Rate the brands

I'm curious to know what everyone thinks is the top 5 flashlight brands out there are based on based on quality/value/price/output

I have limited knowledge of all the brands out there but my top 5 would be

1. Zebralight
2. Sunwayman
3. JETBeam
4. 4sevens
5. Fenix

Again, my rating is based on my limited knowledge/experience with other brands (having only borrowed a couple other brand lights from friends). Everyone's input would be helpful in helping me spend my money more wisely on flashlight.

1. Zebralight
2. Sunwayman
3. JETBeam
4. 4sevens
5. Fenix

Click to expand...

1. FandyFire
2. SacredFire
3. UniqueFire
4. TrustFire
5. SureFire

leon2245 said:

1. FandyFire
2. SacredFire
3. UniqueFire
4. TrustFire
5. SureFire

Click to expand...

Those are the other brands I have tried and fall just short of making my list.

HDS
Peak
Zebralight
Eagletac
4/7's

I would consider the value/price poll option as just "value".

My two recent purchases (sc31fw sc600) definitely put Zebralight on top. Quite interested to see their slated 2012 lights as well.

As for second place, too many quality brands to rank, for me anyway.


As for Surefire, I do like the new design aesthetics. The side toggling tail switch is a thoughtful UI option. I'll excercise some reservations in rating them until we have hard products, and especially pricing. Most of their current lights under perform and are over priced, with light modes that are limiting. I think the Fury would have been better received outside the old Surefire fan base, had it allowed the use of an 18650 and a mid mode and perhaps a glass lens.

the 10 most popular production light companies are listed in the poll and they are all top quality brands on a similar high level.

just keep your mind open. every month we see "a new flashlight brand".
Sunwayman has celebrated its 1st anniversary not long ago and i would not include it in any "top 5" listing.

if you include Sunwayman, then should include ANY newcomer in the field. What about Maxtoch, Bronte, Skilhunt, Balder, FandyFire, Spark, Huntac, SpoLite, etc? Never heard of them? Then you cant setup a top5 either.

A top5 assumes that you know all (ALL) competitors and then pick the best 5.
i think SWM is great, but i also think that Xeno is equally great.

anyway, just my 2 cents. i am out.

Again, I have limited knowledge/access when it comes to other brands out there

I do not like polls like this,a waste of time and unfair for many reasons.Just my 10 cents worth but heck it is a free country for you to write what you think will interest the members.

shelm said:

A top5 assumes that you know all (ALL) competitors and then pick the best 5.
i think SWM is great, but i also think that Xeno is equally great.

anyway, just my 2 cents. i am out.

Click to expand...

When Xeno comes out with 500 lumen titanium-nitride coated titanium pocket lights with infinitely variable magnetic control rings, then they will be "equally great"... SWM have truly differentiated themselves with innovative offerings you can't get from any other manufacturer. All the other newcomers pretty much just make very similar clones of one another... Eagletac had some innovative products on paper last year (An SST-90 powered by included NiMH rechargeables, yes!), but they failed to produce them. So from them we have, for example, another new "tactical" single 18650 XML light. As if we needed another one of those... Ho hum...

I'd say just pay attention to reviews and talk of particular lights here on CPF. Always worked for me. New gems are being uncovered all the time.

Geoff

I dunno about my top 5, but the two that interest me the most are ZL and SWM. Right now I'm really torn between an SC51 and a V10A. I don't own a ZL so I will probably go with them next. Doesn't seem like I could go wrong with either. These two brands seem to have to have the most satisfied customers. Same with the higher end like SF and HDS. You can't throw a stick without hitting scores of satisfied customers.

That Xeno AA is on my short list too. It seems like a great value. I really want something simple with a diffuser for camping. Something that I won't be devastated over if it falls into a lake. People are saying some great things about this light. And as a novice flashaholic I'm probably not alone in giving weight to the words of someone like Selfbuilt, who seemed really impressed by it.

It's intruiging to rank these brands personally but seems like we each have our own methodolgy for determining things like quality and value. And seems like for some of these brands how much quality and value you get on any given day is a crap-shoot anyway.

Compared to a motor car, or a tablet computer, flashlights are relatively simple in their engineering and manufacture, hence a company does not have to be big like Toyota Motor Corporation or Samsung Electronics, to engineer flashlights.
Thus, there are many flashlight brands.
And many of them are good.
Each in their own different ways.
A flashlight that is good for one person, may not be good for another person.
So, it's horses for courses too.

Good brands include:
4Sevens.
Sunwayman and their V10R, V20C, T20CS 1x18650 with 278 meters of throw, T40CS, and V60C.
Zebralight and their SC600 [my current EDC]; btw, I think Zebralight is good, but it's not God - up to you who you want to believe.
Jetbeam with some popular RRT-0 pocket and the old RRT-3 1200 lumen thrower.
Nitecore have a lovely Tiny Munster - one of the top big multi-18650 floody flashlights.
HDS with their 1xCR123 size flashlights.
omglumens makes some lovely Deft EDC LR throwers.
Eagletac and their new G25C2, and the M3C4 XM-L too.
Surefire and their lovely Total Internal Reflection TIR hybrid reflector-lens like the Invictus UB3T etc.
LedLenser is peculiar, but make some lovely lights with zoomable lenses too.
Armytek makes some lovely throwers.
Fenix is good too with some lovely models.
Thrunite make some lovely lights too eg Catapult, and TN11 etc.
Olight and their 6x18650 SR90 with 634 meters of throw, or the SR92 6x1860 Triple XM-L flooder with 425 meters of flood-throw.
New kid Crelant has a superb 7G5 thrower, while Xtar has a class leading 470 meter flood-thrower.
That's 15 brands already?
Etc etc, many more...

Thus, I don't think it is pertinent to rate the top 5.
I think rating the 5 best selling brands could also be misleading too; the best selling, is not necessarily the best product.
Worse, what's good for one person, may not be so good for another person.
Rather, look at your own personal needs and wants, and treat each flashlight model on its own merits, as it tries to fulfill your needs and wants.

It's not like the world of cars, where Ferrari, Porsche, Mercedes and BMW etc, are always at the top.
Cars have relatively less competition, because you need big money, and we need to collaborate a lot of different types of engineers together, in order to produce a motor car.

Another example - with tablet computers, there is the top 3.
It is the Asus Tranformer Prime for the best hardware with a 1.3 GHz quad core and keyboard dock with 18 hours battery life, or the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 for the most vibrant organic AMOLED oLED colours and highest contrast screen, or the Apple iPad2 with the largest choice of software - something which the other manufacturers who so far focus on the hardware, have yet to master.
You godda be a big multinational to produce a tablet computer.
However, it is not so cut and dry with flashlights - with many more top brands available.

Flashlights are like clothing.
Clothing is also simple to engineer and fabricate.
Thus, there is also a plethora of brands of clothing available.
Talking about the Top 5 flashlight brands can be rather misleading, and more often than not, very controversial and disputable as to who should be included or not ...