# Defiant 493 lumen 3c new madness



## lightinsky (Jan 28, 2013)

I walked into Home Depot tonight to see what new lights they have in flashlight section and noticed a few feet to the left a whole bunch of these Defiant 3C cell 493 lumen lights. This is is huge bigger than my 3D cell maglite by an inch and the head on it is huge. I couldn't find any reviews on this new one only the prior smaller 3C version 550 lumen which I had before in December 2012 but returned because I didn't like the green glow ring in it.

Anyway I opened this thing up and it is bright and throws a ton of light far out there. If you google "Defiant 493 lumens" it should come up on a search which I tried.
Nicely made, threads a great, only gripe is the plastic lens but who cares for $24!!!


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## skeeterbait (Jan 28, 2013)

"Over 1400 ft" on 500 lumens. Probably a bit of a stretch. Any idea of the run time? It is a bit bigger than a Surefire Fury for the same claimed output.


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## mikekoz (Jan 30, 2013)

I just picked up one of these. It looks like the one they were selling before Christmas with a larger head. The one I bought has a purple-ish tint, but my other 3C Defiants are milky white. How does the tint look on all of yours?


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## skids625 (Jan 31, 2013)

HI- none at MD home depots 2 wks ago, but got one in 4days from the online home depot store $6 shipping. I wonder what actual lum. are as it kills my old 6aa polestar and MG pli BUT EVEN MY NEWER P-ROCKET II- IS IT JUST DUE TO THE LARGER head/lens area? I am getting a couple more for family.asap!


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## JeffInDFW (Feb 3, 2013)

Brand new member here, BUT, I have been running your server into the ground for the last 2-3 months reading and learning. I'm another of the "I thought D cell Maglites were the best until recently" guys. I'm 45, and remember when they WERE the best. I got suckered into replacing all 8 of my regular Maglites with the "new LED" Maglites. Total garbage. I can strike a match and get more light. That is when I started searching, and had my eyes opened, thanks to YOU guys. HOLY COW flashlights have changed! Learning about the CR123 and 18650 batteries (which I did not even know existed), etc etc etc. I worked so hard to narrow it down to a few different LED flashlights....Doing hours and hours and hours of research.....Looking forward to the day I could post here about how I had made my first purchase of a big bling, respected name, big dollar, OH WOW flashlight.....But instead, I'm in the far corner of the HD in Lewisville Texas looking at BULK ELECTRICAL WIRE, and I see this display for a 493 lumen flashlight?! Defiant brand? Uses -C CELLS-?! Oh, come on. This is a joke, right? $22? I actually PASSED IT BY! But, on my second pass, I couldn't resist any longer. I knew it was going to be junk, but for $22 it was worth the risk. I sat here ALL DAY waiting for it to get dark! I knew my new toy was going to disappoint.....But I was hoping. Finally, darkness! I snuck out of the house.....knew wife unit would give me MAJOR crap for being a nerd. I shined it down the alley. WOW! No, BIG WOW! Are you kidding me!??!? WOW!!!!!!!!!! I went to grab my wife! Wife and daughter judged it "COOL!". Wife knows I have been looking at $200 flashlights. She asks how much this one cost. $22. She tells me to go buy more.

Before I do that......I want to go see if I can find ANYTHING about it on the internet. I was really surprised when I found YOU GUYS actually dug this little light! I just KNEW I was going to come on here and find you guys talking about how "the capacitor wire was clearly not up to the task", and a whole bunch of other technical stuff I don't understand, but understand enough to know it is a piece of junk. But, that didn't happen! I mean, this thing is not up to the standards of the other lights I was looking at, but.......Dang. For $22, she does pretty good!

SO, Instead of getting to brag about my uber expensive hipster flashlight, I get to come on as my first post and admit that I am feeling pretty good about my first super flashlight. The Cheapie Home Depot Defiant 493 $22 special!

OH......and I'm getting up first thing on Super Bowl Sunday to go buy a bunch more......Someday, I'll still get my fancy flashlight. Thank you, everyone for all your posts here at candlepowerforum. Kidding and joking aside, I have burned hundreds of hours reading thru your archives trying to come up to speed. So much great information you have all shared.


