5.11 Light for Life - reviews and opinions

[hoppyjr]

Hello to all -

I have been quite busy with work and have been away for some time - and it's good to be back. That said, I searched and only found one "working" thread on this new light and nothing on reviews, etc. so I am posting this in a new thread. If I'm missing something, maybe a Moderator could slap me and move this. Finally, I am not an employee or associate of 5.11 Tactical, nor do I have any vested interested in the product. I will provide a link to the website where I found some details (below). I really do have the lights and these are my personal real-world opinions, so please don't waste posting space by saying negative things about my post (you don't really have it, prove it, etc), as I'm not interested. Now, on to the good part!

Yesterday, while visiting a law enforcement supply store in California (see below) I noticed that they had a working display of the new "5.11 Tactical" Light for Life. I have only learned of these new lights recently, while browsing the new 5.11 Tactical catalog, so I was surprised to see one out so soon. While looking at the very impressive demo, I learned that the store had received some in yesterday and all were sold except two. I jumped at the chance and grabbed those two and ordered 6 more for my team. I have not taken photos, nor beamshots and will not have time because we have company visiting this weekend, but I wanted to share my initial observations on this excellent new product;

- The light is approximately the same size as the Streamlight SL20 that many of us in law enforcement have carried for years. The 5.11 Light for Life is much lighter however. It is also completely sealed.
- The head is six-sided to prevent rolling and the lens appears to be polycarbonate an held down by six hex-head screws.
- The switch is well made and operates as follows; click on (low setting) and push and hold for high (from either off mode or low/on mode). Click twice from off to activate 'strobe' mode. The switch appears to be secured in the body by four small phillips head screws.
- The beam pattern and throw are outstanding, IMHO. The pattern is best described as a nice hotspot with good spill (I'm not an expert) and is like two "rounded end triangles" which overlap to provide almost a flower looking six-rounded petals kind of thing. Think of the Jewish "Star of David" but with the points rounded off and you get the idea. This design allows for overlap in the spill and appears quite effective.
- The throw/output/color of the 5.11 LFL is also nice. I have a few lights for comparison; The 'low mode' appears to produce about the same as my Surefire L4, but with a better hotspot. Compared to my Malkoff/Maglight 3D, the low on the 5.11 LFL seems slightly less in "actual" visual output in the hotspot, while the high mode appears to be brighter. The spill on both modes appear to me to be stronger that my Malkoff (I LOVE my Malkoff, thanks again Gene!). In my opinion, the throw is outstanding! On low mode, I see this as a practical light with good "usability", while high mode can be used for added boost and/or defensive purposed very effectively. I cannot see how to activate the high mode continuously, but I may have missed something (not much time to play). Finally, the color of the beam appears to be very white, with no distinct color tone to my eyes.
- Now, the best part, charging! I opened the box and removed the new light and confirmed that it was completely discharged, dead, nothing. I plugged the charging base into my cigarette lighter (only a DC charger for now, but you can use an DC/AC converter) and dropped the light into the base. A blue LED on the base begins flashing, about once per second and flashes faster as the charge nears completion, finally becoming solid when fully-charged. I timed it with my cars clock and it was fully charged in well under two minutes - IT REALLY WAS!!!

To sum this up - SIMPLY AMAZING!!!!!!!!

The technology is really impressive. I may have missed something while I have been away, but I don't know of anything like this - especially for the price (about $169). Being the early-adopter geek that I really am (don't tell my "cool" friends, they wouldn't understand) I appreciate the innovation on this one and I expect to see it make the "Best of 2009" in several geek type publications.

Now, here's a scoop for my fellow light geeks - a source, who will absolutely remain confidential (sorry) advised that there is ongoing development of a smaller version of this light, say Poly-Stinger size or so. It would likely have a variation of switch and charging method methods but will employ the same overall capacitor technology and design elements. I'd expect output to be slightly reduced, but with advancements in LED technology, who knows. I would guess we may see one by early 2010, so I would not let that prevent you from grabbing one of the current ones.

Again, I have no connection with the makers or sellers of this light - that said, IT IS AMAZING!!!!!

I hope you enjoyed my review.

