Lets take a look at the Roche F12. This particular model I picked up from International Outdoor for $27 with free shipping. I went with the Desert Yellow color because of it looking not black! I have enough black flashlights and I wanted to add something with a little color for a change. It only took 11 days from the time of ordering until it was in my mailbox! That is not bad at all seeing as it came from Singapore and went through customs (most shipments take at least another week to come in). Customer service at International Outdoor is great as usual and replies to emails were instant or within 30 minutes regardless of the time of my inquiry.
It came to me in a nice Ultrafire branded display box with a magnetic closure. Inside the box displayed prominently is the Roche F12 along with a lanyard and two extra o-rings.
If you visit the link above, you will see that this light comes with customizable modes and in different tints. The tint that I went with was the 1A (cool white) as opposed to the 3C (neutral white) because I prefer whiter, brighter (marginally) light instead of a better color rendition index provided by the neutral white which has a slight yellowish tint to it. I decided on the three mode, high-medium-low programming which actually comes in the order low-medium-high, much preferred as you do not start on the blinding mode and you can ramp up to the desired light mode.
Circuitry is provided by the venerable Nanjg 105C driver board with 5 AMC 7135 chips (you can see the fifth one in the above picture, there are four on the other side of the driver board). Each 7135 chip provides 350mA of current for a total current of 1.75A. This current level through the Cree Industries XML T6 1A emitter is good for about 643 lumens of output at the emitter and 546 lumens out the front assuming an 80% overall efficiency of the light.
The size of this light is 117mm in length and about 23mm in diameter. Weight checks in at a paltry 2.1 ounces. For a light that takes an 18650 Li-Ion battery, this is a small light that won't weigh you down, it is easily pocketable and fits into the EDC role nicely. Seeing as the dimension of the head is the same diameter as the body of the light and that it only weighs 2.1 ounces, on high mode this light puts out a generous amount of heat. Another reason why the 3-mode is a good idea; you get about 30 lumens on low and about 165 on medium mode so you do not need to use the hot high mode to generate enough light to do most tasks.
The tailcap on this light is great! It is a reverse clicky (push in until it clicks and upon release the light turns on) so no momentary on capabilities. Switching modes requires only a light push on the button but you also have the option of fully turning the light off then back on to switch to the next output. The holes on the tailcap are there to be used in conjunction with either the supplied alligator clip lanyard or the implementation of your own lanyard (paracord anyone?). This tailcap design allows the light to tailstand and act as a candle of sorts.
The threads on the Roch F12 came lubed and are very smooth to operate. As you can see in the picture the threads are anodized with the same type II hard coat anodizing as the body (but inferior to the type III anodizing on the black colored model). Current is passed through the ends of the body via raw metal around the circumference of the body tube on either end. This lets you "lock-out" the light by twisting the tailcap 1/4 of a turn so that it cannot be turned on. This is particularly useful at night when you are trying to be sneaky sneaky, or when the light is in your pocket as it turning on and being in high mode will give you an unpleasant burning sensation in the pants (see what I did there?).
The knurling on the body is more than adequate and provides great traction for the user even when wet and wearing gloves! This is one of my favorite flashlights and I have plans for rotating it into my EDC very soon. The F12 would also make a great glove box light if for no other reason than its power to size ratio. I do plan to add some extra 7135 chips to the driver at some point to boost the output to more of a medium-high-turbo compared to the low-medium-high but I will do a separate writeup on that when the time comes!
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