I am glad someone else appreciates the ST-50. It is one of the best and most overlooked lights out there.
Mine shorted out…… It got hot and the reflector touching the wires melted. The light looks good and feels good, but can’t handle the heat ! I’m sending it to E1320 for a pill swap….
Received my UniqueFire UF-2220 a month ago. Like the excellent review said, it is not “fair” to compare a $24 torch to one costing 4 or 5x the price. However, it should be compared since it has many good features.
If you need an inexpensive knock off of the premium $100+ flashlight, this light will do the job….and well. The light is not as small as you might think. It fits in the hand very well and is has plenty of grippy surfaces so it won’t slip out. It looks very ‘tactical’ and has the pocket clip which is great. Except for heat build up when used on high, this light has no major negatives except for the mention of the possible shorting condition (see above but mine is O.K.) and is a roaring bargain. The XM-L U2 puts out an almost white light which is good. The reflector is SUPER deep for a good throw. The tail button does not have the quality tactile feel of the premium brands but it works well. The finish and detail of the build is remarkably good for such an inexpensive torch. I like the crenulated front rim so I can place the light on a table face down and in the low position to use as a lantern. It also can be used to press out small biscuits from breakfast dough when camping.
I bought this torch to keep in the glove box of my 4X4. The UF-2220 puts up with getting jarred and bumped around but it still works. I don’t have a princely amount of worthless obama bucks tied up in this light so I don’t worry about it. I recommend it. Shipping from China via Manafont took only about 1 week and everything was packed extremely well.
Nice review. And nice light!
I just resurrected this light the other night and found out why it had been so unused for so long. Just like JohnnyMac reported, this little guy has a ton of promise. It starts off like the blazes and then quickly dims down. And the battery gets mighty hot.
Didn’t put two-and-two together until I reread this review. The pill is heating the battery NOT all the fancy fins like it should. Net result is that the emitter gets too hot and doesn’t light to capacity …. Hope I’m saying that right.
I cut a few foot-long strips of adhesive backed copper foil that I use for shielding guitars. Wrapped it around the pill.
Nah. It can’t be this easy.
Well, it was.
Wrapped the pill so it was just wide enough to take the threads in the head. As I screwed on the head, the threads cut into the 1/16” of layered copper foil, compressing it tighter, so now the pill is venting to the fancy head with the fins and not into the battery. Works. Finned head now heats up. Emitter fade seems to be gone. Will try it tonight to see if it really did the trick, but I suspect it did. Because the fins NEVER got even warm before.
If you don’t have copper foil, I would bet you could use that ahesive backed METAL duct tape. Not the fabric tape. Metal tape. This stuff:
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Duck-HVAC-Metal-Repair-Aluminum-Foil-Tape/17300797
Of course this suggestion in an ancient post will be lost forever but maybe someone will see it if they look up the light.
Sometimes the simplest things are best ,hope it did the trick…
I recently picked up one of these for not very much money. I gave it a red bake job, left the ring and clip black, and it looks really nice. I enjoy the ice blue scorchiness of the beam.
That copper foil trick did the job, by the way. I just so happened to have a roll of 5mm adhesive copper tape, and so I wrapped some of that snugly around the pill, enough so the threads on the head would bite into it, applied a little thermal grease, and carefully screwed everything back together. Head gets nice and toasty now, so it’s definitely transferring the heat.
Lots of necroed threads lately. But heck, it looks to be a fine light, and the post is relevant. Wish it had a modern emitter.
Maybe a good candidate for an emitter swap? It comes apart nice and easily. Not really my area of expertise though. Still a handful of them to be found on the bay of flea.
Yes, it is. I have already swapped the emitter in mine twice. :sunglasses: A standard 16mm round star is needed and some thermal adhesive glue. Now I am using it with an SST40 emitter. It Rocks. 
The driver is also easily replaceble ( in fact that’s a sh*t ). Not easy to find a good 17mm driver, though. Now a 17mm programmable Convoy driver is in mine. Fairly good ( and stabilized! ), although I am not really preferring 7135 drivers. But in 17mm size only Mountain Eletronics inductor based drivers are available ( as far as I know ) for the price of the whole flashlight.
My experience is that the bluish beam is created by the optical system and makes the beam much cooler from the same emitter comparing to other flashlights.
Keep it in mind when choosing an emitter replacement.
That’s really interesting. A good newbie project then? I reckon I should be able to pick up something from Kai. Thanks!