The brightest 14500 single cell light?

cernobila

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Nov 27, 2004
Messages
1,752
Location
Adelaide, Australia
I know there is plenty of them, some are very bright on the 14500 but quite often you loose some of the functions such as low settings etc.

Of the available lights that take a single 14500 cell with all the functions working, which is the brightest?
 
3.7-4.2v Direct drive for around 10 mins. Don't worry, our heatsink inside will handle it pretty well

i knew there had to be a reason why its so bright :)

because of higly fluxuating regulation, these lights will run LONGER with less voltage battery, at lower MAX levels.
 
xiaowenzu said:
I firmly advised AGAINST purchasing any Jetbeams because of their quality problems with the switching. Read this thread about the manufacturer's practice:
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showpost.php?p=1387183&postcount=187

Only the CLE have the thread problems, the MK2x and others have been great. Vote with your $$ to me no more chinese lights for me... I've had enough after L1D, over engineered MK2x i really liked the wolf-eyes :D i guess i'm biased towards tactical lights. These reverse clickies and twisties with 50 modes and 10 different strobes aren't my cup of tea.
 
I certainly agree! :) I never was and never will be a fan of 'reverse twisties' and 'clickies' for my edc (I don't mind clickies as long as it has a tactical push button to go along with it, such as the Surefire L1) IMHO, they're not intuative way to operate a flashlight. :laughing:

greenstuffs said:
i guess i'm biased towards tactical lights. These reverse clickies and twisties with 50 modes and 10 different strobes aren't my cup of tea.

Yep me too. I prefer a flashlight that's well made rather than it have many useless modes to compensate for the lack of quality. I'd choose quality anyday.. there's just something about holding a well made flashlight in my hands. It's an indescribable feeling. :)

I guess it's like holding a real Rolex watch. It may have less function (no stop-watch, alarm, timer, etc) than cheap the plastic watch... but it's more satisfying to hold and admire the engineering feat being so precisely constructed. I guess human beings admire beauty in life. :popcorn:
 
Well so far the main lights mentioned, (Jetbeam) are considered not the best quality?......ok, so which are the good quality ones that would fit the "criteria" that I am looking for, or perhaps there aren't any others that come to mind..........so its either a Jetbeam which is not recommended or its nothing........?
 
A couple of my good friends, who happen to be CPF members, modded some lights that are powered by 14500's.

Zack(aka Aepoc), modded a couple Elly's from dealextreme. He put an SSC P4 with an optic in one, and a Cree P4 with a Xr-19 reflector in the other. Both are being driven by Wizard boards at a bit over 900ma. I was very impressed with both lights. I just got done metering them yesterday...with both lights coming in around 130 actual lumens. The Seoul light measured ~2200 lux at one meter, while the Cree light came in at ~3200 :)

My other frind Dale(aka cmaylodm) put an SSC P4 in a samll Ultrafire light from dealextreme. He is using the v2.2 FLuPIC, and is getting 130+ lumens out the front on burst. I did not meter the lux on his light, but I would expect it to be in the 1500 range due to the small reflector.

All three lights are EXTREMELY impressive! I really like the FLuPIC powered ultrafire, just because I am a sucker for multi-level lights :grin2: I need to get myself one...if only Dale would build me one as a suprise :whistle:
 
Because the input voltage of the L1D/L2D CE is 4.0V, the Jetbeam MKII and MKIIx lights have an input voltage of 4.2V.

14500 LiIon cells generally come off the charger around 4.2V, so I choose not to use them in my Fenix CE lights.
 
The Jetbeam C-LE is brighter than the MKII-X on 14500. Quality of the C-LE isn't so good on the one I have, and I suspect it won't last long on the 14500.
My MKII-X seems to be extremely good, quality wise.

Although the UI of the MKII-X might be considered a little too much, there are at least some good uses for it when using a 14500. Because the 14500 only has about 750mah, it has a limited run time in a high brightness mode. I believe Jetbeam had that in mind when they designed the MKII-X UI. For users that want the brightest single 14500 light possible, use advanced mode, 100%, but at reduced run time, guesstimated at about 30 minutes. For more runtime use basic mode levels or advanced mode at lower levels. IMHO I think Jetbeam had all this in mind, I can't think of any other reason for the complicated UI. My 1st impression of the UI was bad, but I've grown used to it and like it now.

I feel the same as coppertrail on the L1D-CE, with a 14500 it's out of regulation.

Apologies for the long post, started out as a one liner....
 
LightScene said:
If you order from Emilion you are asking for trouble.
While I didn't have any trouble per se, I wasn't wild about the customer service. Several emails regarding adding items to my order went unanswered.
 
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