HIDblue
Enlightened
Easily, the Jetbeam RRT-0 XM-L. It pretty much does everything I need in a pocket-sized light.
What is your favourite compact (pocket carry) light?
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g.p.
Enlightened
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- Jan 3, 2009
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I didn't see it mentioned yet, but my Zebralight SC51 is in my pocket when the SC600 is too bulky to take along. I got one from the first batch, and it's held up well to everything that my wife, kids, and myself have thrown at it.
Torture test: http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?321619-Zebralight-Torture-Test
Torture test: http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?321619-Zebralight-Torture-Test
witness
Newly Enlightened
It's really too bad about the SC600. If they had just made it trimmer and lighter it would be just about as close to perfect as you could get (for my uses anyway).
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Torchaddict
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Well, to its credit, the SC600 is actually one of the smaller 18650 lights around... Maybe look at the SC60. It's probably what you are looking for. The smaller, light brother of the SC600.
Z-Tab
Enlightened
Surefire T1A with a Hi-CRI XP-G emitter is my favorite small light. Close behind are my Lenslight Ti Mini and Mac's EDC XM-L.
The Lenslight Mini is the only one of those that I think is woefully overlooked on CPF. It is a truly amazing light. Hi-CRI XP-G standard from the factory, adjustable beam from a Sundrop-like smooth flood to an aspheric throw, and built like a tank (I think they're built as good as HDS). There is really no other light like it and it is always fun to use. Great for photography, walking around inside or outside, and a dead-simple UI.
The Lenslight Mini is the only one of those that I think is woefully overlooked on CPF. It is a truly amazing light. Hi-CRI XP-G standard from the factory, adjustable beam from a Sundrop-like smooth flood to an aspheric throw, and built like a tank (I think they're built as good as HDS). There is really no other light like it and it is always fun to use. Great for photography, walking around inside or outside, and a dead-simple UI.
Colonel Sanders
Flashlight Enthusiast
I'd love a boosted up SC60w. I love the size of the SC60 so much better than the SC600 but 260L just doesn't get it once you've tasted 750L. I don't see any reason why they couldn't do a turbo mode on the SC60 to drive the little XP-G up to +400L for a minute or two. I know they don't like to drive them out of spec but the SC60 doesn't even quite go up to spec (1.5a).
I pocket my SC30w far more than everything else combined.
I pocket my SC30w far more than everything else combined.
Tiresius
Enlightened
Mac's Custom SST-50 EDC 4500k...I love this light. Goes everywhere with me and especially work when I have to navigate through apartment complexes with little to no lighting.
witness
Newly Enlightened
Yes, but I LOVE the lumens!!!!
Fireclaw18
Flashlight Enthusiast
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My "favorite" light tends to vary from week-to-week. Last week it was my RRT-01. This week its my Sipik 58.
The basic Sipik58 is a 1xAA sized zoomable budget light. It costs maybe $12, has one mode. It comes with a rather dim Osram Golden dragon LED. The spill beam is also quite narrow. It uses an aspheric lens with sliding bezel for zooming. It has a clean cylindrical design with lots of square-cut knurling.... great for pocket-carry EDC.
Of course the stock Sipik 58 is rather useless due to one mode and dated emitter, but it makes a great project light. I made the following modifications to mine:
1. replaced Osram Golden Dragon emitter with XM-L T6 3C 5,000k neutral emitter.
2. replaced stock 1-mode driver with Nanjg 105c 8x7135 2.8 amp driver board with a custom programmed driver. Driver has multiple modes, 2-way ramping, and hidden strobe. Light now runs exclusively on AW IMR 14500.
3. New driver uses an electronic switch rather than the stock clicky switch. This meant that the switch needed an isolated electrical path to the driver at the other end of the light. To accomplish this I filed a slot down the inside of the battery tube. Contact wire was soldered to the driver and then went up the slot to a contact pad at the rear of the battery tube. I rebuilt the tailcap switch mechanism with scraps of plastic sheet to use a momentary rather than the default clicky switch. I placed a separate electrical contact on the inside of the tailcap designed to touch the wire contact in the tube when the tailcap is screwed on (this was a real pain to get working). Switch now feels a lot like the switch in a Spark or Zebralight.
4. Removed all anodizing and polished up the bare aluminum. (the default Type II anodize was looking like crap).
5. Added copper heatsink inside pill to help dissipate heat.
6. Added spacer so pill doesn't screw in completely and sits closer to lens in flood mode for wider spill.
7. Filed down top of knurling on body and top of pill so sliding bezel can retract further for even wider spill.
8. Replaced ugly orange tailcap switch with spare black tailcap switch from a Fenix.
9. Added small plastic reflector around LED. Significantly enhances flood mode by producing a very wide diffuse hotspot while getting rid of all rings. Adds an ugly halo in spot mode, but except for white wall hunting this isn't a problem.
