Skilhunt M150 v3 versions

LED Flashlights – General Info 1 x AA / 1 x 14500 Flashlights
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Hello everyone,

My name is Jan, I live in the Netherlands and I am new to this forum. My English is not perfect, but I will do the best I can.

Currently I am interested in buying a new edc flashlight. I have a fenix pd32 2016 version and a very small Tank007 flashlight. I would like to have something a little bit smaller then the Fenix.

I like the Skilhunt m150 v3 because of size and magnetic charging. It seems to be a good flashlight, according to the reviews I have seen on Youtube and on this website.

My question is about the different leds wich are available for this light. On their website they say:

M150 V3 magnetic charging flashlight
LED: CREE XP-L2 6500K / Samsung LH351D High CRI 5000K / Nichia 519A High CRI R9080 4500K
Max output: ANSI 750 Lumens

The Claimed Output (lm) data is only for the reference of the cool white version, and the high CRI version is about 65% of the cool white.

Can anyone tell me about the differences between these leds? What would you chose for an edc flashlight? And why? I already have a Fenix pd32, do I need the maximum lumens available from the M150 v3?

Thank you in advance for your help!

Regards,

Jan

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It may also come down to what colour tint you prefer. If yellow or blue tinted light annoys the hell out of you the Samsung 5000k may be the best choice (with slightly less light output compared to the Cree.)

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Thank you for your reply.

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- XPL 6500K: cool white is uncomfortable at night, renders colours badly, i.e. not vibrant, which you will notice also in seeing a loss of depth perception in the garden or anywhere in nature where all greens turn into the same green colour, loss of brown as black/earth, yellow grass is barely shown.

- LH351D 5000K: greenish, doesn’t properly illuminate such that you can distinguish colours in nature very well (same as above but a little less bad). It is not useful as a daylight fill-in light as you need way more light for that.

  • 519A 4500K, which is actually more like 4200-4300K, pretty good, 4000K would be better for in nature. More comfortable when your eyes are adjusted to darker conditions. Far better colour rendition in the sense of being able to distinguish colours, than options 1 and 2 due to lower colour temperature and being high CRI.

- Skillhunt M150 magnetic charging:
— The previous version does not charge NIMH, only LiIon, which is why I didn’t buy it. I doubt they changed that.
— in general the charging system is problematic, assuming it uses a magnet in the lamp itself for the magnetic charging connection, just as on the h04rc: With the h04rc, if you lay it on the ground or use it anywhere where tiny metal particles may lie such as a workbench, then these will attach and you can’t use the charge cord until you brush those away (you need a brush, wiping with your hand is problematic due to the ridges)

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Welcome Jan!

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What color temperature are the lights in your house?
What color temperature are the headlights lights on your vehicle?

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Jan, this sort of ranking is fairly common on forums like this because so many people are biased against cool white emitters and prefer warmer temperatures. Add some tint snobbery for Rosy tints and "white wall" testing for minor beam defects and tint subtleties, and you will be steered toward emitters that address issues most people will never notice or see.

I am in the minority and prefer 5,000K and higher temperature emitters pretty universally. A cooler white light simply works better for my eyes! Warmer tints are more closely aligned to the color of flames in a campfire or those of a classic street lamp. If I were on the streets of Enschede/Hengelo again, I would get a cool LH351D emitter. Sure, you could find a slightly green tint on a white wall hunt but, if you aren't specifically looking for it I doubt you or anyone else would notice it. I really like the beam profile and appreciate the intensity of this emitter. The 519A is a super emitter and really high CRI for subtle color differences but, I like a bit more intensity than I get from a single emitter in a AA/14500 powered light. In a multi-emitter 519A flashlight, this has a lot more to offer. 519A emitters are really pleasing to my eyes assuming you don't ever need the sheer output of the LH351D.

Best Regards, Sid

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Thank you everyone for your replies!

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complete nonsense, there is no bias, just experiments. Cool white sucks, first step up is neutral white 4000K, 2nd smaller improvement is 4000K high CRI.

That you ignore reality doesn’t mean it is not true. You would recommend someone asking about a good burger ‘just go to mcdonalds, you won’t taste the difference’. Maybe not, still doesn’t mean such a burger is as good as a pub or home made burger.

Cool white low cri is like a mathematical projection: you lose information: all browns disappear into black, yellows are barely shown,all greens appear about the same green thus giving an ocean of what looks almost like 1 green colour outdoors which also results in loss of depth perception. This is not an opinion, this is a fact, you can see it (and examine it with software) on pictures made with a camera. You cannot get height information back after a projection, similarly you cannot see properly what is there using cool white low cri. Lower colour temperatures give better distinction esp. when walking in nature.

Sure you don’t need it, but then around 2010 or so I didn’t need any pocket lamps. You can get by without them. You can also ride a bike or drive a car without lighting. It is not safe, it is not legal, it is nowhere near optimal to see the road, but it is possible. That doesn’t mean you should ride without lights, nor with lights that have bad colour temperature.

LH351D 5000K in the h04rc is relatively ok, but not when shining on certain woods, even worse with the 4000K version, that gave me the feeling that something is off. That turned out to be from the green. So I never cared about green, I had used one before for years, but then I renovated my house used certain woods and using the greenish LH351D gave me the feeling ‘something is wrong’.