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## mikekoz (Feb 3, 2013)

JeffInDFW said:


> Brand new member here, BUT, I have been running your server into the ground for the last 2-3 months reading and learning. I'm another of the "I thought D cell Maglites were the best until recently" guys. I'm 45, and remember when they WERE the best. I got suckered into replacing all 8 of my regular Maglites with the "new LED" Maglites. Total garbage. I can strike a match and get more light. That is when I started searching, and had my eyes opened, thanks to YOU guys. HOLY COW flashlights have changed! Learning about the CR123 and 18650 batteries (which I did not even know existed), etc etc etc. I worked so hard to narrow it down to a few different LED flashlights....Doing hours and hours and hours of research.....Looking forward to the day I could post here about how I had made my first purchase of a big bling, respected name, big dollar, OH WOW flashlight.....But instead, I'm in the far corner of the HD in Lewisville Texas looking at BULK ELECTRICAL WIRE, and I see this display for a 493 lumen flashlight?! Defiant brand? Uses -C CELLS-?! Oh, come on. This is a joke, right? $22? I actually PASSED IT BY! But, on my second pass, I couldn't resist any longer. I knew it was going to be junk, but for $22 it was worth the risk. I sat here ALL DAY waiting for it to get dark! I knew my new toy was going to disappoint.....But I was hoping. Finally, darkness! I snuck out of the house.....knew wife unit would give me MAJOR crap for being a nerd. I shined it down the alley. WOW! No, BIG WOW! Are you kidding me!??!? WOW!!!!!!!!!! I went to grab my wife! Wife and daughter judged it "COOL!". Wife knows I have been looking at $200 flashlights. She asks how much this one cost. $22. She tells me to go buy more.
> 
> Before I do that......I want to go see if I can find ANYTHING about it on the internet. I was really surprised when I found YOU GUYS actually dug this little light! I just KNEW I was going to come on here and find you guys talking about how "the capacitor wire was clearly not up to the task", and a whole bunch of other technical stuff I don't understand, but understand enough to know it is a piece of junk. But, that didn't happen! I mean, this thing is not up to the standards of the other lights I was looking at, but.......Dang. For $22, she does pretty good!
> 
> ...




These are very good lights for the money as I now have two of the "older" models and one of the new ones, like the one you just picked up. How well they hold up over time, who knows, but most flashlights are simple devices and there is no reason why these cannot give you years of service. You do not have to spend even close to $200.00 to get a good and bright flashlight. Read some of the posts on the forum regarding the Nitecore EA4! 860 lumens (for 3 minutes) on 4AA batteries and it will fit in the palm of your hand! If you are a Costco member, they were selling a Coast flashlight before the holidays that put out 1000 lumens and also had a lower setting, all for $49.99! I heard some of the stores lately were closing them out for $29.99, but I cannot verify that.


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## dc38 (Feb 11, 2013)

Any folks in the Edison NJ Area for Home Depot 944, You're welcome. I was helped graciously by no less than 3 (13 in total) employees who helped me scour the ENTIRE store. When they couldn't find it, a manager took down my details to contact me when/if they could find it. I got a call a few minutes after getting home, and they found them  I'm goin in tomorrow to pick up my two lol


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## BobLight (Feb 25, 2013)

I just picked up one of these tonight and was thinking, it's only $23, I'll give it a try. It even came with batteries. If I don't like it, I'll return it. As others have said, I too wasn't expecting much. I put the batteries in and took it outside and it was like WOW! Very impressive. It puts out a lot of white light. I think they are overly optimistic about the throw, but I can say it really lights things up at 100+yds. It really lights up a decent sized area too, certainly not a narrow beam. It supposedly has 5 hours of battery life. I wonder how long before it steps down? Has anyone checked it yet?


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## LEDninja (Jun 26, 2013)

I just picked up the 550 lumen version. Missed the fact it has a GREEN glow ring.

The specs are to FL1 standard. The FL1 standard requires the light at the throw distance to be similar to moonlight. Technically 0.25 lux. I always divide the FL1 throw by 4 for a more realistic usable distance. So the 244M FL1 throw is actually only useful at 244/4=61M.
Dividing by 4 is very useful for all flashlights that use the FL1 standard. Maglite, Fenix etc.

Mine is a creamy white. No purple or green tint.


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## StorminMatt (Jun 26, 2013)

LEDninja said:


> Mine is a creamy white. No purple or green tint.



The one thing I HAVE to say about Defiant is that they get it right with the tint. I've not once gotten one of their lights that isn't a good, pure white. This is certainly more than can be said for lots of more expensive lights.


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## dc38 (Nov 7, 2013)

Just an idea, probably been mentioned before. Anybody try a 25500 in this light? Thinking about cutting it down and rethreading the tail, with some difficulty. (it'd be kind of cool to have a stubby light cannon running off a single cell)


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## StarHalo (Nov 7, 2013)

dc38 said:


> Just an idea, probably been mentioned before. Anybody try a 25500 in this light? Thinking about cutting it down and rethreading the tail, with some difficulty. (it'd be kind of cool to have a stubby light cannon running off a single cell)



It's an old thread, your idea would be better applied to the current tri-emitter 1000 lumen model.


