Kevin1322
Flashlight Enthusiast
I don't have, by far, the biggest collection of Vinh lights, nor the most expensive, but I'm sure I'm one of his longest customers which has enabled me to watch his flashlight enthusiasm, skills, and knowledge grow through the years. It's been fun for both of us, and likely many of you. Maybe you guys can share your memories too! I might be a little out of order with things; feel free to correct me if you want haha. I'm obviously just hitting some highlights and not all my lights and dealings with him.
It started in 2006. I was being to deployed to Afghanistan, with a 10 month stay for training before that. Obviously I wanted a good, dependable light for that. Surefire seemed to be the go to light then, but expensive. I never even considered spending that much for a light haha. I decided to go with the least expensive (I believe the P60). I remember being in some really dark places and being absolutely amazed at the output, especially the 120 lumen drop. Problem was the 60 lumen drop only gave an hour of run time and the 120 lumen only 20 minutes! It went with me everywhere, but I ended up getting a little Cabela's Alaskan Guide light too, which was way more useful.
Finished my tour end of 2008 and decided I wanted to see what else was out there as far as flashlights, found CPF, and ended up getting an Olight M20 Warrior Premium. It used an LED, was brighter, had three levels, and runtime lasted way longer. I became the envy of many of my unit members, and I really loved that light. Actually, sorry Surefire lovers, it was this light that I considered my first premium light. Vinh later modified this light to bring it up to date. I might even have him do it again haha.
From there, among other lights, I started getting into Solarforce lights, particularly the ones that could take the P60 style drops. "Normal" drops weren't enough for me and I got a few drops from a guy on here called Nailbender. He was doing custom P60 drops and eventually created his brand as Custom Lights. He told me that if I wanted more performance there was a new/newer guy on CPF named Vinh that liked to drive his P60 drops harder. It started with one drop, then 2, 3, and so forth. I loved his drops and all the different LEDs he was using as they came out.
Didn't take long before he found the metal film to make the heat transfer better. Far from what he is producing now!
The recession hit and new lights were definitely not in the budget for a long time. In 2013 I went to Alaska for awhile. Vinh was modifying lights by this time. I bought a Nitecore SRT7, wanted more throw, so I sent it to Vinh who put in a dedomed XM-L2 6500k in it. Even back then it was getting about a 1,000 lumens and I loved it! To this day I still use it and it's in my case when I go places.
A few months later Vinh introduced an absolute beast of a light for the time, the Supbeam K40vn. He had recently started offering engraving on his lights and I definitely wanted that. I got an email from his saying he kind of messed up on the engraving, that he decided to engrave the part around the V54 so you couldn't tell, and wanted to know if I wanted him to do the other two sides. I wasn't really sure what he meant but said it was ok. What started as a "mistake" turned into something he started to offer because it looked so great! I loved his engraving work, the light, and the performance!
Next Vinh decided to quit his job and career as an engineer to follow his passion of flashlights. In time he decided on the name "Sky Lumen" and was able to do a "branding" of his very first light! The name of the light was simply called Sky Lumen (the 1 added later when he came up with his second light), and to commemorate his first light he did many with serial numbers. Hopefully he still has number 1, but if not....hehe. It was an exciting time for him and his followers (as we've been called), but the light had incredible performance too. This was in 2014.
Not too long after he was able to release the Sky Lumen 2 and 2C (C=compact). As with the first one he was able to buy the basic lights non-branded, add his brand, and highly modify the inside and offer different LED options. Such a tiny 18650 and 18350 light with incredible performance, they could be quite the head turner. As you probably know, he still sells these lights, upgrading it as technology grows.
Also in 2014 he introduced to us the 6XPvn, his moddified version of the Eagletac MX25L3C. Such a small light even with multiple cells and pushing about 175k and 4200 OTF lumens, it became one of his favorite lights and he named it "the best of 2014."
Time passes and Vinh is able to release another branded light, the Sky Lumen Delta, and with it his new emblem (stamp? seal? I'm not sure haha)!
A more recent light also bares this symbol, the Tange.
Last year, 2019, after almost 2 years (might be more), Vinh finally achieved one of his dreams, one that many of us couldn't wait for; releasing his own light. Personally, I never doubted he would be able to reach this achievement, but I think even Vinh was surprised how durable the light would be. Seriously, if you haven't watched his torture test videos for this light you should. Amazing!!!
