ITP A3 EOS & Maratac AAA Reviews: RUNTIMES, BEAMSHOTS, DETAILED PICS & more!

[Patriot]

Another 5 star review from my favorite reviewer!

I've been a fan of these little lights from fairly early on in their release history and it's great to see the performance data that I was witnessing confirmed by the best guy in the business. Very few negatives for this light considering the price and performance.

Thank you Selfbuilt for your dedication and investment of time for our benefit.

[Monocrom]

Excellent review as always.

Makes sense though, since Maratac's AA offering is also an iTP light.

[lightknot]

Nice review.

[bodhran]

For once my wife showed some interest in a flashlight. She loves my natural Maratac and after she read your review, another first, decided she wants one. Out of the kindness of my heart I decided to give her mine. Of course I had to order the SS version to replace it.

[selfbuilt]

Thanks for all the positive comments everyone.

Is the clip reversible on the itp version? I can't quite tell from the pics. I'm thinking of being able to clip to a ball cap.

Yes, the clip can be attached to the head of the light (just below the knurling, pointed back toward the light), so that you can run it on a ball cap. But as you can tell from the pics, the head is thicker than the standard attachment point on the base (for both the ITP and Maratac versions). This means the clip holder will stretch out a bit when you place it on the head.

Not a problem, but it you plan to put back on the tail, you'll find you will need to bend the metal prongs closer together again. I wouldn't recommend you switch it back and forth too many times, as the metal is fairly thin and likely won't appreciate the repeated stresses.

I've been a fan of these little lights from fairly early on in their release history and it's great to see the performance data that I was witnessing confirmed by the best guy in the business. Very few negatives for this light considering the price and performance.

Yes, the output/runtime performance is quite good on these. Although the LF2XT still wins out for efficiency on Med/Lo (and for all around versatility), the ITP/Maratacs are very respectable.

For once my wife showed some interest in a flashlight. She loves my natural Maratac and after she read your review, another first, decided she wants one. Out of the kindness of my heart I decided to give her mine. Of course I had to order the SS version to replace it.

We'll see if I can talk my wife away from her current keychain carry - the original Fenix L0P (single-stage luxeon, ~30 lumen output). I know - it's just so 2007.

I've tried to sway her over years with multi-stage lights, without success (almost had her for the LF2XT, but she's worried about accidentally accessing a programming state and getting lost). I know she won't go for the multi-stage ITP/Maratac (she is even more sensitive to PWM than I am!), but I'm thinking the single-stage model might do the trick. Depends how much she likes the higher lumen output - she has stuck with the 30 lumen L0P, as she finds it a good amount of light overall.

[kramer5150]

I love this little EDC!!!
Used it around the house this weekend and it has completely replaced my E0-Dart, for around the neck EDC.

It effectively alleviates my two biggest complaints about the E0... Too many lumens for night vision preservation, yet not enough for general use around the house, and the blue/violet color tint.

But I too would prefer a LMH sequence.... or perhaps a last mode memory.

[defloyd77]

Got my iTP upgrade today, this light is AMAZING!!! I think we have ourselves a new bang for the buck champion. I can not believe how tiny this thing is, it makes my E01 look like a tank. Out of all of my lights, this one amazes me the most, it's size, output and price combo really makes it stand out from the rest. I have this 2AA Lux 3 III SnapOn light that has this really amazing wide beam, but it's huge size (it dwarves my P100A2 and every other 2AA light I've seen) made it a PITA to use. This iTP puts it to shame. It's not only brighter, but has a larger hotspot and wider sidespill and my particular Q5 seems to have no tint whatsoever, no matter what I compare it to, it doesn't appear to become warmer when compared to cooler lights like my aqua tinted L2T or cool when compared to my AA neu-tac Quark, I've never seen an LED like that.

I do think I would have been slightly more happy with the Maratac as it tailstands, 20.18 shipped for the iTP upgrade just seemed better for me. I find it sort of ironic that the Maratac uses a baggie to keep costs down, yet you will still end up paying 8 bucks more for it.

[Toohotruk]

Gotta love that XP-E emitter!!!

[greenLED]

Thanks for reconfirming the finish, guys. Don't know how I missed that.

[Black Rose]

Hmmm...7777 must have had a lot of people returning Fenix lights on the unconditional guarantee they once had. That guarantee was too good to last, without some people abusing it.

Much simpler than that. Quark.

Why provide a lifetime guarantee on your competitors product when your own product has a 10 year guarantee?

[Toohotruk]

Much simpler than that. Quark.

Why provide a lifetime guarantee on your competitors product when your own product has a 10 year guarantee?

I was planning to ask David (7777) about that when I met him at the OR show last month, but I was overwhelmed by the prototypes he showed me and I forgot all about it.

