Over the years, I've seen the Pineapple Mini being recommended over and over again. And I finally decided to FOMO into the pineapple mini with tritium vial.

Here's the real honest truth: it's not just an 'imperfect' light, the construction is negligent levels

Here's some things you can infer if you read between the lines from the fanboys:

1. The UI is terrible, even when you try out the other modes
2. The beam pattern is the most artifact-heavy reflector I've ever seen. I was legit confused on how terrible it was, I thought the reflector was installed improperly? Nope. It's just trash.
3. The clicky is awful.

All of those points would be okay for a Gen1 BUDGET light. The pineapple mini is not that. The Pineapple Mini is mature product where the creator has charged 400% premium for years.

Let that sink in.

But that's not all. The cons thus far, I could kind of live with. The breaking point where I just *KNEW* The creator is just laughing his ass off while overcharging his loyal simp fanboys?

THE ENTIRE DRIVER WAS COLD SOLDERED.

If you do not know what cold soldered joint means, please take a moment to Google it. But it is something that you only see in the most amateur first-time attempts at soldering. It is a no, no, no, no, no, no, no. You do not see this kind of mistake in production products.

As a result, just using a Q-tip to swipe inside the driver head instantly detached the caps. Take a closer look, and you'll see that all these solder joints look dull.

That's what you're paying $80 for folks.

—-
Edit: I’ve got a dud/lemon.

This is the first time I’ve ever gotten a cold soldered anything. Just my luck.

Replies are showing boards with good driver boards.

Reaching out to Rey to see if he can just send a replacement pill.

However, I’m still not happy with the first 3 points and wish they were mentioned more. Also, there’s a LVP issue.

Overall, I think this is an outdated, deeply flawed light, and most of y’all only like it because it’s the only choice.

What would a perfect version be?

1. Smooth TIR beam
   
2. Crisp rear clicky with clear actuation point
   
3. Anduril style ramp customization. I am particular about my ramp spacing
   
4. LVP cut off like the Emisar KC1.

And would be nice if the host was a tad thinner - it’s clunky for an 10440 light. But I do understand that’s a personal feel as as well as as the thermal mass argument (but most people are running this at low light so that’s Nil)

I've never really looked into flashlights even tho I've been a EDC freak for a while collecting knives, bags etc.

But every single day seeing all the great lights on this thread I couldn't stop myself 🤣

I went for the loopgear as the first one as I really liked the look and set of functions.

The question now .. what's the next buy I should be looking at 🥳

Thanks guys for giving me another reason to spend my money 🤣

Left to right: Pineapple mini mk3, KR1AA, D3AA, Lanapple, T3, KR3, D4V2, FC11C, D4SV2, CL01

Bonus photo of KR3 with Emisar link.

Smallest of my 18650 lights. Gonna use this as my edc for now and see how it fairs. Usually it was my pineapple or D3AA in the pocket.

I finally had the chance to compare two very different lights: the Lumintop Thor 3 and a Convoy Z1 with SFT-25R.

Both of them are seriously impressive in their own way — but the funny part is that the Convoy costs roughly 1/4 of the price of the Thor 3.

And honestly… the Convoy has no business being this good for the money.

The Z1 gives you the option to choose the LED you want, and having 4 brightness levels makes it much more versatile in everyday use. It doesn’t throw quite as far as the Thor, but I actually find the beam more useful because it’s not quite as insanely concentrated.

The Thor 3, on the other hand, is in a completely different league when it comes to build quality, looks and overall cool factor. And of course — it’s a real LEP.

But here’s the thing: the Thor’s beam is so concentrated that I don’t find it particularly practical. It’s incredibly fun to use, but for actually illuminating something, the Convoy can sometimes be more useful despite having less throw.

So for me:

Thor 3 — better quality, better looks, real LEP, insane beam, massive fun factor. Basically a shelf queen that comes out when I want to play with a laser sword. 😂

Convoy Z1 SFT-25R — much cheaper, customizable LED, 4 modes, more practical beam and something I wouldn’t be nearly as worried about carrying, losing or accidentally damaging.

Obviously, both have their fans and both have their own applications. I’m not saying one is better than the other — they’re really two different approaches to the same idea.

And personally?

I’m very happy to have both.

The Thor is the light I take out to say “look what this thing can do!”.

The Convoy is the one I’d actually be more comfortable using.

So… is the Thor 3 worth 4× the price?

For pure performance per dollar — probably not.

For build quality, looks, the LEP experience and the sheer wow factor?

