Help me choose (lumapower trust) or (zebralight sc50 or sc51)

I just sold a light, so now it is time to turn it into another light. The light i use the most by far is my d10gdp with tritium insert. I think the d10 is rated at 130 lumen on high. What seems to impress me most is brightness, i love getting very bright light out of small packages. It would also be cool if i could find a spot on one of these lights to add a piece or two of tritium. That would weigh heavily on my decision, but i really dont see a spot on either. "when are they going to learn what pushes a flashlight lovers buttons". I actually have a couple of 2x5.5 trit vials laying around.

Trust -
Pros. Sounds crazy bright , 350 emitter lumens , probably resulting in what? 250 otf? I like the color, runs on all aa batteries. Appears that it may have a larger reflector so i am thinking it may out throw the sc51.

Pros for ZL sc50-51. - very small , like the top mounted button. Alot of light for its size




Now it sounds like the trust will win for output and probably throw. The zebralight wins for its tiny edc size . Doesnt look like i will be able to get tritium in either one. Would love to hear some pros and cons from you guys that have any experience with these lights. I do not buy that many lights so i want to get it right

I don't have any of those two lights, but what I know is that they are very different. Size and beam differences aside, the Zebra will give you all of its great brightness on any NiMh, alkaline or Li-ion cell, while the trust will only shine at full brightness with Li-ion cells, while it will give you lower output on different cells.

dont know much about the lumapower, but i did own a sc50w, and liked it more than my ramping D10 R2.

pocket clip worked great, machining quality was very good. and the UI is awesome. from "off" you can turn it on to low, med or high, with a soft press for low. double click for med. and quick press for high. the beam was also flawless.

sc50 supports 14500 li-ion, and thats how i used mine. made quite a difference compared to a energizer lithium primary. sorry to say i dont have any eneloops.
sc51 does not support 14500 li-ion. but can achieve 200 lumens from an eneloop.

Keep in mind the Trust lights only have max performance when run on a Li-Ion. I don't recall what the output is on a AA or NiMH, but it's much lower, around 150 lumens or so. It sounds like it's a boost driver that goes direct drive with a 14500.

The ZL is regulated with all battery types, which is a design I prefer. I don't want the performance to be limited to using only a certain battery type. Some don't mind, but it takes better engineering to design a driver that runs properly under varying conditions.

On a NiMH, I think the ZL may be brighter (forgot which model it is, but some are about 200 lumens on an Eneloop).

Good points so far, but i will say this. I have been wanting to order some 14500's for a couple of years to run in my d10. So i plan to get a couple anyway. The lumapower will probably only do 100 lumens on alkalines but that is ok because that would only be in an emergency type situation.
If the sc51 does 200 otf , and the trust does 250 otf , do you think i will be able to see tbe difference. Also. Does it give the reflector circumference anywhere on these lights. I want the beam to mimic my d10, a very useful beam with some throw and flood. When i look at the business end of the tiny zl sc51 with an xpg i wonder how it can muster up a hotspot. Would love some outdoor beamshot comparisons.

jsr said:

Keep in mind the Trust lights only have max performance when run on a Li-Ion. I don't recall what the output is on a AA or NiMH, but it's much lower, around 150 lumens or so. It sounds like it's a boost driver that goes direct drive with a 14500.

The ZL is regulated with all battery types, which is a design I prefer. I don't want the performance to be limited to using only a certain battery type. Some don't mind, but it takes better engineering to design a driver that runs properly under varying conditions.

On a NiMH, I think the ZL may be brighter (forgot which model it is, but some are about 200 lumens on an Eneloop).

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Are you saying that the trust is not regulated on 14500s. If so that is worrisome?

jsr said:

On a NiMH, I think the ZL may be brighter (forgot which model it is, but some are about 200 lumens on an Eneloop).

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The Zebralight SC51, not yet shipping, is supposed to hit 200 lumen output on an Eneloop, at least for a few minutes. Not unlike the Fenix LD10 R4 it drops somewhat in short order.

What really tickles my tank is the "High 2" output - which is almost but not quite the same level of output as the previously industry leading Fenix LD10 R4 on 'turbo', only for significantly longer. At that High 2 level the output trace is pretty flat. Good stuff.

Can't wait to see flashlight industry leapfrog happen again.

bigfish5 said:

Are you saying that the trust is not regulated on 14500s. If so that is worrisome?

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I don't know for sure, but usually when a light's output on a Li-Ion is significantly brighter than on a primary, that means it's going into direct drive. If it's a standard boost driver, it will get bypassed and go to direct drive when the input voltage is greater than the output voltage (that's how boost circuits work).
It will likely have the discharge curve of a Li-Ion (which is decently flat by itself aside from the sharp immediate drop, then it's a fairly smooth slow drop until protection kicks in).

Yes, the SC51 was the one I was thinking about. Too bad it doesn't support 14500s. I'm thinking about picking up a SC50w.

jsr said:

Yes, the SC51 was the one I was thinking about. Too bad it doesn't support 14500s. I'm thinking about picking up a SC50w.

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I've been using an SC50w+ for about three weeks now as my primary EDC; I've simply fallen in love with this little light. Fantastically small, not much bigger than a QMini AA, beautiful tint, and a nice smooth beam. It has a large spill area with a tight hot spot that throws fairly well (better than my Quark XPG in fact), and it sinks heat exceptionally well. I run mine on an L91 for the lighter weight and because I like having the strobe as the second setting on the high mode as I like to walk at night.

As for 200 vs 250 lumens, it should be noticeable but not enough of a real difference that it will have any practical effect on what you're doing. In other words, it won't mean that you wouldn't get a job done, or whatever it is you're using the light for, because you didn't have that 50 lumens more.

I dont know guys, what tickles my tank right now is blinding output. My old d10 has i think 130 otf lumens on nimh. Probably will do what, 160 on a 14500? While i love the sound of the zebra i just worry the output wont appear like much of an improvement over my d10. Other than more output i still like my d10.