Guumbo's Flashlight Thoughts

Beam Types See Nitecore:  The Anatomy of a Flashlight Beam  for details Floody  - a wider beam intended to illuminate a large area Spotty / Thrower  - a light which throws a tight beam a long distance with a small spot at the end Blended Beam  - A beam composed of both floody and spotty features.  Reflector Types Smooth  - typically used for throwers to direct the beam down range in a tighter spot Orange Peel  - typically used in floody lights. The texture causes the light to spread out at various angles from the head of the light. Lens Types The lens will either be a flat piece of glass which relies on the reflector the change the profile of the beam. An aspherical, typically flat on one side and convex on the other. Or a TIR lens. TIR - T otal Internal Reflection  -  A  TIR  lens is an optical lens built on the principal of  (TIR) .  TIR lenses are often cone-shaped and rotationally symmetrical, with a refracti...

This is an unofficial page created and maintained by me without authorization by Convoy . I owe this list to another user on Flashlight Enthusiasts . When I find their name I will given them appropriate credit. This is NOT a complete list. LED Types SST40 Brightness: High (up to ~2000 lumens depending on current). CRI: Typically lower (~70), designed for brightness over color accuracy. Efficiency: Good at high drive currents. Highlights: Popular for throw (long-distance beam) due to high output and small die. SFT40 Brightness: High (up to ~2200 lumens). CRI: Typically low (~70), optimized for throw. Efficiency: Comparable to SST40 but with a de-domed design for enhanced throw. Highlights: Excellent thrower LED due to focused beam. KW CULPM1.TG Brightness: Moderate (~1000-1500 lumens). CRI: Low (~70). Efficiency: Very high, designed for throwers. Highlights: Extremely tight hotspot for maximum beam distance. B35AM Brightness: Moderate (~600-800 lumens). CRI: High (95+). Efficiency: Mode...

 I always loved flashlights. My first was an old lantern my dad had in the back of a closet. It had a big hoop of a red handle. The body was a rough brushed aluminum tube with plenty of room for one of those huge 6V latern batteries with the 2 springs on the top. the handle half moon was connected to an octagon shaped base with the main tube able to spin 360 degrees at the axis. One end was red with the "mode" switch just like one of those rotary switches on a lamp. Rotating it switched the modes between the flat faced white light on one side and the domed red light on the other. The modes were: White On Solid > Red On Solid > Red On Blinking. When I put the battery in and turned it on that first time my eyes glowed almost as much as the bright white light. I turned the rotary switch until it clicked. My smile disappeared as the white light went out. I thought it broke, until I saw the red light on the bottom had come on. Then I rotated it around a few times until I acc...

Soon after I started accumulating flashlights I of course started needing some extra batteries. I started digging into "the most trustworthy place on the internet" to buy batteries, Amazon :( I saw 18650 batteries with 9,900 mAh capacities ! Those were so much better than the ones I had (riiiiiight). I bought some and started swapping out the old low powered batteries for the new SUPER powerful 9,900 mAh batteries. Then I noticed I was spending much more time charging and my flashlights were dying faster. I read some reviews stating how these were fake batteries and there TESTS proved it. It took a while to click. But eventually I started researching how to TEST the TRUE CAPACITY of a battery. I shopped around until I landed on an XTAR VC4SL. It fit my budget at the time. After testing all my SkyWolfEye and Tokeyla batteries I realized my error. Very few Li-Ion batteries sold on Amazon are worth buying. From the recommendations in FaceBook groups like Flashlight Enthusiasts ,...

When buying a good flashlight, I find it helpful to go through the following checklist before contacting customer service: Ensure all plastic discs have bee removed from the interior at either end of the tube These are protective discs typically only used when the flashlight is shipped with a battery and prevents power from being drained from the battery or accidental powering up the flashlight. Ensure batteries are properly orientated Examine battery for the + or - Ensure head and tail are fully tightened onto the tube I missed this with my Sofirn Q8+ and only needed 1/4 more of a turn to properly activate the power Ensure there is the word "Sofirn"(or other vendor of the light), "Molicell", "VapCell", "XTAR" or "Samsung". Otherwise continue at your own risk. Ensure the batteries have been fully charged either through the internal charger or more preferably in an external charger Read the manual and verify the mode you are in and how t...