Why Led Lenser's flashlight so bad?

MT7

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Feb 12, 2012
Messages
146
hello,
I bought the Led Lenser MT7 two weeks ago,and It's one of the best flashlights I ever had,but I saw in the forum that Led Lenser's flashlights are bad flashlights.
Why are you think that Led Lenser flashlight so bad? they have many functions as strobe,SOS,boost and blink-even most of the surefire flashlights haven't strobe mode.Led Lenser's flashlights need only few cheap aa batteries,not like the 123A that costs a lot of money,and the advanced focus system of led lenser is awesome.
So why a lots of people hates Led Lenser?
and another question,about Maglite ML100 or Maglite xl200.are they good flashlights?
Thanks in advance - =....
 

shane45_1911

Enlightened
Joined
Apr 28, 2009
Messages
594
Location
Ontario, Canada
...and to many of us, a strobe mode is not a desired feature.

Welcome to the forum. Spend some time reading and reading and reading, and you will soon see that there are many things better than Led Lenser and (un-modified) Maglites.
 

AnAppleSnail

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Aug 21, 2009
Messages
4,200
Location
South Hill, VA
They aren't bad, but their specs are deceptive, and the build quality is often disappointing. Further, there are inherent problems with 3xAA/AAA carriers (Cells scraping and grounding to the body tube) that lead to problems like suddenly-dead cells in the light. They are among the better lights in most brick-and-mortar stores, but there is about a 30% premium on them (I could buy a light of similar quality, output, and durability for 30% less).

Their lumen/runtime specs are usually direct-drive, which means "100 lumens for 20 hours" means "100 lumens, then 90 lumens after 1 minute, then 80 after 2, then 70 after 10..." And I don't like the beam pattern of their focusing light. Give me an all-round beam most any day, and an aspheric thrower that is properly focused. Moving a TIR away from an LED makes ugly output, and the slidey focus things don't like water much.
 

tsask

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Oct 6, 2005
Messages
1,759
OK I'll give credit where credit is due. Lens Lenser was one of the first LED lights to be featured in brick and mortar stores with attractive packaging.
That is where it ends. unrealiable performance. MANY MUCH better lights out there not found at homedeepeo etc. I would not buy one unless as a novelty like green and white LED combo.
 

jayflash

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Oct 4, 2003
Messages
3,909
Location
Two Rivers, Wisconsin
There may be exceptions, but most of their models aren't good values. However, if you can get one cheaply ... They make some novelty lights, which I have. The smallest pen light I've ever seen is a Led Lenser which uses two, tiny, 50mAh, 3 volt, pin cells. Batteries Plus carried them. Very Small! Still, I've had "switch" trouble with both of mine and they'd light without the end cap switch on the light!
 

Cataract

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Apr 24, 2009
Messages
4,095
Location
Montreal
I believe Led Lensers have acquired a bad reputation in part because they used to be associated with Coast, which are cheap flashlights and usually priced accordingly. Led Lensers are made in Germany (could account for higher than average market price) and in my opinion they are very good lights. Their regulation circuit is not as good as other brands, though, and they will sooner rather than later start to slowly dim, but the ones I have do seem to keep a good output for a reasonnable amount of time (sorry, no numbers at present). This does not make them bad lights and they are well constructed, but some people don't like the fact that the head is plastic.

Now that my CPF reputation has gone down by 90% I'll shut up...
 

yliu

Enlightened
Joined
Apr 10, 2011
Messages
584
Location
Hungary
They are overpriced. For the same price, you can get a higher quality light with newer led chips.

I also had a bad experience with their light, I dropped a P7 from about 1 meter, and it stopped working. Furthermore, their lights still use the Cree XRE chips, while many other brands switched to XPG and XML chips.
 

yellow

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Oct 31, 2002
Messages
4,629
Location
Baden.at
as most have typed:
price and value do not get together.

Except for this they are ok - and for lights offered in retail shops, they are quite good
(nearly all the better lights have to be ordered online)
 

AnAppleSnail

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Aug 21, 2009
Messages
4,200
Location
South Hill, VA
I REALLY like their non-flood-to-throw lights. Mine have survived impressive abuse. The sliding/twisting mechanism can be easily compromised. For all that, though, they turn on brightly, let you see what they're pointed at, and often survive abuse. (Nearly) All brands have "I dropped it just a bit and it broke" stories.
 

TEEJ

Flashaholic
Joined
Jan 12, 2012
Messages
7,490
Location
NJ
I really like the T7 with the sliding head, and I like the beam from wide to spot focus by sliding the head. Mines take a lot of abuse over the years, and never failed, despite drops, etc. I really only stopped carrying it due to it just being too dim for a lot of what I do, ESPECIALLY as it got dimmer and dimmer in use....but I leave it in a tool box as a spare, and because the flood beam is good for some of the photography I do during certain types of inspection, such as for soft side-lighting techniques to high light fine structural/textural features, etc.