10. Replaced metal c-ring at sliding mechanism with a rubber o-ring for perfectly smooth zooming operation. Removed o-ring at lens. Due to vacuum pressure, it wasn't feasible to make this light completely airtight. When I tried, the zooming mechanism would cycle on its own as air-pressure inside and outside the light tried to equalize.
The basic Sipik58 is a 1xAA sized zoomable budget light. It costs maybe $12, has one mode. It comes with a rather dim Osram Golden dragon LED. The spill beam is also quite narrow. It uses an aspheric lens with sliding bezel for zooming. It has a clean cylindrical design with lots of square-cut knurling.... great for pocket-carry EDC.
Of course the stock Sipik 58 is rather useless due to one mode and dated emitter, but it makes a great project light. I made the following modifications to mine:
1. replaced Osram Golden Dragon emitter with XM-L T6 3C 5,000k neutral emitter.
2. replaced stock 1-mode driver with Nanjg 105c 8x7135 2.8 amp driver board with a custom programmed driver. Driver has multiple modes, 2-way ramping, and hidden strobe. Light now runs exclusively on AW IMR 14500.
3. New driver uses an electronic switch rather than the stock clicky switch. This meant that the switch needed an isolated electrical path to the driver at the other end of the light. To accomplish this I filed a slot down the inside of the battery tube. Contact wire was soldered to the driver and then went up the slot to a contact pad at the rear of the battery tube. I rebuilt the tailcap switch mechanism with scraps of plastic sheet to use a momentary rather than the default clicky switch. I placed a separate electrical contact on the inside of the tailcap designed to touch the wire contact in the tube when the tailcap is screwed on (this was a real pain to get working). Switch now feels a lot like the switch in a Spark or Zebralight.
4. Removed all anodizing and polished up the bare aluminum. (the default Type II anodize was looking like crap).
5. Added copper heatsink inside pill to help dissipate heat.
6. Added spacer so pill doesn't screw in completely and sits closer to lens in flood mode for wider spill.
7. Filed down top of knurling on body and top of pill so sliding bezel can retract further for even wider spill.
8. Replaced ugly orange tailcap switch with spare black tailcap switch from a Fenix.
9. Added small plastic reflector around LED. Significantly enhances flood mode by producing a very wide diffuse hotspot while getting rid of all rings. Adds an ugly halo in spot mode, but except for white wall hunting this isn't a problem.
10. Replaced metal c-ring at sliding mechanism with a rubber o-ring for perfectly smooth zooming operation. Removed o-ring at lens. Due to vacuum pressure, it wasn't feasible to make this light completely airtight. When I tried, the zooming mechanism would cycle on its own as air-pressure inside and outside the light tried to equalize.
witness
Newly Enlightened
I should have phrased my question differently.
I guess the question I should have asked was ... "Is there a light out there that packs the punch of a SC600 (in terms of both power and runtime) in a smaller lighter package"? It can certainly be done because Zebra Light does it with their own HD600 (only a little less power but a longer runtime and a much smaller lighter package).
I guess the question I should have asked was ... "Is there a light out there that packs the punch of a SC600 (in terms of both power and runtime) in a smaller lighter package"? It can certainly be done because Zebra Light does it with their own HD600 (only a little less power but a longer runtime and a much smaller lighter package).
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Re: I should have phrased my question differently.
There are no long lists of 750 lumen lights under 4" in length...its a fairly exclusive club.
As for the "why would anyone want throw"....well, its all a question of what we're trying to see, and, at what range.
For example, I do disaster response work, and, I need to see if someone might be out there in the darkness 400-800 yards away.
So, sure, a giant flood light that could light up a football field sized area 600 yards away might be nice, but, to have enough LUX on target, that requires a LOT of lumens at that range...and THAT requires a lot of POWER, and THAT requires a lot of battery, and THAT requires a large battery tube, and so on and so forth.
So, THAT means that I can use a smaller form factor to reach out 600 yards, and search a smaller patch at a time, at a longer distance, with a smaller light.
If I am night fishing on a large lake on a moonless night, and I have no freekin CLUE where the dock I need is...I can use a small light with a lot of throw to scan around and try to find it off in the darkness.
If I am hiking and am trying to find a trail up a mountain on the other side of a ravine/valley, etc...to avoid hiking into a dead end...I need to see across it.
An SC600 would be fairly useless for that. At Photon Fest 18 for example, we were in a quarry, and my SC600 lit up a great pool of light, and I could see that there was a path through two large rock formations, but the path was dark from where I was looking. I then lit up the Klarus XT11, and I could now see that the "Path" was the edge of a large hole, and not really a "Path"...and that there were trees on the opposite side of the hole. The pocket sized DEFT edc LR+ also lit up the trees on the far side of the hole, and I could see even more details, like the path through the trees meandering off around a bend.