Hoppy


http://www.511tactical.com/lightforlife.html

If this is OK, I will say that I purchased the light from "Kip" at LC Action, in San Jose CA. He is a good guy, so you can tell him Ed sent you if you wish :-)

[Marduke]

Originally Posted by hoppyjr

Hello to all -

I have been quite busy with work and have been away for some time - and it's good to be back. That said, I searched and only found one thread on this new light and nothing on reviews, etc. so I am posting this in a new thread. If I'm missing something, maybe a Moderator could slap me and move this.

You sure about that?? There are countless threads on this light, many duplicates and thereby closed due to their respective OP's not utilizing the search function.

[hoppyjr]

Well Marduke.........I DID use the search function. Maybe I'm just retarded, so how about throwing some rocks my way ;-)

I searched 5.11, 5.11 Tactical, Light for Life, 5.11 Light, 5.11 Light for Life, etc. in every combination I could find. In fact, I spent about 15-20 minutes just searching. In each case, I only found two threads on the light - one was the long one for discussion and a second one, which was consolidated after two posts. I did NOT find any threads on reviews or user opinions, so I elected to start one. The only thread I found (below) was seven pages long and I didn't think that adding to it for reviews was a great idea. Finally, I only found those threads by searching Google, as nothing I searched here produced anything.

I said in the beginning of my post that a Mod could move this if they deemed appropriate and they can. I posted this to provide some information for other interested parties here, so I am quite sorry if that offended you.

Try to be helpful and see where that gets me.......

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/...=207339&page=7

[:)>]

I was interested in hearing about experiences with this light. I am primarily interested in the runtime / output. 90 Second charging is very attractive!

[Bushman5]

great review, i look forward to a more indepth one when you and the team have used the lights for a while.

I'm still waiting on my local dealer to bring them in, but have had about a minute to play with the demo model. It was completely discharged and the owner charged it up in 88 seconds using jumper leads and a 12 volt gel cell.. Quite impressive, as was the beamshots.

[hoppyjr]

Hi Goatee......

I'll try to run a full discharge / charge / discharge tonight if time permits. Heck, the charging part will be easy :-)

[DM51]

Thanks for this thread, hoppyjr. I've closed the other one, which was showing its age and going nowhere.

This is a very good report on this light. There's been a lot of speculation about it, so I'm sure members will find your experiences of it useful.

[Chowser]

Nice review, I am going to order one today. EPS has a sale going on where you can send in your old light (working or not) for some store credit, so I will get rid of my old mag charger which doesn't work anymore.

[L.E.D.]

I've been craving this light for a LONG time now... What I'm very curious about is if the output is regulated or not. To your eye, does it hold it's brightness well for the 60 minutes of 90 lumens, as well as the 15 minutes of 270 lumens??

[PhantomPhoton]

I very much appreciate your first peek at the real deal. I look forward to more info if you find time to give it.

[hoppyjr]

Hello folks,

I was able to run one test and here are that results;

With the light in 'standard' mode (approx 90+ lumens) I timed 30 minutes of solid runtime, all appeared to be regulated as the beam was consistent for that time. After 30 minutes, it stepped down to the 'low' mode for another 60 minutes.

These numbers were all after I had been playing with the 'high' mode for about five minutes.

I found even the 'low' mode to be sufficient for walking in the dark, or general use (think non-LED lights for an idea). I would not consider 'low' acceptable for tactical use.

Also, when charging from the car (12v) it is fully charged in 90 seconds or so. When I used a small DC/AC plug in converter (cell phone type) I noticed that after five minutes of charging, it was not fully juiced up, so there must be a volt/amp requirement.

So far, it's an outstanding light :-)

[n4zov]

Many thanks for taking the initiative and posting something concrete on this interesting new light! Clearly a successful capacitor powered light has the potential to revolutionize flashlight design, and it is going to be interesting to watch reactions as this lights hits the market.

[hoppyjr]

Glad to be of service :-)

I like the latest tech toys, phones, guns, watches, etc.(basically, I big tech nerd but it's a secret). With that said, I compare my personal amazement at this light and new battery technology to that of the LED digital watch introduction, way back in the day!

I have more on order!!!

[hoppyjr]

******** SAFETY UPDATE ********

Well, some bad news.........a representative from my dealer called me today to advise that the first batch of 5.11 lights that were shipped have a defect of some type. These lights can apparently overheat and there is afire risk involved, so I am dropping it off at the 5.11 factory this week. I am assured that they have found the 'fix' and that future lights will not have the issue, whatever it may be.

I am not discouraged by this, as it's new tech and seems reasonable to me. I will post an update when I know something more.

