2011 was when I first came across this forum which hooked me immediately as I’d always loved flashlights as a kid. I was always dissapointed with the incandescent globe flashlights and moving to LEDs was a major step up. I recall in my early days surefire clones were popular. From memory 200-300 lumens was a decent output. I had a small number of flashlights and ended to focus on solarforce and other surefire clones. There was probably higher at the time but it wasnt necessarily budget. The progress over the years has been amazing and really satisfying for me and keeps me constantly excited about the hobby.
There was the DRY 3*XML , i vaguely remember it being brighter than the TM11, but the SRK had the top spot.
Why are you writing a review of a 10 year old light? Don’t these things get reviewed when they come out?
My first flashlights in 2009 were a Fenix TK12-R5 (Cree XP-G) and a Jet III M-R2 (Cree XR-E). I was EDCing the TK-12.
In 2010 I purchased my first budget flashlight after reading a review on CPF, an AKOray K109, to test the built quality of budget flashlight but mostly because it was smaller to EDC and because it has 3 programmable outputs. I really liked this flashlight.
The AKOray K106 and K109 were pretty popular back then.
The brightest budget single-LED flashlights were using Seoul SSC-P7 and Cree MC-E. I also remember the Olight SR90 with a luminus SST 90.
At the end of 2010 I purchased a HDS with Seoul SSC-P4 high-cri that immediately put me on the warm white and “less lumens but better lumens” route, except for cycling for which I needed more brightness. Mostly P60 hosts and drop-in modules (Cree XR-E, XP-G, XM-L) to follow lumens improvements but I was never chasing max lumens so I never bought an SRK-like before the BLF-Q8.
Because I wanted to! 
I have one of the SRK’s from the time period. I think I modded it some though. Been to long to remember what I did to it.
Looks like from this review fom the, I would guess first of 2012 or end of 2011, a year earlier than I had guessed.
This appears to be the first time this light is reviewed on BLF from the comments.
Ah, 2011. I looked back at some of my CPF posts from then. 2011 was the year I bought my 4500 lumen maglite, modded and sold by VestureOfBlood (I still have it, nice UI).
I think the Fenix TK75 came out around that time, didn’t it? The TK75 at that time, IIRC, was about 2400-ish lumens and ran on four(?) 18650s.
That year I had a DEFT-HO thrower. People were buying some Romisens from Shiningbeam and elsewhere. I bought his MG X-Thrower and PLI, each running one 18650 and giving about 500 lumens. I had a Nitecore D10 but didn’t EDC it much because I found the Maratac AAA twisties were so tiny and handy. Plenty of folks were EDCing the Quark lights then, I think… my Quark RGB still gets some use. Also Zebralights… I picked up an SC51w that year. Nitecore had the EC1, EC2, EA1, and EA2 available. And Eagletac was putting out some nice 18650 lights, although I opted for their AA models (the GX25A3 still gets multiple uses weekly at my bedside).
Is that the one that runs multiple stacks of eneloops in seriously heavy-duty carriers?
That original thread no longer has photos. Do you have any of it? I’m very curious.
I think in 2011, the TK75 was not still in existence for I bought my TK70s in 2012 (also my TK41)…the TK70 was 2,100 lumens and multi-led, so the natural successor was the TK75 at 2400…
I was browsering our french forum about SkyRay :
For context :
- In 2010 people were talking about the SkyRay S-R5, a P60 host that was a clone. I remember to be tempted to buy one but decided to stick with Solarforce and Xeno P60 hosts.
- In July 2011, it was the SkyRay 3XT6. Was working with 1x 18650 or 2x 18650 in series. It has 3 LEDs but in a drop-in inserted in the head which was not ideal for thermal path.
On DealExtreme it was sold as : SKYRAY 3XT6-850 XM-LT60 5-Mode 4300LM 3-LED White Memory Flashlight (1 x 18650 / 2 x 18650).
The SkyRay 3XT6 was compared to the DRY 3x XM-L (mentionned on CPF).
- In april 2012, first mention to the SkyRay King x3 and Fandyfire UV-S5, both were about the same except that the Fandyfire was advertised as a 3000LM flashlight when the SRK was 2000LM.