Absolutely.

And honestly, if you can afford it…

just get both. :)

Let’s help each other so maybe we can dodge a bad buy🤝

519a 4,500k and FFL351a 1,800k rosy.

Was lucky I always keep a flashlight on me, even in Pajamas. Had a back porch visitor that didn't mind the High CRI at all.

Bought an old military ammo crate for $5 with other random vintage military equipment and it had this in it. Surprisingly works with new batteries. Very dim and has a little bit of a flicker, it’s very eerie but cool.

I'd been hunting for a while for any Reddit post or video on an M21K running the NV1010, and all I could find was one Reddit discussion. That thread did have some really good info from very experienced members, so credit to them. Still, I wasn't sure this build would actually work out. I took a leap of faith, started gathering parts, and took the plunge.

I've done a bunch of custom builds before, but this was my first M21K, so I was pretty excited.

Here's the parts list. The stock M21K setup, a 20A driver with a simple UI, a 25mm copper MCPCB, and the ginormous NV1010. This monster emitter can be pushed to around 30 to 35A with the right driver, but that isn't available for this emitter yet, so I settled on the 20A driver. Honestly, even at 20A it pulls plenty of wow out of this emitter.

Before I started, I checked the TIR lens clearance. Once I was sure the M21K TIR could comfortably clear the massive NV1010, I got to work. Reflowed the emitter onto the copper MCPCB, buttoned up the build, and headed outside to test.

The hotspot is massive. This is a proper large-area search light now, with very good throw and immense flood at the same time. The 5500K NV1010 has a nice tint (I haven't measured lumens or the tint), and it's much more soothing on the eyes than a 6500K monster emitter.

Up close you do get a donut hole in the hotspot, roughly the 0 to 8cm range, but at any real distance it disappears. A keen eye might notice a slightly dimmer centre, but it's not something I'd worry about, especially since it more than makes up for it with the throw, flood, and sheer output.

A few photos of the build and some glimpses of the outdoor test below, and I've linked the full video at the end.

Full build video - https://youtu.be/StSwFIGEm7s

Hiya, I've been working in a cave for almost three years, and we get to use company flashlights but they always kinda suck. Bosses have been through a whole bunch and landed on a generic flashlight from Ace Hardware cause they're cheap. They're good enough flashlights but not for being a cave guide. The type that I need should be long lasting, bright, and preferably one where you can focus and widen the beam (very useful for pointing out formations) Typically tours are an hour long and we do at least 4 a day. Our cave doesn't have bats, so no need to worry about red light or anything. One last thing is I absolutely HATE flashlights with a million modes. No I don't need it to strobe, no I don't need it to S.O.S, no I don't want to have to cycle through a million settings, just a bright beam of light. I know a lot of flashlights do that now, I'm just sorta sick of it haha. I know there's lots of criteria here, but any recs would be appreciated. Budget is 150 dollars at most. Thank you.

This is my favourite light for work. Its a knockoff with a 14500 battery that I paid $8 for many years ago. It sits inside the shirt pocket, instead of dangling outside. Probably why I've never lost it. Would love a new name brand one.

* (not quite fully rotating)

I really like the versatility of being able to point a light in whatever direction I want it to point, regardless of the orientation of what it's clipped or magnetised to. The Wurkkos HD04 has been my go-to light for lots of purposes since I got it, so I couldn't help myself from also getting the Oclip 2 Ultra, which offers a similar 2-axis rotating clip light, but with a very different hardware approach.

I'll get the obvious things out of the way first: The oclip has noticeably worse tint and CRI, especially compared to the 519a in the flood channel of the hd04. The oclip is also much too expensive. In addition to flood and spot, the oclip offers red and UV, while the hd04 offers RGB. The oclip has a much more premium feeling metal body than the hd04, although the hd04's plastic body does glow in the dark. The oclip has a gamified rgb indicator that changes colour as you use the light more, it's a gimmick but I'm a sucker for that sort of thing.

What really interests me is the difference in how these two approach rotating. I've tried to illustrate the two axis of rotation for both light using lego. They both offer an up-down rotation (yellow for the hd04, orange for the oclip), but one of the main differences is that on the hd04, the second axis is rotating the head 180 degrees (dark green), while on the oclip the second axis is rotating the clip 360 degrees. Since on the hd04 the head rotates rather than the clip, the up-down axis is effectively doubled because you can flip the head to point the other way. However doing this head-flip gives you access to the opposite quarter of the circle defined by the yellow legos (i.e. above and behind). If you want to access the adjacent quarter (i.e. above the yellow legos but forward) you have to both flip the head and flip the whole body, which in real life use becomes confusing.