I was wondering why the Quarks didn't have the same lifetime guarantee the Fenix and Nitecore lights had, but I can't blame him for not offering it on his new line of lights...besides, a 10 year guarantee is nothing to sneeze at. And at the time, I was unaware of the policy change for the Fenix line.

I hope the prices on his AAA lights fall in line with the ITP/Maratac though. One thing's for sure...the AAA LED keychain light competition just got a lot more interesting...

[Black Rose]

The only flicker I get is if the head is not screwed down enough for the twisty, a little more twist clears that up and so far it has not been a real issue.

Got my iTP A3 EOS upgraded today.

It's a nice light with an excellent beam pattern.

I get some flickering quite regularly when trying to switch modes one-handed. Tightening the head completely (more than any other light I currently own) resolves that issue.
I'm going to clean the threads and see if that helps any.

[Woods Walker]

I had a good drop test today for my EOS 3-mode. I put a small lanyard on mine as kept dropping it. The light only fell into the leaf litter and lawn but guessed it would be a good idea. Naturally when getting into my truck today I was digging in my pocket for the keys. Somehow the lanyard got wrapped around my finder and tossed the light maybe 8 feet as it acted like a sling. Go figure the very thing I had to keep the light from hitting the deck worked against me. Anyways it hit the concrete walk hard. Only a few dings on the anodized coating. Light worked just fine. So good to report it can take a hit.

Black Rose.

The flickering is not so bad and does not happen all the time. Once the mode is set there is no flickering. Sometimes I just need to give a a faster twist.

[FlashlightsNgear.com]

Very nice work Selfbuilt.. Some of you spoke of flickering when changing modes slowly, I have 2 EZAA's that do the same thing if changing modes quickly they never flicker. All those keychain lights are very tempting

[Woods Walker]

Very nice work Selfbuilt.. Some of you spoke of flickering when changing modes slowly, I have 2 EZAA's that do the same thing if changing modes quickly they never flicker. All those keychain lights are very tempting

Yup doing it faster than slow seems to take care of this small issue even one handed.

[rizky_p]

thanks for the review.

[selfbuilt]

Very nice work Selfbuilt.. Some of you spoke of flickering when changing modes slowly, I have 2 EZAA's that do the same thing if changing modes quickly they never flicker. All those keychain lights are very tempting

Interesting, I don't recall seeing that on any of my ITP EOS or Maratac samples (or EZ-series lights, for that matter ).

The only flickering I ever saw was on one of my Maratacs, and only upon initial activation in the Med mode. After switching to another state (including coming back to Med), the flickering was gone. I actually did a runtime test in this initial flicker state, and got ~20% less output on average but with normal runtime.

[kramer5150]

Further ITP A3 impressions...

Mine flickers too, but only if I do not tighten the bezel enough to fully turn it on.

I used my light a LOT over the labor day weekend. The California state fair was this weekend and with 2 familes and 4 kids running around till' late at night I had plenty of opportunity to put the A3 through its paces.

I had it on a surefire lanyard around my neck at night, and switched it to my key ring during the day-evening while we were out. Its an all around great EDC, however you chose to deploy it. I found it easily pocket-able, and it fit snugly in my belt-pack with my keys and extra AAA cell. I was able to scratch it just a little packed in with my keys. But overall I give it a

I have changed my mind about the mode sequence. I now PREFER its M/L/H sequence. The A3 low-low is far to dim for general use, in moderately low light conditions. There were many times I just needed instant-twist light to see quickly, for that the med mode is needed first. My son fell and skinned his knee and my wife needed a hand digging around for antiseptic wipes and a band-aid. We were somewhere between the livestock buildings and there was not much light around. My daughter got a splinter in her foot one night running around in the trees. I busted out the A3-EOS in MED mode for my wife to search for her swiss army knife tweezer, and then I blasted HIGH for the extraction.

Its artifact-free beam is really one of its major strengths. Yes its got a big hot spot, but it transitions so smoothly to the sides that I never really felt like I was looking at a "spot" while it was in use. Even using it for close range viewing.

All in all I am very impressed with this little light. Its not my brightest EDC, but it has enough other positives to more than make up for that one element.

[EngrPaul]

Add me to the impressed list. Today I received a Stainless and a Natural from CountyComm.

Both work smoothly and provide great beam pattern & tint. I wasn't expecing the excellent output level on a NiMH.

For me, the knurling is better than anything in the class. Fenix knurling is too slippery (L0D) or too harsh (E0/Arc). The clip is strongly attached, won't pop off like a Fenix.

The keyring clip seems rugged enough for keyring duty, especially since it keys into special indents and is supported by a flange. The flange and shorter height make it much more stable in a tailstand.

