In my view a great budget P60 host, if thermal conductivity is not critical for your drop in. Host takes 18650 cells, also protected ones due to double springs. The switch is reverse clicky, and takes a lot of force to actually ‘click’. I do not expect this to turn in on my bag or trousers by accident.
I like that the nylon body does not feel cold in my hand when using it outside while camping in cold weather.
Yeah I had the Sky-Ray model years ago. Obviously quality with these things can vary over time, but I really liked it. It was a very unique look with a solid build.
The vaguely remember it not liking long cells though.
Edit: I ordered the GT6A with a xenon incandescent P60 drop-in, hence the 100 CRI.
Actually it is not that bad. I use the Xenon drop-in with a protected 18650, so it is not 60 lumens (only with 2xCR123A), but the beam is still quite useful. Good to see how much progress is made in a relatively short time.
I purchased 2 of the Nextorch GT6A polymer lights from Illumn.com a while ago and am amazed at the amount of value for $8 each. Nothing about them feels cheap. I recommend them to anyone looking for a P60-style beater.
In this era of "under-driven" LEDs that can still give 200+ lumens without generating gobs of heat, I'd like to see polymer hosts make a comeback. They're more comfortable to hold (especially in cold weather), less likely to be damaged by a fall, less likely to do damage to what they fall on, and more resistant to corrosion. What's not to love?
Newer is not automatically better, it is mostly different, with other trade-offs.
Plastic in many minds resonates with “cheap”; however in practice as a material for a flashlight host it can actually provide an excellent user experience for all the reasons you already mentioned. Interestingly ’graceful” ageing of high-quality plastic might be better than that of aluminum with worn-off anodization in the case of flashlights.
Parametrek made an interesting remark that currently most flashlight hosts are metal because the initial investment for a CNC milling machine is much lower that the initial investment in the capital goods required for producing plastic hosts. Only when produced in really large volumes manufacturers can recoup this initial investment, even while milling metal stuff is much more labour intensive.
That's a fascinating insight that I had not considered. That would explain why we don't see smaller brands making polymer lights.
I can only think of a small number of brands that offer polymer lights: Surefire, Nextorch, Streamlight, and Blackhawk. Any that I've missed?
I guess that means it's not likely that Nextorch will create a 3-cell version of the GT6A to compete with the likes of the Surefire G3 or Blackhawk Legacy X9-P.
I have a Brinkman MAXFIRE that I picked up from Target years ago when I first got into lights. It had a Xenon type set up in it. I finally discovered that it accepted a P60 drop-in like it was designed for it. Powers up with 2x cr123a’s or a 16650 (which I always use in it). Still resides on my desk filled with a Thorfire Xpg-2 R5 drop in.
Funny, ’cause one of my first “mods” to fit an LED MagBulb into the space for a regular PR2 in a 2×AA light, a Taskforce rubber-coated donk, can fit a drop-in as well.
All I’d have to do is dremel out the molded-in reflector, and the other dimensions — diameter and height — would fit one of those perfectly, and the front plastic would stay in there and be water-tight, no separate O-ring required.
Given the crappy artifact-laden beam of the stock reflector, a nice OP would smooth out the beam, and the bigger thermal mass would let me hit it with at least 700mA for a few hunnert lemons at least. Way brighter’n the MagBulb.
Dunno why I haven’t done it yet, as I even collected the parts for it. Thinking a nice LH351D would go well with it.
I got a few drop-ins with that driver, I use in my Dereelight Javelin, but the mode spacing is really bad. But they also work with 4,2 volt (in dd) (although I haven’t tested that thoroughly)). I’m still looking for a better driver.