There are 3 choices of emitters, I gave the reasons to go for the 519A, those reasons are all facts, not opinions and are valid in all circumstances/environments/colours and materials used at home.

For those wanting to see some examples of the missing colours and other matters (some are more important for vehicle lighting, such as performance in fog, here 4000K high CRI also wins): LED light colour, CRI and experiments (in fog and on various road surfaces)

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Pretty harsh overall. Modern emitters can be pretty high CRI, at least higher than 2010. While I do not own the specific light the OP, Jan, is looking at, the LH351D single emitter flashlights I have don't have nasty tints or suffer the issues you noted.

Further, what I want out in my cow pasture and what I want in my living room is not the same. Whether the OP is in a major city with lots of light pollution, in a smaller town, or out in a rural area would affect what emitter I personally would choose.

All three emitters have positive attributes but, the temperature range of each option is what I personally focused on. A 5,000K LH351D today should have a relatively good CRI at 5,000K and a really good beam hot spot and flood for normal everyday use in an urban European town.

I have an SST-20 4,000K, predecessor to something like the 519A, and it is really nice inside a restaurant reading a menu or in a motel room looking for something in a suitcase, etc. For walking around town, a triple 519A is where that emitter really shines for me personally to get more intensity from the beam and better coverage in the flood area for seeing things like a pot hole in a parking lot at night or, crack in a sidewalk.

I stand by my original statement that the majority of flashlight fanatics prefer warmer tints. Years ago the warmer tints were the only HIGH CRI options, like my SST-20 4,000K, but today cool emitters can be HIGH CRI too. The 5,000K LH351D technically may not be Natural White but, it certainly is not overly 'cool' either.

The flashlight club meeting I came back from on Saturday had lots of warm lights. For a campfire effect, they work well. However, while most people ohh'ed and ahh'ed over them and talked about how nice the beams and tints were, they just didn't do a lot for me in a practical sense.

The 5,000K, 5,700K, and 6,500K emitters all let me see sticks in the cow pasture, lit up reflectors on the cars, and similar things very well. On this moonless night, color resolution for the green onions for the baked potatoes was great and, seeing the details of my steak was super easy.

So, in summary, I stand by my original statement that most people that are flashlight fans and collectors generally prefer warmer emitters for the campfire light effect in my experience and I am in the minority preferring something with a cool emitter. While I like my SST-20 4,000K flashlight a lot, it is a pretty limited use option for myself. Today, you don't have to get a warm emitter to get HIGH CRI either! Modern cool emitters can be HIGH CRI as well so, that is an argument of the past.

As you get older, your pupils don't open as wide as they do when young, at least for most people, so that may be part of the reason for my preference for higher intensity cool white high CRI emitters. Eye biology and use case matter a lot when looking for "the best" flashlight emitter choice. All three emitters in this flashlight have strong positive attributes so, it is not like choosing any of them is bad just that each of them are slightly better performing for certain tasks that may make one a noticeably better choice for specific people and specific use cases.

Best Regards, Sid

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I should also add that if you wear glasses, especially if they have anti-glare coatings or any of the "computer monitor" coatings. this will really affect tint and color perception!

In my professional life, I had to wear slightly tinted prescription lenses to deal with the cheap fluorescent lights used in the office areas so I didn't get migraine headaches looking at CRT computer monitors!

Light and visual perception are effected by much more than just the emitter choice and surrounding light pollution!

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Hello Sid and swhs,

I would like to thank you both for anwering my question. Can you give me your opinion about the second part of my question? As I understand it, it is not only the amount of lumens that determines the brightness and beam distance, but also the color temperature of the led used in the flashlight. Is about three or four hundred lumens enough for camping, walking etcetera?

Many thanks for all your help and explanation!

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You didn’t answer my questions.

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Well, then I will answer them now: warm white at home, cool white car. Thanks for the reminder!

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Thank you!

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I used an XP-G ca. 4000K running at maximum at 1 A in a pocket lamp for many years, so about 300lm max, which I used everywhere, garden, travelling etc. It was enough but there are some circumstances where you need as much light as possible and that is in particular in the rain on dark asphalt. This goes for vehicles but also walking. I had an FC11 modified with SST-20 4000K+ 60 deg TIR + D4V2 219b sw45k 4500K, rosy) with me on my trip up from August to October in Poland and Ukraine. I mostly used the D4V2 because the TIR was too wide angle in the FC11 (since returning I changed it to ca. 30 degree), though the light colour of the SST20 was better. In Kharkov with the blackouts I used the D4V2 in the fairly heavy rain but on an asphalt path going down a hill I still tripped and almost fell. I didn’t put it on the highest output but that still wouldn’t be optimal as a lower temperature is better in such cases to better show the surface including bumps and holes in the asphalt.

If you can spare more money you could try out a few options (different lights with different emitters, I’d check out at least the SST-20 and 519A, both in 4000K) to see what is best in the circumstances you need. Not sure about options of AA pocket lamps to recommend, I mostly use 18650 lamps and I put the LEDs that I want in them.