Smaller lights with a punch!

I am looking for a light that packs a lot of lumens. But yet stays on the smaller scale of things..


I have looked at:
L x D
Fenix TA21 -- 225 Max Lumens -- 2 Hours -- 6.6in x 1in
Fenix TK11 R2 -- 240 Max Lumens -- 2.7 Hours -- 5.3in x 1.3in
EagleTac T20C2 -- 300 Max Lumens -- 1.5 Hours -- 5.9in x 1in
JETBeam JET - III M R2 -- 250 Max Lumens -- 3 Hours -- 5.4in x 1in
Olight M20 Warrior R2 -- 250 Max Lumens -- 3 Hours -- 5.6in x 1in
Olight M20 Titanium -- 500 max Lumens -- 1.2 Hours -- 5.5in x 1in but $300 compared to the others around $90...


Anyone else know of any lights about the size of these that has a really high lumen output?
I know there are lights that have high lumen output, but they are to big for what I want in size and they spread the light out too much. I like the smaller area punch of these size lights. Just hard to know every light out there.

So please feel free to list any lights that pack lumens higher than 225 but are also around the size of the lights Ive listed. They should also be able to use 18650 batteries..

thanks.

USE:
Generally I will use it as an all around light for hunting/camping/fishing, and it doesnt need to be crazy bright all the time. However, the main reason for wanting the highest lumens is to use the light for camping/fishing/ice-fishing to shine and cut through the water(which is fun, especially when you find walleyes). I will also use it ice-fishing to check tip ups when from longer distances.

Jetbeam RRT-2
Olight M20
MG PLI
6P (bored if you wanna use 18650's) or Solarforce L2 w/ a M60, MC-E, P7, SST-90 drop in.

Jetbeam Jet I Pro v3.0, 240 lumens on a 14500 cell

duboost said:

6P (bored if you wanna use 18650's) or Solarforce L2 w/ a M60, MC-E, P7, SST-90 drop in.

Click to expand...

+1

You should be aware that the jet-IIIM and M20 are not very well regulated with an 18650. So if its 18650 brightness that you are after, you might want to consider lights with a more stable output. see selfbuilt review here...

https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/211631

:welcome:


6P/L2M with FiveMega 3C body and nailbender SST-90 =

to Swift --


Welcome to CandlePowerForums !


:welcome:
_

I have an Olight M20, and I really like it. It is exceedingly bright, and it has great throw. However, as others have pointed out, 18650's involve a tradeoff with this (and other similar lights). You can have:
1. ~2 hours of regulated runtime or so with primary CR123a cells at full brightness. (Olight includes a nice carrier for them.)
2. ~1 hour of regulated runtime at full brightness with RCR123a's.
3. ~3 hours of runtime that gradually dims to 50% with 18650's.

Depending on your usage, the tradeoff of some brightness for runtime might actually be better or it might be awful. (Although not at full brightness, it's still VERY bright on 18650's, and 3 hours is a long, long runtime.)

The Olight is a very nice light. (I'm sure the jetbeam is too, for that matter.) Anyway, I've had the M20 for nearly a year now, and I don't regret it.

MrBenchmark said:

I have an Olight M20, and I really like it. It is exceedingly bright, and it has great throw. However, as others have pointed out, 18650's involve a tradeoff with this (and other similar lights). You can have:
1. ~2 hours of regulated runtime or so with primary CR123a cells at full brightness. (Olight includes a nice carrier for them.)
2. ~1 hour of regulated runtime at full brightness with RCR123a's.
3. ~3 hours of runtime that gradually dims to 50% with 18650's.

Depending on your usage, the tradeoff of some brightness for runtime might actually be better or it might be awful. (Although not at full brightness, it's still VERY bright on 18650's, and 3 hours is a long, long runtime.)

The Olight is a very nice light. (I'm sure the jetbeam is too, for that matter.) Anyway, I've had the M20 for nearly a year now, and I don't regret it.