Vinh even had his own packaging designed for the light haha. Very professional Vinh! I love it!
Well, that's my story with Vinh, so far anyway. Hope you enjoyed it. If you think there are any other "milestone" lights that Vinh did, please let me know. Maybe I have it and can add it.
It started in 2006. I was being to deployed to Afghanistan, with a 10 month stay for training before that. Obviously I wanted a good, dependable light for that. Surefire seemed to be the go to light then, but expensive. I never even considered spending that much for a light haha. I decided to go with the least expensive (I believe the P60). I remember being in some really dark places and being absolutely amazed at the output, especially the 120 lumen drop. Problem was the 60 lumen drop only gave an hour of run time and the 120 lumen only 20 minutes! It went with me everywhere, but I ended up getting a little Cabela's Alaskan Guide light too, which was way more useful.
Finished my tour end of 2008 and decided I wanted to see what else was out there as far as flashlights, found CPF, and ended up getting an Olight M20 Warrior Premium. It used an LED, was brighter, had three levels, and runtime lasted way longer. I became the envy of many of my unit members, and I really loved that light. Actually, sorry Surefire lovers, it was this light that I considered my first premium light. Vinh later modified this light to bring it up to date. I might even have him do it again haha.
From there, among other lights, I started getting into Solarforce lights, particularly the ones that could take the P60 style drops. "Normal" drops weren't enough for me and I got a few drops from a guy on here called Nailbender. He was doing custom P60 drops and eventually created his brand as Custom Lights. He told me that if I wanted more performance there was a new/newer guy on CPF named Vinh that liked to drive his P60 drops harder. It started with one drop, then 2, 3, and so forth. I loved his drops and all the different LEDs he was using as they came out.
Didn't take long before he found the metal film to make the heat transfer better. Far from what he is producing now!
The recession hit and new lights were definitely not in the budget for a long time. In 2013 I went to Alaska for awhile. Vinh was modifying lights by this time. I bought a Nitecore SRT7, wanted more throw, so I sent it to Vinh who put in a dedomed XM-L2 6500k in it. Even back then it was getting about a 1,000 lumens and I loved it! To this day I still use it and it's in my case when I go places.
A few months later Vinh introduced an absolute beast of a light for the time, the Supbeam K40vn. He had recently started offering engraving on his lights and I definitely wanted that. I got an email from his saying he kind of messed up on the engraving, that he decided to engrave the part around the V54 so you couldn't tell, and wanted to know if I wanted him to do the other two sides. I wasn't really sure what he meant but said it was ok. What started as a "mistake" turned into something he started to offer because it looked so great! I loved his engraving work, the light, and the performance!
Next Vinh decided to quit his job and career as an engineer to follow his passion of flashlights. In time he decided on the name "Sky Lumen" and was able to do a "branding" of his very first light! The name of the light was simply called Sky Lumen (the 1 added later when he came up with his second light), and to commemorate his first light he did many with serial numbers. Hopefully he still has number 1, but if not....hehe. It was an exciting time for him and his followers (as we've been called), but the light had incredible performance too. This was in 2014.
Not too long after he was able to release the Sky Lumen 2 and 2C (C=compact). As with the first one he was able to buy the basic lights non-branded, add his brand, and highly modify the inside and offer different LED options. Such a tiny 18650 and 18350 light with incredible performance, they could be quite the head turner. As you probably know, he still sells these lights, upgrading it as technology grows.
Also in 2014 he introduced to us the 6XPvn, his moddified version of the Eagletac MX25L3C. Such a small light even with multiple cells and pushing about 175k and 4200 OTF lumens, it became one of his favorite lights and he named it "the best of 2014."
Time passes and Vinh is able to release another branded light, the Sky Lumen Delta, and with it his new emblem (stamp? seal? I'm not sure haha)!
A more recent light also bares this symbol, the Tange.
Last year, 2019, after almost 2 years (might be more), Vinh finally achieved one of his dreams, one that many of us couldn't wait for; releasing his own light. Personally, I never doubted he would be able to reach this achievement, but I think even Vinh was surprised how durable the light would be. Seriously, if you haven't watched his torture test videos for this light you should. Amazing!!!
Vinh even had his own packaging designed for the light haha. Very professional Vinh! I love it!
Well, that's my story with Vinh, so far anyway. Hope you enjoyed it. If you think there are any other "milestone" lights that Vinh did, please let me know. Maybe I have it and can add it.
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