Lumintop GT3

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Specifications

Brand/model	Lumintop GT3
LED	3*CREE XHP70.2
Lumens	18,000 lm
Beam intensity	85,600 cd (580 meters)
Battery config.	4*18650
Material	Aluminum
Modes	Multi (NarsilM v1.3 firmware)
Blinkies	Multi (NarsilM v1.3 firmware)
Reflector	Light orange peel (LOP)
Waterproof	IP68
Review date	December 2020

Update: the new batch of Lumintop GT3 flashlights will include a lanyard and run on Anduril firmware instead of NarsilM. And don’t forget to check out our review of its successor, the Lumintop GT3 Pro

Lumintop has become a very popular brand amongst flashlight enthusiasts. Especially on the Budgetlightforum (BLF). In the past few years, several projects were done with the help of members of the forum. Meanwhile, it has produced many new flashlights that are based on firmware developed by a few BLF members.

The Lumintop GT3 is another flashlight in the GT series with the first being the Lumintop BLF GT, which we reviewed as well, of course. The GT3 is a high-power flashlight running of 4 batteries with 3 large XHP70.2 LEDs. And for a price just above $100, this might become a great seller.

Package quality.

Lumintop used their common style cardboard packaging. There is nothing to really complain about, but it does feel a bit cheap. It’s rather difficult to remove the actual box from its cover. There aren’t many accessories included. The box contains the following:

• The Lumintop GT3 flashlight
• 1 Spare O-ring
• Manual
• Lanyard attachment ring
• Lanyard attachment tripod screw

It feels like any standard soupcan light. It’s short and fat. The 4*18650 batteries make the body feel large, and slippery. There is some machining, but I wouldn’t call that knurling. Therefore the flashlight itself can be a bit slippery.

Fortunately enough, Lumintop did include a lanyard attachment ring. It can be used as an anti-roll feature at the same time. On 1 side of the flashlight, you can find a tripod mount, covered by a metal screw with a hole. On the opposite side you find the switch. It’s a single electronic switch.

At first I thought this was using the popular Anduril firmware, but I was wrong. It uses NarsilM v1.3 firmware, adapted by BLF member Texas_Ace. You can easily operate the flashlight one-handed.

Unfortunately, Lumintop didn’t include a lanyard, but the lanyard attachment ring is already in place. It’s easy to make one and cheap to get one.

Tailstanding: no problem.

Its design looks pretty nice. Nothing wrong with the materials or machining. The machining is very smooth. So smooth it doesn’t really help with holding it tight. There is actually no knurling on the body.

Its threads are anodized and lubed. They run pretty smooth. The metal lanyard attachment ring is held in place by a black rubber o-ring.

How is the Lumintop GT3 able to claim a 18,000 lumen output?

From the Soup Can Flashlights I have, most aren’t reaching any higher than that. In fact, most aren’t reaching even 10,000 lumens. So, if the Lumintop GT3 can push out 18,000 lumens, they must be doing something interesting.

At the heart of this beast are 3 LEDs. And no, we aren’t talking about 5mm LED diodes, but about 3 CREE XHP70.2 LEDs that each can produce 6000 or more lumens. All 3 LEDs are very well centered in a triple reflector. And the inside of the reflectors have an orange-peel finish to make the beam as smooth as possible. This will also play down any artifacts in the beam like sharp edges, strange beam colors etc.

Reflector and LEDs are protected by a stainless steel bezel and AR (anti-reflective) coated lens. And yes, the beam is pretty smooth! Check out the outdoor beamshots at the bottom of this review.

Also, make sure you remove the protective film before using it! No, I didn’t make that mistake this time, but you may!

• Length: 130.9 mm / 5.15 ”
• Head diameter: 68.1  mm / 2.68 ”
• Body diameter: 50.9 mm / 2 ”

Weight: 

• Empty:  470 g / 16.6 oz
• With battery: 654 g / 23.07 oz

High power flashlights: Soup can size

Size compared to other high power flashlights.

From left to right: Acebeam X80-GT, Lumintop GT3, BLF Q8, Olight Marauder 2, Acebeam X45II

Update: the new batch of Lumintop GT3 flashlights will use Anduril firmware instead of NarsilM.

Instead of the very popular Anduril firmware, but the NarsilM v1.3. This firmware was designed by BLF member TomE, and adapted by BLF member Texas_Ace. See more info on this firmware here: http://budgetlightforum.com/node/54635

When you increase brightness, the end of ramp is not Turbo. The end of ramp I would call “High mode”. You can only activate Turbo by a double click.

MODES:

• By default, it has a smooth ramping menu.
• You can change this, in the firmware, to 12 other mode sets.
• For all mode sets, I refer to the link above.

