eBay CREE Lights - Worth it?

lighty89

So are the CREE Q5 200-400 Lumens as good as they say.
Quite cheap as well.
Want some decent lights that don't break the bank!

paul.skibum

Look in the What Lights thread at the top - all the advice you could ever need about lights is in those pages - dont ask a question until you have had a look to see if the answer is readily available and dont ask a question just because you cant be bothered to read an existing thread in its entirety.

Tch Kids today.

lighty89

Lol I have read them but there's like hundreds of pages!
And they all say about spending £50...
I commute 2.5 miles each way into work so it's a big amount to spend really!

craker

I have something similar (MagicShine via DealExtreme) very good light, less good build quality. Depends on your commute really. Suburban (street lit) I'd say they are overkill. Unlit roads then - go for it.

bartimaeus

Q5 is a very old emitter and you won't get anywhere near the top end lumens with AAA batteries - for that you need an 18650. You can get an XML torch for under £10 and that will give you 500 lumens on full for an hour, or 3+ hours on medium which is what you should be using on the road. You will need a charger (£5) and an 18650 cell (£2.50 or free if you use old laptop batteries) - and a mount (£1.50). See this, which tells you what you need to know and has links to sellers.

sigorman85

Ultra fire! By Cree £11.50 eBay Trust me it bright cars flash you every now and then as its that bright lol

bartimaeus

Ultrafire are a brand of torch, CREE make the LEDs (emitters) in most of these torches... but how bright your torch is depends on the emitter, the driver the power source and the optics. An Ultrafire XML is a good choice - and the 501/502 body is a nice compact size.

The Rookie

I commute using a £10 XML (Aldi) torch running on triple AAA, the batteries last about 1-1.5 hours which is enough for my 2 way commute (rechargeables obviously - 1800mAh in my case), I wouldn't MTB with it though!

Jomox

They are rip offs to put simple (The none branded ones advertising false lumens etc) sure if you look after them can be okay, but td every single one has broken for me (And loads others if you look around the net, the build quality/design etc compared to proper branded lights is very weak)

Check out flashaholics.co.uk for proper flash lights, some come with life time warranty and the specs/designs/build quality are something else. Ultrafire are a decent branded light so will be okay with them.

shigllgetcha

youd be better getting them from someone reputable, youll have very little way of knowing if they are cree or not when you get them
ive used these two before and there is a good german site too but I cant remember and havent used it
ledsupply.com
cutter.au

lighty89

I have just purchased the following:

UltraFire XML T6 Torch
18560 Battery and Charger
Handlebar Mount