Ultrafire C8, A good and bright flashlight under 15$

[HarmFull]

Current version: 1.1 (battery section added)

 

Introduction

I know a lot of people here are probably thinking: "WTF, what does a flashlight have to do with tech reviews?". Well, let me explain first.

Like you guys, I'm an LTT fan and a flashlight is the kind of utility item, that a lot of people have in their houses, cars or whatever. It's low tech, but it's something that can be a nice addition to something like say a toolkit.

I bought my C8 after watching some reviews on YouTube. The quality of those reviews wasn't that good (certainly not LTT quality) but for the price these Ultrafire flashlights cost, I thought I should try them out.

 

Background

About me (read if you want)

Spoiler

 

I'm a boy scouts leader from the Netherlands and if there's two things that are pretty handy to have it's a good flashlight and a pocket utility knife.

About a year ago I got a Maglite mini for my birthday and after maybe 1 use, the batteries corroded inside and it was damaged beyond repair (Duracell my ass!).

A friend of mine always had a tiny (tactical) flashlight that emitted a huge amount of light, enough light an entire campsite. I remembered it had proprietary batteries.

 

After a bit of research I came across these Chinese flashlights called ultrafires. I bought a few after looking at some dodgy reviews on YouTube I bought a few different models. The 1 I'm talking about today is the best one yet.

 

 

About the brand Ultrafire (read if you want)

Spoiler

 

Ultrafire is a chinese flashlight manufacturer that makes cheap tactical flashlights mostly aimed at being a cheaper alternative for the very expensive ('Murican) surefire tactical flashlight that gets mounted a lot on guns. In recent years Ultrafire has become very popular with airsofters, mountain bikers but also simple consumers like me for a few reasons.

 

They make cheap flashlights with aluminium bodies, that use a high powered CREE led powered by a Lithium ion 18650 battery (that ultrafire also sells).

 

They've become so popular over the years that the actual (Chinese) company Ultrafire is getting copied by other Chinese manufacturers. Brands like Convoy, Trustfire, Singfire etc. are knockoffs of these flashlights.

The product

 

Dimensions: 5.59 in x 1.65 in x 1.65 in / 14.2 cm x 4.2 cm x 4.2 cm

Weight: 5.04 oz / 143 g

battery: 1x 18650 lithium ion battery (needs separate charger and battery + charger isn't always included)

LED: CREE XML2 U2 

Features:

• Five modes / three modes selection (low, med, high optional strobe, SOS)
• Mode memory (Highly recommended to look for)
• IPX 4 waterproof (doubt it's totally legit though)

The ultrafire C8 is about as tall as a Nexus 5 (or my hand) and when you hold it's easily held in your hand. It features a switch at the end. (photo's in the spoiler)

Spoiler

 

Build Quality

The build quality of the C8 isn't bad but to say that it's top of the line would be an understatement. The aluminium body is excellent and the glass lens, head, and tailcap are all sealed by o-rings threads. The tailcap has a spring that is soldered directly to a green board and the finish isn't great. It's get even worse at the emitter end, where a copper spring is attached directly to a open circuit board.

Spoiler

 It's here where you can see that it truly is a chinese flashlight. I don't think a normal flashlight maker would be allowed to finish it's product like this, let alone give it an IPX rating! With that being said, I've seen youtube videos of people holding these flashlights under water after having put vasaline on the treads and then they were waterproof. I overlooked these minor things though as I feel that with careful battery

As was noted above these flashlights use 18650 lithium ion batteries, which are common in laptop batteries and powerbanks. I got two with a charger from a previous ultrafire flashlight. Unlike your normal AA batteries that have a nice thick plastic or even metal shell around the battery to prevent shortening, these batteries had a flimsy plastic wrapping around them that I teared a bit during the unboxing. To prevent any problems I modded some electrical tape around them, which has the same effect. Some of these cells are not protected against shortening or overvolting as most western batteries are. I believe mine are because they have a stud a the end but I haven't confirmed this!

Spoiler

 Usage and performance

When shopping for these flashlights you have to look closely at what kind of a LED emitter the flashlight has and what features. There are several different models of the C8 with different CREE led emitters. The most common ones are:

• XPE Q5 (weaker emitter, more common with AA or AAA chinese flashlights)
• XML T6 (most common)
• XM-L2 U2 (performs a bit better)

My flashlight has the U2 however to give an indication on how bright the more common XML-T6 can be, I've got a picture of a guy who modded his Maglite to hold 1 of these puppies:

Spoiler

 

As you can see these LEDs give of an insane amount of light!!!

