Ultrafire C3 Q5 vs. Ultrafire C3 P4 (5-mode)

Hi All,

I'm a flashlight Noob and have been lurking on CPF for around 5 months and am shocked at the amount of knowledge this community has . I've learned more than I could have imagined about flashlights and like many of you, my wife now thinks I need professional help...

I've ordered number of lights from DX and my favorite is the Ultrafire C3 5-mode with the P4 Cree LED. I'm looking to get one for a friend but he wants the best and brightest (don't we all ) so I'm looking to the advice of CPF'ers so I don't get him the wrong light.

He loves the C3 5-mode P4 but I'm thinking that he would like the latest Q5 C3 since the CREE Q5 SHOULD be brighter. He really doesn't care about the modes/runtime (I've read about the shorter runtime on the Q5 C3 on another post)...he just wants the brightest in the C3 form factor.

Does anyone own both lights and can comment on whether the single mode Q5 C3 is brighter than the P4 5-mode C3 on high??? :shrug:

Thanks in advance!!!

I would be interested in knowing this as well.

Given that the maximum difference is probably less than 15% and you will not notice less than 50% difference unless the two lights are side-by-side, I'd really not care about the difference.

1-mode UF C3 P4 lasts ~4 hours with 2AA.
5-mode UF C3 P4 lasts ~2 hours with 2AA.
1-mode UF C3 Q5 lasts ~2 hours with 2AA. (according to takebeat)
(takebeat used 2 x 1300mAh AA batteries to get 50 minues with 2AA)

Mine is on its way (according to DX, it has been shipped last week).
So I will let you know more about it when I get it. (Within 2 weeks?)

dulridge said:

Given that the maximum difference is probably less than 15% and you will not notice less than 50% difference unless the two lights are side-by-side, I'd really not care about the difference.

Click to expand...

Really??? :thinking: I thought that there would be greater than a 15% difference between a P4 and a Q5 Cree.

Moreover, I'm surprised to hear that there wouldn't be much of a noticeable difference unless there is a 50% difference in output...

I ignored the Q2 and Q4 Crees thus far but decided that an upgrade to a Q5 would be justifiable since there is 4 generations of led technology between a P4 and a Q5. But if the output won't be noticeable..when would I recognize a jump in brigtness...R2 Cree?? :candle:

Can someone clarify?

Looking forward to your review and comparison Bessiebenny and thanks for putting up the runtimes.

Our eyes cannot differenciate 20-30% difference in output that easily. So unless it's at least 50% difference, it doesn't make a huge difference in the real world. (Only matters under a light meter. hehe) Still, for the same amount of output, you get 30% more run time which definitely cannot be ignored.

P4 and Q5 has around 30% difference in output per same amount of input.
R2 is around 6% brighter per same amount of input compared to the Q5.

but, It's not that simple. Simply swapping out a P4 to a Q5 LED with everything else the same does not mean Q5 will be any brighter. (It's coz Q5 generally has a higher Vf requirement) Iif the driver is good, it should be, but budget lights normally do not have such good drivers. =P

Yeah, I noticed that just swapping leds doesn't always do the trick and it's always surprising when a Q2 torch easily beats out a Q5. Sooo many variables and things to consider. I know about the Q5's being more efficient so I was surprised to see that the old P4 C3 has way better runtimes over the new C3 Q5 :shakehead

I'll wait to see your review.

thanks!