:D

The Klarus XT11 was only a little more $, but kicks the poor T7's *** in performance.
 

artar

Enlightened
Joined
Apr 9, 2001
Messages
528
Location
old europe/germany
I believe Led Lensers have acquired a bad reputation in part because they used to be associated with Coast, which are cheap flashlights and usually priced accordingly. Led Lensers are made in Germany (could account for higher than average market price) and in my opinion they are very good lights. Their regulation circuit is not as good as other brands, though, and they will sooner rather than later start to slowly dim, but the ones I have do seem to keep a good output for a reasonnable amount of time (sorry, no numbers at present). This does not make them bad lights and they are well constructed, but some people don't like the fact that the head is plastic.

Now that my CPF reputation has gone down by 90% I'll shut up...

LED Lenser is a german company, but the flashlights are made in China. you can read that on their website.
 

joe1512

Enlightened
Joined
Jan 7, 2010
Messages
755
I hate them because they seem to hold patents on flood to throw. Thus the only ones I can get are either stupidly expensive (lens light's 400 dollar one comes to mind), rare (wolf eyes night hunter), or cheap knockoffs (the FLOOD of 10 dollar ones on ebay...seriously...look up zoomable led flashlight)
 

mcnair55

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Oct 27, 2009
Messages
4,448
Location
North Wales UK
They are the darlings of the retail stores,slick marketing with cabinets with revolving turntables,they have "buy me" written all over them complete with a niffy box and usually an extra or so.

After saying that:-

All the above comments from the other members come to mind.:)
 

betweenrides

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Oct 19, 2010
Messages
67
Location
Chicagoland
They are the darlings of the retail stores,slick marketing with cabinets with revolving turntables,they have "buy me" written all over them complete with a niffy box and usually an extra or so.

After saying that:-

All the above comments from the other members come to mind.:)

Must be a UK thing... Don't see them that often at retail in the midwest U.S., maybe on sale at the big box DIY stores, usually on sale around Christmas. Or maybe I just don't notice them.
 

Derek Dean

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Nov 14, 2006
Messages
2,426
Location
Monterey, CA
Howdy MT7, and welcome to CPF!
Some very fine questions, let me see if I can help give you some thoughts from our perspective.

hello,
I bought the Led Lenser MT7 two weeks ago,and It's one of the best flashlights I ever had
Most folks have never experienced a good LED light, so when they get their first reasonably good LED light they are amazed, I know I was.

they have many functions as strobe,SOS,boost and blink-even most of the surefire flashlights haven't strobe mode
While SOS and blinky type functions seem cool at first, think about how often you'll actually use them. Depending on how they are incorporated in the UI (user interface) they can actually be a distraction. Imagine every time you use your light having to scroll through the SOS and other blinky modes just to change from high to low light levels...... arrrrgh. Manufacturers like Surefire focus their efforts towards building bullet proof lights rather than providing features that will rarely, if ever, be used.

Led Lenser's flashlights need only few cheap aa batteries,not like the 123A that costs a lot of money
First of all, those "cheap" AA alkaline batteries can leak corrosive chemicals into your nice new light, which is one reason most CPF members avoid them. We prefer to use rechargeable cells which for the most part won't leak and ruin our lights, and also allow us to always go out fully charged.

Also, the higher voltage CR123 (and similar) batteries allow us to have small lights that will run very bright for longer periods of time than cheap AA alkaline cells.

If you spend some time here you'll find that there are some lights that can run on both, giving us the best of both worlds, a light that can run very bright on a small high voltage cell, but that can also run at a lower brightness level on a common AA alkaline cell if ever needed.

and the advanced focus system of led lenser is awesome
Many CPF members feel that most built in focus systems tend to compromise the beam quality in order to provide both flood and spot. They feel you get a better quality flood beam with a light dedicated for that, and a much better spot beam with a light dedicated for that. It's really a matter of personal preference.

So why a lots of people hates Led Lenser?
It's not a matter of "hating" LED Lenser lights, but this is a forum dedicated to flashlights, so of course we discuss every light's strengths and weaknesses as well as their value compared to other available lights.

So, enjoy your fine new light. I'm sure it will serve your needs well, and while you're enjoying it please feel free to continue visiting CPF. If you're like most folks who visit here, the LED Lenser MT7 won't be the last light you buy :).
 

kts

Enlightened
Joined
Dec 5, 2007
Messages
359
I own a P5 and a P7, I like them for their throw and compact size, I cant find another light in that size that wil throw as far.

And I will bet that most people bashing in this thread has never owned a Ledlenser light, but they have read here on CPF in every thread about Ledlenser that they suck, so it must be true...

But please show me a 1AA light that will outthrow a P5, I need it.

I agree that there are better built lights out there, but they are pretty good compared to many other lights, theyre are at least as good quality as Maglites best models.
 
Top