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  • Overall Rating: 3
  • Price: 4
  • Quality: 4
  • Ease Of Use: 5
  • Usefulness: 3
Not so great – UltraFire WF-501B MC-E (BIN M) 5-Mode 800-Lumen LED Flashlight (1*18650) Reviews

posted by brted on 07/04/2010 Certified Owner

Involvement:Expert (understands the inner workings) - Ownership:1 day to 1 week

Pros:
It is brighter than my XP-G R5. The mode memory works well after the light is off for 2 seconds. The 501B host seems well made with only a minor blemish in the black anodizing. Threads were lubed and there were o-rings at all of the joints.
Cons:
Mine only draws 1.4A instead of 2.0 as advertised or the 2.2 to 2.9 others are reporting (the most I ever measured was 1.65A). This means that it isn't as bright as it could be and instead of 600 lumens it is putting out less than 400. I'm not sure why the circuit boards aren't more consistent, but there is no way to know what you will get. Also the light doesn't seem to be well-regulated and the current drops with the battery voltage: 1.45A at 4.16V and down to 0.85A at 3.63V.
There is also a prominent dark doughnut hole in the beam. On mine it isn't a light plus sign, it is a dark hole. I will try to post a picture of it. Even outdoors, you can clearly see the dark spot moving with the beam.
The host is pretty lightweight and needs additional heatsinking if you don't want the LED to overheat. The threads are a little rough and there aren't many, only three rows of threads on the tail, four at the head and throat.
Other:
The SOS is very slow, not that I'm interested in using the SOS mode. Modes are High-Med-Low-Strobe-SOS.
Bottomline:
If you aren't prepared to buy a new driver, you may be disappointed with this light. However, some people are getting very bright lights with good current draws and not much of a dark spot.