment. Waiting for change/upgrade.

Yellow background. Have been modded, waiting for change/upgrade.

Blue background. Needs to be modded, some day.

Some of the various tints I have or are using are marked here.

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Toilet plungers:

Coke cans and other fatties:

Various lights:

P60 club is a colorful place:

Smaller/skinnier lights:

Vintage:

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Collection several several months ago..

SolarForce L2T

Incandescent Mini Maglite (my avatar)

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AA

12x GP Recyko (Used for RC remotes, might use them for flashlights if they are good, recently bought them)

10x Eneloop XX (Great cells, used for high drain flashlights)

4x GP 2700mAh (Bought locally several years ago, used for various stuff)

4x GP 2100mAH (Bought locally several years ago, used for various stuff)

2x Varta 2500mAH (Bought locally several years ago, used for various stuff)

AAA

3x Enelong (Just wanted some cheap AAA LSD batteries for cheap AAA lights. They have good capacity and seems to hold the charge and perform good)

32600

1x FeiLong 32600 3.7V 5000mAh (Needed a 32600 for my fat flooder (rebuilt Saik SA-305) , limited selection of those batteries. I had seen some nice discharge numbers on a Feilong 32650, so bought this one)

26650

5x Soshine 4200 mAh Protected (Built in protection and good capacity)

3x King Kong ICR 4200mAh (When I want good capacity and want less voltage sag/higher current drain than with protected cells)

3x SE US26650VT (When output matters, these have little voltage sag, and can do uptowards 50A drain)


18650

12x Panasonic 3400mAh NCR 18650B Protected (Green. Great batteries for the price)

8x Panasonic 3400mAh NCR 18650B (Green. For lights where I want less voltage sag and have a built in protection in the light)

4x Panasonic 3400mAh NCR 18650B Protected (intl-outdoor- higher protection trip amp, less sag and slightly shorter than the protected green cells)

2x Keeppower 3400mAh NCR 18650B Protected (Like the intl-outdoor cells, better protection circuit)

2x Panasonic 2900mAh NCR 18650PD Protected (intl-outdoor. Wanted to have some PD cells with good protection circuit)

4x Panasonic 2900mAh NCR 18650PF (For 3A+ single cell lights)

6x Samsung 20R 2000mAh (For extreme peak performance in single cell lights or similar setups).

1x AW 2600mAh Protected (My first quality battery, for a protected cell its quite short, and not so fat as the Panasonic cells either.)

14500

4x Sanyo UR14500P 840MAH protected (The highest capactity protected 14500 cells I know of. These have great performance test results too)

3x Nitecore NL147 14500 750mAh protected (Marginally shorter and thinner than the Sanyo cells, which can come in handy. Rated for higher discharge and cheaper )

16340

2x Efest 16340 550mAh


10440

2x Efest 10440 350mAh (V1)

___________________________

Chargers li-ion

-Xtar VP1 (Got it fairly "cheap" from WB, love the display, and charge current option. Its my default charger.)

-Xtar SP2 (Can do higher amps and larger cells than the VP1, it used to be my default charger. Its very nice)

-3x Nitecore I4 (Nice to have when charging many cells. Spare charger when I cell something)

-3x Jetbeam I2 (Spare charger when I sell something, also nice to have when charging several 26650 batteries)

-14500-32650 battery charger (intl-outdoor. It can charge all my batteries. If I sell a light. This is a decent charger that I can sell with it)

Chargers NiMh

-Shan SH-168DLCD (wanted a charger that can show capacity. It serves my needs for discharge tests. This charge made me get rid of some batteries that I suspected was bad)

-NiMH 4 cell Smartcharger (bought locally, it used to be my default charger before I bought the Shan)

-NiMH 2-cell Sony charger (Came with a camera many many years ago. Slow charging, rarely use it)

-NiMH 4-cell Varta (Super quick charger with fan. Charges batteries in around 15 minutes. I bought it locally in order to recharge batteries for Canon Speedlite flashes in case I was in a hurry. This type of charging is not healthy, I have not used the charger for years)

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such a wide selection you got there :smiley:

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Question: In your small lights picture, which light is second from right? Its quite small!

