I already own a Fenix LD20, a LD10 and a cheap china-zoom-thingy-with-cree-XML (and a Maglite 3D which just lies around at home…). From these three the Zoomy is by far the brightest - but as being a cheap zoom I never get the right amount of light for a nice walk outdoor. Either I get a lot of light in front of me and no spill or the other way around. And I really don’t like the bluish colour. The Fenixes do have better usable beams with spill AND hotspot and warmer colour-rendering.
For having something with a little more punch I just ordered myself a nice Convoy S2+ in T6-4C as an EDC.
But to accompany the little thingy, I thought about buying something bigger - but for equally little money. Two options I found so far are the Trustfire 3T6 (around 25$ in Germany) and the JR18 (about 50:money_mouth_face: - the JR18 being some more expensive but perhaps I could fit in still into my budget and which seems to have even more ooomph.
But I still have doubts…
Do both of these lamps have a usable Hotspot and Spill? How is the colour? Typical Chinese-blue-Cree-XML? Is the JR18 too big to carry around? Notycibly bigger than the 3T6?
If I do buy the 3T6 - will I be disappointed and longing for something with ‘more’? And: Is the JR18 really so much brighter?
I know that I don’t really NEED one of these. It’s more for playing around and showing off. That means: the more lumen, the better, the cheaper, the better. On the other hand: every cent is too much if they just keep lying around at home…
Or am I just misguided and should save the money and take my wife out for dinner?
Yeah, that’s the one I mean (it’s friday, I seem a little confused… ). That’s the problem, It’s hard to determine what kind of beam that thing has, floody is not per se bad, but there has to be a little throw. So the J18 is not really the right thing (to expensive anyway… )
That’s twice my maximal budget for a light I don’t really need… Think I’ll better go with the wife-option…
The 3T6 is the more carry friendly of the two. The J18 has a large and wide hotspot with lots of spill. The battery tube is a fair bit bigger allowing for 26650 cells.
I don't think that question can really be answered. There are so many variants of the 3T6 light. Even within a particular variant, there is no certainty as to the emitter tint. There are only a few light makers that purposely purchase a specific bin and tint. Most just seem to buy what is cheapest at the moment. There have even been some people here that got lights with unmatched emitters, even in some of the higher end (higher than 3T6 lights) lights like the BTU Shocker.
Most likely, you will get an tint that is white with not obvious color. Usually those are T5 bin in reality. If you get a true T6 bin, the it will probably be slightly green tinted. They turn real green when dedomed. Those were just the most common mass produced bins/tints being made when that emitter was the hot item.
You know, I bought a Trustfire J12 just so I could mod it. I did mod it, but when I got it, I thought it was pretty nice in stock form. I like to mod my lights to crazy extremes, but I thought I would recommend this light in stock form.
The Trustfire 3T6 is a nice smaller size triple. The problem now is finding an actual Trustfire one. Tons of clones with all kinds of drivers around. The J-18 isn’t a bad light but it never really appealed to me all that much and I had a couple of them. If it was me I would go on e-bay and find a Trustfire 9x on auction over either of those two but still only if you can find one at a decent price. Better yet is this 12x
Sometimes they can be found for quite a bit less. This is if what you want if you are worried about not having a light that is going to keep you happy. There is not a stock light around that beats this light in terms of output that I know of.
Just the TR-3T6. The TR-J16 is a prettier version of the TR-J12, just driven a bit hotter, but that seems to be it. I just know that Fasttech sell real Trustfire lights.
So, as usual, I couldn’t really resist and ordered a Trustfire 3t6 from amazon.
The J18 seems a little too big, too expensive (J12 and J16 even more so) and too much of a flooder to me. And the wee one always leaves room for improvement…
Best wishes on your order. The 3T6 is a good all around work horse light. Nice combo of throw and flood (slightly throwier than an SRK). Not too heavy, but it can be an effective baton should the need ever arise. Just choke up towards the head and you should have a good combination of balance and leverage. A real skull cracker.
I take one jogging and walking sometimes for that reason. Not that I ever want to crack one. Just like to have a handy tool available should one show up needing some cracking.
Possibly. I've never compared them. Definitely the same or similar outside diameter.
For some reason my TR-3T6's seem to throw better than my SRK's. If they are the same, the 3T6's have nice insulating rings which may be putting the emitters back enough to improve throw. Now I'm curious.
Impossible to tell from that pic alone. A real Trustfire, or one at least using Trustfire’s spec, will have a larger spring around the one in the middle on the pill, and on the contact surface of the driver there will be a small ‘TF’ printed
It’s here, not sure if it’s an original. There is a larger sprint but it doesn’t look exactly like in the picture above.
I put in my Trustfire flamed 18650s, turned it on an very soon realized that it doesn’t work if the tailcap is screwed in all the way. I loosen it a few turns and there’s light. And now - it doesn’t work any more at all…
What would you say? Tailcap defect? Not sure if i’ll just send it back and buy one from fasttech. But it’s more pricy and the delivery would take a month…
I screwed out the reflector yesterday and noticed that there’s no Trustfire sticker. Back of the Driver where the two springs are just reads “YHX-T6X3”. So - fake?
)