Dereelight Night Master Review

firelord777

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For many, darkness is something they don't exactly go out looking for. For us flashaholics, however, we CRAVE darkness:devil:. The world of flashlights has technologically advanced at an amazing rate. There are many flashlights for many purposes, diving, HID beasts, emergency and countless of other categories we can create. But in my hands right now, is a special kind of light. Let's just say, it is a laser and flashlight in one:thinking:. Right off the bat I will say that this is not a flooder, close range light, nor something you will want to light up someone's eyes with:popcorn:.
Tis the Dereelight Night Master:
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These are the official specifications direct from Dereelight's website:
Features:

    • Cree XR-E EZ900 emitter
    • Upgradeable 2MT-S or 2MT-M pill.
    • Battery type: the 2MT-S for single protected or unprotected 18650; the 2MT-M for multi-batteries like 2xCR123A, 2x protected RCR123; 3xCR123A or 3x protected RCR123 with EXT500 extension tube; 2xprotected 18650 or 4xCR123A with EXT650 extension tube, single 18650 works but can't get full power.
    • TT(Tactical & Tail standing) tailcap with forward clicky
    • Lock out function achieved by loosing –(Correct term is unscrewing) the tailcap.
    • Type III hard anodized finish
    • Dimensions: 160mm(Length)x 53mm(Head)x 27mm(housing)
    • Material: Constructed of aircraft grade aluminum
    • Waterproof to IPX-8 standard.
    • Weight: 252-gram weight not include battery.
    • Lens: Aspherical lens.
    • Removable grip & lanyand ring, clip as optional.
    • Color: Black
    • Package: DBS Giftbox
    • Accessories: Extra O-rings, switch cover.
Jay over at Flashlightconnection has stated that these things have 100K of lux! Clearly these lights are a different breed:huh:.
What does it come with?
The Dereelight Night Master comes with the flashlight, a black spare tail boot, and 4 o-rings. The flashlight has a GID (Glow In the Dark) tail boot which really does help in finding the light, especially when going to mid night trips to the bathroom. But in case you don't want a GID tail boot, you can always switch it with a black one.
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The o-rings are in case the ones in the light wear out or break for some reason. I never had to switch any o-rings, and I don't expect to change any soon. The flashlight has two o-rings at each end anyways, so if one fails, there is another. Below you see two extension tubes, those are sold separately if you want to add runtime. There is also another factor in considering purchasing them which I will explain later on.
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Construction:
Jay sent the flashlight and its components via a USPS box loaded with Styrofoam padding to prevent any possible damage during transit, something I don't usually see:thanks::goodjob:As you can see below, I completely shredded the box, because, first, it secured with tape all over the place, and second, well, I was excited:lolsign:.
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The extension tubes you see here were extra, and shows how versatile the light can be, which I will also explain later on. In regards to the light itself, to be honest, this is my first aspheric flashlight. With that said, when I saw the head of the flashlight at the aspheric lens, I was like, "wow, that's so cool". There are many cooling fins around the head and LED, which is great to maintain long LED life-span and output:clap:. The flashlight has a crenulated bezel to protect the lens, and in my testing, proved to be effective. The glass and collimating lens is very thick and strong. I saw no blemishes and the HAIII anodized finish appears to be well done. On the head, you will see the words "Night Master" and your serial number below. The light has a minimal amount of logos and advertising, which is good, because personally I find websites and logos engraved at every possible place on a flashlight a bit annoying:sick2:. The body only has one logo of dereelight and 18650 engraved on the top of the battery tube. This is the only thing engraved, which for me is the perfect balance, it's not like we want logo-less lights either:). The cigar grip is three sided, unlike the usual four sided ones, but it actually works because the whole grip ring is protruding from the battery tube's perimeter.
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The Night Master can be broken up into quite a few parts. Below I show only a few, but it can be broken up even further. The parts you see here are from left to right:
ü Tailcap
ü Body tube (also has a spring at the positive end to support flat-top batteries)
ü The little spring – This spring is to let the flashlight CPU know what mode it is in, general or extreme.
ü The head – There are two heads, so let's call this head, head #1, which contains the Cree XR-E LED EZ900 and driver.
ü The head – Now known as head #2, which is dedicated solely to the aspheric lens.
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Here's a close up on the mechanism we talked about earlier:
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Here I'm demonstrating the spring at the positive end at the end of the battery tube:
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The tailcap:
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The Removable Tail-Standing Ring:
Now here's a feature I haven't seen yet, a removable tail-standing ring. Usually, manufacturers go with majority, which sometimes is tail-standing capable or not. Here we have something that can be totally up to you:devil::
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And here is the whole layout:
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The Aspheric Lens
The aspheric lens is in charge of giving a penetrating, searchlight beam from a mere 200 or so lumens, so I guess there really is some truth in "a little goes a long way"…literally:naughty:.
What are aspheric lenses? Well, excellent question ladies and gentlemen:D. Aspheric lenses are lenses that are used in many applications, such as photography or eyeglasses. They are neither spherical nor cylindrical, and have the same degree of curvature throughout the surface of the lens. In our case, the LED produces light directed forward 180 degrees, which the lens captures and projects the image of the LED. If you hold it up to your face at a distance of say 1 foot, you can see an inverted image of what is in front of you, a behavior similar to magnifying lenses.
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The aspheric lens allows it to have impressive throw given the right size of the lens, but does not provide an adequate spill like regular lights do. Basically, you are left with a focused beam and minimal spill, which can give you scary tunnel vision at night. On the plus side, you can see farther than a comparable light with spill because you don't have any flood beam to blind you as with conventional flashlights. (Outdoor beamshots coming soon):drool:
Microscope Examination
Here are a couple of pictures showing details on the flashlight, note the 2 o rings we talked about (Don't panic about the dirt in some of the pictures, I had the components all over the place outside my backyard and didn't notice the dirt on them, silly me):crazy:
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What Size Are You?
Here we have a couple of pictures showing us the different sizes we can have for the flashlight, but first I've made a little chart for you guys:
Battery
Runtime
Output
1 X 18650
+2.75 hours because according to Dereelight, the 2MT-M is not regulated on 1 X 18650.
LED driven at 1.2 amps, it will still give decent throw and brightness, but if you want to use only one 18650, get the 2MT-S, which is regulated on one 18650.
2 X 18650/ 4 X CR123/ 4 X RC123
Theoretically, around 7 hours, regulated at 1.5 amps, though, I will talk about this in a bit
LED driven at 1.5 amps, amazing throw and brightness
2 X CR123/RC123
Normal runtime around 2 hours
LED driven at 1.5 amps - regulated
3 X CR123/ RC123
Longer runtime than 2 cells
LED driven at 1.5 amps - regulated

