Hi everyone, I figured I could put my first post here to good use.
I am searching for a 4x18650 light that has a nice blend of throw and flood, trending towards throw. My first light was the classic initiation light (L6), which is a beautiful piece of equipment for the money.
The lights I have been mulling over are the acebeam k65, imalent rt70, haikelte mt07s or buffalo, and the thrunite tn40s. Looking for any and all suggestions.
Thank you and god save my wallet.
PS - Don’t pay bangood for expedited shipping. Ordered a BLF A6 and an Astrolux C8 on 6/23. They’re still in China.
I don’t know where it lands on the range of “a nice blend of throw and flood, trending towards throw.” but I’d recommend the BLF Q8 also because it is an awesome light! I guess I’d really classify it as leaning toward flood more than throw. But, it puts out plenty of lumens, and it does reach pretty far, I think.
Maybe tell us more specifically what the purpose of the light might be so we can get an idea about how much throw you really want/need?
I will be using this on hunting and camping trips. The L6 is a nice general purpose light, so this would be more of a long distance light for the truck. The blend of throw and flood is to ensure that I’m not getting a laser like the K70 or tn42.
The Q8 was in my sights, but I went elsewhere in search of something with better reach. Let’s say I were to get a Q8…
Would it be fairly easy to swap out the existing board and LEDs to supercharge it? I would likely do a bypass on all the springs, upgrade to 70.2 CW emitters, de-dome them, and swap out the board. I have highly skilled coworkers who can assist with the soldering.
Is that worth doing, or am I better off getting a ready to go flashlight like the K65 (70.2 emitter; factory de-domed)?
Bypass the springs, and now you’ve got an 8000+ lumen beast that can throw quite far.
OOOR, get yourself a Haikelite MT09R XHP 70.2
An absolute beast, and my stock Blue MT09R can do 19k lumens, and throws 600m. A wall of light that can also throw quite far. If you go above 50% power though, it gets hot FAST.
I think something like the TN40s is what you want. Since you have the L6 already at ~70Kcd and want something throwier I would recommend a bump in beam intensity of more than 2 or 3x. Anything less than that will just seem like a small improvement in throw because of the way our eyes perceive light. The TN40s has 330Kcd and enough lumens that it won’t be a pencil beam. Another option with similar results is the MF02s which has the XHP70.2. If you dedomed that and drive it well it would have similar throw and more lumens than the TN40s.
Sliced XHP70.2 would not get you a lot of throw in the Q8, maybe 120Kcd (prob less) if they are driven very well.
I think the K65 is more what you are after, similar to my suggestions above. But from what I remember the K65 performance doesn’t live up too the advertised specs.
If you are up to modding I would recommend the MF02 with sliced XHP70.2 and either FET driver or high performance buck driver like from Lexel.
I brought out the light lovers in force! Thanks guys.
It’s sounding like the MF02s with bypassed springs, dedome, and high performance driver might be the ticket.
Any tips on the best driver for this setup? I have 4 Samsung 30Q 15A 18650s. Ideally I would have a nice blend of performance and usability (ie not fry my hand instantly).
I have both the Imalent DT70 and DT35 as well as the Haikelite MT07s. For the money, the Haikelite is a quality piece with performance tested at slightly OVER MFR specs. I like mine a lot!
INHO opinion and I have a UT Thrunite, it’s a thrower to the core with not a lot of spill. Very nice light but I think it’s also overpriced.
One light you’re not considering that you should is the Astrolux MF02. It is arguably the best thrower under $90 and meets your criteria. Early ones had driver problems but the latest are excellent. Very impressive thrower with good spill and run-times. It uses the CREE XHP35 powered by four 18650 cells. The MFR specs are a little over-zealous but you can expect around 2200 lumens and 600k CD. Roughly 1,100+M actual throw not that you can see much that far (better be a very clear night with no dust/smoke). With a coupon code it can be had for low $80 range.
The Q8 is a great light loved by many here but it is not really a thrower. In fact, If you have an L6, then the Q8 is going to out throw it by much if at all. Either mod your L6 or go with a true thrower. Just my $0.02.
The MF02S does not need bypassed springs or a new driver. It uses a boost driver and is fine. Slicing the dome is an option for more range, but since the bezel is glued, it may be a pain to do that.
It only has a 10mm bigger head than the L6, but maybe double the output (3150 to 6000). It hasn’t been reviewed yet since it is still a month away from shipping, but since it uses the boost driver from the MF01, it has plenty of power should they want it to do 6,000 lumen.
They say it’s 1000 meters range and in theory could be. This is about double the stock L6 distance.
They are saying only 600 meters on that light. I don’t think it’s enough distance based on what he said. I think it’s only 100 meters more than his L6.