Now to get things clear, this isn't the first Cree LED Ultrafire flashlight that I bought, I first bought another flashlight which was a Ultrafire E17 (also compatible with 3x AAA).

 

This flashlight is also tiny and great, however The issue I had was that it has no reflector. Though it did put out a lot of even light (it light bleeds a lot!), It doesn't throw your light very far, only making a lot of stuff visible up to maybe 10 or 15 meters. The flashlight is zoomable, however if you zoom in, you don't see anything near your close environment, which is a disadvantage. It zooms in to a small square

E17 and it's beam:

Spoiler

  example from google

 when zoomed in it looks like this!

However when you look at the ultrafire c8, you get a more "hybrid" beam, giving enough light close by while simultaneously having a focused beam that lets you look further away.

Spoiler

Then there's also the two advantages of the C8 that you can turn of Strobe and SOS and the fact that you have mode memory.

My old flashlight made me cycle through five modes including strobe, which is annoying, it blinds you and your friends and it plain sucks. I can't tell you guys enough how many times I've cycled through the modes of my older flashlight just to get to mode I want. It's a total must have! THANK GOD FOR MODE MEMORY 

 

Now if you weren't convinced by the pictures (got them of the internet), they are not exaggerated. pointing the flashlight at a white wall makes my eyes hurt a little, when I hold my hand over it, I can feel the heat of the LED. I got two self shot pictures of my (blacked out) room. One pointing the flashlight upwards, the other pointing the flashlight the same way as my camera.

 

Spoiler

Looks like it's bright daylight out there!

 

The camera on my Nexus 5 ups the contrast a but it radiates in real life too imo. 

Battery

As was mentioned above, this flashlight uses 18650 Lithium ion batteries. These cells are found commonly in laptop batteries as well as vaporisers (don't smoke that chemical stuff!)

There is however a lot of differences between these batteries and chinese batteries are notorious for not having the mAh that are claimed.

 

I've done some extra research on these batteries and while there are various brands that are good, a lot of them are bad (including ultrafire, trustfire etc.)

Mostly there are a few manufacturers that build these batteries here's a list of them:

•  LG
• Sony
• Samsung
• Panasonic
• Nitecore
• foxnovo
• Fenix

What actually happens a lot is that these companies bad productionbatches get bought up by companies like Ultrafire who rewrap the "B quality" batteries. Here's a link to some proof:

Spoiler

http://www.ebay.com/gds/18650-Battery-Buying-Guide-test-on-all-from-eBay-below-3-/10000000178020340/g.html

 

One LG battery makes the 70+ percentage of the claimed mAh, compared to ultrafires who are all around 30%

Also, I found this article that goes in depth on good 18650 batteries and the variations. Also there's a buyers guide in there:

Spoiler

http://www.ebay.com/gds/18650-Battery-Buying-Guide-test-on-all-from-eBay-below-3-/10000000178020340/g.html

 

direct link to some good batteries for the C8:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00UKWQD04/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00UKWQD04&linkCode=as2&tag=batts20-20&linkId=GQKQHYFV6XZ57U3F

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00F58XVYE/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00F58XVYE&linkCode=as2&tag=batts20-20&linkId=S6AMU22FSQU5ISZA

http://www.amazon.com/NITECORE-2300mAh-Rechargeable-High-capacity-Nitecore/dp/B00F58XW2A/ref=sr_1_7?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1458230040&sr=1-7&keywords=nitecore+18650

 

not protected:

http://www.amazon.com/LG-18650HE2-Rechargeable-Batteries-2-Peices/dp/B00JU7HTOE/ref=pd_sim_23_3?ie=UTF8&dpID=41-4FnyhbaL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR160%2C160_&refRID=0FS0B286SZ9QTXFQB1J5

What to look out for when buying

Now there's a lot of Ultrafire C8's out there that you can buy from several retailers, like Dealextreme, Aliexpress, Ebay but also Amazon. There are a few things that you should really look for when buying an ultrafire:

• Look at the emitter/LED chip you're buying, not the lumens rated

Lumen ratings are like horsepower ratings or megapixels. The Chinese tell you something has 2000 or 10000 lumens, don't buy it. Just look for the LED emitter like I mentioned above. Q5 is weaker but lasts longer, XML T6 is great, XM-L2 U2 is even brighter.

• Battery + Charger included or not!

This is not always the case. There are a lot of complete kits out there, but also a lot of retailers that sell the flashlight separately. Make sure you know what you buy!

