Discussion
300bhp/ton said:
Just had a quick look at the link. The NW tested used the XP-G2 rather than an XP-L/XM-L2 emitter. The XP-G2 is a smaller led, so more throwy.
If you want to bag an awesome light join up here. This is one kick ass torch at a great price:
http://budgetlightforum.com/node/36667
Friendlier forum than CPF too.
That looks like a lot of light for not a lot of money. Is it just a question of signing up to BLF and PM'ing Bugsy for a discount code on this?If you want to bag an awesome light join up here. This is one kick ass torch at a great price:
http://budgetlightforum.com/node/36667
Friendlier forum than CPF too.
http://www.banggood.com/BLF-A6-CREE-XPL-1600LM-7-4...
And in terms of tint, both 5A and 1A seem relatively neutral - any recommendation? I'm sure the info is on BLF but there's an awful lot there to wade through.
Quite tempted to order two...
ETA:
DAMN THIS THREAD
Yeah just sign up and msg bugsy. You'll need an 18650 battery for that light, but there is nothing else on the market like it. Works out to be about £16 shipped. I like 5A, one of the pics above is a 5A2.
But some find it too warm. The 3D tint would probably be a good one to go for tbh.
But some find it too warm. The 3D tint would probably be a good one to go for tbh.
Two 3D's ordered, came out at £32. Looking forward to them arriving now. I still may end up getting the Thrunite though, it seems to be what I'm looking for.
May as well get some decent cells to go with. I've heard chatter about Samsung 30Q's being very good, and affecting light output in some torches. Only seem to be a handful of places in the US selling them though.
Any thoughts on whether to go for a pair? Or something else? I've mostly got cheaper Trustfires knocking about right now, but I want to get the most from the A6's.
May as well get some decent cells to go with. I've heard chatter about Samsung 30Q's being very good, and affecting light output in some torches. Only seem to be a handful of places in the US selling them though.
Any thoughts on whether to go for a pair? Or something else? I've mostly got cheaper Trustfires knocking about right now, but I want to get the most from the A6's.
Don't know much about the 30Q, but they would probably be fine.
I quite Samsung 25R's, good performers for the money.
http://www.banggood.com/2PCS-INR18650-25R-2500mAh-...
And Efest purples (get them off ebay, just watch for fakes). 2500's perform really well. The 3100 not quite as punchy, but a good compromise for high output and good runtime.
I quite Samsung 25R's, good performers for the money.
http://www.banggood.com/2PCS-INR18650-25R-2500mAh-...
And Efest purples (get them off ebay, just watch for fakes). 2500's perform really well. The 3100 not quite as punchy, but a good compromise for high output and good runtime.
Cactussed said:
Chaps
Want to buy a decent torch for my FiL.
Ideally something that is plug in rechargeable (ie, no need to remove batteries and find the charger) but either USB or mains rechargeable.
Any suggestions? Up to say £50odd but flexible.
Personally I think the in built chargers are not really that great. You can't leave any of them charging permanently, i.e. for weeks on end and not use the torch. Well you can, but it could be potentially dangerous with Li-ion and certainly damaging to any battery chemistry.Want to buy a decent torch for my FiL.
Ideally something that is plug in rechargeable (ie, no need to remove batteries and find the charger) but either USB or mains rechargeable.
Any suggestions? Up to say £50odd but flexible.
But here is the down side. You can't use the torch and charge the battery at the same time. So if it's flat when you go to it, you can't even swap in a fresh battery and charge the flat one at the same time.
I have a number of torches with inbuilt chargers and I've never used any of them for charging.
Not too mention the in built chargers tend to be of a poorer charger design compared to most stand alone ones. This is especially true with multi cell lights, where the in built chargers could be deemed dangerous.
I'm not saying avoid the torches, as sometimes the torch is pretty good. But I'd not buy it for the charging ability. The only use case I can see where this would be handy is if you are Police/security or fire officer and use the torch daily. Maybe you have two, one on charge the other in use and you simply swap them over once a day.
£50 gives you a lot of choice in the flashlight world. But it's easy to over spend on premium lights. And while premium lights often look good value, they often lack vastly in key areas over cheaper alternatives. So it pays to do some research.
The main thing to decide is what type of torch you want. Small pocket EDC (every day carry), emergency use, high output short distance, field walking, long distance, long runtimes.
These attributes are the same as saying you need a 2 or 4 seater car, a big boot, 4wd, fast, etc.
Once you know what you want to use it for, you can then look at the available options.
In the budget world £50 would allow you to get several torches for different tasks if you wanted.
Fair points.
I was primarily trying to avoid clutter.