The driver of the SkyRay was glued. There is only one early picture (may 2012) that survived and was taken from another forum (don’t know which one. EDIT : also HERE) :
EDIT : there is also this picture :
- In march 2012 (on BLF) : HKJ Review: ThruNite pre-production 3 XML light with measurements and outdoor beamshots
Well I wasn’t really into this until 2018 when I built the 100W COB light. Before that in 2005 or so I had Maglites (mini with 2AA) and did an led conversion to give it a whopping 125lm maybe? On from there I got a semi-serious Nebo Redline zoomie with 3AAA and a XR-E. That was amazingly bright (to me in 2014). I didn’t know bright until I messed with xhp70.2’s in 2019! I didn’t think it was possible to throw that much light that far without an HID lamp, but led tech has gotten to that point (and more (for small HID lamps anyway).
I joined cpf in 2008. My first big light was triple Cree MCE drop in for a c cell Mag that ran on 3 18650. The light was from Electrolumens. I got my first AW protected 2200s and Trustfire charger from lighthound.com. I believe the drop in was 169.00 the cells were 12.99 each and the charger was like 15 plus I had to get a c cell mag. But that light changed what I knew about how bright flashlights could be I think it was claimed around 1800 or 2000L. Never before had I ever had a light that would show pollen in the air in the summer where I never had seen like that before. Then after getting the monster flooded I needed the best thrower. So I got a DEFT with the whole Pelican case and extra frosted lens that had never been taken out of the case. The DEFT had a whopping 100 to 120 klux. But no spill. It was insane how it
Had what seemed like unlimited range. Now it had later been sent back and upgraded to 250 klux. But I liked the original for its somewhat historical significance So whenI had the chance to purchase a stock one and did.
People still remember those lights because they were so far beyond what mainstream lights were at the time. Now they are smoked by d4 lights and reflectored K1s. Amazing how far things have come since way back then.
Nope, it runs on four 26650s. Other than the business end (6 XM-L) it looks stock in appearance, but it can run full blast without stepdown until the cells get low. (I don’t recall the runtime though.) The UI is H6flex 2.05.
Photos of which? Maglite? DEFT? Something else? I sold the DEFT and no longer have it, btw.
The Maglite. I know what a modern high lumen Maglite mod looks like, but I’d love to see how it was done back in 2011.
The SupFire M6 was the king of the triple kings, maybe back in 2013-2014 era. The BLF Q8 was modeled after it, but with the SkyRay Kung feature of 4 LED's. The M6 had a rock solid shell, solid shelf, etc. The early SRK's were XML T6's typically on alum non-DTP MCPCB's, one per LED, not one massive MCPCB they had later. It was not made to handle high amps. Richard was one of the first in M6 modding here: https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/25716. He offered the modded M6's til the Q8's came out -- I feel bad bout that one, the Q8 kind of put him out of the M6 mod biz.
After the SRK (triple), they had the 4 LED version (Kung), https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/19191, then after that, it grew exponentially in fake LED counts.
The original SRK was actually pretty good quality, real stainless steel bezel, nice finish: https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/7224?destination=node/8435&420d_name=d9. The cnqualitygoods.com store had the best one at the time, referenced in this review.
I have one of the better SRK clones probably 2013 vintage and the thermal path is so-so. Has a thin shelf. It’s better than some of the other clones with just a lip to hold the mcpcb but I’d be leery running anything over 3A per emitter. It has xm-l U2’s CW in it. As is, it’s real bright. With some added copper under the shelf and an upgraded driver and emitters, it would be truly modernized for 2020, but unless you get it from China, after buying the emitters and driver and mod materials, it’s cheaper to buy a Q8.
Like the TK70 but in a compact formfacter and lots of mods like Tom E’s was the BTU Shocker. I never owned one but was always impressed with the numbers that light produced. I was thinking it was greater than 4000L and around 500K lux. It seems like a recent light, but it’s been long ago that many may not have been here to experience it. I have a ThruNite TN40 and I like to think that it’s like the evolutionary step after the BTU Shocker, what a name for a light as well.
I didn’t own a soda-can light until the BLF Q8 (now I have 2 of those, and a Sofirn SP36), so I can’t help with the history there. Didn’t sign up here until 2013, even though I started EDC-ing a light in about 2008.
I carried a TerraLux LightStar 220 in 2009 for a few years until I lost it.