Manufacturer:- Candle Power Forums Member ARC mania
Purchase Price :- $200 / £112 http://www.xe.com/ucc/
Size:- 144.5 mm long 38mm Diameter at widest point.
Weight (With Batteries):- 6 5/8 oz. 188g
Battery Type / Qty :- 2off CR123A (Surefire, Duracell, Panasonic or similar)
Battery Life :- 120Minutes at full brightness then a bit more at low output
LED Type :- 3W Luxeon TWOJ hand selected out of a 250 reel.
Rated Output:- Unknown but probably around 80-90 Lumens on High
Estimated LED Lifespan:- Over 100,000 Hours (That's an awful lot of expensive batteries)
Colour:- White
Reflector Type :- Plastic Drop in Fraen or 32mm Reflector
Lens Material :- Ultra Clear Coated Glass
Electronics:- Modified Downboy 1000 set to run at 1A output The Sandwich Shoppe
Body Material :- Aluminium alloy with type III HA Natural anodising
Limited production run of only a few lights makes this a collectors item

Many thanks to CPF Candle Power Forums Member Halibut (Dan) for selling me this rare custom light.This is one of the first 10 Super Flashlight 2 that were made and is fitted with a 3Watt Luxeon LED.

This light is a custom production from yet another CPF member ARC mania (Mike). He assembles these using custom machined CNC bodies from TnC Custom Products in the USA.

The electronics module is a customised Downboy 1000. This Downboy is available from the The Sandwich Shoppe along with many other bits to make custom flashlights.

To say Mike just assembles these is probably an understatement. I know from his comments on the CPF that the 3Watt Luxeons were hand selected from a reel of 250. A labour of love then.

What make this light better than others then? Well one of it's best features is the beautifully machined and anodised body of the light. The machining is as good as I have seen on any of the lights I own. No small achievement! From the head to the battery tube and tailcap the parts fit together perfectly. The screw threads are silky smooth and all the parts are sealed with an O-ring. The light is rated as being completely waterproof.

The battery tube is not just a hollow tube as many lights are. It is machined from solid bar stock, this means that it is able to retain the cells when the head is unscrewed. Neat! The wall thickness is also very substantial and should stand up to some abuse. Not that I intend to give a £112 light any abuse.

The tailcap switch is the standard Kroll clicky as used on my ARC LSH. I like this switch as it gives an excellent feel and positive indication of operation. It also allows normal momentary operation. The switch is housed in a tailcap that surrounds and protects it from inadvertent operation. The tailcap also allows the light to stand on it's end to allow use in candle mode. The tailcap is similar to the VIP design, as it screws into the tube rather than over the top of it. The electrical contact point appears to be the edge of the battery tube against the flat part of the battery tube. This is because the threads on the both parts are hard anodised which acts as an effective insulator. I wonder if anodising the threads will make them last longer? Unscrewing the tailcap even slightly when switch on will cause the light to go out even though the kroll spring is still touching the battery.

The head assembly is tapped for the battery tube and fitted with a screw on bezel ring. This holds the UCL glass lens in place against an O-ring.. The O-ring. is located in a machined groove in the bezel. The fitted optic was a fraen but a standard reflector was also supplied. The fraen optic has four legs that locate in the machined holes in the head. I suspect that these holes may also be used for another purpose. Possibly to remove the electronics and LED from the head. If you fit the reflector it is slightly taller than the fraen and will not allow the bezel ring to screw down as far as it does with the frean.

The lens of the light is UCL Ultra Clear Lens. This is made from a special low dispersion glass which allows a lot more light to pass through compared with polycarbonate or normal glass lenses for more details see here http://www.flashlightlens.com/

The LED is mounted to the massive aluminium heatsink that is tapped into the body of the head so I don't think there should be any problem with running it for long periods of time. The LED warrant's a special mention. The Bin code is TWOJ this gives us the following

T=67.2-87.4 Lumens
W= 6050K Colour Temperature Tint White
0= 6050K Colour Temperature Tint White
J= 3.27-3.51 Vf (Forward Voltage)
W=Colour White

But in this case the LED was hand vetted from a reel of 250, so I would imagine that puts it at the top end of the overachievers. I don't yet own a lightmeter (Soon I hope) so comparisons with other lights are purely subjective. Needless to say on the first day of ownership I rushed out to show my friend. We compared it to a Surefire L6 and a Mr Bulk VIP, it was about the same brightness as the standard VIP but not as good as the L6. What I found out later after I got home was that the batteries in the SF2 were flat!!!! With new batteries it is much brighter than the VIP and throws just as far with the frean optic as the L6. What's more it cost less than the L6, uses one less battery and is smaller and easier to carry. I still like the L6 though :) The beam with the frean is narrower than the L6, I should really check it with the reflector.

I think the above story about the flat batteries proves that the regulation works! I told Dan the story and he said he used them to do his runtime test! LOL

I measured the current to the LED with my Fluke DMM to be about 900mA this is with Panasonic CR123's that have had about 5 minutes use. I have not yet done my own runtime tests (Still looking for a lightmeter and a logging multimeter set-up).

The light has been laser engraved with the following markings

MJ DESIGN 010 MADE IN USA LS POWERED

I think this finishes off the design really well.

Perhaps my only complaint it that the finish is so good I don't want to damage it. LOL

Plus the tube is slightly slippery when pressing the kroll switch. This has been noted by other users and the Super Flashlight 3 has improvements!

I wanted one of these as soon as I saw pictures of them on CPF. It looks like I made a good choice. I now look forward to hopefully getting a brand new Super Flashlight 3 from ARC mania when he decides to make a few more.

If you want one look round on the CPF BST forum for a good example. Most are well cared for as they are such an enthusiast torch.

www.candlepowerforums.com One of the best forums of any kind on the net. Lots of reviews, opinions and help for the novice to the expert on anything relating to illumination products.

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