The weight of the Stainless is fantastic... much lighter than an Fenix stainless! I like the bead blast finish (for now). It's almost like silver anodizing. I'd like to see how it holds up before I go and polish it.

The best thing is a wide spacing of output levels. The low is extremely practical for low light conditions. High competes evenly with the latest Fenix. Medium is spot-on in between.

I also like the H>M>L light sequence (that starts on M)

I don't care about the baggie packaging... other brand boxes just got crushed in the mail anyway.

My only complaint is a mismatch of the Natural anodizing between head and tail. Not terrible, but noticeable. I would suggest staying away from natural if you want your head and tail to match perfectly.

Since it is potentially much more useful than a Fenix to me, it will be displacing my L0D S/S on my keychain.

[JWP_EE]

I don't use the clip or keychain attachment so I removed them. I found that the flat part on the tail where you would attach to a keychain is just enough to keep the light from rolling. Another +

[selfbuilt]

The keyring clip seems rugged enough for keyring duty, especially since it keys into special indents and is supported by a flange. The flange and shorter height make it much more stable in a tailstand.

Welcome back Paul ... it's been awhile. And I see you have been missing the bold feature here at CPF.

I agree with all your points. I personally like the knurling on Maratacs better than the ITP version body slots. As for the keychain clip, I grant it is well designed (i.e. the indents in the groove), just not sure what would happen with daily use on a keychain where things could get snagged/tugged. I had a number of Fenix "lobster" style clips that had the tendency to detach from the ring and go for a fling (I have a nice drawer with dinged early model Fenix 1xAAA lights ). But for a tailstanding 1xAAA, the Maratac is definitely a winner.

[EngrPaul]

As for the keychain clip, I grant it is well designed (i.e. the indents in the groove), just not sure what would happen with daily use on a keychain where things could get snagged/tugged. I had a number of Fenix "lobster" style clips that had the tendency to detach from the ring and go for a fling.

Over the past day the clip has behaved

As for the detachable clip, I too had been using a Fenix Lobsterclaw on my L0D S/S. But when I put it on the Maratec, it seemed way too big. Plus I was tired of it dangling so far down from the keyring. So I looked in my parts bin and found an unused Nitecore D10 accessory pack. There is a narrow clip that works nearly as slick as the lobster claw, and doesn't take up as much room. It also dangles less. Give it a try! Picture below....

One other thing, I looked at the front end of the light with a microscope. I wasn't as impressed with what I saw. The o-ring in front of the glass is tight under the bezel on one side, fully showing on the other. The emitter is dirty from soldering. The bottom of the reflector scraped the emitter's corners when installed, and created debris. I'm surprised it doesn't short out on the little pads on the top...

[Toohotruk]

How does the Fenix look under the 'scope?

[EngrPaul]

How does the Fenix look under the 'scope?

Perfectly fine!

[greenLED]

One other thing, I looked at the front end of the light with a microscope.

Hey, Paul (and everybody with these lights), what's y'all's take on how beefy the lanyard attachment post will behave long-term? From the pics, it looks really thin. I'd like to buy these as Christmas gifts, but I want to make sure they'll see years and years of keychain duty.

Then again, the Arc's attachment point is thin, and I've heard of less than 3 of those breaking over the years...

[mightysparrow]

Thanks, Selfbuilt! Another great review, and very helpful!

[EngrPaul]

I'm impressed with it. The ring is strong steel, keyed into special grooves in the flashlight. When you pull backwards, both keyed ends grip. When you pull to the side, the one opposite the way you pull digs in. This one is "staying on my keychain", in both senses of the expression.

Hey, Paul (and everybody with these lights), what's y'all's take on how beefy the lanyard attachment post will behave long-term? From the pics, it looks really thin. I'd like to buy these as Christmas gifts, but I want to make sure they'll see years and years of keychain duty.

Then again, the Arc's attachment point is thin, and I've heard of less than 3 of those breaking over the years...

[thelightdude]

Thanks for the great review.
PLEASE continue to review new aaa lights.

After reading your review I started to carry mine in my jeans watch pocket.

People laugh when I show it to them - until I turn it on.

[konut]

So I looked in my parts bin and found an unused Nitecore D10 accessory pack. There is a narrow clip that works nearly as slick as the lobster claw, and doesn't take up as much room. It also dangles less. Give it a try! Picture below....

Looked on 7777 and Nitecore sites and did not see this claw listed on the accessories page. Does anyone know where to get these, or something similar?

[flasherByNight]

Seems like I've read all the itp/maratac threads and of course my head is . But the more I read the more I scratch my head and wonder why the maratac is head and shoulders more "popular".

Candle mode and...