It's not a light that gets much exposure/attention or respect. In looking for a brighter single cell 18650 light with better throw than my Oligt M20s, I came across the Blaze. I had ordered a few lights from Bryan at Shiningbeam and liked all of them so I took his advice and bought a Blaze.
It has quickly become my favorite single 18650 cell light. The pictures don't do this light justice. It is rather Plain Jane looking in the pictures but it looks and feels much better in person. It has an extremely solid feel to it. It has a slight jiggle when you tap it as you feel the springs that hold the battery vibrating just slightly. All in all, it feels like it's built like a tank. It is shorter than my M20s Olight but the head is larger and heavier. This is a good thing. It is able to withstand the heat generated by it's 720 lumens without a shutdown to a lower mode like the Zebralight SC600 does. Medium mode is 400 lumens and similar in output (to my eyes) of my M20s and my Shiningbeam S-mini. Low mode is good for most tasks and is about where I like my low mode to be. Some people would like a lower low modes I'm sure.
It would take very little to make this light perfect IMHO. First, I would give it an extra mode between low and medium instead of strobe. Next, tweak it just a little to make it tail stand more easily. It's supposed to tail stand but mine doesn't. The rubber boot sticks out past the bottom to allow it to tailstand. I'm thinking of adding a small O-ring between the rubber cap boot and the tail cap. that should probably solve the problem. Last, I would offer a pressure switch to make this light perfect as a weapon mounted light. Plenty of throw and still lots of spill.
I have read a lot about the Zebralight SC600 with it's 750 lumens. It is hard for me to see how that light could be better than the Blaze. I asked this question over at CPF and only got one answer from anyone who has them both. He said that the brightness was similar with it looking to his eye that the Blaze was slightly brighter. The Zebralight was better for flood but the Blaze was better for throw. I find the Blaze to be a great combination. At $55 when using the CPFuser code, it's $40 less than the Zebralight SC600. Bryan at Shiningbeam did a great job with this light.
I removed the clicky switch and placed a small O-ring between the rubber boot and the tail cap body. This forced the boot slightly more into the body of the light and gives the tail cap room to tail stand without the rubber boot extending past the bottom of the cap. Problem solved.
I would also like to hear more opinions about this light, as it has been on my list for a while. I kinda like the plain looks, if it is a quality light.
Bryan at Shiningbeam lists it as his first professional light. Although I'm fairly new to this flashlight addiction, I have bought and used about 15 lights in the last 5 months. Quark, Olight, Fenix, Jetbeam, Shiningbeam, Xeno, Romisen, Monster Flashlight, Klarus, iTP, Ultrafire and Zebralight are the brands I have. Of all these lights, the Blaze feels as solid or more solid than any of them. I doubt you will have a problem with the Blaze quality.
Wow, I just checked out the Blaze and it looks VERY nice. I check out Shiningbeams site every so often and I missed this one. The UI looks much better than the MG SST-50 I had too.
I have couple of Jetbeam at the lower end and by the images they seems better.
The Blaze anodizing seems on par with my Ultrafire TH-T60, the Blaze looks like any other bog standard light nothing special . Whereas the Jetbeam have an undefinable quality.
Can anyone confirm whether the regulation in high mode is flat for the entire run? There are many XM-L lights now that are highly driven, but few that maintain that regulation for the entirety of the discharge.
I am sure the P-Rocket XM-L is an excellent light in many respects, and the reviews point out many great features, but I have excluded it from my list of candidates because of its complete lack of regulation.
If the Blaze does have flat regulation when the LED sees its highest current, then it will rise to the top of my list along with only a couple others. :)