Below I give you pictures:
With extension tube EXT500:
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With extension tube EXT650
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Normal length without extension tubes:
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Outdoor beamshots in daylight:
First a quick size comparison compared to other lights:
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The not-so-professional setup:
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LET 'EM RIP!!!:cool:
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White Wall Indoor Beamshots:
Control:
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Cree Budget Light (AKA – China)
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ArmyTek Predator CW (Cool White – a normal white tint) SMO (Smooth Reflector)
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Fenix TK41
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Dereelight Night Master:rock:
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A How-To-Focus-Your-Night Master:
Let's start with this image:
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That is the image of the bezel tightened all the way. It should look like a cube-ish circle with a yellow tint around it.
In the image below, I show you guys how to focus the light and not accidentally unscrew the entire head. There is this ring between head #1 and #2 that has vertical knurling as pointed by my index finger:
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Now, to focus it, hold the ring and head #2 as shown below and slowly unscrew it until you get to the last image I show below:
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At this point, you should see a well defined square at a good 5 – 10 meters away with a purpleish hue on the sides of the square and some orange-yellow tint on the top and bottom of the square. Your Night Master is now focused for optimal throw:clap::rock:. It won't be a defined square for close ranges though, it will be sort of blurry in my observations.
Now, if you see this:
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You've unscrewed it too much, and the beam will look less defined and bluish on all four sides.:sigh:
And if you see this:thumbsdow:
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Or worse, this:ohgeez::
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That blob of blue means that you are WAY off and poor head #2 will probably fall out anytime now.:hairpull:
This is how you flashlight will look if you reach this point, it will be so out of focus that you can see the o-rings on the flashlight already:eeksign::
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Waterproofing Test:
I filled a bucket with water, not really the most scientific way, but take a look:
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Outdoor Beamshots (Woohoo!)
I took a variety of beamshots at multiple distances, enjoy:
First one is from my backyard, across my neighbor's yard, across the street, across a field and finally at the end are a group of trees. Can the Night Master make it?
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The tension is rising…
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Piece of cake!
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The rest down below are just day pictures of the various angles and targets the Night Master will light up:
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Setting #2
This is the layout I'll be using, the target is the piece of paper at the yellow cover of the powerline at the end of the yard:
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Fenix LD12:
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ArmyTek Predator:
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Fenix TK41:
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And POW!!! Dereelight Night Master:
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These are just random beamshots:
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If you are in the USA, Jay at Flashlightconnection.com is the exclusive dealer for these lights, and he really is a good guy to deal with fortunately for us. Fast shipping and I've never had any issues.:goodjob::buddies:

