What's with the popularity of this light --- besides price?

[RBWNY]

I like your take, ven. So I see it's now time to get off my 'flashlight snob' pedestal and accept the fact that some budget lights are perhaps useful in their own way. And of course the 'budget' part is what is putting LED lights into the hands of many who might otherwise not be able to get one. I suppose it's good on an introductory level too.

 

[Tmack]

Have one of these too. Granted just a host, with a laser in it, but I found the little rayvac Walmart lights battery tube screws right in allowing me to use a 14500 cell.

.

 

[mikekoz]

They are a good deal for the money, but at $4.00 a piece, they would have to be pretty bad NOT to be a good deal. I have 4 of them. I bought 2 thinking they were multimode. I bought 2 more later that had the high-low-strobe. They are nowhere near 300 lumens, at least with a standard AA. They are thick and heavy (I like overbuilt lights!), crudley made, but should stand up to most tasks thrown at them. I am not sure what the failure rate on them would be. If mine failed, I would just throw them away and not even bother to fix them. Maybe that is why you do not see too many posts of problems with them. It is also possible they just have a low failure rate due to their simplicity. There is no way of knowing. I only use them in wide mode and am not a fan of the focusing mechanism like some are. You can buy a decent light pretty cheap that has a well made reflector that will out throw and out spill these. I like them, but would not buy another.

 

[jorn]

Dedeome the led, and it throws like crasy for a small aa/14500. I love mine. Got it for free when i bought a used hf ti on the markedplace. Outthrows my ~20k lux malkoff hound dog with ease. It cant out throw my 45-50k lux solarforce masterpice 1. So i guess my dedomed sipik is somewhere in the 30k lux range. A impressive amount of throw from something that fits your pocket
Nice litte light to improve. And it's fun modding it

The nice thing with a beam with no spill is it lets you see further compared with a reflectored light with spill.
Impossible too see some few lux at several hundred meters, when the bush beside you gets blasted with several hundred lux from the spill. The eyes adjust for the hundreds of lux from the spill, and you wont be able to see the stuff down range that good.

 

[FlashKat]

I bought an 18650 battery version. I used it to work on my car one night for several hours having to replace the battery in between, but the light worked flawlessly even after I tossed it a couple of times just to move it out of the way. It still works with many scratches.
It is not the greatest build, but it worked, and I was pleasantly surprised.

 

[RoGuE_StreaK]

PS. if price is the determining factor, then you can buy the exact same torch from "Heider Super Torch" for the heavily reduced price of $50, down from $100 It's all over facebook, so must be teh shiz (just saw the ad again and it reminded me)

 

[RetroTechie]

I thought, wouldn't they be the least bit curious to see what a Sunwayman light would look like...just to compare? Guess not.

YES, I'd love to see that explanatory post.

Veeerrryy cheap, and good enough (as in: does the job). Most folks stop reading / looking @ that point, and just pull the trigger. What's more: if cheap enough, many people will buy something even if it isn't good. Even quality-sensitive folks... just to check it out, as an expendable item, giveaway, for modding fun, whatever. The better products among those cheap ones just gain more in popularity, and stick around longer.

Once you have a $5 thingie that does -reasonably- well what you use it for, why waste time on comparisons with a $100 product? Especially if perhaps you're not even aware of that $100 product's existence.

Yes psychology is interesting and/or confusing at times, but in this case I think that's all there is to it.

 

[StorminMatt]

I don't have a Sipik SK68. I do, however, have my fair share of cheap lights. And I do have to say that cheap lights are GREAT in the sense that they can really set you free. When you spend even $50-$100 on a light, you're almost afraid to use it. And when you do, you use it for things that are less likely to damage it (like maybe a nighttime walk). Heaven forbid should you drop your nice, new SC52 on the ground and put an ugly scratch in it! But an SK68 (or other cheap light)? No biggie. If you want a clean example, buy another for less than $5. This means you can also use it for all those other things you would NEVER use a nicer light on, like working on a car.

 

[sol-leks]

I've actually bought that exact light from that exact amazon listing. Many times as a matter of fact. I use it myself, it's a great light for around the house because it can light up such a large area, handy for walking the dog too.

I also sometimes repair computers and I like to give these out to new clients.

 

[GrizzlyAdams]

LOL I just bought one in all colors to give away. At least CPF didn't cost me $150 a pop like it usually does

 

[Behavior]

LOL I just bought one in all colors to give away. At least CPF didn't cost me $150 a pop like it usually does

When I'm not sure of the quality of a product I default to the economic guideline of, "Buy the absolute best that you can afford and buy it once, rather than buy cheaply many times over."

A simple man's guideline.

 

[mikekoz]

They should call this light the Tebow 68...it is overpublicized, does not do any one thing really well, but is solid and respected!!! LOLOLOLOLOLOL :laughing:

 

[nerrad]

Great light to give to the non Flashiholic. I just got a deal on 5 Green ones to give to my nephews for camping and having fun with the zoom! The quality on this batch was not as good as the 2 I purchaced years ago.