If I am looking for my keys in the grass, or walking the dog/to the latrine on a camping trip, etc...a floody light lets me see my surroundings easily, and works great...and a tight beam would require me to sweep the light constantly to and fro to try to stitch together what's out there...looking at too little at a time close up to be convenient/efficient.
So, a thrower is used to see things far away with less power....it has a function, just like a floody light has its function...to see things close up.
One is a screw driver, one is a hammer. There are some situations where you need a screw driver, as a hammer won't work as well, and some situations where a screw driver won't work as well as a hammer....but its unfair to say that all you need is a screw driver unless you want to impress your friends with your hammer.
There are no long lists of 750 lumen lights under 4" in length...its a fairly exclusive club.
As for the "why would anyone want throw"....well, its all a question of what we're trying to see, and, at what range.
For example, I do disaster response work, and, I need to see if someone might be out there in the darkness 400-800 yards away.
So, sure, a giant flood light that could light up a football field sized area 600 yards away might be nice, but, to have enough LUX on target, that requires a LOT of lumens at that range...and THAT requires a lot of POWER, and THAT requires a lot of battery, and THAT requires a large battery tube, and so on and so forth.
So, THAT means that I can use a smaller form factor to reach out 600 yards, and search a smaller patch at a time, at a longer distance, with a smaller light.
If I am night fishing on a large lake on a moonless night, and I have no freekin CLUE where the dock I need is...I can use a small light with a lot of throw to scan around and try to find it off in the darkness.
If I am hiking and am trying to find a trail up a mountain on the other side of a ravine/valley, etc...to avoid hiking into a dead end...I need to see across it.
An SC600 would be fairly useless for that. At Photon Fest 18 for example, we were in a quarry, and my SC600 lit up a great pool of light, and I could see that there was a path through two large rock formations, but the path was dark from where I was looking. I then lit up the Klarus XT11, and I could now see that the "Path" was the edge of a large hole, and not really a "Path"...and that there were trees on the opposite side of the hole. The pocket sized DEFT edc LR+ also lit up the trees on the far side of the hole, and I could see even more details, like the path through the trees meandering off around a bend.
If I am looking for my keys in the grass, or walking the dog/to the latrine on a camping trip, etc...a floody light lets me see my surroundings easily, and works great...and a tight beam would require me to sweep the light constantly to and fro to try to stitch together what's out there...looking at too little at a time close up to be convenient/efficient.
So, a thrower is used to see things far away with less power....it has a function, just like a floody light has its function...to see things close up.
One is a screw driver, one is a hammer. There are some situations where you need a screw driver, as a hammer won't work as well, and some situations where a screw driver won't work as well as a hammer....but its unfair to say that all you need is a screw driver unless you want to impress your friends with your hammer.
HighlanderNorth
Flashlight Enthusiast
I'm not saying that the BC-10 is an extreme throw light, I'm just saying it has good throw especially for its small size. Most little lights arent known for good throw, but the Bc-10 is pretty good. It isnt as good a thrower as many other larger lights, but its not bad.
That was what I was trying to say. The Bc-10 actually has a good mix of throw and flood. Its beam isnt as wide as my iTp A6, but it certainly good enough, or I wouldnt use it every day. I'd like to have a hard-core throw light just for when I need long distance lighting, but you're right in that most of the time you dont need that.
I'm just impressed by the BC-10's brightness, decent throw and its decent flood, for its small size.(and small amount of money!)
As far as the SC600 is concerned, I'm not at all unhappy that I bought it. I like its floodiness, although its not as wide or bright as my(larger) iTp A6(not made anymore as of February I believe), I still like the Sc600. The only issues I have with it is its complexity of operation, and its seemingly thin anodizing.
But one of the good things about the SC600 is how darn small it is considering its an 18650 light! I have a Solarforce L2P that I just bought, and it runs on 1 18650(or 2 Cr123's), and has an XM-L, but its also 1.5" longer! Zebralight did a good job shoehorning this setup into a small package! Its aluminum is thick too!
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LightWalker
Flashlight Enthusiast
:shakehead
shortstack
Enlightened
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- Nov 29, 2008
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EagleTac T10C
1) Work cargo pants (5.11 Tactical) i keep my SC600 in one of the many pockets.
2) Casual shorts or pants i use my SunwayMan V10A with a 14500 battery which gives over 400 lumens
3) Jeans or dress pants when going out for a more formal affair i will have either the V10A or my super thin Preon2
4) Walking around my backyard i keep a TK41 in my pocket... yes it fits!
cheers
2) Casual shorts or pants i use my SunwayMan V10A with a 14500 battery which gives over 400 lumens
3) Jeans or dress pants when going out for a more formal affair i will have either the V10A or my super thin Preon2
4) Walking around my backyard i keep a TK41 in my pocket... yes it fits!
cheers