Click to expand...

when you say it gradually dims, is this an overall effect as in,
I used the flashlight for 2 hours, and when I go to use it an hour later, it will be 50% dimmer and only have an hour left.

or..

While I am using the light, lets say I used it also for 2 hours.. it will start to dim(loose its power) during that 2 hours, but if I stop using the light for an hour, and go back to use it, it will be full power again, but only have an hour left.

I have a nice streamlight LED headlamp that ranges from 3 - 50lumens which is my primary hunting/fishing/camping light.
So the light I buy is pretty much going to be my toy and "sun" when I need it. So I would rather have it be at its "full power/full brightness" longer, and not have it only be 50%-60% its brightness when I am half way through using the battery.
If I am 2 days canoeing from society...I will just bring more batteries

this light needs to have the "power" I guess and not the long battery life..

so maybe I should cancel my order on my
AW 18650's and Pila charger
and maybe think about using those other battery sources as primary so I can keep that high power longer?

anyone else have any input on this?

I'm talking to myself.. but I did some thinking..

When I am doing all my camping/fishing/hunting in my state.(95% of the time)
I can always recharge and top off one of my cells and use the other so I will always have a good powered cell in use.

The only time I will run into a problem with having the cells dim and annoy me is when I go on a week long trip far away from society.. which in that case, could always bring CR123a's with and pack extra.. or say scr*w it and just bring my 18650's and deal with a little dim..since I probably wont drain the batteries that much anyway..

yeah... Im thinking stick with my AW 18650 2600mah and Pila charger..

dont know if anyone else is in my situation and that helps

Drake/Draco

THE strongest pocket rocket size/output ratio-wise officially.

Look at the link in the post from Kramer5150 - it shows some graphs of the runtimes of these lights on various types of batteries. It doesn't *exactly* answer your question, but it will give you a good idea of their performance.

After you've run one of these lights for say 1/2 of their runtime, if the light is fully regulated, it will operate at essentially full power. With the 18650's, in a semi-regulated state, it will not be at full power. I don't notice that my olight starts out BRIGHT and then dims rapidly on 18650's after the batteries have been used for a while, it SEEMS fairly linear. Hopefully someone who's measured this or more experienced can answer more precisely - since our ability to perceive brightness isn't linear in any way whatsoever, this is a little hard to judge just by eyeball. After a while you just notice "yeah, ok, time to change batteries."

When we're talking about the runtime, it's generally listed as to 50% on these forums. The fully regulated lights will stay at or near max brightness and then drop off a cliff - the brightness will drop very rapidly. (The drop to 50% is really fast!) Semi-regulated, this will drop gradually throughout the runtime, so say after 2:30 minutes, the light might be at 60% brightness. (I'm not looking at the runtime graph - it will give you a much better idea.)

I would think for a long trip, trading off a little top-end brightness and full regulation would be worth it in exchange for longevity. For a trip like you describe, that's what I'd do, and as you point out, you can always carry some spare primary CR123A's as a backup. (Or just recharge the 18650's in your vehicle.)

Another thing to think about is we're talking about the MAX brightness here. If you use the light at a lower setting, the batteries last much, much longer. I actually find the low or medium settings on my M20 to be the most generally useful ones. For navigating around at night, I'd use one of those, and only use the max setting when I really needed to see in the distance. If you are someplace truly dark, the medium setting of the M20 is still a LOT of light.

Of course sometimes it's fun to just light things up. When you do that, well, the batteries don't last as long!

BTW, best of luck whatever you decide. The illumination tools available today are simply unbelievably good. You can have insane brightness, incredible runtime, or a mix of the two, with ridiculously small size. It's hard to go wrong, I think.

The Solarforce L2 with Solarforce 5-mode 3.7v dropin.

Swiftmove83 said:

I'm talking to myself.. but I did some thinking..

When I am doing all my camping/fishing/hunting in my state.(95% of the time)
I can always recharge and top off one of my cells and use the other so I will always have a good powered cell in use.