 

[ElliDee]

Then again one is comparing a 3-4 dollar flashlight to a possibly 20-100 dollar flashlight. One cannot compare.

 

[GrizzlyAdams]

When I'm not sure of the quality of a product I default to the economic guideline of, "Buy the absolute best that you can afford and buy it once, rather than buy cheaply many times over."

A simple man's guideline.

If this was going on ones duty belt, night stand, EDC rotation, emergency kit, etc. Then sure, no argument from me. But to hand out lights to boy scouts on a camping trip, nieces and nephews to play flashlight tag after a BBQ, or just to goof around with, these fit the bill nicely.

 

[matt304]

I have one also. It is a cheap little light that will light up a room if you need it to and you can drop it and not give a crap about it. It has turned on everytime I needed it to. I rather crawl under the house with this than one of my Deft-X's. The zoom does work very well on it also.

How long is your house that you would possibly consider crawling under it with a DEFT-X? I mean, scratches--who cares? If you have purple spots in your eyes afterwards, you can't see the scratches anymore.

To sum this thread up, I've seen it everywhere. It's the sheeple boom of the ASPHERIC LIGHT!

My friends think my DEFT is the coolest thing in the world, then I show them the light that was $22 I built that kills it in Kcd, and they forget about the DEFT although it's prettier machining. Yet now they all own $10 aspherics, and they are as joyous as you or I getting a mega aspheric thrower that would impress most the forum. Just the basic understanding of an LED in focus through a lens instead of a reflector, draws my friends towards those style of lights--Kcd meaningless to them in the end purchase. Once they own it they aren't comparing it to another light I put next to it anyways, they just know that the "square" goes far, to them. That seems to satisfy their tastes. I did train my friends on why an aspheric light is "better" in my opinion when showing them mine, sort of set the wheel in motion I guess for them buying the cheapo throwers. Oh, they get a real kick out of the fact that you can charge a light with a magical DC plug on the light's side, too. Me, well I still don't get it.

 

[DIWdiver]

PS. if price is the determining factor, then you can buy the exact same torch from "Heider Super Torch" for the heavily reduced price of $50, down from $100 It's all over facebook, so must be teh shiz (just saw the ad again and it reminded me)

Holy C**P I thought you had to be kidding, but there it is! Those guys must be laughing all the way to the bank. Of course, they DID have to engrave their name on the side, so that costs something.

 

[Fireclaw18]

The Sipik 68 ... one of the most popular budget lights around. Advantages:

1. It's cheap
2. It's pretty reliable for its price.
3. Zooms
4. Bright enough considering the price.

An aspheric zoom lens set for maximum throw will project an image of the die off into the distance. This happens when the focal point of the lens is set right on the LED die. You may think all the lens did is shrink the output into a tiny square without improving throw... but you'd be wrong. Throw increases quite a bit in spot mode, but overall lumens goes down because much of the LED output is absorbed into the inside of the bezel. In spot mode, the Sipik 68 will easily out-throw any similar sized and similar power AA light that uses a conventional reflector or TIR.

Seeing the die image in spot mode means that the lens is properly focused and you're getting the most lux possible. The image is ugly, but this is mostly only noticeable in a white-wall test. If you're outside using it to look at something in the distance in spot mode the output looks fine.

There are many different variations on aspheric zoomable lights ... almost all of them budget. The Sipik 68 is one of the most popular. It has decent heatsinking, feels solid, and usually works.

It's not perfect though... like any aspheric zoomable light, the output can sometimes leave a lot to be desired. Unlike a reflector like you don't get spot and spill at the same time. The spill isn't as wide as the spill from many reflector lights. It's relatively big and chunky for a single-AA sized light, and it's shape isn't ideal for EDC pocket carry ... too many protruding pieces and crenelations.

On the other hand ... it's cheap. They make good inexpensive gifts. As a work or EDC light, they can be nice because if you lose it, it's no big loss. Kids also like them for the cool styling and laser-like beam.

 

[GrizzlyAdams]

Just wanted to update. I ordered 4 from Amazon for "kitchen drawer" lights, kid use, and hand outs to family/friends etc. Of the 4, one was dead on arrival, one had a ring of metal shaving hanging out around the tailcap, the "fit" of all 4 varies from acceptable to laughable. But for a couple bucks each I'm not complaining. I've started an Amazon claim on the D.O.A light so we will see how that goes.

 

[JacksBlackGuns]

I like those little lights, they pump out alot of light with one AA. I traded one to my Dad for his Surefire 6p. I bought him the 6p but he's too cheap to buy replacement batteries so it never gets used. He couldn't care less how much the light cost or what name is on it as long as it works and the batteries are cheap and easy to find.