AA focusable zoom adjustable lights

NickBose

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Jun 27, 2006
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After checking the Zebralight site almost daily last few months for their Q50 release I gave up hope and turn my attention to focusable AA.
I have the Sipik from eBay which is pretty good and the X2000 from DX (which is quite crappy). Is there a roundup for this kind of lights anywhere or someone with a large collection can show off their lights and give some opinion on what's best?
 

AusKipper

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Nov 11, 2008
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I have a Fenix E20, AA, zoom adjustable, cheapish, reliable, and horribly bad tint (on mine)

Romisen Flood to throw comes in AA, but i have the warm CR123 version, and I LOVE that light for the price, its just so fun to play with :)

Led lenser probably makes one too, but I cant be bothered going to go find out which model, and I dont own any led lensers to share my oppinion anyway.
 

Jash

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Nov 4, 2009
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I bought my first flood/zoom light just this week. It's a 2AA that is about as thick as a CR123 light would be. I couldn't help myself, it had decent machining and an XP-E. It's an alright light, not as robust as anything from 4Sevens of Fenix, but it's still fairly sturdy looking (time will tell).

The tint isn't too bad, a bit purple around the edge but not annoyingly so. Says it's 78 lumens and it seem about right, gives roughly the same amount of light as a Quark Tac on high (85 lumens).

Don't think I'll ever buy another flood/zoom light. I just don't see the point. Probably will put this one in the tool box for when I need light but haven't thought to bring something decent with me.
 

AusKipper

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Don't think I'll ever buy another flood/zoom light. I just don't see the point. Probably will put this one in the tool box for when I need light but haven't thought to bring something decent with me.

:O blasphemy!!

The point is that one minute you have a great pure flood light for finding something you dropped on the floor, and a few quick twists and you can light up something 100+ meters away.

In a perfect AusKipper world all lights would be flood to throw :p

But anyway, each to their own opinion...
 

ico

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He meant only that we should always bring at least 2 lights. So that you can have a flood and throw at the same time :thumbsup:
 

AusKipper

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He meant only that we should always bring at least 2 lights. So that you can have a flood and throw at the same time :thumbsup:

Perhaps.

I do edc both a Zebralight H501 (pure flood) and a Quark 123 Turbo (throwyish)
 

Jash

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:O blasphemy!!

The point is that one minute you have a great pure flood light for finding something you dropped on the floor, and a few quick twists and you can light up something 100+ meters away.

Yes, but that would make being a flashaholic really boring. You'd only need two lights, one big, one little. Sorry mate, that's just not possible for me.
 

joe1512

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Jan 7, 2010
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The knockoffs are all about equally good. Due to patent issues, Led Lenser has the only "good" flood to throw lights. The rest are gonna be cheap knockoffs from those immune to prosecution. Wolf Eyes also has a couple of flood to throw.
However, remember that XR-Es won't be very bright, and XP-E, XP-G, and XM-L are progressively fatter emitters which means they won't throw as well.
So a multi emitter approach is really the only decent way to get high flood brightness and adequate throw. (well, that and overdriving an XR-E)


Wow, that lenslight looks pretty awesome. Never seen them before.
 

DREW297

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May 22, 2010
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About a year ago my wife bought me a NEBO redline. now its a cheap light, direct drive and not very bright but... the optics are actually good. better than any of the led lensers i've seen, which have a ton of artifacts and dougnut holes. the nebo has a nice even flood with no darks spots and very little artifacts. the spot is pretty good as well, if i unscrew the bezel a bit i can get the sweet spot and a perfect led die projection. really surprized! i wanted to use the optic for a build and junk the rest but havent had the time.
 

jorn

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T
However, remember that XR-Es won't be very bright, and XP-E, XP-G, and XM-L are progressively fatter emitters which means they won't throw as well.
The xr-e sends most of its light in a 80 degree cone, so more of the light hits the optic. Xp-g/xm-l sounds more impressive with more emitter lumens, but they send most of the light in a 130 degree cone, so more light is lost. The more you focus for throw, the less lumens will actually hit the optic and go out the front.

I think the microfire pioneer is a pretty well buildt zoomlight, but it's not aa. Got 3 glass lenses where the closest lense is a big "hollow dome" that the led sits in when focused for full flood. They claimed their optics could catch 90% of the light. I guess there would be more than 10% loss going troug all 3 thick glass lenses, but it's really good both in throw and flood. Have modded it with many leds and ended up with a xr-e. Originally had a Gd+ led, then tried xpg, xm-l, xp-e, and ended up with a xr-e. It got big asperics so it will throw as the big boys.
 
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Mhoeven

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Nov 5, 2011
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As a follow-up for my sipik sk68 (aa zoom) and ultrafire C3 Q5 I am looking around for a budget AA or AAA powered XM-L zoom. :grin2:

The romisen RC-29 seems nice running Q5-WC on 1xAA (180 lumen advertised), but I was hoping for something brighter available.

So far I did notice two intresting lights;
- Romisen RC U8 running XP-E R5 emitter on 3xAAA (350 lumen max advertised, no zoom) for around $ 20
- an unbranded "power style XM-L T6" running XML-T6 emitter on 3xAAA (800 lumen advertised, actual?) for around $25
So far I didn't found test results or experiences of this power style light, but it seems an attractive bang for the buck. :candle:
Could it be the power style puts out more light?
 
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