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I try to have a little bit of everything... 0:)

No lights are the same though...

And so far. You have not seen a bunch of my lights either.. Ill take a complete collection picture some day and update OP. For now, I just used some pictures from the past.

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That is the Ultrafire M5 if we are talking about the same light..

I have two of those. One fitted with a Nichia 119. Its on my keychain. And the one in the picture. Still stock..

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Great pictures!! Thanks for sharing!!

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Awesome! I got maybe a similar size collection, but probably a lot more parts and batteries - got several plastic cases spilling over, and loads of hosts.

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Thanks! :)

I just had to to a cleanup, I ended up throwing a bunch of my parts in a bag because they cant fit my double sided box. Ill have more boxes soon.

I do try to limit my amount of emitters and drivers though. I don't sell much. But I might get rid of a few lights this winter...

When it comes to batteries, I try to keep myself to a "minimum".. :p I don't have enough batteries to power up all my lights at the same time. But its not like I need to have all of them full all the time anyway.. :p

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Great collection Torger!

I have some (85) lithium ion batteries but most of them are crap (UltraFires, TrustFires, Qang Fa, Raptor, HZS & CDR-King) and only less than half (37) are good ones (King Kong, Sanyo, Nitecore & Redilast). 6 Panasonics are on the way from WallBuys and I’ll be disposing the crap ones slowly because aside from the safety issue I’ve read here, their true capacities are usually less than half of what they’re being marked.

The ’spare parts” you gave me had gone a long long way. These have kindled my interest in flashlight modding and I have started acquiring some tools and additional spare parts also. I think I’ll also use a similar plastic box for the spare parts because I’m using Chinese flashlight boxes (cardboard) to store the small parts and they get tangled up easily.

I hope you won’t mind if I try to emulate what you’re doing. :bigsmile:

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I have the same blue 501B, and for some strange reason, crappy heatsinking and all, it’s my number one go-to light. (with my modifications installed of course)

Maybe because it’s blue?

Maybe because it’s the one I keep in my daily bag? (probably because it’s blue and compact)

Anyway, I use it a lot and I like it.

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Nightbird 95. My first two cells were Ultrafire batteries. One stopped working within a week for no apparent reason. The other one was not able to output much more than 2 amp at best. After that, I was done with cheap batteries. When it comes to batteries Im not that budget oriented. I like performance, batterylife and I prefer safety.

The Ultrafire batteries where the cheapest batteries I bought, yet, the most expensive. Because I had to be replace basically instantly. If Tesla can put around 7000 of Panasonic batteries in a a Model S, and put a 8 year warranty on the battery pack, then that makes me feel confident about longevity over several years too. Id like to support leading technology. Unless it comes overpriced. Considering the performance on the NCR18650 batteries, they are currently my default choice of batteries.

I have done a larger update on my post about batteries and chargers. Added more info on why I have that particular battery or charger.

Edit: Its nice to see you have gotten into modding now.. And also gotten use for some of the parts you got. They used to sit in my box of parts. :) Hope modding have made added a dimension to the flashlight hobby and made it more enjoyable! :)

Chiggerpepi, Colorful lights are cool and unique in my opinion. Most of my lights are black. My little "P60 club" looks fresh despite being mostly cheap lights. As long as you like a particular host, use it and abuse it. My army P60 is my beater light, and my most used P60 along with the L2T. I dont care if it hits the ground or anything. Its also the light with the worst threads and build quality of them all. :p Still a great light! :D For me personally that is. Technically, the host is not good. But I was my first P60 host, and my first powerful compact light, and I used it for a long time before buying any other lights.

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Ah! So that's what your avatar pic is!

Good thread idea! I like the idea of doing one similar and posting a link in my signature line.

Those parts compartment boxes are nice but I've learned that they don't fill and organize themselves! :) I bought quite a few of them for flashlight parts, but haven't got around to using them so they sit there on my workbench alongside numerous Chinese packing envelopes.

