Spec me an LED Torch

PhoenixSP said:
Is the ultrafire stuff on eBay any good compared to the previous one linked on amazon ?

Seems to be a large difference in lumens but little in price making me think false advertising,I don't have any 1865(?) or the charger for them so am rather reliant on aa or aaa.

I trawled the last 40 or so pages and came to the conclusion that even though my budget is £30 the Ultrafire 800 Lumens Zoomable Cree Xm-l T6 may be best as it has the zooming lens which i think would be helpful during late night treks.

Any other advice :) ?
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Ultrafire stuff is cheap and the lumens are just made up. They do the job though. I've got two and they're bright but they get hot and the regulation makes them flicker slightly when not on full.

At £30 I'd get a Fenix E35 ultimate edition but you'll need a 18350 battery and charger which aren't cheap. The Fenix doesn't run hot at all and no sign of flicker when dimmed.
 
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Someone talk me out of buying either the ZL H600 or the Armytek Wizard Pro, please :p

£80 on a torch is something I won't be able to forgive myself for :p

Just need something bright for caving.
 
If you're going caving I would strongly recommend against "cheaping out" - in a cave your torch is an essential piece of equipment and it's failure could be life threatening.

Zebralights are great, I'd easily recommend one :)
 
Just bought a fenix HL23. I'll post some pics up when it comes! It's for work when I got my head in the presses :p needed a bright head lamp that takes a single AA, and this seems spot on.
 
Aod said:
I'll try to make it easier then - What would you use instead of the ZL or ArmyTek?
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I currently have a PT EOS (mk1). It was pretty high tech in 2008 :p I'm not sure if it's the 105 lumen or the 70 lumen model. It seems pretty bright to me, but when underground it really isn't all that bright. Does last a fair few hours on 3x AAA batts tho. It's also too much throw and hardly any flood.

I was looking at the ZL and the other one as they have plenty of those nice lumens, and are both floody ;) They both use 18650 batts, which are great in cold places (underground), and provide enough power. I'll have to carry a bunch of batts round with me tho, as max output can only be sustained for 2 hours. Excursions may well be longer than this.

Others I considered were the Nitecore H50, and some Fenix models.
 
Still sounds like the H600W or H600WF will be your best bet to me :p

You don't need to run them on max brightness the whole time either, especially if you've been getting by with your Princeton Tec EOS. Running it at ~300 lumens will be a substantial boost in brightness and should easily run for 4 hours or so on a good 18650, and you still have the option of the higher brightness if you need it.

The Nitecore HC50 looks pretty reasonable, but it's only ~£20 less than the H600, around half the max brightness and I've seen quite a few reviews mentioning intermittent issues, and on maximum brightness will only last an hour, although that didn't specify a battery.

The Zebralights are good, proven tech and I almost never hear of issues with them, when considering headlights, they're pretty much my go-to brand :D
 
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Many people, myself included, find that the minimal drop in output is well worth the Warmer/lower colour temperature, which brings with it better colour rendering, less eyestrain and most importantly for caving, better depth perception.
 
Aod said:
Many people, myself included, find that the minimal drop in output is well worth the Warmer/lower colour temperature, which brings with it better colour rendering, less eyestrain and most importantly for caving, better depth perception.
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This bit I wasn't aware of. Glad I asked :p Already knew about the CRI thing.

Interestingly, I read that as your eyes age, they prefer colder light to warmer light. So "less eyestrain" may depend on how old you are (or how old your eyes are, in case they aren't yours).
 
Col_M said:
Get the zebralight! I have the H600 and it's great, by far the best lamp I have or have had.
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Now that's a testimonial! :D

Deluxe1 said:
If anyone is after a hefty torch from a good brand then just found this for a cracking price:

http://www.gearbest.com/led-flashlights/pp_23214.html?currency=GBP&gclid=CM_-voC-xsMCFUPJtAodoCQANQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWUDJzRtmKI
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Damn, that's a crazy good price! Less than half of retail :eek:

I'd actually be concerned that it's counterfeit at that price :o
 
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