Take care!

[dano]

Originally Posted by hoppyjr

******** SAFETY UPDATE ********

Well, some bad news.........a representative from my dealer called me today to advise that the first batch of 5.11 lights that were shipped have a defect of some type. These lights can apparently overheat and there is afire risk involved, so I am dropping it off at the 5.11 factory this week. I am assured that they have found the 'fix' and that future lights will not have the issue, whatever it may be.

I am not discouraged by this, as it's new tech and seems reasonable to me. I will post an update when I know something more.

Take care!

I'd think that this type of risk would have been ironed out in design and pre-testing. It's not something that should have been overlooked.

[Dr Jekell]

Originally Posted by dano

I'd think that this type of risk would have been ironed out in design and pre-testing. It's not something that should have been overlooked.

There is no substitute for real world usage.

[Henk_Lu]

When I was younger, I also bought new techs to be up to date and accepted being a tester who is willing to pay much for his toys...

Nowadays I preffer to wait until a technology has proven that it's the future in its domain, I pay less and get more. The choice is up to you and each technology needs its fans who pay for it or it'll never be the future.

Nothing was ever invented perfect, perfection comes out of trial-error.

[Mr_Black]

Originally Posted by hoppyjr

******** SAFETY UPDATE ********

Well, some bad news.........a representative from my dealer called me today to advise that the first batch of 5.11 lights that were shipped have a defect of some type. These lights can apparently overheat and there is afire risk involved, so I am dropping it off at the 5.11 factory this week. I am assured that they have found the 'fix' and that future lights will not have the issue, whatever it may be.

I am not discouraged by this, as it's new tech and seems reasonable to me. I will post an update when I know something more.

Take care!

Thanks for the news. My buddy (a local LEO) was about to buy one of these lights for duty use so I made sure to tell him about this safety issue. In the meantime I'm going to suggest that he check out this forum and introduce him to some new lights. This forum is great!

[hoppyjr]

*** UPDATE ***

I'm dropping off my 5.11 LFL this week at the 5.11 offices in California. I talked with a rep who advised this is a relatively easy fix and should be good to go within about another week or two. Any lights that were shipped were called back and anything you see in stores after mid-May or so should be fine.

With the frenzy that I'm hearing exists about this light, I'd get on the order list soon.

[Tsujigiri]

What do the capacitors look like? Is the power supply something that could possibly be modified to fit in a CR123 light?

[Big_Ed]

Where is this light manufactured? USA?

[hoppyjr]

Tsujigiri - Since the light is completely sealed, I have no idea what the capacitors look like. I'd imagine that a retrofit would not fit inside a Modded CR123 light.

Big_Ed - I cannot find any "made in ......." markings on the light or the box. I know that 5.11 Tactical has their offices in Modesto, California.

[HKJ]

Originally Posted by Tsujigiri

What do the capacitors look like? Is the power supply something that could possibly be modified to fit in a CR123 light?

You would probably not want to replace you CR123 with ultracaps, they have a rather low capacity compared to batteries. But I am curious how big the ones used in the 5.11 light are.

[hoppyjr]

Update.....

I dropped of the light the 5.11 Tactical offices this morning. The representative advised that they had a 'possible' issue with the charger and wanted to re-check each one to ensure all is OK. They expect to have the 'verified' lights in the wild by the end of this month.

I'm ordering two dozen more.

[dano]

Originally Posted by hoppyjr

Tsujigiri - Since the light is completely sealed, I have no idea what the capacitors look like. I'd imagine that a retrofit would not fit inside a Modded CR123 light.

Big_Ed - I cannot find any "made in ......." markings on the light or the box. I know that 5.11 Tactical has their offices in Modesto, California.

Aren't these lights based off a design from a Russian company?

[Justin Case]

Here's my opinion. It's great to see supercapacitors being commercially utilized and as the technology advances, such products should really show their advantages. However, I personally do not see what the big deal is with this light. It is big and the run time is poor. For less than half the price, I can get a Malkoff Maglite drop-in for a 2C Maglite (or mod the 2C Mag myself), and get comparable max output with a much longer run time in a smaller package. As for the 90 sec recharge time, I can go to my vehicle, extract two spare C cells, and load them in 90 sec as well. The difference is that I won't have to do that for about 4 hours, whereas the 5.11 light runs out of gas in 15 min for peak mode followed by 60 min of standby mode (or 60 min for standard mode and 60 min for standby). And I can carry the batteries with me. I don't need to use a charger, which requires a source of power (vehicle power outlet or an AC wall outlet). Until 5.11 develops a portable recharging solution, IMO the 90 sec recharge time is an irrelevant performance measure.

