I recently picked up a quantity of these for a group project and am stunned at their quality vs. cost ratio. Let me tell you about these Seoul AA lights that are much like the Fenix or Ultrafire designs. Both have identical looking bodies with slightly different bezel markings to differentiate which is which.
The 70601 is $16 and holds its own against lights many times the price. The beam has typical Seoul characteristics, bright, very neutral white, with a very smooth transition from spot to fill. The Seouls are my favorites these days. No ringyness like the CREEs. Maybe very slightly less bright than my new Fenix L1T 2.0 Rebel, but it also has a much cleaner color beam, if comparing side to side. It also has a much lower low. In general, the recent Rebels have a slight edge in brightness but the Seoul is king for clean whites, at least in my experience.
The 70601 has five modes, easily clicked through with just a light press on the tailcap clicky. The feature I love is that when turned off, it will always come back on at the last setting. This puts this light ahead of much of the competition and is a very important feature to me. I'm not crazy about the strobe and SOS modes but this light is like Fenix, Jetbeam and other models these days that insist on five choices, rather than just two or three.
The only negative at all on the 70601 is the protruding tailcap, which prohibits candle stand mode. Sames goes for the single stage 42180. (And lights 5x the price like the excellent Amilite NEO T5.)
What a fantastic little light. I'm amazed at the $16 price ($1 more if buying less than three.) For this price, you get no fancy packaging, no extra o-rings either, but the light comes well lubed and works like a charm.
The single stage 42180 is simplicity itself. Much like the joy found in the original Fenix L1P. Yet this light is far brighter. The tailcap is firm but that's no big deal. It's as bright as the 70601 on high. Both lights come with a small lanyard and are likely HA2 coated with a very nice black luster finish. Its $12 and change if you buy three and about $14 if you buy just one. (!)
Along with these, you'll find similarly priced lights out there with CREE and Rebel emitters available from those two well known Asian dealers on CPF. The CREES have ringyness and artifacts issues and the early Rebel versions of these particular lights are getting mixed reviews with purple color shifts noticed at the low settings, an improper reflector alignment. No such problems with these Seoul SSC-4 emitters.
Time to back up the truck for holiday gifts. So, as you guessed, these lights get my vote as the world's best bargains!
The 70601 is $16 and holds its own against lights many times the price. The beam has typical Seoul characteristics, bright, very neutral white, with a very smooth transition from spot to fill. The Seouls are my favorites these days. No ringyness like the CREEs. Maybe very slightly less bright than my new Fenix L1T 2.0 Rebel, but it also has a much cleaner color beam, if comparing side to side. It also has a much lower low. In general, the recent Rebels have a slight edge in brightness but the Seoul is king for clean whites, at least in my experience.
The 70601 has five modes, easily clicked through with just a light press on the tailcap clicky. The feature I love is that when turned off, it will always come back on at the last setting. This puts this light ahead of much of the competition and is a very important feature to me. I'm not crazy about the strobe and SOS modes but this light is like Fenix, Jetbeam and other models these days that insist on five choices, rather than just two or three.
The only negative at all on the 70601 is the protruding tailcap, which prohibits candle stand mode. Sames goes for the single stage 42180. (And lights 5x the price like the excellent Amilite NEO T5.)
What a fantastic little light. I'm amazed at the $16 price ($1 more if buying less than three.) For this price, you get no fancy packaging, no extra o-rings either, but the light comes well lubed and works like a charm.
The single stage 42180 is simplicity itself. Much like the joy found in the original Fenix L1P. Yet this light is far brighter. The tailcap is firm but that's no big deal. It's as bright as the 70601 on high. Both lights come with a small lanyard and are likely HA2 coated with a very nice black luster finish. Its $12 and change if you buy three and about $14 if you buy just one. (!)
Along with these, you'll find similarly priced lights out there with CREE and Rebel emitters available from those two well known Asian dealers on CPF. The CREES have ringyness and artifacts issues and the early Rebel versions of these particular lights are getting mixed reviews with purple color shifts noticed at the low settings, an improper reflector alignment. No such problems with these Seoul SSC-4 emitters.
Time to back up the truck for holiday gifts. So, as you guessed, these lights get my vote as the world's best bargains!
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