• Batteries arren't always of good quality!

Ultrafire also makes 18650 batteries but these get copied a lot. The originals don't go over 3000 mAh. Also not all of them have overcharge/short protection. Take a good look at how the batteries look. Most of the time when you buy a kit of a legit price, they are protected. Mine were supposedly 3000 mAh, though I also don't believe that.

• Look at the price of the flashlight

Most of the time, they are priced between around 10 dollars to around 20 dollars for an entire kit with charger and batteries. If it's too good to be true, then don't take your chances.

• (advice) look for mode memory

It's highly recommended to have mode memory, however a lot of Ultrafire C8 flashlights (most of them!) don't have mode memory. Otherwise you can look for a single mode flashlight.

 

Here's a link to several resellers:

Spoiler

Dealextreme (flashlight only): http://www.dx.com/p/ultrafire-8-mode-xm-l2-u2-2-8a-1-led-smo-reflect-bright-flashlight-torch-395192#.VubX3vnhChc (this is the one I bought)

Dealextreme (batteries + kit US plug): http://www.dx.com/p/us-plug-ultrafire-18650-battery-charger-w-2-x-3-7v-2600mah-18650-batteries-black-167545#.VubakvnhChc

 

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/UltraFire%C2%AE-flashlight-Ultrafire-Rechargeable-Activities/dp/B00GMIOHYE/ref=sr_1_1?s=hardware&ie=UTF8&qid=1457970359&sr=1-1&keywords=ultrafire+c8 (mode memory not confirmed)

 

Ebay: http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2050601.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.Xultrafire+c8+mode+memory.TRS0&_nkw=ultrafire+c8+mode+memory&_sacat=0 (also single mode versions available)

 

Conclusion

The ultrafire C8 is a great flashlight for the price. It has a sturdy build quality, it's semi waterproof, it emits a HUGE amount of light and its cheap. Let me sum up the goods and bads.

+ Emits a huge amount of light

+ Build Quality

+ Price

+ Rechargeable batteries

+ Accessories available (bike mount, holster, colored lenses, remote pressure switch & gunmount (for ya'll muricans out there) 

 

- Chinese knockoffs run rampant

- Takes a bit of research to buy one

- Not all 18650 batteries are good. 

- availability isn't always easy

 

In the end though I would recommend the Ultrafire C8 to most guys. I'd even recommend it to @LinusTech as a potential "Handy Tech under 100$". Though it can be hard to come by, I feel that the build quality of the housing and the amount of light produced, far outweigh the disadvantages of having to be careful what you buy/hard to come by. This flashlight feels like it will last me a long time. At least it's cheaper than having my (VERY overpriced) Maglite break due to battery corrosion. Maybe people find it a large step and a lot of research to do, for them I'd recommend the Ultrafire E17 as it can be powered by AAA's so you don't have to worry about a charger and li-ion cells.

 

I hope you guys found it an interesting read, this was my first review on LTT so any feedback is welcome.

 

[AlanAlan]

20 hours ago, HarmFull said:

Hi guys,

 

Introduction

I know a lot of people here are probably thinking: "WTF, what does a flashlight have to do with tech reviews?". Well, let me explain first.

Like you guys, I'm an LTT fan and a flashlight is the kind of utility item, that a lot of people have in their houses, cars or whatever. It's low tech, but it's something that can be a nice addition to something like say a toolkit.

I bought my C8 after watching some reviews on YouTube. The quality of those reviews wasn't that good (certainly not LTT quality) but for the price these Ultrafire flashlights cost, I thought I should try them out.

 

Background

About me (read if you want)

  Hide contents

 

I'm a boy scouts leader from the Netherlands and if there's two things that are pretty handy to have it's a good flashlight and a pocket utility knife.

About a year ago I got a Maglite mini for my birthday and after maybe 1 use, the batteries corroded inside and it was damaged beyond repair (Duracell my ass!).

A friend of mine always had a tiny (tactical) flashlight that emitted a huge amount of light, enough light an entire campsite. I remembered it had proprietary batteries.

 

After a bit of research I came across these Chinese flashlights called ultrafires. I bought a few after looking at some dodgy reviews on YouTube I bought a few different models. The 1 I'm talking about today is the best one yet.

 

 

About the brand Ultrafire (read if you want)

  Hide contents

 

Ultrafire is a chinese flashlight manufacturer that makes cheap tactical flashlights mostly aimed at being a cheaper alternative for the very expensive ('Murican) surefire tactical flashlight that gets mounted a lot on guns. In recent years Ultrafire has become very popular with airsofters, mountain bikers but also simple consumers like me for a few reasons.

