Speras T50 Hunting Flashlight Review
The Speras T50 hunting flashlight offers a high output Cree XHP70.3 HI emitter as well as a red filter and a green filter, great for hunting uses. Read on!
Official Specs and Features
Here’s a link to the Speras T50 hunting flashlight product page.
Versions
I believe there’s just one version of the Speras T50 hunting flashlight.
Price
The going price for the Speras T50 hunting flashlight is $206.89. I believe that includes the battery seen in this post, as well as both filters and the weapon mount, too. It’s a robust package!
What’s Included
- Speras T50 hunting flashlight
- Customized battery
- Charging cable
- Remote switch
- Red and green filter
- Weapon mount
- Spare o-rings (2)
- Manual
Package and Manual
The Speras T50 hunting flashlight ships in a plastic carry case.
Build Quality and Disassembly
Build quality of the Speras T50 hunting flashlight is good. There are fortunately no surprises here.
Smartly, Speras has used springs on both the head and tail. Both are very thick and beefy springs, too, which you’d expect on a weapon light such as this.
The cell tube can be removed fully but it is not reversible.
Size and Comps
254 mm x 63.6mm x 25.4mm and 254g without the battery.
If the flashlight will headstand, I’ll show it here (usually the third photo). If the flashlight will tailstand, I’ll also show that (usually in the fourth photo).
Here’s the test light with the venerable Convoy S2+. The version below is a custom laser-engraved Convoy S2+ host by GadgetConnections.com. I did a full post on an engraved orange host right here! Or go straight to GadgetConnections.com to buy your Convoy S2+ now!
Also above is the light beside a TorchLAB BOSS 35, an 18350 light. I reviewed the aluminum version of that light in both 35 and 70 formats. I also reviewed that specific edition, the “Oveready BOSS FT Collector Vintage Brass” 35. I love it!
Retention and Carry
In the tailcap area is this trip ring. The grip ring has a lanyard hole. You can just barely see it below, but the tailcap also has a couple of lanyard holes, too. A lanyard is not included.
The main way to carry the Speras T50 hunting flashlight is by attaching it to a weapon. Speras includes the weapon mount seen below.
That mount attaches in the way seen below, event though this is not really the type of weapon nor the way it’s really intended to be attached. You wouldn’t normally attach this light with the reflector so far forward. But it’s all I can on on my example weapon!
Below you can see what kind of flexibility the mount offers. It’ll accept barrels of various sizes.
The screw that tightens the parts together has a little plastic cap.
You could also carry the Speras T50 hunting flashlight in the plastic carry case.
Power and Runtime
Speras includes the battery seen below for running the T50 hunting flashlight. This is two 21700 cells in series. There’s no reason you can’t use your own 2×21700 batteries (they don’t even have to be attached together as this battery pack is). But you’ll want to use high-quality cells and also make sure they are married (same voltage, same lifetime circumstances, probably purchased together, and hopefully from the same batch.) Otherwise, running cells in series like this isn’t safe.
The included battery has a button top but because of the robust springs inside the T50, even a set of flat tops should work fine.
They go into the light in the usual way – button (positive end) toward the head.
Below are a few runtimes. Turbo holds for around a minute, which is respectable, and the output is great too. It does hit the claimed 4000 lumens! The stepdown is pretty dramatic though.
In every test, the resulting cell voltage was “0V” but that’s almost certainly a protection tripping of the battery, and not being drained to 0V. This is something you’ll want to consider if you’re using your own cells – make sure they’re protected. (And it’s another reason in support of just using the battery from Speras.)
Charging
The Speras T50 hunting flashlight has built-in charging. It’s a USB-C charging port near the head.
An A to C charging cable is included.
Below you can see one and a half charging cycles. The red is C to C and looks pretty much ok. The green looks to be about the same but unfortunately, my logger disconnected during the charge cycle. I have no reason to expect it’d be any different toward the end. Both should take around 4 hours to complete.
While charging, the indicating switch is red. When charging is complete, the switch turns green.
Modes and Currents
| Mode | Mode Claimed Output (lm) | Claimed Runtime | Measured Lumens | Tailcap Amps (@8.4V) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Turbo | 4000 | 3.7h | 4280 (0s) 4033 (30s) |
6.07 |
| High | 1800 | 4.5h | 1723 (0s) 1686 (30s) |
1.78 |
| Medium | 500 | 6.4h | 833 (0s) 598 (30s) |
0.53 |
| Low | 200 | 16h | 221 | 0.22 |
| ECO | 20 | 147h | 19 | 0.01 |
Pulse Width Modulation
None of the modes use PWM.
