No flashaholic here (yet, I hope), but having moved years ago from a older non-LED Maglites to run-of-the-mill <= $10 LED ones picked up here & there was always disappointed with them. So decided to do something about it a few weeks ago. This is long & wordy (sorry) & a heck of a first post I guess.
Well after a dozen or more hrs researching here, CPF, AMAZ reviews, etc, first trying to economize, here I am with these flashlights. Throwing out my thoughts on these trying to give back a little from where I learned so much, for what its worth.
The flashlight(s) I wanted would be for EDC, occasional around the house & camping use (e.g. to/from bathroom/shower:). Wanted small, pocket size, preferred spill/flood over throw, that took rechargeables w/long shelf/idle life. Familiar & comfortable w/Li-ions, having a couple Ultrafire WF-139s around from my son’s RC car days, decided 14500s would be the way I’d go. Based on HKJ’s great reports and price/availability, got some EagleTac 14500 protected cells from GoingGear (recommended).
Could (should?) have started w/a couple $7-shipped SK68 clones but thought a step up from them might be nice.
So first got TrustFire Z8 (ebay/campingsurvivals/TMart) for $14 delivered. It worked but was heavy/bulky for the pocket, had no medium or memory and a strange beam pattern. Note: Though my Z8 looks identical to JohnnyMac’s review & is apparently genuine (see below), a very strong magnet does not attract at all to its center body, so perhaps these newer Z8s (w/o stainless steel body ?) are not clones - perhaps TrustFire has gone to (all?) aluminum? On the other hand maybe its this: “ferritic stainless steels are generally magnetic while austenitic stainless steels usually are not.”
In the end can’t see this for EDC / my intended uses so its in a drawer waiting for a power outage. It’s zoom was difficult to use & seeming useless to me, it just truncates spill/spread/flood to fuzzy, weak LED die square. No clip, nothing to stop roll, shaky tail stand even w/o strap, bulky & heavy compared to those below.
Next up was XTAR WK26 (ebay/xtar-direct) for $20 delivered (w/keyring lite surprise). To me this was a dramatic step up from the Z8 - less than half its empty weight, nice spill/flood + hotspot for throw, plenty of modes, memory, even a simple way of pruning out modes you don’t use. Nice machining, balance & overall feel as well. Hard to imagine anyone being disappointed with this lite, given its price ($6 over Z8 is well spent IMO) & features. Note: No clip, nothing to stop roll, good tail stand w/o strap, decent with.
A couple WK26s would have certainly served my purposes… Especially IF I’d not seen or heard of the ZL SC52:)
Then, in a moment of weakness (or strength, as known by others I bet) I ordered the in-stock Zebralight SC52W. And it is now what’s been residing in my pocket the last several days. It’s virtues have been expounded elsewhere, for me it has these over the WK26 (other than 3X its price:) size, side switch + its easy/quick locating & use, clip both for use & grip, no-roll design, good tail stand, better heat dissipating, customization of mode levels (e.g. I use a “lower” high).
Bottom line IMO the XTAR WK26 is a darn nice flashlight for its $20 delivered. One that I would have been quite happy with for my uses at least until Father’s Day or something:) I really did try to resist ordering the SC52 & instead asking for it as a gift. But I rationalized against it… Would my wife really buy me a tiny $60 flashlight? I couldn’t be sure….
Info - Weight: (all weights WITH 19g batt): Z8: 114g, WK26: 61g, SC52W: 60g
Spill/spread diameter very rough guess relateive to Z8 being 100% (of solid fill!), WK26: 150% (1/2 again as big), SC52W: 200% (2X Z8’s dia)
Some pictures. For nice, proper pictures see others’ real reviews of course. I’m no photographer & these were made with a little automatic. The beam pics are only to better compare patterns & diameter, and they’re not even very good for that because the wall’s dark blue (lites 4ft from it) and the two outer flashlights were pointed slightly outward to avoid overlap.
How they came (XTAR, at least maybe the AA WK25, seems very giftable as mentioned elsewhere):
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Front view w/SC52W standing on its clip:
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Relative beam patterns (WK26 left, SC52W center, Z8 right), fill & diameter (caveats WRT crappiness of my attempt above):
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Wait. I bet I have to take back that no flashaholic here bit above:)