Joe Talmadge
Flashlight Enthusiast
I recently bought an Arc LE and Eternalite X-ray, and have some first impressions:
Arc LE: My house is littered with Photons. I wasn't ever planning on replacing these. I realize the tradeoffs of Photon versus Arc LE, but for me the clincher was the fact that the photon absolutely disappears on a keychain, and this trumped the Arc's cheaper batteries, easier battery change, more robust case, etc. What changed my mind was that I've found myself increasingly irritated about the photon's output curve. I am thrilled to pieces at the beginning of battery life, when the thing is astoundingly bright. But I've been getting increasingly annoyed that the thing becomes too dim during the latter part of its life, and even though it has plenty of hours left, being too dim to use that doesn't buy me much.
So, I bought the Arc LE. Very nicely done, very nice light output. It's on my keychain, which isn't treated very gently. All you guys who worry about scratches, I'll let you know what's up in a few months! If the light output remains relatively flat, this will be a winner for me. In that case, I'll probably change all my friends who I've advised to buy photons over to Arcs, especially those who don't want to deal with changing the photon's batteries (all the women, some of the men), or those who use their lights a lot (many of the men, some of the women).
EternaLite x-ray: I bought this light partially as an all-arounder, but also as my emergency fall-back light. I wanted something that I could count on to be water-resistant, and that is dimmable for camping, survival, and power outage situations. For regular use, the light had to be bright enough to be useful. For more survivalish situations, I want to be able to get very long runtime. The x-ray delivers both, plus a bunch of other interesting features that make it useful. I'm waiting to see how this light works into my carry rotation, and much everyday use rotation, but it's got a lot of promise!
I can see right now that although the brightest mode gives a reasonable amount of light, I'd be very supportive of a turbo mode, even if it drained batteries badly. Sometimes, you must want that extra bit of light!
I also think that the dimmer mode should remember my last setting, and start there, instead of always starting out at the brightest setting.
The flash modes are interesting, though I don't know that I'll ever use them, and I like the "nightlight" feature as well.
My first impressions of both lights are very positive. At this point, if I"m disappointed in the future, it will be about the robustness, although I don't expect either light to fail me here.
Joe
Arc LE: My house is littered with Photons. I wasn't ever planning on replacing these. I realize the tradeoffs of Photon versus Arc LE, but for me the clincher was the fact that the photon absolutely disappears on a keychain, and this trumped the Arc's cheaper batteries, easier battery change, more robust case, etc. What changed my mind was that I've found myself increasingly irritated about the photon's output curve. I am thrilled to pieces at the beginning of battery life, when the thing is astoundingly bright. But I've been getting increasingly annoyed that the thing becomes too dim during the latter part of its life, and even though it has plenty of hours left, being too dim to use that doesn't buy me much.
So, I bought the Arc LE. Very nicely done, very nice light output. It's on my keychain, which isn't treated very gently. All you guys who worry about scratches, I'll let you know what's up in a few months! If the light output remains relatively flat, this will be a winner for me. In that case, I'll probably change all my friends who I've advised to buy photons over to Arcs, especially those who don't want to deal with changing the photon's batteries (all the women, some of the men), or those who use their lights a lot (many of the men, some of the women).
EternaLite x-ray: I bought this light partially as an all-arounder, but also as my emergency fall-back light. I wanted something that I could count on to be water-resistant, and that is dimmable for camping, survival, and power outage situations. For regular use, the light had to be bright enough to be useful. For more survivalish situations, I want to be able to get very long runtime. The x-ray delivers both, plus a bunch of other interesting features that make it useful. I'm waiting to see how this light works into my carry rotation, and much everyday use rotation, but it's got a lot of promise!
I can see right now that although the brightest mode gives a reasonable amount of light, I'd be very supportive of a turbo mode, even if it drained batteries badly. Sometimes, you must want that extra bit of light!
I also think that the dimmer mode should remember my last setting, and start there, instead of always starting out at the brightest setting.
The flash modes are interesting, though I don't know that I'll ever use them, and I like the "nightlight" feature as well.
My first impressions of both lights are very positive. At this point, if I"m disappointed in the future, it will be about the robustness, although I don't expect either light to fail me here.
Joe
