While a normal person would be catching up on what I assume to be Rick Grimes moist Negan
hating eyes in Season 8 of the Walking Dead- well Im not normal- so Im finishing up my
heavily requested BLF Q8 review instead- which is my idea of fun!
The BLF Q8 stands for Budget Light Forum Q8, which is a community designed flashlight,
manufactured by Thorfire.
And currently only sold at Banggood.com.
The special price was $40 which was an absolute steal but I think it hovers around $80 now.
Which is still a great deal per lumens, much in the same vein as The Convoy L6.
So the specs.
The Q8 uses 4 Cree XP-L HD V6 3D LED emitters, which translated from absolute nonsense will
output about 5200 maximum lumens of neutral white like in the 4700-5000k color temperature
range.
Its been designed by flashlight nerds remember in this day and age theres a nerd for everything.
.. for maximum heat dissipation, and based sort of on a skyray king, beer can sized flashlight.
Its made from black anodized aluminum, has a glass lens, a backlit button, a nice user
interface and more.
And it uses 4 high drain 18650 batteries with button tops.
Alright so the Q8 is fairly throwy for a beer can sized light and puts out a lot of light,
so lets look and see my figures.
The lowest it goes is a nice moonlight mode about a third of a lumen.
And while theres a mode setting for people who prefer hard stops of light because theyre
set in their ways, I stick with ramping, which goes upward all the way to its maximum 5200
lumens, and about 57000 candela which is a decent amount of throw meaning I wouldnt call
it a very floody light you got that dense center with an ok spill.
It kinda has a flower petal shaped beam pattern.
Ok the UI.
The Q8 can be run off 1-4 batteries, because the batteries are in parallel the batteries
all face the same way and act more or less like one big battery with 4.2 volts this is
the safest way to run multiple batteries in a big lumen light.
Theres also a mechanical lockout, unscrew the tube slightly while in your bugout bag
or shtf purse, whatever the hell that means.
So the light doesnt turn on accidentally.
Ok theres a lot to the UI, but Im going to keep it simple.
I am using the default UI, with the lowest moonlight, with the backlight on the button
off, and no strobes because it aint a dance party.
Press it once to turn it on press and hold to ramp up and it gets to the brightest setting
then release and press and hold again to go down the brightness scale.
So when finding the brightness you want on the scale if you release the button for less
than threeish seconds before pressing it again it goes the opposite way if you have last
touched the button more than 3 seconds ago it will continue the original way you were
going on the brightness scale . Very smart, It has mode memory so it remembers the last
mode you had when it was on.
You have shortcuts to moonlight by pressing and holding from off.
Although whats weird is there is actually a lower brightness setting than moonlight
from shortcut.
Press and hold release and press and hold again to get to lower than moonlight.
Highest mode double click from on or off or just go all the way up the brightness scale
if you accessed highest mode with a shortcut it wont be remembered in mode memory.
If you accesses it by going up the brightness scale all the way it will.
There are a ton of other ways to configure the UI, or even use modes like a regular light
but this section has been long but just know its probably the easiest UI out of the box
on a big lumen light.
Brightness ramping with shortcuts is so nice and simple.
Also it has thermal or timed step down configuration so you can control your step downs through
some programming.
Runtime.
The Q8 has low voltage protection but it tends to step down and run the batteries down so
turbo mode or highest or 100% with 4 batteries will last forever if you turn it on and let
it run like I did.
I used 4 unprotected button top Samsung 30qs, and you should too.
My thermal step down was set to factory setting at 55c.
It starts out and at 30 seconds were at 5200 lumens.
At 2 minutes in were at about 4900 lumens At 3 minutes in we hit the internal temperature
of 55c or 131 f and it steps down to about 1300 lumens.
If you want it to last longer on turbo set it to timed and reset when it steps down,
but do so at your own risk if it gets too hot to hold then it needs to be turned down
or let cool.
At 30 mins in were at 1348 lumens ish.
An hour were at 1200 lumensish dont you have something better to do like trick or treat?
2 hours were doing 990 lumens 3 hours 740ish lumens
then it does another step down because of volatage and were sitting at 130 lumens at
4 hours.
5 hours were at 16 lumens and it keeps stepping down from there.
You get the idea I ended my test at 12 hours later with very dim light still coming out.
Ok so how about the beamshots.
Here are most of the lights Ill be comparing this too not pictured in this lineup is my
life and the Convoy L6. which I thought about adding after I loaned some of these lights
out and cant reshoot this lineup.
All are big lumenish lights.
But you knew that.
First is the Q8, which is a bit throwier than most beer can lights.
It has a neutral tint, with a whiteish center, creamy around the hot spot, and a blueish
spill.
Again, this is if youre looking at it on a white wall.
In real outdoor in indoor use on 3d surfaces its nice.
I started doing this because people ask me to describe it, even though I think minute
tint criticism is ridiculous because its subjective and you can find fault in most tints if you
look.
Next the Acebeam K30 I just reviewed that, check out that one if you need more of my
talking.
Its cooler white and I tend to not like cool white tints as much.
Its a single emitter light..
again tint shift but its hard to see in my reviews because I tend to use lights in real
fake situations and not just show them on a white wall.
Back to the Q8 for a second.
Best user interface in this whole lineup.
The Manker MK34 has lower moonlight modes though.
And the nicest tint, but has the quickest stepdown.
Nichia 219c emitters tend to have less tint shift overall its nice and slightly warm.
I am trying to show a wide variety of tints here from the cools to the Neutrals.
Now the Meteor, also a nice tint- similarish to the BLF Q8, its a less throwy light but
brighter than the Q8.
Remember below the lumens is the overall brightness and the cd or candela refers to the intensity
of the beam best represented in the hotspot visually or the bright center of the beam.
Now the Olight X7 much brighter less throwy cool white tint.
Ok were mostly done here.
If you dont have a bright beer can light.
This is a very good place to start probably the best value per lumens if youre looking
for a well made light, with a very good UI, and a nice tint.
At the $40 I paid for it its amazing, and its still nice for $80 regular price.
Im sure if you went looking for some Amazon or Ebay multi emitter garbage you might could
find something slightly brighter, for cheaper, but it would have terrible PWM, a bad tint,
and a bad User Interface.
The Q8 is a high tech light with a lot of technology built in.
It has a ton of options to tweak in its Narsil firmware.
Check the video description for batteries, and links to the massive build thread over
on BLF.
Thanks to the Miller and all the other people for working with a manufacturer for about
a year to get this off the ground.
From my limited experience, thats excruciating work.
If you like this review, subscribe comment, give the video a thumbs up.
And check out some videos at the end of this video if youre new to my outdoor gear review
channel.