It might not get fully dark there but at least we can still see how bright some of the lights are.
Nice pictures! The Small Sun actually seems to make your backyard darker than the control shot. That's a new concept in flashlights!
The 501B MC-E looks like it is brighter than the Piritlight or any of the P7's. But I would bet if I ordered one, I wouldn't be so lucky somehow.
Indeed - maybe it was getting a bit darker. The long grass seems to eat light. About to stick all these guys on the lightbox for some numbers.
Nearly as bright as my ROP - but its batteries do need charging. 3220 lux on the lightbox on high - compared to 3250 for the ROp which is a 30-odd watt device.
Here are some numbers
| Piritlight SG-L8 MC-E | 18650 | 1735 | 665 | 237 |
| Ultrafire WF-501B M bin MC-E | 18650 | 3220 | 1237 | 165 |
| Ultrafire WF-503B DX MC-E | 18650 | 1636 | x | 675 |
| Ultrafire Wf-504B KD MC-E | 18650 | 2310 | 1575 | 61 |
| Solarforce L2M DX P7 | 18650 | 1956 | x | 199 |
| Uniquefire R5 5 mode XP-G R5 | 18650 | 1565 | 164 | 84 |
| Ultrafire WF-502B R2 single mode | 18650 | 940 | x | x |
| Ultrafire WF-504B with the 5 mode R2 | 18650 | 1102 | 449 | 168 |
| Solarforce L2R Solarforce low voltage R2 | 2xNiMH | 779 | ||
| MX Power ML-310 | 14500 | 857 | 220 | |
| Trustfire R5-A3 | 14500 | 1600 | x | 576 |
| a first batch Aurora SH-034 | RCR123 | 1016 | 304 | 39 |
| Ultra-budget C3 clone | 2xNiMH | 163 | x | x |
| Trustfire F22 | 14500 | 1210 | 535 | 115 |
| Powerlight | NiMH | 94 | x | x |
| BLF DeLight | NiMH | 85 | ||
| MDXL "3W" | NiMH | 77 | ||
| Aurora SH-035 | NiMH | 644 | 201 | 26 |
| Uniquefire S10 | NiMH | 575 | ||
| Ultrafire RL-118 | RCR123 | 1260 | x | 145 |
| Aurora SH0031 | Alk. AAA | 142 | ||
| Aurora SH-033 | RCR2 | 744 | 221 | 33 |
| ROP High | 2x32600 | 3250 (low batts) | ||
| Golston "7W" | 2xRCR123 | 390 | ||
| Fenix E01 | AAA | 37 |
Hey Don nice pics as always..
i don't suppose you have the link to the M bin MC-E dropin do you per chance ??
Charles
AFAIK dropin only avaqilable with the light.
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.39359
However, since the body costs approximately 0% this is not a problem.
Cool cheers bud looks like another light to add to my wish list :-)
Well worth it. Just put the dropin in something with better heat sinking. Personal preference is the Uniquefire L2.
cool will do, i have an L2 which needs a decent dropin.
Going slightly off topic i recall you said you had a problem with Safari crashing !! did you know there's an update out now.
Unfortunately that was after the update. Bummer!
Well, based on that, I ordered one. I know it's a lottery with these lights. What kind of current draw are you getting? If the drop-in performs like yours, I might put it in a Solarforce L2 I have on the way (over a month now from ITC) or a 504B.
Current draw not as high as I'd feared. An 18650 at 4.18V
High: 2.25A
Medium: 850mA
Low: 75mA
The stock body doesn't tailstand.
Today DX finally showed this light as packaging instead of waiting on supplier. That worries me. No telling what you get once the original supplier runs out of stock for that long.
Thanks for another great review Don. Besides the first close-up white wall shot, did you notice any donut or cross effect as the range increased? Your second beamshot indicates not, but i just wanted to make sure (I hate those darn donuts). I also have the polished aluminum 504B R2 and think this would be a great swap for the drop-in.
It's not bad - better than most. Once it is dark again (which is for about 4 hours a night if that) I'll do some longer range white wall shots.
I got mine today. It is kind of a dud. It only draws 1.6A (with a battery at 4.0V) and isn't much brighter than my XP-G R5, though the hotspot is bigger so it is probably putting out more lumens [edit: the low reading seems to be because of crappy multimeter leads, not the LED or driver]. Has a very dark donut hole at more than one foot or so. Not a plus-sign, just a hole (if I unscrew the reflector a little, it seems to go away, so I might be able to fiddle with that). The 501B host is noticably lighter weight than the 502B, but I didn't need as many layers of soda can shims in the head to get a snug fit for the drop-in. Mode memory works well, takes about 2 seconds off to set. The SOS is amazingly slow. I'll post a longer review in a separate post once I do some tests and get pictures, so maybe tomorrow. I've gone ahead and ordered Shiningbeam's 2.8A driver, which I was hoping wouldn't be necessary, but the extra $9 should get me a really nice drop-in and what seems like a decent host (though the MC-E won't live in the 501B for long).
Maybe different drivers (again)? Those that have this one, what's the color of your driver pcb?
My one which draws 2.2-2.3A at the tailcap has a blue PCB
Mine is blue also. I've tried several different batteries and can't get much over 1.6A on any of them. I don't see any bad solder joints. I won't take the board out of the pill until the new one shows up though.
Well, maybe you could post a picture of the driver pcb downside? I'd really like to find an explanation for these differences.
I've got my 501 shipping notice just yesterday so it will probably take a week or three before I get it.