Which one would you recommend? Niwalker MF5SV1 vs BLF Q8

BlueSwordM · 2019-04-01T15:06:44.000Z

Niwalker said they got the focus better with the new reflectors.

That means the reflectors have been tweaked a bit to achieve the optimal distance to focal-point.

That means either a different centering ring or a tweaked reflector as mentioned above.

Tom_E · 2019-04-01T15:12:31.000Z

Yeah but 61 kcd to 440 kcd? Or 494 m to 850 m? No way in something this size.

BlueSwordM · 2019-04-01T15:22:30.000Z

Of course.

Do they do any kind of.spell checking.on their.pages?

mattadores · 2019-04-01T15:26:34.000Z

Tom E:

Yeah but 61 kcd to 440 kcd? Or 494 m to 850 m? No way in something this size.

That was exactly why I ended up passing on this light. I love the idea of a selectable throw/flood combo light but this isn’t really a good throw light.

I have a handful of flooders/mild throwers that make 10 000+ lumens already so when this light can’t throw even as far as the BLF GT mini I don’t really consider it the best of both worlds. More like a great flooder with a focused beam that can throw a tiny bit

Tom_E · 2019-04-01T15:39:41.000Z

Dunno how they can get candela and distance messed up, plus it's consistenly wrong in several places... ugh......

I left a message on their site to correct the specs on these lights. I'll see if they respond.

This is a bazaar light. With 3 separate buttons, you would think each would have it's own turbo, but that's not what maukka found. If they did have separate turbo, would be interesting to see how the 2 XHP70.2's compare to the XHP35 HI in throw - betta not much advantage to the HI. Think it's more about choosing what beam pattern you want. If they did it better, they would have made the reflector for the HI bigger than the others, at least.

mattadores · 2019-04-01T15:36:25.000Z

Tom E:

Dunno how they can get candela and distance messed up, plus it’s consistenly wrong in several places… ugh……

I left a message on their site to correct the specs on these lights. I’ll see if they respond.

lol incoming correction:

MF5SV1
lumens: 15 000
throw: really far

Tom_E · 2019-04-06T15:27:27.000Z

The light arrived yesterday. I'm a bit under the weather and not up to doing much with it, but it's an impressive light, rock solid, 700g is certainly something significant in your hand.

Only way to get to max/turbo is thru momentary mode, but that's easy to get to - simply press&hold the button of choice. 3 buttons - 1 for the dual XHP70.2's, 1 for the XHP35 HI, and the 3rd button for both. The 70 reflectors are shallow and a heavy OP, and the XHP35 HI reflector is SMO and deep. The depth keeps the flood width small. The throw reflector though is just too small to get significant throw #'s from it. The XHP35 HI by itself really doesn't have much distance, but with all the LED's ON, it does much better, but still I would say in the range maukka tested.

BlueSwordM · 2019-04-06T15:30:16.000Z

Wow that’s even heavier than the MT03, and MT09R.

CM2010 · 2019-04-06T16:17:31.000Z

I should get mine sometime in the next few days as it’s just made it to the uk.

CM2010 · 2019-04-08T09:56:17.000Z

Got my MF5SV1 today, not sure why they only have it as 4000lm as the highest unless you are in turbo?

Tom_E · 2019-04-08T13:28:14.000Z

BlueSwordM:

Wow that’s even heavier than the MT03, and MT09R.

Ooops, my bad - that was from the website. The website has typos, copy/paste errors, and outright plain wrong stuff.

The manual is somewhat better, it says 490 g and I measured 486 g, compared to the Q8 measured at 403 g, all without batteries.

The head comes in at 319 g, compared to the Q8 head at 260 g, so pretty much all the extra weight comes from the head.

CM2010- mine came with no box, but the pouch it came in is really nice. Also are the two top buttons reversed from how the manual says? On mine, the XHP35HI is the right top button.

mattadores · 2019-04-08T15:53:31.000Z

Thanks for the updates! Sounds like it’s a nice bump in lumens but the throw side of it remains the same.

Can’t wait to see some measurements or pictures of beamshots

CM2010 · 2019-04-08T16:18:05.000Z

It came in a paper thin cardboard box which was next to useless and yeah the buttons in the manual are back to front.

Tom_E · 2019-04-08T17:27:36.000Z

mattadores:

Thanks for the updates! Sounds like it’s a nice bump in lumens but the throw side of it remains the same. Can’t wait to see some measurements or pictures of beamshots

No - the lumens are the same. Manual says 15K for all LED's, 13K for just the 2 70's. I measured about 9K for all, 7K for just the 2 70's. I measured lower than maukka did, but used fresh 35E's, not 30Q's. I'll re-measure with 30Q's to see if I get closer to what maukka measured on the older model. Might be a little bump but not much, if at all.