As for use, he's got a D-Cell maglite which is nearly dead and liked my Lenser P7 (which incidentally I chose for the USB charging ability as much as anything else).
I've got a big 4 LED 4-battery torch which is amazing but I find having to take the batteries out and charge them a faff, not least because my wife keeps tidying away my stuff (charger included) so its a lottery where it is half the time.
I was primarily trying to avoid clutter.
As for use, he's got a D-Cell maglite which is nearly dead and liked my Lenser P7 (which incidentally I chose for the USB charging ability as much as anything else).
I've got a big 4 LED 4-battery torch which is amazing but I find having to take the batteries out and charge them a faff, not least because my wife keeps tidying away my stuff (charger included) so its a lottery where it is half the time.
Lower level Led Lenser don't do charging. Normally the models with the suffix 'R' for Rechargeable have some sort of inbuilt charging. But they are often horrendously expensive.
Klarus to some nice lights with inbuilt chargers:
http://www.klaruslight.com/plist.php?id=49&lge...
Klarus to some nice lights with inbuilt chargers:
http://www.klaruslight.com/plist.php?id=49&lge...
audi321 said:
Cactussed said:
my Lenser P7 (which incidentally I chose for the USB charging ability as much as anything else)
How do you get the USB charging on a P7? Mine doesn't have it I don't think? Is it a new feature on the new model?
A quick update on the Olight X6 Marauder I bought some time ago.
At the time I bought it for a laugh, who wouldn't want 5000 Lumens?
It's actually been tremendously useful. I am lead coxswain and crew on a charity rescue boat. It has turned out that one of our most frequent tasks is assisting vulnerable people, including missing persons searches. On one search I was able to scan an entire field (actually a flood plain) in one sweep of the torch, ruling it out and being able to move on to the next. Having so much power with a good flood of light is really helpful for jobs like that.
I've got smaller personal lights if I need to leave the boat (mainly an Olight S10 clipped to my lifejacket) for close up work but the X6 is ideal for times on board.
At the time I bought it for a laugh, who wouldn't want 5000 Lumens?
It's actually been tremendously useful. I am lead coxswain and crew on a charity rescue boat. It has turned out that one of our most frequent tasks is assisting vulnerable people, including missing persons searches. On one search I was able to scan an entire field (actually a flood plain) in one sweep of the torch, ruling it out and being able to move on to the next. Having so much power with a good flood of light is really helpful for jobs like that.
I've got smaller personal lights if I need to leave the boat (mainly an Olight S10 clipped to my lifejacket) for close up work but the X6 is ideal for times on board.
tenohfive said:
300bhp/ton said:
Just had a quick look at the link. The NW tested used the XP-G2 rather than an XP-L/XM-L2 emitter. The XP-G2 is a smaller led, so more throwy.
If you want to bag an awesome light join up here. This is one kick ass torch at a great price:
http://budgetlightforum.com/node/36667
Friendlier forum than CPF too.
That looks like a lot of light for not a lot of money. Is it just a question of signing up to BLF and PM'ing Bugsy for a discount code on this?If you want to bag an awesome light join up here. This is one kick ass torch at a great price:
http://budgetlightforum.com/node/36667
Friendlier forum than CPF too.
http://www.banggood.com/BLF-A6-CREE-XPL-1600LM-7-4...
And in terms of tint, both 5A and 1A seem relatively neutral - any recommendation? I'm sure the info is on BLF but there's an awful lot there to wade through.
Quite tempted to order two...
ETA:
DAMN THIS THREAD
Lovely UI.
And... to make this clear, I have a LOT of torches, and like to mod them, too... this little beast is BRIGHT. Easily the brightest single-emitter torch I've seen and in a lovely slim 1x18650 body, too. The beam has a good balance of flood:hotspot, lights up most of my garden, no chance to really test the throw yet (although with a small, light orange-peel reflector, it's never going to be the throwiest ever) - I suspect it'll be acceptable for most jobs
There are some reports of the UI getting too hot to respond properly to the half-clicks in the UI if run at the highest levels for a while; I've not run it anywhere near long enough for that to take effect, but it certainly does get warm quickly.
If you've got £16.20 to spend on a torch (plus setting up with 18650s if you need to), I can't imagine anything better at the moment.
One of my Thrunite Ti's went faulty yesterday 
. It no longer goes onto max brightness mode when fully screwed in. I thought it was the battery so replaced it with a new one but still the same . Tried the battery in my other one and that works on max brightness just fine so it's not the battery. They look like fairly simple devices so anyone know if there's a way of fixing it? 