-Garry

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I’m satisfied with all my Sanyo lithium ions so far but I’ve not tried Panasonics yet. When my 6 Panasonics from WB group buy arrives, only then can I tell the difference. I’ll be using them for my BTU Shocker & K40. If they perform much better than Sanyos then I’ll be switching to Panasonics.

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Yupp, just an old Mini Maglite.. :p

I would love to see your collection Garry and hear more about it. I know there is the Big Collection thread. Its nice to browse. But I like some talk and pictures too. A bit more personal talk. So I hope to see more threads dedicated to a certain persons collection.

LOL, true about the self organizing.. Im not always that good at it. At times I am living in a mess of parts ad disassembled flashlights. But I know that its usually more time saving to organize stuff. I try to organize my mess at times.. :D

I think most people are very satisfied with the Sanyo batteries. I was probably just unlucky with my set that I got from FT. And I prefer the discharge curve and capacity of the Panasonics.

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What camera setup are you using, i am loving you pictures :)

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Thanks...

For most of my snapshots I use a Canon 550D (rebel T2i) , Canon 60mm lens, and one of my strobes, normally 580EX. I normally use that setup for all close up shots. If you have seen various mod-threads I often just take the thing I want to take a picture of and hold it in the air in front of me, or put it on top of speaker. No time is being used to setup my shots. Except that one back-lit shot in OP where I played around with 2 external strobes just for fun.

The outdoor shots of the Vintage light shown in this thread were taken with the 550D.

Winter shot of L2T, was a point a shoot (Canon S95).

Macro close up in my avatar was 5D MKIII.

My camera setup exists of S95, 550D and a bunch of quality lenses, and some flashes. I have personally owned more lenses than flashlights.. 0:) But I used to test a lot of gear..

A cheap DSLR + external flash pointed towards the roof normally gives good pictures in any indoor situation despite crap indoor lighting.

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Ill answer your deleted post too. (lol) But you may not like my "protective answer"..

Most "premium" lights are not worth it to me, I can make my lights like I want them to be. On many (not all) premium lights you mostly pay for the brand and better anodizing IMO. The more premium they are the less mod friendly they seem to be in many cases. Most premium lights comes with emitters I would never use either. Many seems to have crappy UI and mode spacing. Im not aware of any premium lights that I would consider buying that I would find acceptable in stock form.

What is considered premium lights btw?

My Fenix E15 (which I only paid 1$ for) is supposed to be a "premium" light. I would never have paid more than 10$ for it. If I could buy another one for 7$ I would say, "thanks, but not thanks". I doubt I will buy more Fenix lights. I have two Archon lights, are they premium? Magnetic rings and such. They are my least desirable lights at the moment, but they are stock, or pretty much stock. I doubt I will buy any more Archon lights. Is a Shadow Padme a Premium light?? I have an Olight I6 and I3 incoming. I hope those are mod-friendly. Im familiar with several of the Led-Lenser models. Some would consider their lights to be premium, but they are mostly outdated too.

IMO, most premium lights have to be modded in order to get up to the level of my "budget" lights. (Im proud of my budget lights :8) )

Most of my lights have quite updated emitters, good CRI/tint, I have huge selection of tints, emitters mounted on copper MCPCB. About 50% of my lights have minimum 80 CRI. A bunch will get AR lenses. Many have UI that go far beyond many of the "premium" lights. If they don't have great UI, they usually make up for it in another way. Normally that means they will seriously outperform its main "premium" rival in terms of output. J)

I can honestly say that most premium lights are not desirable to me. No offence to premium lights. I consider most lights as a mod-host. Stock lights rarely tick my boxes no matter how "premium" they are..

As for my lights. Often when I feel one light is outperformed in some way by others and is quite useless, Ill mod it again. If Im not happy with the outcome, Ill mod it again, If I think I can improve it and feel like doing that. Ill mod it again.. Many of my lights have gotten changes lots of times, and many of them will still get more changes done to them.

Some time back, these were my favorite lights.

We cant all have the same taste.. :)

Ill take some updated shots of my whole collection once my I3 and I6 arrives.. :)

Oh.. I also ordered this.. 0:)