This is not the end of the review, such a unique light surely constitutes a more thorough review. I will be constantly updating this with waterproofing tests, outdoor beamshots and more to come!:cool::drool:

Night Master kindly provided by Jay at Flashlightconnection.com (AKA flash crazy)

It has been a pleasure,
Cheers, Alain
 
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Blitzwing

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Thanks for the effort you have put in. I wonder has anyone tried the coloured LED pills for the Night Master?
 

firelord777

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From where and do they ship to the UK?! The cheapest here is like £160!!

PS: Great review, thanks! :)

Oh man! That's a lot money, maybe order from Jay, even with added shipping costs it could still be cheaper?

PS: thanks for the compliment!
 
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Skelt11

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Nov 13, 2012
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Man, good thing they are out of stock or I would have spent another $75! Great job on your review also, I had to go back and check of you actually wrote something after I starred at all the pics. Have you had a chance to take it out at night and get some shots at night?
 

firelord777

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Man, good thing they are out of stock or I would have spent another $75! Great job on your review also, I had to go back and check of you actually wrote something after I starred at all the pics. Have you had a chance to take it out at night and get some shots at night?

Thanks man!

In regards to your beamshot request, YEP!!! I'll see if I can post it soon, possibly by tomorrow:) I'll do some more after if you want to see a few more shots after I post these, the ones I just took.

I'll be adding other content as well, waterproofing and things like that:)

Cheers
 

firelord777

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Oh, one other thing, when you order, if you plan to use 1 X 18650, without extension tube, make sure to get the 2MT-S driver, because if you get the 2MT-M driver, you have to pick up a EXT650.

Best regards, Alain
 

firelord777

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Sorry for the delay in the beamshots, I will do the other tests and upload-post them all at the same time:)

Cheers
 

twl

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TN
Well I just tested a Night Master with my light meter and got 108Kcd. Will see what I can do with a few tweaks here and there.
Dereelight have another longer-throwing model with a large Aspheric called the XSearcher that looks promising, and it's only a few dollars more than the Night Master.
And it can use the various pills, including the EZ900 pill, all the way up to the XML pill.
 

cccpull

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Oct 17, 2009
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Dereelight have another longer-throwing model with a large Aspheric called the XSearcher that looks promising, and it's only a few dollars more than the Night Master.
And it can use the various pills, including the EZ900 pill, all the way up to the XML pill.
That "few dollars" difference was during last week's sales. No mas.
 

saabluster

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Dereelight have another longer-throwing model with a large Aspheric called the XSearcher that looks promising, and it's only a few dollars more than the Night Master.
And it can use the various pills, including the EZ900 pill, all the way up to the XML pill.

Yes I know about that light. I have one of those as well. Measured 102Kcd for the Xsearcher with the XML. Rather unimpressive for that size light but it does have a significantly larger beam which could be useful to some.
 

firelord777

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Hey guys,

I know many of you are probably waiting for the outdoor beamshots, and I apologize for keeping you waiting:(

I've taken LOTS of beamshots, but for some reason, whenever I attempt to upload them, it has some sort of weird behavior and I can't upload them all at once, and even one at a time, the uploaded photo won't show (I use imgur, never had this problem until now) I'll figure it out soon though, don't worry guys:)

Cheers:D
 

firelord777

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Sorry guys, again:)

I've literally spent several hours of frustration trying everything to get the photos of beamshots and waterproofing tests to upload, but I always receive a "file not found". I heard Java might have something to do, I'll see what else I can do in the next few days,

Sorry to keep you guys waiting,

Alain
 

firelord777

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Hey guys, I updated the review with all the pictures, I finally managed to upload them all!

Hope you guys like it,

Cheers
 
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