. It no longer goes onto max brightness mode when fully screwed in. I thought it was the battery so replaced it with a new one but still the same . Tried the battery in my other one and that works on max brightness just fine so it's not the battery. They look like fairly simple devices so anyone know if there's a way of fixing it? All that jazz said:
One of my Thrunite Ti's went faulty yesterday . It no longer goes onto max brightness mode when fully screwed in. I thought it was the battery so replaced it with a new one but still the same . Tried the battery in my other one and that works on max brightness just fine so it's not the battery. They look like fairly simple devices so anyone know if there's a way of fixing it?
Try cleaning the threads/contacts. Grime and dirt can cause a bad connection. . It no longer goes onto max brightness mode when fully screwed in. I thought it was the battery so replaced it with a new one but still the same . Tried the battery in my other one and that works on max brightness just fine so it's not the battery. They look like fairly simple devices so anyone know if there's a way of fixing it? I came on here looking for one, low output torch (around 120 lumens.) I've ended up with 3900 lumens:
2x BLF A6's (1400 lumens each, upped to 1600 if I do a spring bypass.)
A Nitecore EA11 (900 lumens.)
A 200 lumen Hugsby to give away to a friend.
The BLF A6's are very, very good - stupidly bright, very floody but still a bit of throw in there. My Lenser T7 (focused) will outthrow it, but for 0-100m distances they blow the Lenser - and everything else I own - totally out of the water. So bright, and the benefit of a more neutral tint (both are 3D - around 5000K) does make sense having used it in anger now. The driver is very clever - at first it seems overly complicated, but being able to flick forwards and backwards through the modes by using either a slow half-press or longer half-press becomes second nature quite quickly.
Great torches and really usable day to day (night to night?)
But the Nitecore EA11 is my new favourite. It's very small and stupidly light (50g) but beautifully put together and whilst it's small it's not fiddly to use. The two buttons (power and mode) are on the body rather than a traditional tail click which works well. Whilst it has a memory mode, cycling through the modes or taking short cuts to a chosen mode comes very intuitively. But the main thing that's impressed me is how something so small can be so bright - 900 lumens on turbo. It's quite a throwy light (which I like) whilst still being usefully floody, and has been brilliant for round the house use. It's the first 14500 powered torch I've owned - it can run on an AA instead but will only reach 200 lumens - and it feels like 18650 output in a smaller package.
I've not tested it anywhere properly dark but I think has the potential to embarass a lot of much bigger lights. And whilst I won't say how much I paid for it as someone sorted me out a discount code, it was in mega-bargain territory. New favourite, and I'll probably order another one for home use since this one is replacing my Lenser T7 at work. Nitecore have really gone up in my estimation.
I also rediscovered my Jacobs A60 thrower and took that out for a play recently; I'd forgotten how good that torch is. Tight hotspot, loooong throw. Not a round the house torch but for long distances and general showing off it's impressive.
When conditions are right and I've got the time I'll try and take the big camera out and do a side by side comparison of some of the following if anyones interested?
BLF A6
Nitecore EA11
Nitecore Tube
Lenser T7
Lenser H7.2
Jacobs A60
Aurora WF-600
2x BLF A6's (1400 lumens each, upped to 1600 if I do a spring bypass.)
A Nitecore EA11 (900 lumens.)
A 200 lumen Hugsby to give away to a friend.
The BLF A6's are very, very good - stupidly bright, very floody but still a bit of throw in there. My Lenser T7 (focused) will outthrow it, but for 0-100m distances they blow the Lenser - and everything else I own - totally out of the water. So bright, and the benefit of a more neutral tint (both are 3D - around 5000K) does make sense having used it in anger now. The driver is very clever - at first it seems overly complicated, but being able to flick forwards and backwards through the modes by using either a slow half-press or longer half-press becomes second nature quite quickly.
Great torches and really usable day to day (night to night?)
But the Nitecore EA11 is my new favourite. It's very small and stupidly light (50g) but beautifully put together and whilst it's small it's not fiddly to use. The two buttons (power and mode) are on the body rather than a traditional tail click which works well. Whilst it has a memory mode, cycling through the modes or taking short cuts to a chosen mode comes very intuitively. But the main thing that's impressed me is how something so small can be so bright - 900 lumens on turbo. It's quite a throwy light (which I like) whilst still being usefully floody, and has been brilliant for round the house use. It's the first 14500 powered torch I've owned - it can run on an AA instead but will only reach 200 lumens - and it feels like 18650 output in a smaller package.
I've not tested it anywhere properly dark but I think has the potential to embarass a lot of much bigger lights. And whilst I won't say how much I paid for it as someone sorted me out a discount code, it was in mega-bargain territory. New favourite, and I'll probably order another one for home use since this one is replacing my Lenser T7 at work. Nitecore have really gone up in my estimation.