Also, the 5.11 light appears to be sealed (or at least the ultracapacitor is, not sure about the head), making future end user mods and upgrades harder. We all know that LED performance will continue to increase. All I have to do is open the Maglite head, and drop in a new Malkoff module (e.g., his P7). It is true that for the Malkoff P7 drop-in in a 2C Mag, I will also have to do some additional modification to the tailcap to accommodate 2x18650 to drive the drop-in, but it is a very easy mod. Or I can use the new IMR26500 cells, which will require some light sanding to enlarge the Mag tube diameter.

The ultracapacitor seems to have poor self-discharge rate as well. 5.11 claims the capacity drops to 50% after one month.

[berry580]

I kind of agree with Justin Case. 15 mins of high mode is inadequate.

Given it's size and price, I could get a flashlight (e.g. Jetbeam M1X) with many times its performance (power and duration wise) with enough change to get a charger and a load of 18650s enough for a week worth of normal usage without needing to recharge.

[mobile1]

We've been looking into building a supercap lights for probably 2 years now.. and have looked at options to make them work. With a bunch of supercap units.

The main problem seemed that you get about 10% of the power you get in a battery, so even though they are light, they get bulky and big and low runtimes.

Now something still does not quite add up with that light... either they are using some revolutionary new higher cap capacitors.... I'd be interested in what boost caps they are using... my guess is Maxwell, but still runtime seems longer then what it should be.

And quite honestly while the light is quite a feat in what they tried to accomplish (charging/discharge) with the variable voltage, I think they could have done much better with the UI and features... there's an entire new set of features that are possible with boostcaps, but these guys haven't really thought it through yet.
I think the future will be boost caps. Who is the manufacturer of that light and the boost caps?

[Bushman5]

Originally Posted by Justin Case

Here's my opinion. It's great to see supercapacitors being commercially utilized and as the technology advances, such products should really show their advantages. However, I personally do not see what the big deal is with this light. It is big and the run time is poor. For less than half the price, I can get a Malkoff Maglite drop-in for a 2C Maglite (or mod the 2C Mag myself), and get comparable max output with a much longer run time in a smaller package. As for the 90 sec recharge time, I can go to my vehicle, extract two spare C cells, and load them in 90 sec as well. The difference is that I won't have to do that for about 4 hours, whereas the 5.11 light runs out of gas in 15 min for peak mode followed by 60 min of standby mode (or 60 min for standard mode and 60 min for standby). And I can carry the batteries with me. I don't need to use a charger, which requires a source of power (vehicle power outlet or an AC wall outlet). Until 5.11 develops a portable recharging solution, IMO the 90 sec recharge time is an irrelevant performance measure.

Also, the 5.11 light appears to be sealed (or at least the ultracapacitor is, not sure about the head), making future end user mods and upgrades harder. We all know that LED performance will continue to increase. All I have to do is open the Maglite head, and drop in a new Malkoff module (e.g., his P7). It is true that for the Malkoff P7 drop-in in a 2C Mag, I will also have to do some additional modification to the tailcap to accommodate 2x18650 to drive the drop-in, but it is a very easy mod. Or I can use the new IMR26500 cells, which will require some light sanding to enlarge the Mag tube diameter.

The ultracapacitor seems to have poor self-discharge rate as well. 5.11 claims the capacity drops to 50% after one month.

the big deal is the fast recharge time, which in the field (say on a SAR mission) is critical. No longer do searchers have to carry spare cells with them (extra weight). As well the big deal is the lack of batteries ending up in the landfills, so from a green point of view this light is getting major kudos.

[Justin Case]

Originally Posted by Bushman5

the big deal is the fast recharge time, which in the field (say on a SAR mission) is critical. No longer do searchers have to carry spare cells with them (extra weight). As well the big deal is the lack of batteries ending up in the landfills, so from a green point of view this light is getting major kudos.

So where are you going to find an AC outlet for the charger in the field during SAR? If you are going to depend on plugging it into your vehicle's 12VDC source, then you may as well just carry extra batts IMO. At least I don't need to be near a car or an outlet. And I can swap batteries in 90 sec anyway.