Another testimonial! Hooray.
I've had my ML1 for about a week and a half now, and I have to say that already I almost wonder how I got along without it. For a little background: I'm a syasdmin/network engineer in my "real job," and a stage lighting tech as a hobby.
In the past several days, I've hauled this light to places that aren't any more exciting than a dust-filled computer desk - and the low mode is just perfect for seeing where all the cables go. I usually do that by touch, but in the cases where that's not all that easy, this light is great. But it's also gone to more exciting places, too.
As a part of my job, I routinely get flown to the Kensington gold mine, where my company has part of a long-range wireless network system and comm towers to service the mine. This is a cold, dirty, hostile kind of place for equipment. As would be expected, the light worked beautifully for poking around the myriad unlighted communications areas, as well as inspecting antenna mounts and connectors in the dark (which happens at around 4:30pm around now). High mode is great for anything you need more light for - the beam throws a goodly distance for looking into bushes or under things, is a dazzling bright white and has no artifacts.
As another part of that, the mountaintop comm towers and sheds (of course they don't have any lights...) are another perfect place to put the light to use. From checking serial numbers to rebuilding breaker boxes, the ML1 has served me well. It has also, I like to think, convinced a couple of bears that the tower wasn't a good place to find their last set of berries - flashed them from about 20 feet up, they grumbled, and wandered off. Of course, it might have been the shotgun, too. The Alaskan wilderness is fun!
The light weighs almost nothing, or that's how it feels to me at least. It's clipped in my jeans pocket, and never gets in the way. This is also my first SureFire light, and I really like the two-stage tailcap mechanism - it's superbly easy to work with one hand, and has two modes of brightness instantly.
The low-mode is similarly excellent for stage work, where you need to see up on catwalks without ruining your low-light vision much. It lights up the whole walkway, both with the hotspot and beautiful corona. Simply amazing.
My previous light for all these tasks was the venerable (and, now I see, somewhat outclassed) incandescent Mag-AA. I still have some affection for this old workhorse, as its yellow, ringy beam has seen me through many a dark corridor - but I must say that the ML1 is superior in every way. I imagine the MagLED-AA is a much more fair comparison, but I'm putting this one out there anyway.
Just tonight, the ML1 came in handy for helping a friend of mine locate some lost keys in a parking lot. The beam's width from corona edge is both usefully large and usefully bright, meaning we could search a lot of the lot at a time. It took a while (because we started looking in the wrong spot), but it was the ML1's beam that glinted back off of a set of keys.
I've run this light for several hours since I got it, mixed with high and low modes and the light is still very much in regulation with the supplied SureFire 123 cell. I'm kind of wondering when the battery will die - but I have a pile of Energizer 123s ready to pop in.
Put simply, the ML1 is almost startlingly perfect for what I do in both "real life" and hobbies. I live in a dark place, so having a light is extremely handy, but the light has shown to be more than worth it in every way since. I am thrilled with my purchase - and might even grab a couple more of these just to stash around for power outages. Until someone comes out with a lithium primary D-cell, I think these little lights might just supplant my collection of Mags that currently roll, bounce, or sit around for my general lighitng purposes.
The light from the LuxIII is also just the right amount. A Cree XR-E would produce more light at the same drive level - but for what I've been using this light for, that would actually probably be
too much. Now, I might buy a couple Cree lights for "Wow Factor," but I'm not sure as anything could convince me to leave this light behind, save my vision getting even worse than it already is.
I'm the kind of person that gladly pays for quality over anything else, and I feel my money was sublimely well-spent. I will be using this light until either I manage to break it (Stunningly unlikely, it's built like a tank) or it gets lost (similarly unlikely - I hope!).
For anyone looking for a nice, hand-sized every-day carry kind of light and had the cash to burn, I would point them at the ML1 in a heartbeat. This light ain't never going to be a shelf queen - and in a year or so, I'm sure the pictures of where it's been and what it's done will be entertaining. And after that, it'll still keep shinin' on.
Thanks so much to Scott for providing this product and service. I'm simply astounded - and deeply impressed.