I also rediscovered my Jacobs A60 thrower and took that out for a play recently; I'd forgotten how good that torch is. Tight hotspot, loooong throw. Not a round the house torch but for long distances and general showing off it's impressive.
When conditions are right and I've got the time I'll try and take the big camera out and do a side by side comparison of some of the following if anyones interested?
BLF A6
Nitecore EA11
Nitecore Tube
Lenser T7
Lenser H7.2
Jacobs A60
Aurora WF-600
Without reading through the last 71 pages...
I bought an LED Lenser a couple of years ago for £25ish but I then found the cheap torches on Ebay from China and bought a couple of £3 ones and I have to say that they are only slightly inferior (great to leave in the car).
I'm now looking for torch that will give me better range and illumination, I used to use the type you plug into a car with a 7" reflector. I don't care if it only lasts 5 mins I just want to search the garden (200m) from the bedroom window if I hear a noise.
Will a £15 3x Cree LED do the job:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/271986845734
or is there something better that isn't more than 3x the price ?
I bought an LED Lenser a couple of years ago for £25ish but I then found the cheap torches on Ebay from China and bought a couple of £3 ones and I have to say that they are only slightly inferior (great to leave in the car).
I'm now looking for torch that will give me better range and illumination, I used to use the type you plug into a car with a 7" reflector. I don't care if it only lasts 5 mins I just want to search the garden (200m) from the bedroom window if I hear a noise.
Will a £15 3x Cree LED do the job:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/271986845734
or is there something better that isn't more than 3x the price ?
V8RX7 said:
Without reading through the last 71 pages...
I bought an LED Lenser a couple of years ago for £25ish but I then found the cheap torches on Ebay from China and bought a couple of £3 ones and I have to say that they are only slightly inferior (great to leave in the car).
I'm now looking for torch that will give me better range and illumination, I used to use the type you plug into a car with a 7" reflector. I don't care if it only lasts 5 mins I just want to search the garden (200m) from the bedroom window if I hear a noise.
Will a £15 3x Cree LED do the job:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/271986845734
or is there something better that isn't more than 3x the price ?
That will certainly do the job, but it runs on lithium 18650 batteries, which is not the sort of thing you just have laying around.. until you get into torches I bought an LED Lenser a couple of years ago for £25ish but I then found the cheap torches on Ebay from China and bought a couple of £3 ones and I have to say that they are only slightly inferior (great to leave in the car).
I'm now looking for torch that will give me better range and illumination, I used to use the type you plug into a car with a 7" reflector. I don't care if it only lasts 5 mins I just want to search the garden (200m) from the bedroom window if I hear a noise.
Will a £15 3x Cree LED do the job:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/271986845734
or is there something better that isn't more than 3x the price ?
Get onto DealExtreme and search for something you fancy that runs on AAs, or there's some tidy ones that will run on 2xCR123s (lithium primary cells; will give good brightness, long run time and years of shelf life - maybe order a pile while you're there - $1 each on DX, £5 each in UK!!!) but also come with an adaptor which allows you to use 3xAAAs - losing some power, run time and shelf life but gaining ease of obtaining for normal people
http://www.dx.com/c/lights-lighting-1399/flashligh...
silverthorn2151 said:
I have been following the various torch threads we have on here and have mostly had cheap torcjes which I use in my job as a surveyor and when walking the dog. And then I decided to take the plunge and on then strength of a review in a walking magazine one of these popped through the letterbox yesterday.
It's BRILLIANT....
I turned into a kid and wanted to do evrything at home last night by torchlight. For a double AA torch to be putting out 245 lumens is impressive enough on paper, but taking my black dog out down a dark lane it was wonderful! This whole torch game is potentially addictive!
And a note of recommendation for http://www.ledfiretorches.co.uk/index.php
what good service in terms of delivery speed and communication.
I quote my original post because I have just 'found' the subject torch after clearing out one of the kids rooms. It's done good service for her on guide leader nights and film crew night shoots all over the world. I'm pleased about that. It's come through unscathed but my glowing praise must now be tested against the super lumen fire breathing light sabres we now discuss and buy. It's BRILLIANT....
I turned into a kid and wanted to do evrything at home last night by torchlight. For a double AA torch to be putting out 245 lumens is impressive enough on paper, but taking my black dog out down a dark lane it was wonderful! This whole torch game is potentially addictive!
And a note of recommendation for http://www.ledfiretorches.co.uk/index.php
what good service in terms of delivery speed and communication.
How things change in 4 years!
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