Good gift light?

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CaptainPicard

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Maybe should go in Recommend (I honestly don't know.)

I'm thinking of getting some lights for a few friends at college at the end of the year. I'm thinking of a NC Tube or SK-68 type of budget (I'm not made of money.) I only have one sample of the tube (which has been good,) but have had some SK-68s that have needed some work/been unreliable. Does anyone have any suggestions for a good gift light? Most of the people are engineers so they may like something like the Sipik.
 
^^ hook 'em up with gift cards for Mt. Electronics.

Nah, the sipik's are nifty lights that are easy on the wallet...and from what I've read here great little projects for engineer types who just love to try to make the wheel a little rounder.
 
CaptainPicard said:
Maybe should go in Recommend (I honestly don't know.)

I'm thinking of getting some lights for a few friends at college at the end of the year. I'm thinking of a NC Tube or SK-68 type of budget (I'm not made of money.) I only have one sample of the tube (which has been good,) but have had some SK-68s that have needed some work/been unreliable. Does anyone have any suggestions for a good gift light? Most of the people are engineers so they may like something like the Sipik.
Click to expand...

I like what you say: the Tube, the SK-68, or, you could check out the Olight's i3E EOS. But the Tube and SK-68 are more cost-effective.

I'd go with the Tube myself, when it's on sale. I bought a bunch of them on sale for $6.30 a month or so ago for Christmas gifts and I know Banggood also had it on sale for just under $7. in the Fall. Between now and graduation, you are likely to come across a sale.

Flashlight dealers of the world: make it so!
 
I would gift the BLF-348. In fact, I already have.

The 348 is a single-mode, stainless-steel, 1xAAA flashlight that features a near-perfect 5000K, 90-CRI Nichia 219B emitter. Its beam is all flood. Here are the numbers from the recent review by CPF member MHanlen:


[TD="align: left"] Battery [/TD]
[TD="align: left"] Lumens
[/TD]
[TD="align: left"] Candela [/TD]
[TD="align: left"] Distance (m)
[/TD]
[TD="align: left"] Runtime [/TD]

[TD="align: left"]Eneloop AAA[/TD]
[TD="align: left"]48[/TD]
[TD="align: left"]193[/TD]
[TD="align: left"]27[/TD]
[TD="align: left"]1 hour[/TD]

[TD="align: left"]Efest IMR14400[/TD]
[TD="align: left"]176[/TD]
[TD="align: left"]744[/TD]
[TD="align: left"]54[/TD]
[TD="align: left"]27 minutes[/TD]

The BLF-348 is budget light that does not have a budget feel. It is a great looking flashlight!

After you acquire a few good flashlights, budget lights like the SiPiK SK68 tend to become shelf queens, relegated to use as beaters and loaners. This is especially true for converts to neutral white and high CRI. The inevitable blue tint and ringy beam of a cool-white SK68 is easy to pass by for them. That does not happen with the BLF-348. Its good looks and great beam mean you will happily continue to use it.

That said, I am a fan of the SK68. I like the floody beam of a zoomie for inside use and close work.

There is a second group buy currently underway at BudgetLightForum for the BLF-348. Something like 550 signups out of the 800 necessary have already been obtained. This would be a good time to add your name to the list. Price is $6.99.


 
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I plan to gift two of these myself. In terms of a non-expensive, high value, high quality light... this one is going to be hard to beat. It doesn't appear to the recipient to be a cheap light bought from China. Spend $4 for a good SK68, or $3 more on a BLF-348? No brainer for me.
 
Didn't even know that existed! Thanks so much for the suggestion, I like it a lot. I may have to get a few extra for myself too.
 
KeepingItLight said:
I would gift the BLF-348. In fact, I already have.

The 348 is a single-mode, stainless-steel, 1xAAA flashlight that features a near-perfect 5000K, 90-CRI Nichia 219B emitter. Its beam is all flood. Here are the numbers from the recent review by CPF member MHanlen:


[TD="align: left"] Battery [/TD]
[TD="align: left"] Lumens [/TD]
[TD="align: left"] Candela [/TD]
[TD="align: left"] Distance [/TD]
[TD="align: left"] Runtime [/TD]

[TD="align: left"]Eneloop AAA[/TD]
[TD="align: left"]48[/TD]
[TD="align: left"]193[/TD]
[TD="align: left"]27[/TD]
[TD="align: left"]1 hour[/TD]

[TD="align: left"]Efest IMR14400[/TD]
[TD="align: left"]176[/TD]
[TD="align: left"]744[/TD]
[TD="align: left"]54[/TD]
[TD="align: left"]27 minutes[/TD]

The BLF-348 is budget light that does not have a budget feel. It is a great looking flashlight!
Click to expand...

