jgradyc:
I just received my Sipik 98 clone from FastTech. Here’s my take. It arrived quickly. The build quality is good. The zoom slide is smooth enough to operate with one hand, but not loose enough to slip on its own. The flood is wide and has no hot spot. The beam shot about twice as wide and a bit brighter on flood than either of my Sipik 68 clones. There is no outside halo ring like on both of my 68s. The extreme edge of the flood has a yellowish tint. It tail stands. On flood aimed at the ceiling, it’s almost as much light as a 60w light bulb… probably more like a 40w bulb. So far, I’m really liking this flashlight, however…
On zoom, the rectangle is fuzzy and about twice the area as my Sipik 68 clones. It is also noticeably less bright. I can shine my 68 clone on throw mode inside the beam of the 98 on throw mode and the 68 rectangle is clearly visible and about twice as bright.
On high, the 98 heats up after a minute. After 15 minutes, it is hot, but not so hot as to be uncomfortable to hold. On low, it doesn’t heat up at all.
I have two disappointments with this light. The first, as I just described, is that the throw is not as small or as bright as my Sipik 68 clones. (When I adjust the 68 to be as wide at the 98 on its tightest beam, their beams are about the same brightness. The 68 might be a tad brighter.) My second disappointment is that the low mode is more like a medium. I’d prefer a much lower low mode.
I modded my SH98 from FT , built a TexasPyro 20mm Nanjg OSHPark driver w/ 8*7135 chips, I now have a SH98 that has 4 modes, turbo w/ 2 min timeout, high, med, low and no stupid flashies or PWM that bothers my eyes (I could solder down pin 2 and get a moonlight mode, but low is good enough