Recommend me a new LED torch

dunker said:
fenix l2d is great, on high (100+ lumins) i get 4+ hours from 2 2700nimh ansmann rechargable AA's. use the velcro lock block holder on my bike bars. had mine over a year and has been flawless.
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:D, well i decided to go for the LD20 (the 2010 model with belt clip) with free white diffuser from ebay.

I'm going to get the TK11 around Christmas time. You can never have too many cool torches ;).

I'll post my thoughts when i get it. I have no doubt I'll be very happy with it. My LED Lenser is apparently around 60 lumens and is very bright so 180 will be ample. Just hope it lasts more than an hour with my 2500 Energizer batts.

But even if it doesn't i have loads of AA batts and a Vapextech charger that can charge 6 at a time so i can chuck a bunch in my backpack/camera bag.
 
MikeHunt79 said:
what would be the best deal on the Fenix K11 or k12 with no batteries or charger? I already have 18650's coming out my ears! :D
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Best Ive found is £48 from HK on ebay. You also get a free white diffuser. You might be able to find it cheaper from a US store but Ive looked on 4sevens and Fenix-store and they work out dearer and without the diffuser. http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Fenix-TK11-R2...0?hash=item4ceaef7273&_trksid=p3286.m63.l1177

Do you know a good place to get cheap 18650's then? :D Are the Ultrafire ones really that bad?

I still really want the TK11 R2, Ive seen a few pics of the light it gives off mounted to a bike and its far better than the Cateye bike light i currently have.

Just hope Royal Fail dont strike and i dont get my LD20 :eek:.
 
Mark A said:
Best Ive found is £48 from HK on ebay. You also get a free white diffuser. You might be able to find it cheaper from a US store but Ive looked on 4sevens and Fenix-store and they work out dearer and without the diffuser. http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Fenix-TK11-R2...0?hash=item4ceaef7273&_trksid=p3286.m63.l1177

Do you know a good place to get cheap 18650's then? :D Are the Ultrafire ones really that bad?

I still really want the TK11 R2, Ive seen a few pics of the light it gives off mounted to a bike and its far better than the Cateye bike light i currently have.

Just hope Royal Fail dont strike and i dont get my LD20 :eek:.
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I've collected loads of 18650's over the years, I probably have almost 100 now. Most have been ssalvaged from old laptop battery packs, but I also have a few panasonic cells, and 8 protected cells also as all my other cells are unprotected so I need to watch they don't go below 3v.

As for the 3000mAH ultrafires, take that 3000Mah rating with an ocean of salt, god knows where they got that rating but even the top OEM's are struggling to exceed 2600Mah from a 18650 sized cell. That's not to say they're bad cells, but 3000mah rating is BS!

I think the fenix TK11 on bike handlebars would be good, 2 would be ideal, almost 500 lumens is bloody good even for fast riding in pitch black, and now it's getting dark earlier the temptation to buy a couple is high.

I'm tempted to order one from HK, normally cheaper items are marked at less than £10 in value, but I'm not sure how it would work with customs tho... has anyone ordered from that ebay shop before?
 
Sin_Chase said:
http://www.wickedlasers.com/lasers/The_Torch-74-41.html

4100 Lumens.

Nuffsaid.

It's not LED but.. its cool as hell :D
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:eek:, I'd be scared of using it in case the beam caught me in the eye. That cant be good for the old retinas.

Ive seen some Sealey lights that are 5 million candle power, they're more of a floodlight with a bulb though. What would that be in Lumens roughly?

EDIT: http://www.justoffbase.co.uk/Rechar...0-Candle-Power-Sealey-AK438?range=101,150,178

10,000,000 candle power for £44 :eek:
 
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Torch arrived this morning and I'm very pleased with it :). Much, much better than my LED lenser. Thanks for all the helpful replies.

The only annoying thing was that the torch was pictured with a pocket clip and it came without one. I emailed the guy but i have a feeling he'll just say it doesn't say it comes with one. But the listing is very misleading as there are 2 LD20s on his store and one is pictured with a pocket clip and the other without :mad:. That would have come in very handy but never mind.

