AardvarkSagus
Flashlight Enthusiast
Spartanian II
When I first heard of the Spartanian II (S2) project, I was immediately intrigued. It is not often that I see such a radical departure from the status quo into untested territory. I was interested to see if such a change could produce any results that were as useful as what the market has already accepted as norm.
Spartanian II
Meat and Potatoes
To initial appearances, the S2 shows only minor design differences to many other single cell lights available currently. There are no overwhelming features to this light that dramatically set it apart from anything else at first glance. It's interesting narrow waist shape does evict some attention, but nothing earth shattering. It is merely a well executed body with good machining and excellent knurling.
Body design
Where the revolution does occur however is in the Spartanian II's unique "jog-dial" type switching mechanism. This new technology allows the user to access all of the light's many functions with a single hand (sometimes a single finger) without ever changing grip on the light.
What I have noticed, is that the ring switch for the S2 seems to be best suited for an underhanded, "Below the waist" type hold. This, by a strange twist of coincidence, happens to be the same position that the hand naturally falls to when standing or walking. Most side switched lights fall into this category as well, but where a side switch falls short is when you find yourself having to rotate the light in your hand searching for the switch that seems to have wandered away while you were not paying attention. The S2 does not succumb to this due to the fact that the switch encompasses the entire circumference of the light.
In practical use, the S2 ring switch does take a little getting used to before true comfort can be had with it due to it's dissimilarity to anything you have used previously. Once the initial learning phase has been passed however, it becomes quite a joy to carry on a regular basis.
The S2 seems to condone a very relaxed usage, conjuring images of ambling walks through the woods at night. Nevertheless, this light is a powerful tool rather than just a plaything. At full power of 700mA the S2 puts out a considerable amount of light. This definitely compares to other Cree Q5 lights I have used. At the same time however, the PWM based .4mA low mode is so minute that to night adapted vision, it even makes the low modes of the Nitecore EX10 and especially the Fenix P2D appear almost painfully bright to by comparison. Even though the S2 uses a still noticeable pwm frequency, I find that it does not affect actual use at all.
Constructive Criticism
During the course of this lights development, the designers have run into several roadblocks to the finish of the light. They have been very forthcoming with their shortfalls and have made outstanding offers to correct the issues in a satisfactory manner for their customers. The light I am reviewing is one of the first run lights as well and as such I am not counting terribly important the inconsistencies that appear as chips in the anodizing and the rattle of the ring. I suspect that these are the very problems that are already under consideration for correction in the subsequent releases of this light.
Initial Finish flaws
The S2 has another interesting feature that right from the start it was offered with your choice of two different reflectors. One for a flood light and one for a long throw spot light. The truly interesting fact is that the second reflector of your choice was even included in the original purchase price allowing everyone the opportunity to experiment with both beam patterns to find the one that best suits them.
The word I find best describes both these reflectors, however, is "almost". Both of these options, though exceedingly adept at their purpose, show some pretty heavy duty beam artifacts. I somewhat expected a few rings from the throw optimized reflector since it is a smooth polish, and it did not disappoint. It has incredibly tight focus allowing for excellent long distance spotting, but up close, the rings can be somewhat distracting. The unique two-stage flood based reflector however does have a light texturing to the surface so I suppose I expected more of it. This reflector does a fantastic job adding an enormous corona to the center spot of the beam illuminating a very wide area at once and making the lower modes of the S2 extremely useful. The problem is that at distances around 3' or greater it develops a huge dark ring between the spot and corona giving the beam a distinct "Eye of Sauron" appearance. I would personally like to see these reflector designs polished just a little more to obtain fewer artifacts in the beams. The flood beam especially could be one of the most useful beams I have ever seen if only that ring could be removed.
Another feature that I would like to see would be easier removal of the window retaining ring allowing tool-less reflector exchanging. This could most easily be accomplished by careful design of the stainless steel bezel that has been proposed as a possible future option for this light. This bezel could be manufacturered to facilitate much simpler swapping of reflectors quite easily, and I hope that will be the case.
Conclusions
This light does require 3.6V Li-ion rechargeable batteries so it may possibly turn away some potential newer users who haven't yet delved into that somewhat specialized environment. Also, the initial learning curve for the completely unique user interface is slightly intimidating to novice users, though I do believe that is short lived. In spite of these slight hiccups, I do believe this light is a fantastic powerful tool that proves itself very useful in a variety of situations.
The Spartanian II is proof that extremely unique conceptual design can actually come to fruition in a truly useful product. By innovating on such a profound level, the S2 has raised the bar for other manufacturers as well. The result may not be a be all, end all, but it does represent a very positive movement in inventive thinking.