I bought and gifted half a dozen of these. I wish they were 2 mode lights, low and high. They are classy enough, and small enough that future engineers, may carry them. I think that they are a good choice.
 
Anything that can be charged by micro-USB port is nice. You don't have to worry about buying a charger or spare batteries, if the flashlight already have a built-in or included battery in the package. I gift mainly NiteCore Tube or Fenix UC30 recently.
 
I found these by accident on Gearbest when I was looking for lights with Nichia 219B emitters. I guess I was part of the first group buy. They went 'Out of Stock' for a while on Gearbest, then became available again so I ordered two more. That was a month ago. I guess Gearbest jumped the gun on figuring when the second group buy would be ready to go. I think I am going to go join BLF and order a few more while they are still available. I tried a 10440 in mine, but it got very hot very fast, so I switched to a AAA cell. Someone said that because the body is stainless steel it doesn't conduct heat as well, and can easily overheat and destroy the emitter if used for longer periods of time. I guess I will stick to the AAA cells. Besides, AAA cells make better gifts since one doesn't have to worry about whether or not the giftee understands Li-Ion cells.
I ordered a couple of the plain Singfire 348s as well. Since they are supposed to be an XP-E emitter, I am hoping that they don't have that awful blue tint one finds so often in cheap lights. We will see.
 
The only difference between the SingFire SF-348 and the BLF-348 is the emitter. Driver and host are identical.

I believe the SF-348 uses a cool-white emitter. There was a group buy on it at BLF in 2014. The thread for the group buy contains a lot of information about the flashlight's design.

The group buy included a choice of emitters, cool white or neutral white. The latter, however, received a mixed reception, as the emitter selected by SingFire was way too warm and yellow for a large number of buyers. This led to the BLF-348. It uses a 5000K Nichia emitter that has a nominal CRI of 90.

My guess is that your SF-348 will be cool white. Running on NiMH, it will output only about 40 lumens, rather than the 48 lumens of the BLF-348. The difference is due to the lower forward voltage of the Nichia emitter.
 
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Jiri said:
Anything that can be charged by micro-USB port is nice. You don't have to worry about buying a charger or spare batteries, if the flashlight already have a built-in or included battery in the package. I gift mainly NiteCore Tube or Fenix UC30 recently.
Click to expand...
The little CooYoo Quantum is also nice and small with a micro-USB port built in.
 
Sorry I meant to say that I have this light in Stainless Steel and it is quite nice for its size. The USB charging works and the SS gives it a healthy heft for its size. I also purchased the aluminum version but found it to be of lower quality in both feel and mechanism. The twisty cap worked at first and then kind of got sloppy within the first day. The SS version has not given me any trouble yet. And the light puts out far more lumens than the NC Tube which I also have and like. Got my CooYoo with a discount code for about $25 so that may be too much for gift giving in any quantity. I believe that can be purchased cheaper (half that price) but have not been able to find that discount in the short time I spent looking.
 
I've been thinking about picking up a few cooyoo's to gift/loan out too, but Iv'e just been kinda suspect of the quality. I like that they have usb charging though. I just wish the SS ones could tailstand like the Ti ones can (I like SS keychain lights). There's a thread for the group buy over on BLF with coupon codes for the Ti/SS/Cu/Brass versions. I think the SS version is running $22 after the group buy coupon.
 
Let's face it, it is a keychain style light, and as such, tail standing was not my top priority. BUT I was pleasantly surprised to find that the SS Cooyoo can tail stand. It is not extremely stable but it is not very unstable either - on relatively flat surfaces. I'm not trying to be silly here, just informative. It is not obvious from the pictures but actually that keychain loop on the tail is about 4 mm wide, and is flat (not rounded as you might expect). At least that is how mine came. Plus it is a fairly short light. I have used it in the kitchen when making midnight snacks and placed it on the countertop on the tail without any real worry that it would fall over. For its size to brightness ratio I'm glad I bought it.
 
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