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Side by side with my Lenser. Both torches weigh around the same and both fit into the hand well. I have to admit i do prefer the Lensers thicker body and shorter length but this design is only made possible by compromising on the batteries it uses.

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I like how the Fenix has a flat surface so that it can be stood up. Both buttons have a nice positive click.

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The Fenix lens is far superior to the plastic one of the Lenser. You cant see it in the pic but the Lenser plastic lens is full of light scratches from it being in my pocket etc. The glass lens of the fenix should be a lot less prone to scratches.

I did some comparison shots of the beam and the Fenix is a lot better. I was worried the spill from the LD20 would be too narrow for bike riding but its much wider than the Lenser despite its thinner body. I was quite surprised how good the beam is from such a small torch.

The light is more white than the Lenser, the Lensers light has a blue tint to it. Both look decent but i do prefer the Fenix.

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The pictures were both taken on manual mode on my D80 and used the same settings. The pictures don't actually show the true brightness of the torches well as I'd have needed to lower the shutter speed even more or increase the ISO and that would have given a noisy/blurry pic. The Fenix lights my whole room up when pointed at the white ceiling. Its much better than the Lenser and lights up a far bigger area with the spill. I think its going to be perfect for mounting to my bike.

All in all I'm very happy with it. I'll test the burn times out when i go for a bike ride. If it lasts a couple of hours I'll be very happy. Got some Vapex 2900MH batteries when i ordered the torch as well so hopefully these will be even better then the 2500MAH Energizers i have.
 
MikeHunt79 said:
That diffuser looks so dodgy! :p
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:D, Not bad for free and it would seem Ive snagged another free gift. Emailed the seller to say Ive been sent the wrong one and got an email back a few mins later saying they were sorry and will pay for return postage and give me another free gift \o/. Heres hoping its a 2 fish mount block, but i think its more likely to be a red filter.

So Ive had to package it all back up for now :(.

I'm really pleased with the quality of it. it'll be perfect for mounting to my bike. I was looking forward to trying it out tomorrow night but cant really now.
 
Diffusers can be useful, they make light flood a lot more and make it softer, which is great for things like photography... Better than a red filter IMO. Let me know how you get on with the bike mount, I have a couple of those 2fish lockblocks, and they're very well made. :)
 
I know nothing about LED torches!

But... I did spend some of yesterday looking at batteries and chargers (ironically for a little LED booklight).

I found that there's such a thing as a charger-analyser for batteries, part of the function of these is to -
*Independently charge batteries (i.e. not 2, 4 or 6 at once)
*Prevent overcharging
*Identify worn out cells
*Refresh the life of cells

I can offer you no guarantees that they actually work, other than what I've read from other people. But I'll be ordering one anyway, simply because I want a new toy. The one I've been looking at is the WIZARDONE C9000 ANALYSER.

I hope that's either helpful or interesting!
 
Vapex make pretty good stuff, their cells are nice, who I haven't tried thier chargers.

I've pretty much gone all Li-ion, ni-mh is so last century! :p
 
Please don't jump to the conclusion that the reconditioning is the holy grail of rechargable batteries, I'm only going on what I read on the internet about it. Personally though I'm at least part way convinced.

Seems there's no way to have it done to mobile phone, other device batteries. Now that would be good!
 
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The reason i wanted at least 1 AA powered torch :p.

I didn't realise i has so many lol. I also have 4 x eneloop (well Vapex instant) but they're in my remotes and i cba getting them out lol.
 
Mark A said:
:D, Not bad for free
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I don't think that's what he meant when he said it looked dodgy :eek:

Good choice on your torch.

I've abandoned ALL my old nimh's and replaced them with Eneloops - got so fed up charging the normal nimh's only to find they would be dead a couple of weeks later. Also found out most of the eneloops are coming out at around 2090mah and the 2500mah rated Uniross were 2200mah so not much difference in real capacity. 2700mah Uniross never made it past 2300mah either. Eneloops seem to REALLY like high discharge rates found in torches :-)

I don't have much of a use for AA rechargeables now though - almost gone over entirely to primary CR123's or 18650 lions.
 
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