USB rechargable, small 1x18650 thrower for camping/hiking with good CRI

Is it even possible to have all of this specs into one same product?

First of all, I am completely new to this LED light world and I found your forum an amazing source of info. I have read a lot and the several possibilities are kind of driving me crazy, so I registered and posted to hear your thoughs.

Let's to the requirements:

  • I go out into the wild when there's no moon and no ilumiination at all, completely darkeness miles around me. I would like something for long range path finding (~300m maybe / 1000 lumen?)
  • As a photographer and hiker, I am always full of load. Size and weight are very important, so something 1x18650 or something comparable in size would be nice.
  • I have lots of camera batteries and chagers that bothers me a lot already. I do not want to add another charger to my stuff, so USB in-light recharging would be nice.
  • As a night photographer, I would take advantage of the light and use it for light painting the landscape in a long exposure picture. So good CRI would be really nice.
  • I see that a XP-L V6 led would be nicer over the old XM-L2 (I don't want to dedome anything), so I am looking into newer products.
  • battery included in the package would save me a lot of time and money into researching good battery brands (I know nothing about it).
  • I'll be ordering the light online, so good chinese companies are preferable in the $50~$70 range if that's possible, but I could spend a little more if that means higher CRI and further throw range.

Let's to my thoughs:

I found that the Thrunite TC12 had meet all of the expectations at first (neutral white, USB charging, 1000lumen XP-L led, 1x18650 battery included), but then I have seen some remarks that made me in doubt:

  1. Cree neutral whites tend to have a green tint (or any kind of tint). If that's the case, I would be better off buying two lights: one with fartest reach/throw I could find with no compromises despite the size and weight, and other with the best CRI for photography and not care about throw. I would stick with a Jaxman E2 with the Nichia 219B (best CRI according to this review ) plus the best small thrower I could find. It could be in cool white now, because I would use the Jaxman to do photography job.
  2. How does the TC12 compare to the Nitecore P12GT in terms of throw and range in the dark? I am afraid I could have a better throw with another compact light.

What do you think?
Option #1: one-product-meets-all. Thrunite TC12? Any others?
Option #2: Jaxman E2 (Nichia 219B) plus a cool white/significant better thrower than TC12? I could buy a separate battery and recharger if there's a significant increase on the thrower range on this case.

I have seen lots of models up to now: USB rechargeables Fenix TK09, RC11, UC35, Nitecore MH20 and also the non rechargeable Nitecore P12W, P12GT, Fenix PD32, PD35tact, E35UE, E25UE, Brinyte B158, Convoy C8 but at this point there are so many options that my newbie head almost exploded sorting everything. Every time I research a little more I meet new products and become even more confused. What are your thoughs?

As a fellow photographer, I’m not going to recommend specific lights, but would like to point out the following:

1. Get at least one flashlight with moonlight/firefly mode in the sub-1 lumen range, that you can shine on your camera to make setting changes without blinding/upsetting fellow photogs nearby.

2. Consider a light with reversible clip, that you can clip to a baseball cap, freeing up both your hands to haul gear as you hike to and from shot locations.

3. Get a Li-Ion charger that also charges NiMH batteries (I presume you use eneloop or similar for your flashguns?). That way, you have just one charger to carry, and you don’t have to be restricted to flashlights with internal charging.

Thanks for the input, Enelooper!

I already use a small headlamp to accomplish these tasks that you mentioned (including a red light sub 1 lumen mode), with some Sony rechargeable AAA batteries. They are my full time lights.

But now I need more power finding the way on the trails with something much more powerful.

Good for you! Okay I’m going to eat my words and recommend you get either a Convoy C8, or the Astrolux S2. Both are under $25. Neither has internal charging but I still think you’re better off having a spare 18650 cell with you, and a charger that can charge both chemistries. BTW, there are many such chargers that can run off USBs. I’m happy with my Xtar brand charger.

I would highly recommend the Convoy C8 XML 4C tint for photography. Has a beautiful sunlight quality to it without major tint shifts and beam artefacts.

Welcome to BLF!
The Convoy C8 popped into my head too as compact thrower.

Thanks!! I have looked at them but the store website specifications seems to rate the C8 at 200m range.

Is the C8 a huge step up and difference from the more compact heads P12GT / P35 / TC12? They are all rated at 200m also.

If the difference is little, I consider the C8 big enough to choose the smaller diameter heads to fit my already full bag, and with USB charger included.

If the the difference is really noticeable, then I should really consider the best C8 possible + a Jaxman E2 or only a C8 with 4C tint…

A Convoy BD something with integrated charging function and a big reflector maybe ?

Ah yes post recycling

just took a piece of paper I have been doodling on for the Q8 tail pcb and put it on my notebook, took some pics with my phone, it gives an idea I hope.

All Convoy
S2+ S2 BD06 C8 BD01

BD06 C8 BD01

BD06 C8

As a photographer myself I really don’t recommend the Cree XM or XP class emitters for this. The big MT-G2 makes fabulous light and will have a fat hot spot much more suited to light painting. The C8 will have a small hot spot that will make light painting iffy at best.

Nichia 219B puts out a nice tint, but is usually on the weak side unless you use a small triple, which would then have a wide spot and the high CRI abilities.

Pairing up internal USB charging AND throw with a good color profile is somewhat tough, especially trying to keep it small. How do I know this? It’s because I started with flashlights as a supplemental lighting source to shoot macro images at venue’s, like ring shots at a wedding for example. I now have 160+ flashlights and still can’t say there’s one particular light that works best for photography. The closest I have probably is one I built myself.

