Fenix lights

[kenny256]

this is my fenix pd20, it runs on a single cr123.

I believe I ha e carried this light for 8 years maybe a couple more. it's been through it all, I even lost it in my buddies yard then it snowed two feet and then he found it with his mower.....this thing is tough lol.

they discontinued it a while back, and they no longer make one with the same activation features. I'm going to go with a surefire edcl-1t when I upgrade. fenix makes a good light by my example of one. but until they make this same light with higher lumens I'll pass on the new stuff.

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[Canonshooter]

I like Malkoff. He makes great products and highly recommend them, but to label all the Chinese brands as gimmicky toys would be nonsense. There are great brands out there like Fenix, Olight, Klarus, Nitecore, Eagtac, etc that make very high quality lights and have great CS.

Foursevens Quark (2.2 ounces) on left, Malkoff MDC-VME (4 ounces) on the right.


Based on my experience with some samples of imported lights (Foursevens and Streamlight), a few of my own observations/opinions;

Unlike Malkoff drop-ins/heads, the PC boards are not potted (encased in epoxy). They are usually assembled directly into the bezel with minimal to no heat sinking. Malkoff is the only manufacturer I know of who offers "fully potted" engines in all of their lights. Below is my Foursevens Quark disassembled to show how it is constructed;



The LED circuit board is "sticky glued" to a thin disk that serves as the positive battery contact. The reflector is made of aluminum but does not serve as a heat sink as it physically does not touch the circuit board. This head is rated at 780 lumens in "turbo mode" but in reality only will hold that output for about 10 seconds before it tapers off to avoid over-heating (notice the lack of an adequate heat sink). I did not remove the LED circuit board from the head to avoid risk of damage (I carry this light in the glove box of my car).

Here is the Malkoff fully torn down;



The engine (drop-in) is encased in a heavy brass heat sink. The LED circuit board, reflector and positive battery contact are all permanently "potted" in the brass heat sink;



As evidenced by the above comparison photos and decades of hard use and user feedback, the Malkoff is obviously built to stand up to abuse. It's the light I want in-hand when the stakes are high.

In terms of actual light output, in a side-by-side comparison the 780 lumen Quark is not any brighter than the 300 lumen Malkoff once it tapers down out of turbo mode. But sure gets hot-in-the-hand faster, as do many imported lights due to lack of heat sinking and over-driven emitters to claim that impressive lumen output stated on the box.

I also prefer non-programmable lights. Along with my experience of not reliably holding the programming ("why is my light suddenly strobing in Nordic SOS?"), most of the over-abundant programming options I don't find very useful (how many levels of Moonlight Mode do I really need?). And somehow when taking the dogs out at night, my wife always figures out how to get one of the Foursevens lights into program mode and comes back in complaining "the light is flashing" or "the batteries must be dead." She now uses a Surefire 6PX with its simple UI for the night time dog walks.

As a side note, Foursevens was sued by Surefire for patent infringement (what, the Chinese steal intellectual property?) and is no longer in business. I like my Foursevens lights and use them regularly for a variety of non-critical purposes. But I'm under no illusion that they are in the same league in terms of build quality, durability and reliable UI as a Malkoff.

Hopefully the above info is useful to those considering a light for serious purposes. As always, YMMV

[signal4l]

Excellent post.

[Adrenaline_6]

Like I mentioned before Malkoff makes great products. I own a drop in module. The problem I have with them is that their outputs aren't that great for what you are paying for.

Sure, they are reliable and potted, but if that was all that mattered I would go with HDS Systems instead. Shoot, my Klarus XT11 that I bought back in about 2012 had 500 lumens and wouldn't step down for at least a minute.

Yes, I did finally break it, but that was from dropping it on concrete from above ceiling height too many times to count and finally from a 40' boom lift onto concrete on its tailcap, which turned it on, but I think ultimately led to it's demise a month later. I think it broke a solder joint somewhere because it would come on, but not full power unless I heated up the head first. No biggie though, it was @ $80 and server it's purpose with years of abuse. Led technology had improved since, I was good with replacing it since I abused the hell out of it. I wish I still had a picture of it all dinged up.

I don't own an XT Klarus anymore, but I sure miss the dual button tailcap user interface. The main button turns on the highest setting, whatever it may be. Once it is on, the secondary button will cycle the power settings if clicked normally. If the secondary button is held, it will bring up the high power strobe setting no matter what power setting it is currently on. If the light is off, the secondary button will high power strobe for the duration of the secondary button press. The tailcap is designed so you can feel the alignment of the main switch and secondary button and easily position your thumb where it needs to be on the light. If you haven't tried it, you should. I gotta give it to them on that interface. Really slick. For tactical use, I see it as a plus.

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[Adrenaline_6]

If you like seeing custom lights, check out skylumen.com

He takes existing lights, replaces the LED's with hand picked ones for the best tint, bonds them to copper for heat sinking purposes and drives them hard with a custom driver. His lights are simply amazing. The options seem daunting at first, but mostly they are just different LED types, depending on if you are prioritizing throw or flood. He has video comparisons to stock and various other lights. His modified models always end in VN.

