Haven't heard anything about this Romisen light

I was poking around the DX site, and found this:

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.7502

Romisen RC-I3. Apparently, a 1 x CR123a, 1 x RCR123a, 1 x AA, 1 x 14500, 2 x AA. The review says it is designed for 3 v.-3.7 v., so a single AA (1.5v?) doesn't do too well, but the other options work.

I'm a sucker for 1 x CR123a / 2 x AA combo lights.

Does anyone have any experience with this light? I did a search, but didn't come up with anything. I was going to order an RC-N3 after my Stainless C3 arrives, but since no one seems to have written this one up, I thought maybe I'd order it next instead, see how it is, and write it up (something I'm not yet competent at, I'll warn you all in advance.)

BigBluefish said:

I was poking around the DX site, and found this:

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.7502

Romisen RC-I3. Apparently, a 1 x CR123a, 1 x RCR132a, 1 x AA, 1 x 14500, 2 x AA, 2 x 14500. The review says it is designed for 3 v.-3.7 v., so a single AA (1.5v?) doesn't do too well, but the other options work.

Click to expand...

2x14500 would be a bad idea. That would be 8.4v input.

on the discussions section on the lower portion of the page, someone said it was more geared toward run time. He said 3 hours on 1300mah AAs but it isn't extremely bright...

Marduke said:

2x14500 would be a bad idea. That would be 8.4v input.

Click to expand...

D'oh! See my remarks above about competency? Gonna fix that. Still way down on the learning curve, here.

I'm thinking of one of these as a gift light- the fact that it's geared towards runtime means you can put 2xAA alkies in it and it won't draw excessive current.

However, it's been postponed for a while- I'm getting a WF-500 first.

I got one of these a week ago ... love it. When you search for AA Cree lights on DX, this one doesn't come up for some reason ... but the black one (SKU 7503) used to, I'm pretty sure.

The result is that I ordered a black one ... but they shipped me a silver ... which I would have preferred if I had known about both colors. :kiss:

Light is excellent. I think I rated it 5 out of 5 stars. Very bright (but not as bright as my 2xCR123 I got in the same order (SKU 7999). I'm pretty sure it is a P4 emitter ... but could be a P3. It's much brighter than the P2 I got in the popular 1AA Romisen (SKU 3609).

Beam pattern is typical small-reflector Cree ... nice blend of spot and spill. :twothumbs I would guesstimate that it's about 100 - 115 lumens.

The only complaint I have is that the nice little clip is difficult to take off and put back on ... and I'm not sure why. You need to wrap surgical tubing or something around the clip as you unscrew the tailcap or it will scratch the heck out of the body. And still, it takes a lot of effort to screw it back together and tighten all the way.

I bought one ... but should have gotten two.

I would have buy 3+ more to give away as gifts ... but the light is a bit beefy for a 2AA light. That's fine for me ... but I would prefer a slightly thinner, trimmer light for my ladyfriends. Think of a 2AA version of the MTE 5-mode Rebel light. I would also prefer a 2AA-only version. Personally, I like the modular approach ... but as a gift to non-flashaholics and women with little of no mechanical sense, I think it's a little on the complicated side. As it is, I prefer to give them 1AA lights ... but lament the modest run-time if they try to use them for all-night emergencies.

Other colors would be nice, too. A pink anodized version would be pretty and a good girl gift ... as well as gold version.

The only other change I'd make to the design is to give it a forward clickie (instead of reverse) as well as a low mode so you could get 8+ hours from a set of alkalines.

What's the tail current draw like? I wasn't expecting 100 lumens+, since this is slightly more geared to runtime.

Bror Jace said:

I got one of these a week ago ... love it. When you search for AA Cree lights on DX, this one doesn't come up for some reason ... but the black one (SKU 7503) used to, I'm pretty sure.

The result is that I ordered a black one ... but they shipped me a silver ... which I would have preferred if I had known about both colors. :kiss:

Click to expand...

I've noticed that with a few of the DX lights. If you look through all the entries under the CREE Lights placeholder, I think they show up, even though they won't show up if you search from the 'AA Cree...' or 'CR123a Cree...' placeholders.

