fasteddie
Enlightened
Just returned from a week of helping lead a boy scout troop at summer camp. Although I took an Aeon for backup/"rough use" and a mcgizmo al mule for a tent light, I ended up using the Tri-V the entire week, and the others got almost no use. Here's my review of the Tri-V:
We were in the pine woods in northeast Texas. Temperatures were high 80s to high 90s. Humidity was very high. No breeze, mostly due to the tall pines. In short, a brutal climate. It was virtually impossible to get dry but for a few hours in the middle of the night, laying on a cot with a fan going. I travelled at night with the Tri-V in a mountainsmith pouch. Size was perfect, and the belt attachment could be undone to move it from a backpack strap to belt. The pouch has a zipper and a velcro flap. The velco messed up the Tri-V wrist strap pretty badly. Dave, if you're reading this, I could use a couple replacements. I had one of the ti beads on the wrist strap but I never needed to use it. I did find myself wishing for the plastic lens cap to protect the asphere and flood during the daytime.
The heat, humidity, occasional bumping and wet hands had no effect on the light. It worked perfectly every night. I did find that I kept the light on the settings I started the week with. I had a printout of the instructions, but I didnt have time or energy to mess with the settings.
I started with the original set of surefire batteries that came with the light, and never had to replace them. I used the light periodically over the course of 6 nights. It was a 25 minute walk round trip to the campsite and to the showers, so the light was on for roughly 2 hours a night. When I tested the batteries on my ZTS after returning home, they were almost dead. The light was working fine on those dead batteries.
Settings: I used a configuration similar to the stock config:
P1. All emitters lit up very dim. Good to use as a finder or for showing off.
P2. Dim flood - useful as a tent light in the middle of the night. I used it hung from a cord in the top/center of the tent.
P3. XPG on low. Used this setting for night hiking to conserve batteries and night vision
P4. XPG on med to high. Great for walking and looking around the camp site. I was very impressed with the XPG.. beam eveness, reach, flood. I really do like everything about it. Amazing how such a small reflector can provide such great light. I'd be all for a small light based on the XPG and that reflector.
P5. Bright flood. We had some Coleman lanters going in the campsite and everyone was amazed at how close the flood came to the lantern. Much as I liked this setting, it wasnt all that useful. It was fun to play with though. I found it hard to find a position for the light that allowed me to use this setting. Laying it down on its side cut off too much of the beam, standing it on end projected the beam up rather than on the task. I just never found the right way to get the most out of this setting.
P6. Asphereical on factory setting. AWESOME!! I never stopped being amazed by this setting. It was like having a searchlight. If I heard something or saw someone approaching, I flipped over to P6 and really lit them up. I could sit outside my tent and scan the entire campsite. The only improvement that crossed my mind is that it would be nice to have a very bright red beam to have some good coverage while preserving night vision.
Heat was never an issue. My son had a SF 6P and it got too hot to touch on night hikes while the Tri-V stayed relatively cool. When I was walking with other folks, they normally turned off their lights and followed the Tri-V.
I will come up with a better config for camping. It would be nice to group the XPG and floods better I think, and have 3 XPG settings instead of wasting one setting on a locator beam. Thats what tritium is for. I'll come up with something that has low lantern, high lantern, L/M/H XPG, Asphere.
In short, I never found myself wishing for anything else from the light. It did everything I needed in one light and I didnt have to make any compromises.
Looks like I'll be buying a backup. After using it for a week outdoors, I cant imagine being without a Tri-V.
We were in the pine woods in northeast Texas. Temperatures were high 80s to high 90s. Humidity was very high. No breeze, mostly due to the tall pines. In short, a brutal climate. It was virtually impossible to get dry but for a few hours in the middle of the night, laying on a cot with a fan going. I travelled at night with the Tri-V in a mountainsmith pouch. Size was perfect, and the belt attachment could be undone to move it from a backpack strap to belt. The pouch has a zipper and a velcro flap. The velco messed up the Tri-V wrist strap pretty badly. Dave, if you're reading this, I could use a couple replacements. I had one of the ti beads on the wrist strap but I never needed to use it. I did find myself wishing for the plastic lens cap to protect the asphere and flood during the daytime.
The heat, humidity, occasional bumping and wet hands had no effect on the light. It worked perfectly every night. I did find that I kept the light on the settings I started the week with. I had a printout of the instructions, but I didnt have time or energy to mess with the settings.
I started with the original set of surefire batteries that came with the light, and never had to replace them. I used the light periodically over the course of 6 nights. It was a 25 minute walk round trip to the campsite and to the showers, so the light was on for roughly 2 hours a night. When I tested the batteries on my ZTS after returning home, they were almost dead. The light was working fine on those dead batteries.
Settings: I used a configuration similar to the stock config:
P1. All emitters lit up very dim. Good to use as a finder or for showing off.
P2. Dim flood - useful as a tent light in the middle of the night. I used it hung from a cord in the top/center of the tent.
P3. XPG on low. Used this setting for night hiking to conserve batteries and night vision
P4. XPG on med to high. Great for walking and looking around the camp site. I was very impressed with the XPG.. beam eveness, reach, flood. I really do like everything about it. Amazing how such a small reflector can provide such great light. I'd be all for a small light based on the XPG and that reflector.
P5. Bright flood. We had some Coleman lanters going in the campsite and everyone was amazed at how close the flood came to the lantern. Much as I liked this setting, it wasnt all that useful. It was fun to play with though. I found it hard to find a position for the light that allowed me to use this setting. Laying it down on its side cut off too much of the beam, standing it on end projected the beam up rather than on the task. I just never found the right way to get the most out of this setting.
P6. Asphereical on factory setting. AWESOME!! I never stopped being amazed by this setting. It was like having a searchlight. If I heard something or saw someone approaching, I flipped over to P6 and really lit them up. I could sit outside my tent and scan the entire campsite. The only improvement that crossed my mind is that it would be nice to have a very bright red beam to have some good coverage while preserving night vision.
Heat was never an issue. My son had a SF 6P and it got too hot to touch on night hikes while the Tri-V stayed relatively cool. When I was walking with other folks, they normally turned off their lights and followed the Tri-V.
I will come up with a better config for camping. It would be nice to group the XPG and floods better I think, and have 3 XPG settings instead of wasting one setting on a locator beam. Thats what tritium is for. I'll come up with something that has low lantern, high lantern, L/M/H XPG, Asphere.
In short, I never found myself wishing for anything else from the light. It did everything I needed in one light and I didnt have to make any compromises.
Looks like I'll be buying a backup. After using it for a week outdoors, I cant imagine being without a Tri-V.
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I just hope to be successful getting ONE!
Might have to see if one ever comes up on BST, but these look fantastic!
