Honestly a balanced opinion – read on.
Basically Magicshine clone (ish) euro / emerican designs – Lupine, Hope, etc etc. Thats good and bad I guess.
Over the last few years I’ve bought (for me and mates) SSC p7 torches (all lasted about as long as their price indicates), chargers (bought a fire extinguisher), batteries (saved up biscuit tins!). All tongue in cheek – honestly.
A year later Magicshine cloned the Lupine Tesla (the ssc p7 – known as the bastid). Fantasic for the cash. I still have and use 2. Regularily failed for simple reasons (if mine was anything to go by). Needed soldering iron and basic skills and a supply of cables and connectors to keep going. But still got me out of an evening for £50 and the occasional bodge through the worst winter ever (or the best one ever imo!).
A year later – 2011. A new breed – this time some seem to be copying brands like Hope and striking out on their own. Some reports of chargers burning. Quality improving, still reports of problems.
So – on balance – if I was a bit more cash rich – time poor – I’d buy a hope or whatever. But I aint. So I buy magicshines every year so far. And I love and recommend them.
The thing is – for me – I dont need many more lumens. I dont know what the magicshiners will do next year – probably more lumens – but I doubt I’ll go and buy “more lumens”.
Next winter I’ll look at beam spread, run times, guarantees – or perhaps way way better – diy fixability / modability / reflecors / lenses / batteries….
Some folk may already be there. So that’s kind of my point. I’ve gone from cheapest possible – to next year “I’ll happily pay more for X,Y,Z”.
