Owners of Ultrafire C308

[Tiresius]

Anyone has one of these guys wanna give their input on these flashlights? I'm waiting for mines to come. This one's gonna be my camper/night strolling light.

http://dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.20128

Also, I have one ordered at the 15th of this month and no activity change...still waiting on supplier :(

 

[frankiej]

I don't have one, but my friend at work owns one. It seems to be pretty standard Ultrafire quality. It's got a really deep smooth reflector and, consequently, throws pretty well. He uses his with 18650 only. The LED has a pretty blue tint, and I think his has the strobe also.

 

[radu1976]

I had one 6 months ago...I thought I was gonna like it but I have sold right after I got it .
Indeed, very deeeep reflector - as a result a very narrow beam with a small hotspot but the intensity of the hotspot wasn't extreme. As for a TIABLO A8 or DERELIGHT DBS.
It was throwing even worse than my JERBEAM PRO IBS III with smooth reflector.
Probably the emitter wasn't driven too hard. A long runtime can be a good fact for some despite it's sacrificing the throw.

Another aspect which bothered me was the form factor.
Although I have large hands I found the light as being too width. I didn't feel good with it in my hands...the clicky was quite hard to press especially beacuse of the width of the tube.

DEREELIGHT CL1H, INOVA T3/XO3, JETBEAM III, SOLARFORCE L2 are nice lights to handle but not the UF-308 !

Definetely not HA ...probably type II .

 

[MerkurMan]

I've had the light for quite a while, but I've never used it as I received it with a broken lens. I ordered a replacement from KD, but it was *just* too large, and I lost interest in the light after that.

It's attractive, fairly well-constructed for a %$!*Fire, very nice OD colouring, comes with a plastic spacer tube for 18650 use, and a generic 3AAA holder. Beam pattern isn't too bad (narrow throwy hotspot, wide corona and even spill with no Cree rings), but the tint is blue, it doesn't tailstand, and it's not very bright. But, if you're looking for a light that will work on multiple power sources, I guess this is it.

Mine is a 2-mode hi-low with memory. No annoying blinky modes. :thumbsup:

If you're looking for a dedicated thrower, for $9 more, DX sku.17382 blows it out of the water as far as output is concerned. Build quality is very nice, although the LED tint is, again, leaning to the blue side, and the beam is fairly ringy. It also has an annoying two-stage resistored tailcap (click once for high, click again for low, click a third time to turn it off). It's about the same length as the C-308, but the head is quite a bit larger in diameter.

For a general-purpose light in the $20 price range, I'd suggest a good P60 host such as the UF 503-B, or for a few dollars more, the Solarforce L2 is a wonderful light. They're a tad smaller than the C-308, and the flexibility of being able to change the LED module is a big plus.

 

[xenonk]

I had one of the OD ones for a while, but I couldn't warm up to using battery carriers so the multi-power thing didn't work out for me.

Runtime was very long and the light didn't heat up much at all even on high. The LED was definitely not getting a workout- I read around 600mA at the tail with either a carrier full of fresh NiMHs or an 18650 (I found the 18650 was an incredibly tight fit).

Still a pretty good thrower considering how cheap and underdriven it is, though.

Mine had two modes: high and low. It also had some kind of protection against accidental mode switching. A single tap of the switch while on would not switch modes. You had to give it two taps within a couple of seconds to get it to switch, then after that you could keep switching modes with single taps. After leaving the switch alone for a few moments it would revert to the original behavior.

That seemed a bit unusual for a reverse clicky. More like a UI you'd use for a forward switch.

 

[kramer5150]

Thanks for the replies... I was thinking about picking up one of these as a ~1.2amp DIY mod host. I think the larger diameter body + inner sleeve might help shield heat away from the 18650.

Does the pill readily accept 17mm DC-DC boards?

:popcorn:

 

[Quacker]

Take it from me, don't waste your money on garbage. Better to spend the extra $$$ and get something from a reputable brand than to get anything from ultrafire.

 

[xenonk]

Does the pill readily accept 17mm DC-DC boards?

Indeed it do. The driver board measured 17mm. In fact the pill that was threaded into the head assembly looked remarkably like one from a P60 module. However it resisted attempts to unscrew it, so I figured it was glued and never broke it down any further to see if the threads matched.

The plastic battery sheath was thick. I don't doubt it made an excellent thermal insulator. Body walls were also fairly thick and the tail threads were anodized. I think that's about all I remember about it.

 

[Tiresius]

Judging from your guy's review, the flashlight is bad in terms of size, intensity and un-convenient led head swap.

That dont seem like the problem for me since I'm aiming after the 3xAAA battery and low power setting with occasional need for higher output, I can swap power source.

I'll my judgment on the flashlight when the day it arrives.


Onto other matters: gotta swap daylite's dead emitter.

 

[hyperloop]

for a few dollars more, the Solarforce L2 is a wonderful light. They're a tad smaller than the C-308, and the flexibility of being able to change the LED module is a big plus.

+1 on solarforce, they're great hosts. Solarforce is having a sale for hosts that didnt pass their QC, anodising and all that, go check it out. I don't need any hosts now but am thinking of just ordering one or two as standbys, they're going for $14.99 if i am not wrong.