A Convoy L6, converted to MT-G2, is a very nice light to use in a photographic sense, but it’s not small. I have a BTU Shocker with 3 of the 9V MT-G2 emitters I like to use, it makes a whopping 10,000 lumens if desired, with 7 levels to choose from, but again, it’s a large heavy bulky light.

Good luck! And welcome to the insanity…

Edit: RMM (Richard) has shown a dual MT-G2 that he is selling cheap, $105 I think for a $150 flashlight, that one is pretty small, makes a whopping about of light (in the 5000 lumens range) and would be really ideal for your set-up, not sure if it has built in charging or not. (I’ll go find his post and link to it here… brb)

Edit II: It’s the Niwalker Nova, pretty unique light, only has he one, better give it a look and act fast if it’s for you…

Edit III: Richard also is selling a 2x18650 MT-G2 light that he put together himself, should be a good choice but might be on the warm side at 4000K, you can work with it though and it’s $55, his driver as well. You should really talk to Richard… he knows a good bit about photography too. :wink:

Astrulux S2 without a doubt. It will easily out-throw the lights listed here and it can be had for under $25. Select 3B for a beautiful tint. No USB charging, but you should get great results with a 3500mah like the LG MJ1.

Thanks, this seems a good compromise! I found BD06 and BD01 and The Miller pictures showed the difference between them to me. But I still think the C8 may be too big to fit my bag. I wonder how does the range compare to the Nitecore P12GT?

Thanks for the pics, they helped a lot! I don’t considering my question as post recycling since all other posts are just asking for a small thrower and I have far more requirements than that (maybe more than a single flashlight can handle).

Thanks a lot for the inputs! I’ll send him a PM and see what he says. Maybe the MT-G2 is more than I would need… Light painting and throw are on opposite sides like you said, that’s why I considered 2 lights instead of only one. One small nichia 219B plus a small “thrower” instead like P12GT?

This looks considerably small also than a C8? If yes, it is a serious candidate for me. I did not find the P12GT / C8 / Astrolux S2 size comparison, but I am using a hand as a reference:

P12GT still claims 320m of throw. Is it real?

The little X5 will outdo the P12GT by a long shot. It won’t throw as far as a C8, but it’s already got the FET+1 driver so it’s better than a stock C8 and considerably smaller, taking a 14500 cell (AA size, but it won’t run on a AA battery)

Ah no sorry I was post recycling, it is a post from another topic I just quoted and copy pasted here :wink:

And yeah the X5 or Astrolux counterpart is packing some serious punch
Very nice little light with big output.

Throw is virtually always diameter dependent, you just can’t expect a 20mm diameter tube light to be able to produce a beam with range to it.
Remember that throw numbers are taken at a level of about 1/4 lux, or the equivalent of a full moon, so if a light just barely makes your expectation of distance, according to the numbers, you’re not likely to be taking nice pictures with that light at that distance. Go for excess, turn it down if necessary. But shooting at 102,400 ISO probably isn’t a good idea.

Sorry about my confusion, Miller! =)

Both BLF X5 and Astrolux S2 seem like the same product (just rebranded). They look great. Why don’t they make a 18650 (with wider battery body only) version? The X6 body with X5 reflector for keeping size down… it would be nice. 14500 would be a trouble because I would have to buy a charger for it and another charger for Jaxman 18650 with Nichia… instead of having no chager at all with TC12 as I desired, I would end up with 2! And X6 looks like the same size of a C8.

Seems like the Thrunite TC12 is discarded then? I really like the small diameter / USB port / 18650 battery… but if is outperformed easily I may consider maybe a BD06 + Jaxman? The BD06 seems still a bit larger than I would mind to carry…

Astrolux S2 is the equivalent of the BLF X6 in size. Both are 18650, which I recommend.
Astrolux S3 is the equivalent of the BLF X5 in size. Both are 14500, which I do not recommend.

The X6 is smaller than the C8, 35mm to 43mm? something like that. The X6 is originally an Eagle Eye product. When Kronological did the group buy for X6/X5 Banggood sourced Manker to do the lights, and then that got rebranded to Astrolux which is the Banggood house brand. As I understand it, Manker is no longer producing lights for Banggood so the Astrolux quality may be questionable. I was on the original testing team for the Eagle Eye X6 group buy and can attest to that brands awesome anodization, the copies aren’t up to the same standard. The X6 is my favorite flashlight body, the X5 is a miniature version and I really like it as well except for it’s somewhat lesser quality. The original Eagle Eye X6 is a great light, love em. I’ve made triples and quads as well as MT-G2 and SBT-70 variants and XHP-70’s as well. Yes, the 6V emitters require the use of a pair of half cells (18350) so run times are atrocious at Turbo levels, but I still love em and have too many. lol

One charger will charge both the 14500 cell and the 18650 cell, they are usually a spring loaded negative contact, allowing for multiple sizes to be charged on the one charger case. (the LittoKala 100 is available at GearBest for $3.96 on a flash sale, single cell, USB supply)

Built in USB chargers are usually very puny and take forever to charge a high capacity cell. :wink:

Thanks! I have searched for a picture comparing all the sizes and did not find one, so I have put this together trying to keep the correct sizes:

I also found this very interesting picture:

Hard to decide. These Convoy M1 / Niteye looks like the X5 reflector ina 18650 body. Are they comparable to Astrolux S2?
Nitecore MH20 is too small for being in the same league, right?

S2 will drastically out-throw all of these lights.