Flood style beam

Hi All,

I hope you can give me some suggestions. I recently purchased an OLight m2x for maximum throw, but I am now looking for something with a ton of flood for back country hiking/camping. I am looking for something up to $120 - $150 I looked at the Thrunite TN30, acebeam k60 (a little more than I want to spend), but im looking for other options as well. I would like it to be small (ish) - pop can style is ok. I would like to light up a huge area since back country is so dark. I guess a little bit of throw on it would be nice (to give the best of both worlds) but I am mainly going for flood. Im a go big or go home kind of guy so the brighter the better

The K60 can be viewed as a flooder that throws or a thrower that floods.

In my opinion it's the best all-around light currently available. If you have any specific questions about it, please ask.

Two that I have always heard considered floody are the Nitecore TM06 and the Olight Mini Intimidator II. From looking at both, I think that the Olight probably has a slight edge in floodiness, since the lens is actually textured to give a little extra diffusion.

For flood with a little bit of throw look at the Nitecore P30. It has a reasonably bright wide spill, with a nice tight beam in the center for looking further forward. And the price is very reasonable too.

Maybe look at Elzetta Bones with the flood lens. 18650 or 2 cr123. Very tough. Nice neutral tint, wall of light at 600 honest lumens. Just that it's on the outer edge of your budget and single mode only. Very basic, on-off clicky but extremely dependable.

Klarus G20 is all flood...2000+ lumens....$85-100
Acebeam EC50 Gen ll is mostly flood....2500+ lumens....$120

Maybe the BLF Q8 group buy.

$40 gets you a 6000+ lumen flashlight with over 480 meters throw designed and tested by the flashaholics on BLF with a custom-programmed driver.

Fireclaw18 said:

Maybe the BLF Q8 group buy.

$40 gets you a 6000+ lumen flashlight with over 480 meters throw designed and tested by the flashaholics on BLF with a custom-programmed driver.

Click to expand...

Group Buy details? Didn't see it on the BLF forum just now.....


EDIT: Found it.....wow, a lot of thought into bringing in a new light from the ground up. Sounds too complicated for a newb like me. Even having (4) 18650s without a USB recharge is beyond me, LOL

Those seem to me like huge, heavy lights with really high outputs for hiking. The K60 weighs 3 times with batteries as much as your m2x.

But I'm the sort who really likes the darkness in the back-country and only steps up the brightness when needed.

For something in between those 4-cell beasts and the more common 18650 lights, what about one of the handful of 26650-powered lights available? The Acebeam EC50 (flood) or EC60 (throw) and Olight R50 (in between) all seem like good options to me.

If you're looking for a nice "step up" for outdoor use, I might consider a warm color temp, high CRI. Lumens look great on spec sheets, but not all lumens look great in nature. Since 2015, the standard has been the Nichia version of the Noctigon M43 as the smallest, best high CRI 4x18650. I still think it is a great demonstration of what a light can look like and feel like, even though there are now (larger and more expensive) higher lumen options. Even the UI has stood the test of time.

Olight SR MINI II
120L 35:00h
600L 7:00h
1600L 2:30h
3200L BURST (1.7h aggerated)

The Olight SR Mini ll is a good flooder (own one) and a reasonable package size.
Now for a little larger light, look at a Niwalker MM18 gen 1(discontinued but still out there).
This IS a flooder And a thrower. I picked one up when the gen 2's came out for $129.

Just my 2 cents..... Lateck,

If you want something really small, perhaps a DQG 26650 with 7x XPG2. Over 2000 lumens on turbo for a short period of time and not much bigger than a 26650 cell.

Or you can go super-small and get an Emisar D4. 4300 lumens max, but only usable for very brief 10-20 second bursts on turbo due to heat. Powered by one 18650.

Though a headlamp, you can still consider Acebeam H10.

mcease022 said:

...I am now looking for something with a ton of flood for back country hiking/camping.
.. I would like to light up a huge area since back country is so dark.
...Im a go big or go home kind of guy so the brighter the better

Click to expand...

I know this is going to sound crazy, but I do a lot of camping and find that the best way to 'light up' the woods is to just let your own night vision work by using low low outputs, like 0.5-3 lumens from a small floody XML 16340/14500 light. You'll be able see far deeper into the woods just on ambient moon/star/cloud-bounced light, it'll be a much nicer outdoor experience, a tiny batt will last you weeks of camping trips, and when you do momentarily need to see across a field, 300 lumens will feel like 3000.

To ease into this, just try spending a few hours outside on clear night with a full moon and no artificial light. Also when you wake from sleep for a middle of the night pee, try using a 1 lumen output to get to the bathroom - you should find it searingly painful.

I know CPF loves crazy lumens/brightness but really the best flashlight turbo charger, and battery enhancer, is already built into our own eyes - rhodopsin - you just need to learn how not to photo-bleach it all away.

re rhodopsin: Yes. It would be nice if someone made a light that starts at zero brightness and ramps up SLOWLY while you hold the button down. To a very low max Lm. And with 90 deg angle head & belt clip.

qqqqqqqman said:

Group Buy details? Didn't see it on the BLF forum just now.....


EDIT: Found it.....wow, a lot of thought into bringing in a new light from the ground up. Sounds too complicated for a newb like me. Even having (4) 18650s without a USB recharge is beyond me, LOL

Click to expand...

Trying to get this post to work for the fourth time now...
Can't find the as-built specs, nor figure out who & how to pay for it. Is there a thread revealing their method for group buys?