LiteFlux LF2 review

[Ice]

Hi there,
since the old thread has gotten a little long I will repost my little review of the LiteFlux LF2 here and add some new things. It's my first review, so I hope that's ok...

First of all the LF2 seems to be a little less bright then the L0D-CE. (Just have a look at the picture.)
Built quality seems good as far as I can tell.
One thing I noticed is that there are about four full rotations left from the off position before the head comes of and that the LF2 actually is turned off by fastening the head, so you definitely will never loose the head of this flashlight!
The only real disadvantage I see is the length of the LF2 (it's just a little longer then the L0D-CE but in this case every millimeter counts)!
Programing at first was a pain in the a... , but you only have to do it once so that's ok. And the second time was much easier allready, so you definitely get used to it!
I personally don't miss the tail stand, on the contrary: The LF2 has two holes on either side, so if you want to wear it around the neck (if you need it a lot e.g. during camping hollidays) you can thread a band through both sides and the LF2 will hang straight down. Most lights will hang on one side only which looks somehow akward to me. (Puh, english is not my native language and such things are hard to describe. I hope that's ok...)

L0D-CE on the left, LF2 on the right, both @ max. brightness
(notice that the difference in brightness seems to be slightly exaggerated compared to what it looks like for the human eye)

One thing cought my attention when I took the photo in a dark room: For the first time I really noticed the flicker of the L0D (at low setting), especially when the L0D stood still and I looked around in the room. And it was surprisingly distracting!!!

The wooden box the LF2 comes in is also very nice! One way to make it even better was to add a hinge to it (instead of the upper half just being a cap for the lower one).
But that I'm begining to nit-pick is actually a good testimony for the LF2...

One very (!) small drawback would be that you can't switch directly to P2. The LF2 remains about half a second at P1 before it changes to P2 even if you turn the head as fast as possible from off to P2...
That's why I changed from [P1-high P2-low] to [P1-low P2-high].
The idea with two stages however is great, and at least with my light both settings are exactly one half turn away from each other and right in the middle position you can "simulate" a clicky!

Edit1: There seems to be a first look at the LF2 SSC P4 version here at CPF, and that new version seems to be a little shorter. Looks to me like about the length of the L0D-CE, and that would be really cool...

Edit2:
The longer I use the LF2, the more impressed I am! Great light (in my humble opinion)!
Oh, and as it looks like you really can get used to the user interface!


Edit3:

A little update:
In the meantime I got the 10440 lithium batteries and tried those with the LF2! Here are a few things I noticed:

The brightness a little more then doubles (compared to an energizer lithium AAA)! I measured that with a cheap lux meter.
Of course for the human eye that equals an increase in brightness of only a little more than 1.4 (logarithm estimated), which is still rather impressive!
And yes, that way the LF2 is brighter than the L0D-CE with normal AAA batteries!
There's about a 10% loss in brightness after 1 minute, so that could be better and could be worse...
You shouldn't run the LF2 at max. brightness much longer than 1 minute anyway, because it get's rather warm after that time!
I have tested the L0D-CE with 10440s, too (even though it's not designed for those batteries), and it is definitely brighter than the LF2 again.

I think I will order the LF2 P4 version, too, and give it a try.
With 10440s it should be impressively bright and only a little longer than the L0D-CE. It's Its floodier beam may not be as good to impress your friends but it could very well be more usable then the more narrow beams.
Just my humble opinion...



So to sum it all up:

What I did like:
+rather bright for an AAA light
+no flickering in low modes!
+over discharge protection for 1440s and very bright with those!
+two settings
+very nice two stage switch
+programmable
+regulated
+can be well worn around the neck
+nice beam shape
+comes in a nice wooden box, makes it great as a gift

What I didn't like:
-a little less bright than the L0D-CE
-a little longer than the L0D-CE

 

[jumpstat]

Hi there,
Got mine yesterday the SSC version. Indeed it is 3mm shorter than the cree version. Much brighter than the X1 gen 2 that I have. Wider spill than the cree version. Brightness between the cree and ssc version, can't really say. It comes in a neat package and with all the right accessories, except the keychain ring as if you put it on, it won't tailstand( there is no slot for the ring to rest when standing).
Pros:-
1-Programmable and you can check its battery condition, 2 stage brightness, SOS and Strobe all of these can be programmed.
2-Small, minute and very bright for a AAA torch.
3-Packaged deal, useful diffuser for candlelight mode, spare orings and lubricant for the threads.
4-Well made and constructed, excellent threads and internal coating including threads.
5-Centered led so beam pattern very even.
6-Nice LOP reflector.
7-Works very nice with el-cheapo AAA and I'm using Tesco's Alkalines.

