Some beamshots of the Fandyfire UV-S5 (AKA Sky Ray King) with other lights for comparison

Hey guys,

Thought people might be interested to see some beamshots of the Fandyfire UV-S5. I know people have posted stuff for the Sky Ray King, and that it’s generally accepted that the Fandyfire from Deal Extreme is just rebranded, but I thought it someone like me might be interested. Given the not-always-as-advertized reputation of DX, I was a little nervous when I let my frugalness dictate my purchase decision and bought the Fandyfire instead of the Sky Ray from cnqualitygoods or somewhere. It seems to perform well, though. It’s really freakin bright! :slight_smile:

I did up a little youtube video with beamshots from the Fandyfire, Trustfire Tr-1200, and Zebralight H600, for comparison. I know the Trustfire is an odd one to use, but that’s the extent of my flashlight collection. LOL! sniff :frowning: Besides, I don’t think there are a whole lot of Tr-1200 comparison shots out there, so the comparison might be helpful in both directions, since most people have a sense for what a sky ray king can do. The H600 kinda provides an ok baseline, anyway.

All the pertinent info is in the description. Lemme know if you have any questions or suggestions. I might get around to doing a better, more controlled series of beamshots Sunday, or perhaps later next week.

Thank you for doing this.

It seems to me that the TR-1200 still holds up very well. Better than I had expected anyway.

Hi gimp, thanks for the comparison but next time could you post the pictures directly here instead of compiling them into a video?
Thanks, and for the comparison too.

Thanks for the comparison.

Would you please post the unedited photos (only resized) here, so we could check the EXIF data?

My gut feeling says that these photos are not taken with same settings.. The description says only about the ISO setting, so I would bet the other settings were on automatic.

Here's mouseover of Zebra vs. FF "King" (Mouse over for King):

The brightness looks too similar and the "King" photo is much sharper, most probably caused by shorter shutter speed..

You’re right, the. The H600 did not actually hold up as well as the photos suggest. The H600 more or less looked the way it did in that photo, but some of the other flashlight shots are overly dark. If, as I mentioned in the description, you use the brightest of the Fandyfire shots, that’s a better comparison; i.e.,
54 sec, or 1:02 vs. @18 sec, isn’t bad.

Yeah, next time I’ll just do some pics, and have them posted directly. I needed to do the vid for something else, though, so I figured I kill two birds with one stone. Actually, the whole beamshots thing was kindof an afterthought. Initially it was, “I’m gonna take these suckers down to the lake to see how they compare,” and then, “maybe I’ll see if I can take a few photos while I’m there.” I’m actually surprised they didn’t turn out to be completely useless, given I had no control over the shutter speed :slight_smile: I figured that the camera might be so starved for light that it would just max out the shutter every time, provided I kept the iso and distance the same, but I guess there was still some variation.

I was shocked at how well the Trustfire held up, as well… at least, initially; it’s a pretty decent light with a combination of big flood and tight beam for throw. The more you compare them, though, the more obvious it becomes that the Fandyfire really eats it for breakfast. In really low-light settings, that Fandyfire looks CRAZY! The side-by-side skybeam shot REALLY illustrates the difference well, and accurately reflects what we saw with our naked eyes. It’s a city shot, so there’s still a bit of light pollution. I’d expect the difference to be even more spectacular in a really black location.

Oh, for anyone who’s curious, my tr-1200 is not a particularly high-current one. I think it draws about 2 amps on high; others have reported higher tailcap readings, and others lower. That seems to be the only downside to the flashlight: the lack of qc in the mode settings. Some tr-1200s run hot… well over two amps; some are kinda duds (well under 2 amps). Mine turned out to be ok, but the lower modes draw nearly as much current, so it’s still not quite right.

What batteries/age/wear/voltage under load? Multimeter and leads used, or other device? There are a lot more things to look at for comparison than tailcap readings. Current going into the emitter, now THAT can be compared. I wouldn’t write the unit off one way or another due to some random numbers compared to others’ random numbers.

Anyway, thank you for helping the community by posting information and photos. It’s more than I have done around here :~

LOL! No prob. Batteries all “new” from DX (Trustfire “3000” mah, as per vid description). Crap-ass multimeter with not-so-thick leads.

Dunno if there’s PWM on that light, but that could also affect DMM readings.

thanks for comparison, very useful