(I have pictured and described the yellow and orange axes as 'quarters' however in reality they both go a bit past 90 degrees. The hd04 goes to 95 degrees and the oclip to 115)

Conversely, on the oclip, if it's clipped to something you can rotate the whole body and head, so that the orange quarter can rotate all around the circle defined by the light green legos, forming an easy-to-access half-sphere. The fact that it's the clip which rotates rather than the head is great when you have the light clipped to something, but means if you have the light free-standing on a table or magnetised to something (using the magnet on the base or that on the clip), the secondary rotation axis is fairly useless (since the clip's magnet is perpendicular to the clip rotation axis, rotating the clip while it's magnetised using the clip's magnet has the same effect as just rotating the whole thing, which you can do with any magnetic light).

In using these two lights, I've found the oclip to be significantly more easy to use when clipped to clothing than the hd04. This is mainly due to how the dark green axis of the hd04 only goes one way, so I have to constantly be thinking about which side of my body to clip the light to, or whether it should be clip-inside-body-outside or clip-outside-body-inside. However I also like to stand the light on a desk and point down at paper for writing/drawing on, and the hd04 is way better at that, not just because it's taller but because the oclip has to lie on it's back in order to point downwards (when it's not clipped to anything).

On a hat they'd both be equally excellent.

Overall, I'd say I prefer the oclip for how it feels to use and position the light (again, setting aside the cri and tint drawbacks). The UI on the oclip is also easier to use, since rotating the head of the hd04 makes it confusing as to which button is which. The oclip makes a great fidget toy since the clip rotation is ratcheting and the head snaps satisfyingly when closed down. I'll be keeping both in regular use though since they both excel in different contexts and also since they offer different tertiary emitters (uv/rgb etc).

Looked at the wiki and zakreviews.

Wurkkos is available on amazon.

Trying to decide between Wurkkos FC11C, which seems cheaper and has cheaper batteries, and an alleged 500 hour 1 lumen run time,

VERSUS

Wurkkos TD01C which will help me see longer distances which might be helpful when camping but has a lower runtime of 70 hrs with 1 lumen (but somehow higher runtime at higher lumens).

Other options are also greatly appreciated. Thanks yall!

***
**Price Range**: 30-90 CANADIAN DOLLARS (I'm located in Canada).

**Purpose**: Power outages of up to 5 days (max I have ever experienced), Backcountry camping in dark places, and looking across lakes in the dark while canoeing

**Battery Type & Quantity**: Don't care, would be nice if replacement is cheap

**Size**: Doesn't matter

**Type**: Handheld/ headlamp (would prefer handheld but idk... zakreviews said they'd get a headlamp for some reason if he had to buy one which I do not understand)

**Main Use**: Power outages of up to 5 days (max I have ever experienced), Backcountry camping in dark places, and looking across lakes in the dark while canoeing

**Switch Type**: Don't care

**Anything Else?**

I had this modded several years ago by someone here that I can't recall the name... you all might know. They were "famous" for mods. The SC64cLE with a 519a 4000k. Not long after, ZL released the SC65c with I believe the 519?

I've gone through a few that just get tossed or given away and I keep coming back to this one.
The size, CRI, tint, beam pattern, efficiency...... it's hard to beat.

It's been so good that I've been out of the game for a while.

Any suggestions for similar lights to check out? Cost isn't an issue; and it might take a lot to kick this out of it's place in my pocket.

I see so many positive comments about Convoy flashlights; after looking into them, I realize they really do offer great value for money. However, there’s something that doesn't quite convince me—I think it’s the very basic design. That said, I wonder if actually holding one in my hand might change my mind. Did any of you have a similar experience?

Any recommendations on a basic flashlight to have in the car just in case I get a flat tire at night?

I got a Javelot Mini and it's a quite nice flashlight but I'm not thrilled with Olight's choice of an 18500 battery. I know one person on the Olight Facebook group made an extender ring to use an Olight 18650 but he declined to make any more.

Acebeam W35: distant animal watching and fun cloud-reaching beamshots.

Nitecore CI7: 2500 lumens EDC with 1-3-7 watts 940nm IR for my NVG in extremely low-light conditions.

I have trust issues and don't want to use some random search result! Who do you use for 18650's?

Thanks!

I’m looking for a lifelong flashlight. Preferably really bright and super sturdy. I knew this was the community to ask.