Here you can see a “baseline” – a chart with almost no light hitting the sensor. Then there’s the Ultrafire WF-602C flashlight, which has some of the worst PWM I’ve seen. It’s so bad that I used a post about it to explain PWM! Here are multiple timescales (10ms, 5ms, 2ms, 1ms, 0.5ms, 0.2ms) to make comparing this “worst” PWM light to the test light easier. That post also explains why I didn’t test the WF-602C at the usual 50us scale.
User Interface and Operation
There are two switches on the Speras T50 hunting flashlight. First, there’s a mechanical forward clicky tail switch.
Next is an indicating e-switch on the head end.
There’s one more way, and it’s also an e-switch, but is a “remote” switch. It’s still physically attached, but for weapon mounting it’s perfect to have an attached switch near the trigger area.
Here’s a user interface table! The remote switch has three buttons – S1, S2, and S3. S1 is on the “cable end” of the pad.
| State | Action | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Off | Click tail switch | On (mode memory) |
| On | Click tail switch | Off |
| Off | Double tap tail switch | Strobe |
| On | Click side switch | Mode advance |
| On | Double click side switch | Strobe |
| Strobe (from e-switch) | Double click side switch | SOS |
| Strobe or SOS | Click side switch | Previous (Steady) mode |
| On | Hold side switch | Mode advance once (treated as one click) |
| Off | Click S1 | On (mode memory) |
| On | Click S1 | Off |
| Off | Hold S1 | Momentary mode memory |
| Off | Press S2/S3 | Momentary strobe |
| On | Hold S2/S3 >0.5s | Momentary strobe |
| On | Press S2/S3 | Mode advance |
LED and Beam
Speras used a Cree XHP70.3 HI emitter in the T50. It has a very smooth reflector, too.
The bezel has a bit of shape and light can escape while headstanding. Also note here that you can see the switch indicating in green.
Included with the Speras T50 hunting flashlight package are two filters. One is red and one is green. They are very effective! Attaching them is a bit difficult because they have very fine and very short threads. Chances are you’ll put one filter on and that’s the filter that will stay on the light… it’s unlikely you’ll swap them frequently.
Also noteworthy is that my filters rattled just a little bit. I never could get them tight enough to not rattle.
LED Color Report (CRI and CCT)
Without either filter, the white emitter output is cool to very cool white, low CRI, and also moderately positive Duv. All of these are characteristics common for weapon lights and particularly for very high-output lights (like this one.)
Beamshots
These beamshots are always with the following settings: f8, ISO100, 0.3s shutter, and manual 5000K exposure. These photos are taken at floor level and the beam hits the ceiling around 9 feet away.
Tint vs BLF-348 (KillzoneFlashlights.com 219b version) (affiliate link)
I keep the test flashlight on the left, and the BLF-348 reference flashlight on the right. These photos are taken around 18 inches from the door.
I compare everything to the KillzoneFlashlights.com 219b BLF-348 because it’s inexpensive and has the best tint!
Summary and Conclusion
The performance of the Speras T50 hunting flashlight seems very good. I am not in love with the huge stepdown on Turbo but I do appreciate that the light does hit the claimed 4000 lumens. Aside from performance, it seems like a reasonable weapon light. Including both filters is a nice touch and the battery being pre-packages isn’t too bad (since you can use your own if you really want to.) The user interface is reasonable for a weapon light. It’s a very robust package and light.
The Big Table
| Speras T50 hunting flashlight | |
|---|---|
| Emitter: | Cree XHP70.3 HI |
| Price in USD at publication time: | $206.89 |
| Cell: | 1xCustomized 21700×2 |
| Runtime Graphs | |
| LVP? | Yes |
| Switch Type: | Both |
| Quiescent Current (mA): | – |
| On-Board Charging? | Yes |
| Charge Port Type: | USB-C |
| Charge Graph | |
| Power off Charge Port | No |
| Claimed Lumens (lm) | 4000 |
| Measured Lumens (at 30s) | 4033 (100.8% of claim)^ |
| Candela per Lumen | 40.36 |
| Claimed Throw (m) | 738 |
| Candela (Calculated) in cd (at 30s) | 4570lux @ 6.264m = 179316cd |
| Throw (Calculated) (m) | 846.9 (114.8% of claim)^ |
| Claimed CCT | – |
| Measured CCT Range (K) | 6500-7600 Kelvin |
| Item provided for review by: | Speras |
| All my Speras reviews! | |
^ Measurement disclaimer: Testing flashlights is my hobby. I use hobbyist-level equipment for testing, including some I made myself. Try not to get buried in the details of manufacturer specifications versus measurements recorded here; A certain amount of difference (say, 10 or 15%) is perfectly reasonable.
What I like
- Includes red and green filters
- Charges via USB-C
- Very high output (hits specifications)
- Battery is “pre-packaged” but really just two 21700 cells in series
What I don’t like
- Cost is high (but it is a very full package)
- Threading the filters onto the head can be a little tricky. They also seem to rattle (could never get them tight enough to not rattle.
Notes
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