I Got On a Flashlight Kick

[john_pifer]

It is no doubt and not practical for typical/daily use, but there when I need that serious amount of light/battery capacity. I buy lights like I do tools... quality and something that will function 100% when I depend on it. Go to some of the light forums and look at the tons of posts of some guys having dozens and dozens of lights they barely touch, more life shelf queens. Then some buy high output lights just to burn holes in things, lmao, take beam shots in fog, that sort of thing. To each their own of course, but yeah Fenix makes some high quality lights with functionality/longevity in mind.

Yeah, I’ve noticed that.

The pocketknife community is similar. A couple of years ago, I got on a (fairly short-lived) pocketknife kick, and, through my research on the knife forums and pages, I noticed that some people seem to have more of an interest in the collecting aspect, than the actual use aspect.

I like Spyderco knives, and they do cater to the “enthusiast” knife guys, what with making variations of their knives with different blade alloys, different colors, handle materials, designs, etc.

The OEMs and retailers take full advantage of it, staging “releases” weeks ahead of time, and then emailing and texting, reminding you of the time the knife in question will “drop”. Of course, that drives up the interest among the knife nerds, prices go up, and you go to log in to buy a knife and can’t get one because speculators have bought multiple pieces to put on the used market.

Guess i went off on a tangent there, didn’t I.

 

[john_pifer]

Do you think that light could illuminate a trail for mountain biking? I have lights for mountain biking, but I could always use more. The problem I have with mountain biking lights, is that they’re really only good for the bike - I’d like to buy something that I don’t have to use exclusively for a mountain bike, and have the light sitting around doing nothing 90% of the time. Seems like such a waste to me.

I do.

It has the SST-40 diode, which has a good combination of throw, spill, and brightness.

The ”high” setting is listed at 800lm, which should provide pretty good trail illumination, and they claim 2 hrs runtime for that setting.

Of course, it has stepless ramping, so you can boost output even more than that, and, being on a bike, it’ll run longer without stepping down due to heat, because the light will be actively cooled by the wind rushing past.

And you could carry an extra battery or two if you’ll be riding for hours.

Shouldn’t be too hard to ziptie to your helmet.

Im a mountain biker myself, and i bought a Magicshine (another Chinese-made light) bike light, about 10 years ago. It has the Cree XP-L @ 1000 LM. Has a battery back with, I think, like 4 18650 batteries. It would last for hours at the high setting.

I haven’t tried it, but I’ve heard that the hot setup is having a light with more throw on your helmet, and a more floody light(s) on your bars. makes sense.

This is the light I have:



I like it very well, but I‘m sure there’s an updated version by now.

 

[Quattro Pete]

This is the light I have:



I like it very well, but I‘m sure there’s an updated version by now.

Looks very similar to the Xeccon S14 light I bought from Pablo a while back. It's a good light with a great balance of flood and throw.

What's your bike light?

Been a while since we had a bike light thread. I'm currently using some inexpensive Bell Lumina light. It's good for being seen, but not too good to see much at night. Not sure what its lumen rating is, but it's probably no more than 50 or so. I've got a C8 CREE XML T6 (rated at 1000 lumens...

bobistheoilguy.com

 

[2015Corolla]

I’ve read that it’s difficult to get a flashlight that’s 100% made in USA.

In case you’re not aware, being made in China is no longer synonymous with poor quality in all cases.

Id recommend the Sofirn SP10v3. Small form factor, 1000-lumen, 90-CRI, Samsung LH351D diode, 14500 lithium-ion rechargeable (or AA alkaline, or NiMh) batt, built-in USB-C recharging, long runtime, etc, etc, etc, for $17.39 to your doorstep. It’s on sale on their site right now.

Id get that, as long as you don’t mind waiting a bit for it (Sofirn is shut down for Chinese New Year holiday right now).

This absolutely blows hardware store brand alkaline battery flashlights out of the water, for about the same, or less money.

And there’s no way in you-know-where that it could be made in USA and sold for anywhere Close to that price.

Heck, reading over those specs, I think I just talked myself into ordering one, maybe two of these!

Sofirn SP10V3.0 Mini EDC Handheld Flashlight, Super Bright 1000 lumens with LH351D LED 5+3 Modes Using In Outdoor

Features:1. Super Bright and Small: Sofirn SP10V3 is a Mini flashlight which utilizes Samsung LH351D LED, the max output is up to 1000 lumens.2. 5+3 Light Modes: Optional brightness mode as your need (Moonlight- Low- Med- High- Turbo + Strobe/ SOS/ Beacon). This led mini flashlight designed with...

sofirnlight.myshoplaza.com

Ended up pulling the trigger on this one.

 

[john_pifer]

Ended up pulling the trigger on this one.

I ended up getting one myself, and, I can’t believe how bright it is!

The charger they sent with it, I did have trouble plugging the micro USB into its port.

I am curious to see if yours is the same way. It was pretty sticky.

Doesn’t matter; I ended up buying a Vapcell S4+ charger that I’m using now. Really like it so far. In case anyone is interested, Sofirnlight.com has it cheapest right now. They drop shipped it from a warehouse in New York City, so, it did not really take that long to get here either. About a week.

 

[Vikas]

One of the thing which we all (at least sometimes) forget that our eyes perceive brightness on logarithmic scale. Thus for us to "see" one flashlight doing 100% better than the other, it needs to have 4X lumens. I appreciate insane amount of blinding sun to emit from my hand but for all practical purposes, there is indeed an optimum lumen value needed per task and going overboard is not necessary. But if you are a flashaholic, then you do want to go overboard!

In most cases, 350 lumens makes a useable flashlight. Just couple decades ago, I was paying 3 digit money to get something like that and now you can easily get it under $9.99

 

[john_pifer]

Decided a while back that I wanted to buy my first “thrower” (well, last Christmas, I bought the wife a Wurkkos FC12, which is an 18650-powered, tactical EDC flashlight, and CAN actually be considered a thrower, albeit not a very large one (it does have the desirable Luminus SFT40 LED, which is de-domed, and known as a thrower).

But, we recently moved to a relatively rural area, and our house sits on over an acre, so it gives me a great excuse to buy more flashlights!

Anyway, I’d love an Acebeam X75, but I don’t want to spend $350.

I was originally looking at the Convoy L8, which looks awesome, and has the incredible Luminus SBT90.2 LED, but I looked at some reviews, and driver it uses (FET) is not very well regulated, with the result being that the output is not stable.

Then I discovered the Convoy L7, which is actually the predecessor of the L8. It lacks a few of the features of the L8 (onboard charging, has the older purple anti-reflective coating on the lens instead of the newer green, uses 2x26650 batteries instead of the 26800 or 26980, doesn’t throw quite as far), but uses the same monster LED (SBT90.2), and, most importantly, has a much better driver that is fully regulated and much more efficient. It doesn’t step down brightness as voltage drops, as does the L8.

Good review here:

Convoy L7 Review – Forget Maglite

Contents The Boring Stuff What comes in the box? Design & Construction Size & Measurements User Interface Modes, Brightness, Throw, & Tint Runtime Driver & Regulation Emitter & …

tgreviews.com

Anyway, can’t wait to receive it! It’s coming from China, so it won’t be here for about 3 weeks or so.

This thing’s gonna be a beast! They claim it’ll throw >1300 meters!
View attachment 128376

 

[zmelli]

I am thinking about building my own with Weltool Parts, this way I can repair it myself, change out the Head or modify it.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09J4HVTP...olid=19OFVULFVNP52&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it



The AI-2 light Head is actually a Weltool LH1 Head, look at the specs.