Unloved brands which have surprised you?

After many many hours of reading and making my little effort to join in with my fellow posters I notice many members tend to favor certain leading brands of lights.

My question to the board members is what brand of light have you bought and thought this is a nice light and perhaps really taken a shine to it(excuse the pun).

I will kick it off and say my Nextorch K1 is really one of my favorite lights and yet the brand does not get much attention.

What is the brand which has surprised you more than you thought of the mainstream runners that we normally buy?

I'd have to say Romisen, they are a very budget brand but from my experience have put out a number of solid high performance torches, very comparable to many higher end, and much more expensive, lights. :thumbsup:

ive taken a liking to my icon rouge 2. at work, the 2aa size helps ensure i dont drop the light when using it, which is good becuase it could really screw things up if i drop it in the press. plus, its super simple. as a matter of fact, here lately ive been becoming more of a fan of AA lights over my numerous cr123 lights simply because i think i prefer the slightly larger size. and with sunaway coming out with these 4 and 3 AA offerings (m40a and m30a), i think i might continue on that trend a little longer.

I am not sure if surefire is unloved, but it did surprise me.

I bought* one in Hong Kong app. 5-6 years ago**, it was great. The cr123's were expensive but gave lots of light. A year or two later I go swimming at night, and decide to bring it as it looks cool under water.

It dies.:fail:
Count me very surprised that a light at that price is not waterproof.
I have avoided the brand since.

*Actually two deck cadets were going ashore and I gave them $100 to buy me a flashlight.
**Some incan, LED's were not really affordable and strong enough at the time.

Darktort
Edgetac
Rayovac

Darktork and Farka I think both would have had more success if more appropriately named.

RedForest UK said:

I'd have to say Romisen, they are a very budget brand but from my experience have put out a number of solid high performance torches, very comparable to many higher end, and much more expensive, lights. :thumbsup:

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+1

bought one for my dad and I was quite surprised.

It's a really cheap light but the MXDL AAA clicky light available on ebay and KD has really impressed me for just over 2 bucks. Feels very high quality and has very pleasing output.

Romisen? Everyone loves romisen. They're hardly underappreciated.

That darktort stuff looks great!

Might be time to investigate.

Dorcy- 220 Lumen Cree and 145 lumen Rebel headlamp
Energizer- 1aa Cree
Rayovac- 3C Cree
Brinkman- 3aaa Cree

These brands surprised me by selling a decent torch.

RedForest UK said:

I'd have to say Romisen, they are a very budget brand but from my experience have put out a number of solid high performance torches, very comparable to many higher end, and much more expensive, lights. :thumbsup:

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+2. I bought 2 for my grandkids, and of course, 1 for me. For a budget light, I think it's excellent.

maglite
ray o vac

Romisen.

Dorcy. Severely underrated lights. Good value and worth a look, especially with the 20% off and free shipping coupon over at CPFMP.

carrot said:

Dorcy. Severely underrated lights. Good value and worth a look, especially with the 20% off and free shipping coupon over at CPFMP.

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+1

I have a few of these, and they work extremely well. Especially happy with my Black AAA model without the fish-eye optic. So Uber rare that some veteran CPFers have not even seen a picture of it. Some even refuse to believe it's real.

Rayovac
Terralux (not talking about the drop-ins here)

Both are very solid, excellent beam profiles and good runtimes for the price. Dropped them many times without even a ding on them (except the bigger rayovac with 3C cells in it, but at least that one throws better than my TK11). The finish is harder to scratch than any of my 50 to 200$ lights!

The Arc6.

[flame suit on]

btw, if anyone's curious, I talked to Arc last week and it seems the recent delays are due to severe QC problems from their new circuit board vendor. That would be consistent with the problems people have reported with their Arc6's in the past few months. Their smaller lights are still working fine, however.

Monocrom said:

+1

I have a few of these, and they work extremely well. Especially happy with my Black AAA model without the fish-eye optic. So Uber rare that some veteran CPFers have not even seen a picture of it. Some even refuse to believe it's real.

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I've only seen it in CPF pictures. The fish eye is the only version I have seen in person, and they're all over ebay too. It (the non-eye) looks like a nice little Nichia task-light though.

I have to agree about Rayovac...My ROV Highbeam 3W 2AA (same as Sportsman Extreme), has turned out to be VERY reliable, and tough as nails. I use mine heavily at work and it has been a rock solid performer for nearly three tough years, despite numerous drops to concrete, tile, asphalt, stone, etc.

Highly recommended! :thumbsup:

fyrstormer said:

[flame suit on]

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