Small But Bright Recommendations

As the title say Im looking for a smaller but bright light to buy. I have the Fenix LD50 and what I want to know what out there with beat it or come close to it in output size and runtimes. Any lights that come to mind just let me know Im interested to see some. Thanks

Have you seen the V54 Sky Lumens 2 "Nano Searchlight?" It is said to be between the 1 cell and 2 cell outputs for the LD50, but is much smaller.

On turbo, it becomes a branding iron. Of course, I skipped the V54 SL2 NS and went straight for the dedome LD50vn with current boost.

IIRC, current Oveready triples are about the output of an LD50, but WAY tinier.

My smallest AND brightest is the E05SSvn Option 4, direct drive IMR10440 only. 2 minute max bursts with a total of 6 minutes runtime on an unprotected cell. Keep away from people who don't know you can ruin an unprotected cell by overdischarge, one of the Vinhaholics got burned when he loaned it to someone and they gave it back hot as a branding iron. It doubles as a turbo handwarmer. The light has no cutoff, it's full-bore overdrive with nothing else in the way. I usually flash it for less than 2 seconds 8-15 times a day, wall bouncing. Fun little firecracker.

Some say a light has to be 4x brighter to notice a 2x increase, so I wouldn't sweat it too much if this or that light is 100-400 lumens above or below that one once you get over 1000 lumens.

I think the V54SL2 NS will stomp a stock LD50 in throw. There was a Selfbuilt review comparing these lights, by the by.
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb...-PDTc-1x18650)-review-RUNTIMES-BEAMSHOTS-more

Check the beamshots, it will answer a lot of questions about what's going on with the LD50 versus some other lights.

The LD50 Is rated at 1800 lumens and on that link it says the v54 is 1150-1300

Hmm. Check this one, scroll down to the output chart, mostly at the bottom of the page.
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb...S-BEAMSHOTS-and-more!&highlight=ld50vn+lumens

LD50vn varies wildly on what specific battery you use as the drain is limited by the battery on current boost. Maybe 1700-2000 lumens, depending on your battery. Use a junk cell and you might indeed get 1300 lumens.

Dedome by itself reduces output, but improves throw. The LD50vn is current boosted to compensate.

I like mine, it turned out to be one of my best throwers.

looks good but stock being 1800 and selfbuilts test there is a maybe 200 lumen increase so thinking abaout price a stock ld50 is still good. Are there any stock lights you can think of that might compete

Heh. The LD50vn wasn't about being a lumens blaster, but a tight thrower. We all fly our own ways.

Anyway, Oveready Modoolar Triple Wasp with glow system comes to mind as a bright (2100 lumen claimed in most models) compact light.
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb...ad-and-Glow-System&highlight=triple+wasp+glow
Someone was saying the OR Triple Wasp does 2600 lumens with the XP-L option. Don't forget that actual "out the front" lumens can easily vary between even specific examples of the same model of light and the battery max amperage is always a wildcard.

A calibrated integrating sphere isn't something that everyone has on CPF.

Anyway, it's fairly hard to get your hands on an Oveready light as they sell out fast even at the prices they're asking.

Triple carclo optics are usually floody, do you care about flood or throw? The 50vn throws. The Oveready triples have a fairly wide hotspot, comparitively.

I love both my OR triple and my LD50vn, they are totally different tools. (even though raw lumen output is similar.)

It isn't currently available yet, but have you seen the MBI Torpedo? AAAx1 sized, the goal is 500 lumens with modes. Not 2000 lumens, but there's not much competition in this super tiny size class.

A couple of samples hit some CPF users, but it's still under dev.
http://www.matchboxinstruments.com/collections/in-development/products/mbi-torpedo

If you don't mind it being over twice as thick as the Fenix LD50, there is the Nitecore Tiny Monster 26 2015 model. It claims 4000 lumens. It's a soda can light.

If you don't mind thermal shimming a P60 module in a flashlight head with an aggressive cooling bezel (like the Cryos Illuminations M2 with big fins,) then maybe 4,400 is possible in a 2 cell light with a quad emitter. You'll want a copper pill and probably a copper head as well. It crushes aluminum in thermal properties and brass is a joke in comparison. Runtime will not be... good. This is to be expected when you're drawing 10-15 amps. Some batteries can handle up to 20 amps, but most will tap out before that.

There's plenty of big lumens blasters, but when you want a small one it really narrows the field.

A new upcoming high power emitter series XHP50, XHP70 should be really interesting. Eagletac and Nitecore are coming out with one. I'm fairly sure they'll end up being bigger than the LD50, though the output should top 3k lumens per emitter.

At time of posting, some of our local CPF modders are hard at work coming up with ways to use the XHP emitter series. I'm sure they'll get it smaller than the big bruisers.

Thanks for those I will check them all out. on your vnld50 what did you get just a dedome anything else and if you dont mind what was the cost

brawler1588 said:

Thanks for those I will check them all out. on your vnld50 what did you get just a dedome anything else and if you dont mind what was the cost

Click to expand...

Dual dedome, carefully hand-selected 4000k warm tint thrower, perfectly aligned tight hotspot, current boost, auxiliary copper heatsinks, full body polish, I got the works with a side of kitchen sink.

Externally, it looks like light #3 in this thread:
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb...nique-Fiat-Lux-Sale&highlight=ld50vn+fiat+lux

It's a rare, a unique. In fact, I think my light might be THAT light as it's a Fiat Lux where Vinh went the Full Monty on it. With the engraving and everything, I think it was $400-something. It needs Efest Purple 18650s because most cells wimp out at the amperage draw.

It handily beats my other throwers in that size class for range and being WARM. It makes my Predator Pro 2.5 Warm White look cold.

It is a compact thrower for a tint snob.

Noctigon M43 Meteor, 8500 lumens in a soda can light?
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?397464-Noctigon-Meteor-M43