Bror Jace said:

Light is excellent. I think I rated it 5 out of 5 stars. Very bright (but not as bright as my 2xCR123 I got in the same order (SKU 7999). I'm pretty sure it is a P4 emitter ... but could be a P3. It's much brighter than the P2 I got in the popular 1AA Romisen (SKU 3609).

Beam pattern is typical small-reflector Cree ... nice blend of spot and spill. :twothumbs I would guesstimate that it's about 100 - 115 lumens.

Click to expand...

Do you get that level of light on 2 x AA NiMH and/or primary lithiums, 1 x CR123a, or 1 x RCR123a?

Hi,

i just got mine yesterday. ordered a grey one instead they sent the black one... :sigh:well. its a nice l2d backup and almost as bright for the half price. the clip is indeed not very usable - i scratched the tube and couldnt screw it back on - so its gonna stay without now (the two little holes anyway stay...)
i had to clean the threads and lube em. but other than that build quality is good. overall i didnt regret the buy and pricewise its quite unbeatable.

if i have some time this week i might do some beamshots.

***greetings from berlin, germany

Ive had one of these for a few months now. I use it strickly with 1 x cr123. The single AA and 2 x AA just wasnt bright enough. It took some doing but I installed a MCGIZMO MCCLICKY in it. Everything has to go in from the top. And you have to put a longer spring on the switch. Very bright and great runtimes for a single CR123.

mechie, I believe that was with 2 Nimh in it .. but I have also run it off a 14500.

That guesstimate is rough ... and based on the belief that my other 1XAA lights are 60-80 lumens ... including my '100 lumens' MTE Rebel 5-mode.

Can anyone else back me up on this? Brightness has got to be right around 100 lumens.

Sorry, I can't measure current draw.

Hi,
just posted some beamshots of the Romisen RC-G2, RC-I3, Liteflux LF2 (P4), L2D (R100) over there.

***greets

I just got one of these a few days ago. I also got the wrong color delivered. Ordered a black one and got a gray one, geez... Overall, for the price paid I'm happy with it. I haven't tried it with a CR123 yet, gotta get some. The only negative things about it are the clip(removed it). And the threads on the extension tube are loose(on the female end). I'm afraid of it stripping out eventually.

Well, Bror Jace, if this light puts out more than 80 lumens running one primary CR123, I'm going to have to pick one up.

Did you find it brighter running on a primary CR123, or a an RCR123, mhubble?

Thanks for the beamshots, meckie.

meckie said:

Hi,
just posted some beamshots of the Romisen RC-G2, RC-I3, Liteflux LF2 (P4), L2D (R100) over there.

***greets

Click to expand...

It looks like you used the same pic twice on the L2D.

BigBlueFish, it's hard for me to compare the light on a RC123 vs 2AA as I have only one ... but I tried using a 3rd reference light.

Brightness seems to be about the same with the 2 configurations (and my CR123 was a 3.6V ... not sure I would run that long in this light ... I think it's rated up to 3.0V and I don't want to melt another Romisen (I melted my RC-G2 with a Li-Ion 14500).

I ordered one of these lights for a lady friend a while back and she loved it. However, I seriously doubt it's putting out 100+ lumens on 2xAA's alkaline or NIMH. I haven't tried it with 14500 or Cr123's but in comparison to about 5 other 1xAA and 2xAA torches...it definitely wasn't the brightest. I came close to the output of a MTE SSP4 1-mode...I'd say around 60-80 lumens max...if that. Just my 2cents

Can someone please measure current draw at the tail with 2 AA's?

"I'm a sucker for 1 x CR123a / 2 x AA combo lights."

I saw this while I was in China. I wasn't too impress with it. Instead, I picked up 5 of the RC-N3 for a couple of dollars more.

Jarl said:

What's the tail current draw like? I wasn't expecting 100 lumens+, since this is slightly more geared to runtime.

Click to expand...

I just checked mine with the following batterys.

2 Eneloop 2000mAh - 380ma
1 Trustfire 14500 - 800ma
1 Ultrafire rcr123 - 880ma

Not as bright as an Ultrafire C3 single mode. But as said before long runtimes with AA's