 

They make cheap flashlights with aluminium bodies, that use a high powered CREE led powered by a Lithium ion 18650 battery (that ultrafire also sells).

 

They've become so popular over the years that the actual (Chinese) company Ultrafire is getting copied by other Chinese manufacturers. Brands like Convoy, Trustfire, Singfire etc. are knockoffs of these flashlights.

The product

 

Dimensions: 5.59 in x 1.65 in x 1.65 in / 14.2 cm x 4.2 cm x 4.2 cm

Weight: 5.04 oz / 143 g

battery: 1x 18650 lithium ion battery (needs separate charger and battery + charger isn't always included)

LED: CREE XML2 U2 

Features:

• Five modes / three modes selection (low, med, high optional strobe, SOS)
• Mode memory (Highly recommended to look for)
• IPX 4 waterproof (doubt it's totally legit though)

The ultrafire C8 is about as tall as a Nexus 5 (or my hand) and when you hold it's easily held in your hand. It features a switch at the end. (photo's in the spoiler)

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Build Quality

The build quality of the C8 isn't bad but to say that it's top of the line would be an understatement. The aluminium body is excellent and the glass lens, head, and tailcap are all sealed by o-rings threads. The tailcap has a spring that is soldered directly to a green board and the finish isn't great. It's get even worse at the emitter end, where a copper spring is attached directly to a open circuit board.

  Reveal hidden contents

 It's here where you can see that it truly is a chinese flashlight. I don't think a normal flashlight maker would be allowed to finish it's product like this, let alone give it an IPX rating! With that being said, I've seen youtube videos of people holding these flashlights under water after having put vasaline on the treads and then they were waterproof. I overlooked these minor things though as I feel that with careful battery

As was noted above these flashlights use 18650 lithium ion batteries, which are common in laptop batteries and powerbanks. I got two with a charger from a previous ultrafire flashlight. Unlike your normal AA batteries that have a nice thick plastic or even metal shell around the battery to prevent shortening, these batteries had a flimsy plastic wrapping around them that I teared a bit during the unboxing. To prevent any problems I modded some electrical tape around them, which has the same effect. Some of these cells are not protected against shortening or overvolting as most western batteries are. I believe mine are because they have a stud a the end but I haven't confirmed this!

  Reveal hidden contents

 Usage and performance

When shopping for these flashlights you have to look closely at what kind of a LED emitter the flashlight has and what features. There are several different models of the C8 with different CREE led emitters. The most common ones are:

• XPE Q5 (weaker emitter, more common with AA or AAA chinese flashlights)
• XML T6 (most common)
• XM-L2 U2 (performs a bit better)

My flashlight has the U2 however to give an indication on how bright the more common XML-T6 can be, I've got a picture of a guy who modded his Maglite to hold 1 of these puppies:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

As you can see these LEDs give of an insane amount of light!!!

Now to get things clear, this isn't the first Cree LED Ultrafire flashlight that I bought, I first bought another flashlight which was a Ultrafire E17 (also compatible with 3x AAA).

 

This flashlight is also tiny and great, however The issue I had was that it has no reflector. Though it did put out a lot of even light (it light bleeds a lot!), It doesn't throw your light very far, only making a lot of stuff visible up to maybe 10 or 15 meters. The flashlight is zoomable, however if you zoom in, you don't see anything near your close environment, which is a disadvantage. It zooms in to a small square

E17 and it's beam:

  Reveal hidden contents

  example from google

 when zoomed in it looks like this!

However when you look at the ultrafire c8, you get a more "hybrid" beam, giving enough light close by while simultaneously having a focused beam that lets you look further away.

  Reveal hidden contents

Then there's also the two advantages of the C8 that you can turn of Strobe and SOS and the fact that you have mode memory.

My old flashlight made me cycle through five modes including strobe, which is annoying, it blinds you and your friends and it plain sucks. I can't tell you guys enough how many times I've cycled through the modes of my older flashlight just to get to mode I want. It's a total must have! THANK GOD FOR MODE MEMORY 

 

Now if you weren't convinced by the pictures (got them of the internet), they are not exaggerated. pointing the flashlight at a white wall makes my eyes hurt a little, when I hold my hand over it, I can feel the heat of the LED. I got two self shot pictures of my (blacked out) room. One pointing the flashlight upwards, the other pointing the flashlight the same way as my camera.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

Looks like it's bright daylight out there!