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## dc38 (Nov 7, 2013)

I thought about that too, but i'm all about anti-ergonomics, lol. Compact and inefficient designs to counterbalance the balanced and thoughtful designs  Also, a non-aspheric/ single non-proprietary cell that touches out to 50k lux for less than 50 bucks would be awesome!


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## Skimo (Nov 7, 2013)

Couldn't you use a spacer instead of cutting it down?


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## dc38 (Nov 7, 2013)

Skimo said:


> Couldn't you use a spacer instead of cutting it down?



I could, but I kinda want a stubby light. i'm actually rethinking my strategy. I think i will still cut it down, but i'm going to partition the unused part of the body to act as extenders. Granted, I WILL have to get some more tube to compensate for the length lost when threading the body together..suddenly i'm not so enthusiastic about modding a 13$ light lol.


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## TEEJ (Nov 7, 2013)

They've upped the ante:





































Its a triple LED 1,000 Lumen light with a claimed 470 meter range ( ~ 55k cd)

3 D cells though, not C's


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## dc38 (Nov 7, 2013)

TEEJ said:


> They've upped the ante:
> 
> Its a triple LED 1,000 Lumen light with a claimed 470 meter range ( ~ 55k cd)
> 
> 3 D cells though, not C's



Both lux ratings about the same...how floody is it compared to the st? How hot does it get?


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## dc38 (Dec 12, 2013)

Just for kicks. No pics at the moment, but I removed much of the dome on the 3C, and it throws much better than it did before, albeit with an overall reduction in color intensity (somehow lowers the lumens..?) It has a much warmer tint now, reminiscent of the pee yellowgreen that JBeams so prominently display. Didn't get a chance to check the lux yet, but the diameter of the hotspot @ 30' is about 1' in diameter now and the tint is much easier on the eyes. Is it safe to assume that the lux is around 100K? Not sure, and won't know until I get a chance to measure it.


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## rotts4u (Dec 7, 2014)

JeffInDFW said:


> Brand new member here, BUT, I have been running your server into the ground for the last 2-3 months reading and learning. I'm another of the "I thought D cell Maglites were the best until recently" guys. I'm 45, and remember when they WERE the best. I got suckered into replacing all 8 of my regular Maglites with the "new LED" Maglites. Total garbage. I can strike a match and get more light. That is when I started searching, and had my eyes opened, thanks to YOU guys. HOLY COW flashlights have changed! Learning about the CR123 and 18650 batteries (which I did not even know existed), etc etc etc. I worked so hard to narrow it down to a few different LED flashlights....Doing hours and hours and hours of research.....Looking forward to the day I could post here about how I had made my first purchase of a big bling, respected name, big dollar, OH WOW flashlight.....But instead, I'm in the far corner of the HD in Lewisville Texas looking at BULK ELECTRICAL WIRE, and I see this display for a 493 lumen flashlight?! Defiant brand? Uses -C CELLS-?! Oh, come on. This is a joke, right?  $22? I actually PASSED IT BY! But, on my second pass, I couldn't resist any longer. I knew it was going to be junk, but for $22 it was worth the risk. I sat here ALL DAY waiting for it to get dark! I knew my new toy was going to disappoint.....But I was hoping. Finally, darkness! I snuck out of the house.....knew wife unit would give me MAJOR crap for being a nerd. I shined it down the alley. WOW! No, BIG WOW! Are you kidding me!??!? WOW!!!!!!!!!! I went to grab my wife! Wife and daughter judged it "COOL!". Wife knows I have been looking at $200 flashlights. She asks how much this one cost. $22. She tells me to go buy more.
> 
> Before I do that......I want to go see if I can find ANYTHING about it on the internet. I was really surprised when I found YOU GUYS actually dug this little light! I just KNEW I was going to come on here and find you guys talking about how "the capacitor wire was clearly not up to the task", and a whole bunch of other technical stuff I don't understand, but understand enough to know it is a piece of junk. But, that didn't happen! I mean, this thing is not up to the standards of the other lights I was looking at, but.......Dang. For $22, she does pretty good!
> 
> ...



Im in the same boat as you in age and light experience. For years I thought Maglight was the best. Now I am discovering Fenix and others and having a lot of fun. I think I am going to give the Defiant a try too. I am giving up on the Samclub 3 AAA lights. They last about a year then the battery holder inside cracks and its done.


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## StarHalo (Dec 8, 2014)

rotts4u said:


> I think I am going to give the Defiant a try too.



They have a 1500 lumen light out this holiday season, but be aware that these Defiant offerings are hit-or-miss; the 550/650 lumen single-mode models from the last couple of years have proven to be the most robust, while others are sometimes defective out of the box.


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