Cool new flashlights

[DenverGP]

The PD36R doesn't have a big enough / deep enough reflector to be a real thrower. The beam spreads out fairly quick, making it a good general purpose light.

The Fenix HT18 is a thrower, at least as strong as the C8+, but definitely more spendy. Looks a little larger in all dimensions than the C8+. Beam looks similar, I suspect it's a bit brighter than the C8+.

Another couple upscale throwers would be the Noctigon K1 and Acebeam T27.

If you want to see the really extreme throwers, look at lights like the Fenix TK30.. They are "LEP" lights, which use a laser instead of an LED as the light source. Not very useful, but very fun to play with. And very spendy.

Are there light settings, or any beam adjustability?

On the C8+, It uses a tailcap switch. It's got 12 modes. There is a obscure button press sequence to pick which mode you want. I'm using a mode that lets you switch between 0.1%, 1%, 10%, 35%, 100% via partial button press. Other modes offer different combos of power, as well as strobe, bike-strobe, battery-check, and SOS.
The beam is not adjustable... in the "flashlight hobby" realm, any of the "zoom" lights are usually considered pretty low performance. There are a couple high end thrower lights where you can turn the front to focus the sharpness of the beam (not zoom, just focus).

Even though the C8+ is very focused, do you feel it puts out enough light that it doesn't matter for closer situations because it's so bright?

This is 1% indoors with no other light, about 15 feet away from the stove.


At 35% the room is just about daylight bright.

If I needed to search a wide area, it wouldn't be my first choice. But for closer situations, it does have a decent amount of "spill" outside of the focused beam to make it useful.

I was able to spot a critter (guessing coyote or racoon) about 1000 feet away by the glowing eyes when I swept across it...

Do any of those lights have built in recharging?

Added that to my post... yeah, the two wowtac lights have built in charging via USB micro connector. C8+ comes with just the light/lanyard. No battery and no built in charging.