Default mode: FROM OFF:

• Press and hold: Low
• Single-click: to last used brightness setting, mode memory
• Double click: Turbo
• Triple-click: Battery voltage check
• 4 clicks: Lock Out mode, repeat to unlock.
• 5 clicks: Momentary On mode for signaling (unscrew battery to go back to normal settings)

FROM ON:

• Press and hold: Smoothly ramp up and down
• Single-click:  turns the flashlight Off
• Double click: Turbo
• Triple-click: Battery voltage check
• 4 clicks: Lock Out mode, repeat to unlock
• 5 clicks: Momentary On mode

LOW BATTERY WARNING:

• According to the manual it does blink when it reaches 3V. Mine started blinking from the last output drop around 4 hours.

LOCK-OUT MODE:

• Yes, the Lumintop BLF GT3 has a special Lock-out mode. You can get there from either the On or Off position by doing 4 rapid clicks.

PWM:

• Nothing that I could notice by eye, which is what counts.

FIRMWARE / UI CONCLUSION:

The UI can fit most people’s needs. If you don’t play with the switch too much, you’ll be fine. Just use the ramping mode, Turbo, and Low, and that is good enough for this type of light! The Momentary ON is also pretty cool though, in case you need to do some morse coding… or annoy your neighbors. For all the other customizable settings I would refer to the manual if you can understand it. It’s not easy to understand it though, good luck.

Although more and more flashlights are starting to use built-in charging, the Lumintop GT3 doesn’t have it. You need to use button tops in order to use it. Flat tops won’t work because of the mechanical reverse polarity protection.

This means you need high quality batteries like the Samsung INR18650 30Q or the Sony VTC5A, VTC6 etc.

You need to insert 2 batteries with the positive terminal first, and the other 2 with the negative terminal first. The tailcap has 2 pins that fit exactly in 2 slots. They added some white plastic on these pins so you can line them up much easier. It’s interesting to see how this type of tailcap is still involving.

Lumen measurements:

All output numbers are relative for my home-made Integrating Sphere. It is set up with an Extech SDL400 Lux Meter for measurements including a Kenko PRO1D ND-16 filter. The base measurement is done with a Convoy S2+ that has been tested at 255 lumens.

Flashlight	Mode	@ 30 sec	@ start
Lumintop GT3	Bottom of ramp	2.75 lm	2.75 lm
Samsung 30Q*4	Top or ramp	6611 lm	6754 lm
–	Turbo	15168 lm	16267 lm

Lowest output is again difficult to measure because of the ND filter in use. But the numbers aren’t really bad!

Runtime:

The runtime test was done with the 50cm integrating sphere, including the Kenko Pro1D ND-16 filter and Extech SDL400 data logging Lux Meter. I didn’t change anything for the test, so the stepdown is temperature controlled.

The second runtime graph is probably a bit clearer. The horizontal lines are line up for every 1,000 lumens. So you can see that after 5 minutes both Turbo and High (top of ramp) drop to below 2000 lumens. Turbo drops to roughly 1060 lumens after 17.5 minutes, and High does the same but at 23.5 minutes. Both run for a few more hours before their next drop. But at that point, they already decreased output to roughly 400 lumens. When the batteries run low, the flashlight starts blinking as a Low Battery warning.

High power flashlight comparison

Here is the list with most of the high-power flashlights we reviewed in this category (Category: high-power soupcan sized flashlights).

Flashlight	Max. Output	after 30sec
Acebeam X50	35,507	30,383
Acebeam X75	64,295	73,716
Acebeam X80-GT2	31,890	27,143
Astrolux EC06	18,111	8,352
Fenix LR50R	11,698	10,849
Imalent MR90	52,326	32,128
Imalent MS08	25,745	19,615
Imalent MS12 Mini	68,773	46,750
Imalent MS12 Mini C	71,967	55,873
Imalent RS50	20,302	16,939
Imalent SR16	53,657	43,115
Lumintop GT3	16,267	15,168
Manker MK38 (SFT)	16,013	13,129
Olight Marauder 2	14,251	13,964
Thrunite TN50	18,200	17,360

(Interactive line graphs below)

Hover your mouse over the lines in the graph to see more details, or select a flashlight in the graph.

Using a mobile phone? Hold your phone horizontally!

Another comparison, focusing on the first 10 minutes after activation

And here’s another comparison, but zoomed in. The first 60 minutes after activation.

Throw Measurement

Measurements were taken at 5 meters distance with a professional Hagner E4-X Lux Meter.

Mode	Candela	Meters	Yards
High	36,675	383	419
Turbo (@start)	81,000	569	623
Turbo (30 sec)	80,500 cd	567 m	621

Lumintop is showing the following specifications: 85.6 kcd and 580 meters. My measurements at 5 meters were 81 kcd at start, and roughly 80.5 after 30 seconds. That’s definitely not bad for a lumenmonster like this.

For the following beamshots, I used a Canon EOS 5D Mk2 and a 50mm lens, manual settings: ISO1600, 1/4sec , F4, 5000K

The shed is about 65 meters / 71 yards away and the reflective fence about 200 meters. You see that all 3 are pretty close at startup. I would be hard-pressed telling the difference.

Disclaimer: This flashlight was sent to me for review at no cost, by Lumintop. I have not been paid to review, nor have I been holding back on problems or defects.