[Det-Sog]

Imho, the discount Chi-Comm lights are ok for your tool drawer and basic utility stuff. You do get a lot of bang for your buck.

Like I mentioned before Malkoff makes great products. I own a drop in module. The problem I have with them is that their outputs aren't that great for what you are paying for.

Sure, they are reliable and potted, but if that was all that mattered I would go with HDS Systems instead.

It just depends on how you are going to use it and what you think the chances are that someday your life just might actually depend on it. When I was a LEO, I carried nothing other than Streamlight or Surefire. Malkoff was not in mass production back then. I'm going to get one of those too. I have several 6P drop-ins, but the 6P is too big for me to consider using for EDC with much smaller more reliable options out there. Yeah, I have a Fenix in the trunk and a couple in the tool box, but I'll still only run top tier for EDC and tactical use. I Keep Surefire and Streamlight in the house.

For EDC... I have ONE of these. If they were more affordable, I'd have several. There aren't words. https://www.hdssystems.com/Products/Rotary/

[Canonshooter]

Like I mentioned before Malkoff makes great products. I own a drop in module. The problem I have with them is that their outputs aren't that great for what you are paying for.

I would suggest buying a complete Malkoff light. I honestly think you'll quickly appreciate it for what it is: an extremely high quality, no-nonsense light that you'll own for your entire life.

I own quite a few of them but the most impressive IMO is the latest version of the Wildcat (v.6) which features an amazingly uniform flood-type beam pattern. I bought mine with the MD3 body that I use a pair of IMR 18500 cells to run;




The UI is simple and effective - keep the bezel screwed down tight on the body for full output (1000+ lumens) and back it off about an 1/8 turn for low (about 30 lumens). Low is all that is needed most of the time and high renders an amazing wall of light. I went with the 4000k 90 CRI head and the tint is beautiful.

Here it is being used as the sole light source in a dining room;




I also run the same head on a MD2 body (same size as a 6P) with a set of IMR 18350 cells;




Swap on a Hound Dog 18650 head and use an 18650 cell to create a 29,000 lux spotting light;




Remove the pocket clip and install the standard tail cap for a kick-ass carbine light;




I am an admitted Malkoff junky, but I find a lot to like about them. You may too.

[Jellybean]

You won't have an issue with (most) Fenix lights. I have heard good things about Olight as well. Fenix are some of the few/only overseas lights I would trust for any use aside from "around the house". You have a lot of overseas lights all offering similar options, but as with most overseas items, all are not the same quality...
They also generally have a pretty accurate stated-to-actual lumen output, and sensible programmable light modes, unlike some of the others (especially those with the selector rings) that have a dozen modes, 8 of which you don't need...

One of the things most people forget is a max lumen rating is just that... a MAX output. Not even Surefire/Elzetta/Malkoff/etc. lights are going to run at their stated 3/6/800/1000 lumen output for very long...
So people get sucked into the lumen wars thinking their light will run *all the time* at 1000 lumens, when really they're looking at like 30 minutes (give or take) before the lumens slowly drop (or the light "steps down") to the next lowest lumen mode the remaining battery charge can handle, until that can no longer be sustained, and so forth until the batteries die. The catch is, as Canonshooter mentioned, the overseas lights cannot handle running the max output until the battery drains to the point of simply being unable to sustain that lumen output level like the higher end lights due to poor heat management, which is why they have the "step down" feature (or should I say, any overseas light worth a damn WILL have this feature) which drops the light to the next highest setting after like 10 minutes or so.
Now, I haven't used a ton of overseas lights, but I do have a number of different models from Fenix, and when not running at "turbo" they all run just fine for as long as you need. So, I would suggest that a good plan if considering overseas lights is look at the next highest lumen BELOW the "max/turbo" output they'll plaster in bold all over the page to get your attention, and make your choice from there based on that lumen-to-runtime ratio.
If you look at it that way, then the step-down simply becomes a helpful feature that kicks in when your batteries get to weak to support X-lumen output, which makes it real easy to know how close your light is to dead since the light won't go to any brighter mode than the remaining charge can support.

[Swobe1]

Excellent post.

I couldn't agree more. I thought this would be just a few posts and be done but this is awesome. I lurk more than I post, but this is why.

I'm a light junkie, but I just don't know enough about them to make an informed decision. Before it was just carrying one in my pocket, now it's on my duty belt and pistol.

Thank you everyone for all the excellent posts. I'm going to probably grab a Streamlight and a Malkhoff, but I'm also going to check into the HDS systems.

Thank you for all the great info.


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[Adrenaline_6]

This is my EagTac S200C2VN. It uses one 18650 and has a hand picked dedomed XML2 U3 and a 4 mode driver that will pull 5.5 amps.

The estimate on this bad boy is anywhere from 125,000 to 155,000 candela. The new Olson Black Led that he now offers for this light would improve it even more. I might send mine back in to him for improvements in the future. His new programmable driver is a bit more complicated than mine but has a lot more options, if you like that kind of thing.

This thing is beast of a thrower for its size.