Cons:-
1-Slippery when wet, about the same coating of P3D/Fenix, not good for sweaty or large hands due to minute size. Only grippy part is the head for twisting.
2-Ony one 'white dot' for twisting reference. It should have dots on both side of the head and body so that one can see properly during switching of programming.

 

[gunga]

I'd like to add a few points here as I just received an LF2 cree.

- I'm having some issues with the over-discharge protection. I'm only getting a few minutes on P2 (High, 50%?) using 10440s. I have a couple different brands of 10440 and still get really short runtimes. Battery life also seems a bit short with AAA nimh too. I will have to try again tonight and see what I can find.

- When changing batteries and such, I sometimes lose the programmed levels. Is this expected?

- Can't get the battery voltage display to work. Keep missing it using the multi-twist.

- The o-ring is pretty tight. I swapped out with an LOD CE o-ring and worked it a little while, still pretty tight (even when well lubed).

- Man, the multi-twist for the extra functions and programming is a severe pain, and some sort of raised dot on the side of the head would make using it much easier.

- The 2 stage P1/P2 UI is quite good. Wish it was 3 levels with a discrete click etc, but for simple off-low-high, it's quite nice.

- Beam pattern with the cree is a gorgeous soft spot/bright flood for close to medium range use. Perfect for this light. Not a spotter, but awesome for small edc.

- surface texture stilll a bit slippery. It's better than Fenix, but not as good as say Jetbeam C-LE knurling etc...

- great accessories. Diffuser is wicked, but, like many, I will not be carrying it with me. Is it supposed to come with a split ring?

- Low low mode is excellent and invisble PWM is great (7.8 KHz!).


Overall, quite a few quirks, but a nice light, best beam pattern for close range I've seen. If I can figure out the programming glitches and battery life issues, it could replace my LOD CE for small EDC.

 

[LED Cool]

jumpstat,

the LF2 can tail stand even with the keyring installed.

at the tailend, there are 2 holes and 2 elongated holes. please install the keyring through one hole and one elongated hole. that way the LF2 can tail stand.

khoo

 

[nanotech17]

I have mine for almost 2 weeks and I just love the Turbo mode@P1.
Run it with 10440 with the OP activated - fantastic !

 

[jumpstat]

Gunga, I've yet to try 10440 but I might try Nimh Twicells 700 that I have somewhere. What I noticed is that with AAA alkalines expecially el-cheapo ones is that when its on 100% P2, voltage drops to around 0.9v after 10minutes then voltage will go up again and remain at 1.3v when I checked it this morning. In all I was playing with the SOS, strobe and on high roughly 30-45 in all combination last night. Its at 1.2v just checked.

 

[JJohn]

Have had mine in daily use for over two months. Still love this little light. The LF2 and my Seouled HDS U-60 are the only lights that I now use. I really appreciate being able to set a low-low level and a fairly bright high. It was great for camping this last weekend. The LF2 was my perfect tent light. On very low it provided useful light and didn't wake my wife and yet when going out of the tent at night to find a nice bush to stand behind (if you know what I mean), it was great when set at 50% output. Perfect two-stage light for me.

Of course, for hikes at night, I did use the HDS instead.

 

[Ice]

the LF2 can tail stand even with the keyring installed.
at the tailend, there are 2 holes and 2 elongated holes. please install the keyring through one hole and one elongated hole. that way the LF2 can tail stand.

All the time I was wondering why there were such strange long holes in the LF2 and that they must have some purpose. Now that I know I'm both embarassed for not seeing it myself and happy about that really intelligent and beautifully simplistic solution...

 

[jumpstat]

Its a bit ackward having the ring at the end there so now I use one of those handphone neck lanyard without using the ring.

 

[Grubbster]

I use a piece of flat cord (think shoe lace) through both elongated holes instead of split ring on mine. I only have enough cord on it to make a loop about the size of a dime. You can use that loop to hang it if you want, but if you want to tailstand the light, the cord can be pushed to the side so the light tailstands without any issues.

 

[Krit]

I just get LF2 from Khoo, LED cool. It's very good light for my EDC. COOL>.

 

[jumpstat]

As of last night I managed to figure out how to programme all the four modes. My LF2 now is set at 100% at P1, and about 50% on P2. The other modes such as SOS and strobe are left at default.

Just to add, that this light really is useful. Its the first programmable light I have purchased and I'm liking it every single cent. It works for you not the other way around.

The battery indicator is also useful. And so is the overdischarge warning function. Operational heat on alkalines is nowhere near a SF KL4 so I am very happy with that although the longest time on high was around 10 minutes.

SSC version IMHO would be much better in terms of usage compared to the Cree as wider even spill much more rewarding for close quarters work.

Truly recommended with the current promotion......

 

[Krit]

My SSC version is very nice flood light. I program about 10% in P1 and 50% as default for cool temp operate in a long time use.