CM2010:

It came in a paper thin cardboard box which was next to useless and yeah the buttons in the manual are back to front.

Ok - mine did come in a heavy duty shipping box (DHL), but no Niwalker box.

CM2010 · 2019-04-08T17:26:44.000Z

It wasn’t an official box, maybe just any box they had at hand.

mattadores · 2019-04-08T18:19:04.000Z

Tom E:

mattadores:

Thanks for the updates! Sounds like it’s a nice bump in lumens but the throw side of it remains the same. Can’t wait to see some measurements or pictures of beamshots

No - the lumens are the same. Manual says 15K for all LED’s, 13K for just the 2 70’s. I measured about 9K for all, 7K for just the 2 70’s. I measured lower than maukka did, but used fresh 35E’s, not 30Q’s. I’ll re-measure with 30Q’s to see if I get closer to what maukka measured on the older model. Might be a little bump but not much, if at all.

CM2010:

It came in a paper thin cardboard box which was next to useless and yeah the buttons in the manual are back to front.

Ok - mine did come in a heavy duty shipping box (DHL), but no Niwalker box.

Soooooo lol it’s no different than the MM18JR

ooh man

Tom_E · 2019-04-08T21:35:37.000Z

As I suspected, the 30Q's did marginally better, so about the same as maukka's testing of the MM18JR.

I dunno - I don't think I've seen such a blatant disregard for published numbers with a somewhat higher quality brand name. The throw and dimensions seem to be a copy/paste error from one of their big throwers (correct dims, still bad throw #'s in the manual), and the mentioning of 15,000 lumens is in the manual and website, seems to be purely made up. I don't get it...

mattadores · 2019-04-08T21:47:31.000Z

Tom E:

As I suspected, the 30Q’s did marginally better, so about the same as maukka’s testing of the MM18JR.

I dunno - I don’t think I’ve seen such a blatant disregard for published numbers with a somewhat higher quality brand name. The throw and dimensions seem to be a copy/paste error from one of their big throwers (correct dims, still bad throw #’s in the manual), and the mentioning of 15,000 lumens is in the manual and website, seems to be purely made up. I don’t get it…

Yeah the sheer amount of confusing/totally incorrect information printed on their manuals and website is just baffling. I get translation problems and spelling/grammar being totally incorrect.

But numbers are numbers. How they managed to mess that up so badly…. On top of that, why would they produce an identical light to one they already have???

lol we underwent a bunch of new R&D expenses, marketing and listing expenses all to bring you!! … The same thing as we had 2 years ago :person_facepalming: :person_facepalming: :person_facepalming:

Tom_E · 2019-04-08T22:02:13.000Z

Well I see the UI as an improvement - it's almost totally different. Weird though. The light itself has no model name/# on it. Just has "MiniMax 72" on the tailcap -- no idea what that means though...

Lightbringer · 2019-04-09T00:43:22.000Z

Wellp, I can’t speak to the Niwalker, but as far as Q8 class lights, you have

BLF Q8
Sofirn Q8
Airpro DC7

I got a few BLF Q8s. Pretty good build quality, nice floody beam, great CT/tint right out of the box.

No Sofirn Q8s, because a) they’re throwier, and I find the BLF’s floody beam lots more useful, b) it’s more CW than NW, again, a negative to me, but Sofirn’s quality in general is spot-on.

The Airpros are quite nice, excellent build quality that I’ve seen, everything nicely lubed, threads glide like they’re made of glass, everything fits like a Swiss watch, plus, it has onboard usb-c charging so you never even have to open it up.

In contrast, my grexes about the BLF Q8s are that the threads on all of mine tend to bind in a few spots and feel a bit grittier, and the O-ring is a bit loose and needs constant unwavering attention when rescrewing it to keep a “tongue” from forming and sticking out and then being lopped off when you fully tighten the head onto the tube, that you constantly have to watch while turning and poking it back in. Unscrewing then rescrewing has gotten to be a laborious chore on the rescrewing part because of this.

So… my particular summary would be that the BLF Q8 has the best and most useful beam profile, hands-down, but mine have minor issues; the Sofirn Q8 would be throwier and cooler but I can’t speak to their quality simply because I don’t have any although it’s likely quite good; and the Airpro DC7 likely has a beam similar to the Sofirn but has built-in charging.

Solution? Get one of each.

Oh, the BLF Q8 has been on sale for around 50bux, the Airpro also was on sale for about 50bux (my first was 43), and the Sofirn will likely have various sales whenever the holidays come up.