 

The camera on my Nexus 5 ups the contrast a but it radiates in real life too imo. 

 

What to look out for when buying

Now there's a lot of Ultrafire C8's out there that you can buy from several retailers, like Dealextreme, Aliexpress, Ebay but also Amazon. There are a few things that you should really look for when buying an ultrafire:

• Look at the emitter/LED chip you're buying, not the lumens rated

Lumen ratings are like horsepower ratings or megapixels. The Chinese tell you something has 2000 or 10000 lumens, don't buy it. Just look for the LED emitter like I mentioned above. Q5 is weaker but lasts longer, XML T6 is great, XM-L2 U2 is even brighter.

• Battery + Charger included or not!

This is not always the case. There are a lot of complete kits out there, but also a lot of retailers that sell the flashlight separately. Make sure you know what you buy!

• Batteries arren't always of good quality!

Ultrafire also makes 18650 batteries but these get copied a lot. The originals don't go over 3000 mAh. Also not all of them have overcharge/short protection. Take a good look at how the batteries look. Most of the time when you buy a kit of a legit price, they are protected. Mine were supposedly 3000 mAh, though I also don't believe that.

• Look at the price of the flashlight

Most of the time, they are priced between around 10 dollars to around 20 dollars for an entire kit with charger and batteries. If it's too good to be true, then don't take your chances.

• (advice) look for mode memory

It's highly recommended to have mode memory, however a lot of Ultrafire C8 flashlights (most of them!) don't have mode memory. Otherwise you can look for a single mode flashlight.

 

Here's a link to several resellers:

  Reveal hidden contents

Dealextreme (flashlight only): http://www.dx.com/p/ultrafire-8-mode-xm-l2-u2-2-8a-1-led-smo-reflect-bright-flashlight-torch-395192#.VubX3vnhChc (this is the one I bought)

Dealextreme (batteries + kit US plug): http://www.dx.com/p/us-plug-ultrafire-18650-battery-charger-w-2-x-3-7v-2600mah-18650-batteries-black-167545#.VubakvnhChc

 

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/UltraFire%C2%AE-flashlight-Ultrafire-Rechargeable-Activities/dp/B00GMIOHYE/ref=sr_1_1?s=hardware&ie=UTF8&qid=1457970359&sr=1-1&keywords=ultrafire+c8 (mode memory not confirmed)

 

Ebay: http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2050601.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.Xultrafire+c8+mode+memory.TRS0&_nkw=ultrafire+c8+mode+memory&_sacat=0 (also single mode versions available)

 

Conclusion

The ultrafire C8 is a great flashlight for the price. It has a sturdy build quality, it's semi waterproof, it emits a HUGE amount of light and its cheap. Let me sum up the goods and bads.

+ Emits a huge amount of light

+ Build Quality

+ Price

+ Rechargeable batteries

+ Accessories available (bike mount, holster, colored lenses, remote pressure switch & gunmount (for ya'll muricans out there) 

 

- Chinese knockoffs run rampant

- Takes a bit of research to buy one

- batteries are not easy to come by

- availability isn't always easy

 

In the end though I would recommend the Ultrafire C8 to most guys. I'd even recommend it to @LinusTech as a potential "Handy Tech under 100$". Though it can be hard to come by, I feel that the build quality of the housing and the amount of light produced, far outweigh the disadvantages of having to be careful what you buy/hard to come by. This flashlight feels like it will last me a long time. At least it's cheaper than having my (VERY overpriced) Maglite break due to battery corrosion. Maybe people find it a large step and a lot of research to do, for them I'd recommend the Ultrafire E17 as it can be powered by AAA's so you don't have to worry about a charger and li-ion cells.

 

I hope you guys found it an interesting read, this was my first review on LTT so any feedback is welcome.

 

Will it last you 2-3 years?

[HarmFull]

1 hour ago, AlanAlan said:

Will it last you 2-3 years?

I think it will. The only thing that might be a problem is the batteries as their performance degrades over time.

 

I've seen a guy having a C8 as well as another model for almost 2 years and despite the black finish scraping of a bit, the lights didn't really have any problems.

Link: 

I know the title says 1 year later but actually it's almost two years at the time of uploading

 

[8uhbbhu8]

Great review Harmfull. Am definitely going to get one of these and try it out. Think ill go for the bright one. As a Rover scout/leader in a group where our main focus is search and rescue/first aid this will be incredibly handy when kids decide to go missing in the evening or at night.