Ultrafire WF-008 "recoil LED" torch
Posted: Tue Feb 02, 2010 12:58 pm
I already have a couple of decent torches - a little 2XAA Fenix E20 (105 lumens) lives in the car and is a veteran of a dozen fox kills. My Eagletac T100C2 puts out a pretty tight 220 lumens and has been an excellent light for hunting - a tight spot with a decent spill to see where you are putting your feet. But I wanted something TIGHT.
So, this thing arrived yesterday and TBH it is an eye opener (no pun intended....) The Ultrafire WF-008 runs on a single 1860 Li ion rechargeable battery like many tactical torches do. It is electronically regulated to maintain a relatively steady brightness. None of this is too unusual - what is unusual is that it features what is known as "recoil" technology. This means that the LED is mounted at the front of the lens and it fires back at the reflector and then the light "recoils" out the end. It's just what lighthouses have been doing for centuries, and allows the makers of the torch to have a perfectly round and smooth surface to bounce the light back. The LED is mounted on a solid central spine or "pin" - in this case it's allegedly a CREE Q5 LED with a "white" hue - though in reality it has that familiar blue LED cast to it.
The torch itself is a beautiful little unit - a satin grey anodising with machining marks, or a sort of "arsenal" finish I guess you could call it - a bit like some military rifle barrels. The body is more or less 1" in diameter though it is scalloped out in various places. It's just under 15cm long and the head is just about 4cm. The reflector is smooth aluminium and the lens is plain glass. It's rated at 230 lumens - that might not sound much but it's running a "full choke" as as such puts a high lux reading on to a target.
With a HMR box and my Eagletac for comparison.
This torch has but one mode - flat out. The switch is the familiar forward clickie but unfortunately there is no momentary on/off feature so it clicks on then needs to be clicked off. I find the momentary feature very handy on my Eagletac - a quick blip of light to pinpoint a target's location as you sneak closer in darkness comes in handy.
This is the business end of the light with the LED pin visible. The wires for the LED run up the rear of that pin. (it's more like a fin than a pin) It has an "assault" style crown on it.
Down to brass tacks, this light shoots a beam very like an aspheric lense light - you see the square shape of the LED and there's very little spill at short range. It's all about long throw and there is no focus adjustment.
This is the beam on a wall at 10 feet. The spot would be 20cm across at the most.
This is the beam on the end of the hallway - about 13m away. At this point the beam is less than 1m wide - the hallway is 1.2m.
At night, you really get some appreciation of the power of this little light - TBH it's comparable to my little 75W Lightforce 140 Lance. Last night I took it to an open space that attracts a lot of 'roos, rabbits and hares. I managed this pic of a bunny about 60m away. It's not ideal as I had to sit both the light and the camera on a post for want of anything else so he's not centered precisely in the beam. But you get the idea how intense the spot is. I would say it would have half as much range again as what the Eagletac has - though the lack of spill means it's not as good as an all around hunting torch.
I have a mount set up for attaching this little lightsabre, and hopefully in the near future I'll be testing it out and getting some idea of real world runtimes in the field.
So, this thing arrived yesterday and TBH it is an eye opener (no pun intended....) The Ultrafire WF-008 runs on a single 1860 Li ion rechargeable battery like many tactical torches do. It is electronically regulated to maintain a relatively steady brightness. None of this is too unusual - what is unusual is that it features what is known as "recoil" technology. This means that the LED is mounted at the front of the lens and it fires back at the reflector and then the light "recoils" out the end. It's just what lighthouses have been doing for centuries, and allows the makers of the torch to have a perfectly round and smooth surface to bounce the light back. The LED is mounted on a solid central spine or "pin" - in this case it's allegedly a CREE Q5 LED with a "white" hue - though in reality it has that familiar blue LED cast to it.
The torch itself is a beautiful little unit - a satin grey anodising with machining marks, or a sort of "arsenal" finish I guess you could call it - a bit like some military rifle barrels. The body is more or less 1" in diameter though it is scalloped out in various places. It's just under 15cm long and the head is just about 4cm. The reflector is smooth aluminium and the lens is plain glass. It's rated at 230 lumens - that might not sound much but it's running a "full choke" as as such puts a high lux reading on to a target.
With a HMR box and my Eagletac for comparison.
This torch has but one mode - flat out. The switch is the familiar forward clickie but unfortunately there is no momentary on/off feature so it clicks on then needs to be clicked off. I find the momentary feature very handy on my Eagletac - a quick blip of light to pinpoint a target's location as you sneak closer in darkness comes in handy.
This is the business end of the light with the LED pin visible. The wires for the LED run up the rear of that pin. (it's more like a fin than a pin) It has an "assault" style crown on it.
Down to brass tacks, this light shoots a beam very like an aspheric lense light - you see the square shape of the LED and there's very little spill at short range. It's all about long throw and there is no focus adjustment.
This is the beam on a wall at 10 feet. The spot would be 20cm across at the most.
This is the beam on the end of the hallway - about 13m away. At this point the beam is less than 1m wide - the hallway is 1.2m.
At night, you really get some appreciation of the power of this little light - TBH it's comparable to my little 75W Lightforce 140 Lance. Last night I took it to an open space that attracts a lot of 'roos, rabbits and hares. I managed this pic of a bunny about 60m away. It's not ideal as I had to sit both the light and the camera on a post for want of anything else so he's not centered precisely in the beam. But you get the idea how intense the spot is. I would say it would have half as much range again as what the Eagletac has - though the lack of spill means it's not as good as an all around hunting torch.
I have a mount set up for attaching this little lightsabre, and hopefully in the near future I'll be testing it out and getting some idea of real world runtimes in the field.