The only time I will run into a problem with having the cells dim and annoy me is when I go on a week long trip far away from society.. which in that case, could always bring CR123a's with and pack extra.. or say scr*w it and just bring my 18650's and deal with a little dim..since I probably wont drain the batteries that much anyway..

yeah... Im thinking stick with my AW 18650 2600mah and Pila charger..

dont know if anyone else is in my situation and that helps

Click to expand...

A D-mini EX (420L (flood) MC-E) or VX (270L (throw) R2) would be able to fit your purposes about right although the tint with these lights might be too cool for your intended purpose. The VX though is available with a Q3-5A but this lowers the lumens to about 200. Both these lights come with a 16340 and 18650 tube so you can use either cell according to your need. I use an IMR16340 in the EX but if I need runtime, the 18650 is up. In a pinch I can use CR123's also.

Still though if I were in your shoes, I would recommend the M2xC4 in a neutral tint and do the shim mod (takes 5 mins). In the woods this thing rocks and is pretty small/short for what it can do and it is a nice warm tint with enough levels. Add one of them warm tinted Zebralights for all flood and you have a super team for fishing/camping/hunting (don't forget about the filters (RGB) when hunting). I did the same (mine is a H60W) and with these two I can do anything. They have long runtimes (good low's) and enough power (high high's). Add a few spare 18650's and a week long trip isn't a problem either, well depending on your usage of course.

MrBenchmark said:

I have an Olight M20, and I really like it. It is exceedingly bright, and it has great throw. However, as others have pointed out, 18650's involve a tradeoff with this (and other similar lights). You can have:
1. ~2 hours of regulated runtime or so with primary CR123a cells at full brightness. (Olight includes a nice carrier for them.)
2. ~1 hour of regulated runtime at full brightness with RCR123a's.
3. ~3 hours of runtime that gradually dims to 50% with 18650's.

Depending on your usage, the tradeoff of some brightness for runtime might actually be better or it might be awful. (Although not at full brightness, it's still VERY bright on 18650's, and 3 hours is a long, long runtime.)

The Olight is a very nice light. (I'm sure the jetbeam is too, for that matter.) Anyway, I've had the M20 for nearly a year now, and I don't regret it.

Click to expand...

This is the neat thing about Eagletac's newish light, the T100C2 MKII.

Check out the review.

Swiftmove83 said:

when you say it gradually dims, is this an overall effect as in,
I used the flashlight for 2 hours, and when I go to use it an hour later, it will be 50% dimmer and only have an hour left.

or..

While I am using the light, lets say I used it also for 2 hours.. it will start to dim(loose its power) during that 2 hours, but if I stop using the light for an hour, and go back to use it, it will be full power again, but only have an hour left.

Click to expand...

If I may make an observation: the Olight is rated at 500 lums, so it is 2x as powerful as the other lights you are considering. Even at 50%, it will be as bright as the others, so you will not be losing anything in that regard. Also, from what I understand, the more the lumens, the less the difference between # of lumens: eg. a 50% drop in lumens from 500 to 250 is not as dramatic to the eye as a drop from say 100 to 50 lums (correct me if I am wrong here, this is based on reading, not experience).

PS: Keep the Pila charger, it is good for RCR's as well, and one of the most touted chargers on this site.

I think I am going to def keep the Pila charger for the quality and the AW 18650's for duration and normal use.. and then I can use CR123a's or RCR123a's when I want that solid and stable of highest power output.

now that I think I understand the battery aspect a bit more...thank you CPF!

I just need to figure out which flashlight will give me the best quality, but the highest lumen and best power output.. but minimal flooding.. I want my light to have a really bright hotspot and be focused.. I dont want a wide flood or a lot of flooding at all...

Probably a little smaller than what your looking for but I just got my Fenix P1D Q5 today. I wear it on my keychain and its not noticable IMO. 180 lumens on 1x CR123. Bright as heck for such a small light. Otherwise I recommend a RRT-1/2.