Spartanian II
When I first heard of the Spartanian II (S2) project, I was immediately intrigued. It is not often that I see such a radical departure from the status quo into untested territory. I was interested to see if such a change could produce any results that were as useful as what the market has already accepted as norm.
Spartanian II
Meat and Potatoes
To initial appearances, the S2 shows only minor design differences to many other single cell lights available currently. There are no overwhelming features to this light that dramatically set it apart from anything else at first glance. It's interesting narrow waist shape does evict some attention, but nothing earth shattering. It is merely a well executed body with good machining and excellent knurling.
Body design
Where the revolution does occur however is in the Spartanian II's unique "jog-dial" type switching mechanism. This new technology allows the user to access all of the light's many functions with a single hand (sometimes a single finger) without ever changing grip on the light.
What I have noticed, is that the ring switch for the S2 seems to be best suited for an underhanded, "Below the waist" type hold. This, by a strange twist of coincidence, happens to be the same position that the hand naturally falls to when standing or walking. Most side switched lights fall into this category as well, but where a side switch falls short is when you find yourself having to rotate the light in your hand searching for the switch that seems to have wandered away while you were not paying attention. The S2 does not succumb to this due to the fact that the switch encompasses the entire circumference of the light.
In practical use, the S2 ring switch does take a little getting used to before true comfort can be had with it due to it's dissimilarity to anything you have used previously. Once the initial learning phase has been passed however, it becomes quite a joy to carry on a regular basis.
The S2 seems to condone a very relaxed usage, conjuring images of ambling walks through the woods at night. Nevertheless, this light is a powerful tool rather than just a plaything. At full power of 700mA the S2 puts out a considerable amount of light. This definitely compares to other Cree Q5 lights I have used. At the same time however, the PWM based .4mA low mode is so minute that to night adapted vision, it even makes the low modes of the Nitecore EX10 and especially the Fenix P2D appear almost painfully bright to by comparison. Even though the S2 uses a still noticeable pwm frequency, I find that it does not affect actual use at all.
Constructive Criticism
During the course of this lights development, the designers have run into several roadblocks to the finish of the light. They have been very forthcoming with their shortfalls and have made outstanding offers to correct the issues in a satisfactory manner for their customers. The light I am reviewing is one of the first run lights as well and as such I am not counting terribly important the inconsistencies that appear as chips in the anodizing and the rattle of the ring. I suspect that these are the very problems that are already under consideration for correction in the subsequent releases of this light.
Initial Finish flaws
The S2 has another interesting feature that right from the start it was offered with your choice of two different reflectors. One for a flood light and one for a long throw spot light. The truly interesting fact is that the second reflector of your choice was even included in the original purchase price allowing everyone the opportunity to experiment with both beam patterns to find the one that best suits them.
The word I find best describes both these reflectors, however, is "almost". Both of these options, though exceedingly adept at their purpose, show some pretty heavy duty beam artifacts. I somewhat expected a few rings from the throw optimized reflector since it is a smooth polish, and it did not disappoint. It has incredibly tight focus allowing for excellent long distance spotting, but up close, the rings can be somewhat distracting. The unique two-stage flood based reflector however does have a light texturing to the surface so I suppose I expected more of it. This reflector does a fantastic job adding an enormous corona to the center spot of the beam illuminating a very wide area at once and making the lower modes of the S2 extremely useful. The problem is that at distances around 3' or greater it develops a huge dark ring between the spot and corona giving the beam a distinct "Eye of Sauron" appearance. I would personally like to see these reflector designs polished just a little more to obtain fewer artifacts in the beams. The flood beam especially could be one of the most useful beams I have ever seen if only that ring could be removed.
Another feature that I would like to see would be easier removal of the window retaining ring allowing tool-less reflector exchanging. This could most easily be accomplished by careful design of the stainless steel bezel that has been proposed as a possible future option for this light. This bezel could be manufacturered to facilitate much simpler swapping of reflectors quite easily, and I hope that will be the case.
Conclusions
This light does require 3.6V Li-ion rechargeable batteries so it may possibly turn away some potential newer users who haven't yet delved into that somewhat specialized environment. Also, the initial learning curve for the completely unique user interface is slightly intimidating to novice users, though I do believe that is short lived. In spite of these slight hiccups, I do believe this light is a fantastic powerful tool that proves itself very useful in a variety of situations.
The Spartanian II is proof that extremely unique conceptual design can actually come to fruition in a truly useful product. By innovating on such a profound level, the S2 has raised the bar for other manufacturers as well. The result may not be a be all, end all, but it does represent a very positive movement in inventive thinking.
Spartanian II
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