Morning all Typically after seeing the posts in the Hardware Bargains thread the other day about the Olight S2R and discounting the idea of buying one as I already owned a perfectly good Fenix UC35 v2.0 it has now totally failed I have tried contacting Fenix customer support a number of times and am getting no response whatsoever - I have just gone back to Amazon who have given me a full refund (of £75). As such I now need a new flashlight. I think I would like to avoid Fenix again in the future considering the lack of customer support I have received - other than that I am fairly open to brands. I would like something that is: As powerful or more so than the UC35 v2.0 (1000 lumens+) A fairly similar size (about the size of a hand, rather than the size of a palm or much bigger). Fairly robust (water resistant, drop resistant). Rechargable (as I don't own a battery charger for anything other than AA/AAA batteries (Optional) A case / holster would also be nice Budget is about the same as above (~£75) or maybe a bit more if it'd be worth it - perhaps up to about £110. Cheers! GK
My go-to is one of these: Olight S30R III. No holster, but the pocket clip's strong and big enough for a belt. Fully rechargeable through the bundled magnetic dock, but uses custom 18650 batteries which you absolutely should not take out and put in a normal charger: they have positive and negative terminals on the top, to make the in-body charging work, and you're at risk of shorting 'em in a normal charger. You can replace the custom battery with a normal 18650, but you'll lose the in-body charging. Bright (1050 lumens on turbo), multiple modes (low, medium, high, turbo, strobe, moonlight 0.5 lumen mode), good battery life, magnetic base. Good throw, but if you're doing a lot of close-up stuff you might find... S2R Baton II a better option. I have the original S2R, and it's great - less throw than the S30R, but a completely flat circle with no hot-spot on close up stuff. The new S2R II is brighter (1150 instead of 1020) and has the posh new reversible pocket clip. It's also a bit shorter than the S30R III. Same custom battery and charging system as the S30R, but it's a small USB cable rather than a desktop dock.
Interesting, had a very good experience with Fenix support, also its holiday/epidemic season in china right now. Anyway, lately I'm a fan of 90° flashlights for general use (easy to clip to clothing, head, other surfaces, no more flashlight-in-mouth). Had A good experience with Armytek Elf C2 - rechargeable, magnetic base, non-slippery finish. And imo, at this size, 1000+ lumens is more of a gimmick/marketing, than anything really useful - its always momentary "turbo mode", that cant be used for long because flashlight simply overheats.
Yes and no, in my opinion. Yes, turbo mode is momentary (two minutes on the S30R III, before stepping down to 500 lumen high mode). No, I don't think it's completely without use: I've used it a number of times when high just hasn't quite been enough, to see deeper into a dark tunnel or to the bottom of my water butt or the like - and in those cases I've only needed it for a handful of seconds before switching it back to high or medium myself. If you're a fan of "defence strobes," it's also used in that mode (I believe, I'm not staring into the flashing thing trying to guess whether it's 500 or 1050 lumens...)
This is a valid point if you're serious about the 1000+ lumens. You can get a Zebralight SC600 that will push 1100 lumens for the full two hours that the battery allows but this will mean buying 18650s and a charger.
As someone with a large supply of 18650s and a 4-bay XTRA charger, I've been meaning to look into a decent pocket torch. I would recommend Samsung 25R or LG HG2 batteries. Fogstar is a trusted, retailer. Do must of these torches use 18650s or do some use 21700/20700?
Much appreciated - I'll look into those. So obviously you're keen on Olight torches I'll take a look at their website to see if any others catch my eye as well. I didn't realise they were a Chinese company - that would at least explain (if not excuse) their lack of reply. I'll take a look at 90º flashlights too as I hadn't considered those. I have occasionally found the turbo (1000 lumen) mode useful - I wouldn't need something that could output that power for a long period of time. Some do use 21700 and, as Gareth has said, some use proprietary 18650s so they can be charged in the flashlight.[/QUOTE]
I would expect most of the companies, or at least manufacturing is based in Shenzhen and the LEDs are probably from Xiamen which is in the next province. Some reliable sites: https://www.fasttech.com/ - make sure it says authentic if you want an authentic model. https://www.gearbest.com/ https://www.efun.top/ https://www.3fvape.com/
