Wattnot
Enlightened
Jetbeam Jet-III Pro IBS review
Hi All. This will be my first attempt at a review AND beamshots. I'm doing this because I want to pay back for some of the great reviews and beamshots I've seen here! Feel free to critique. I hope this gets moved to the review section!
Here goes:
First, I'm going to link you to a recent thread full of close up photos of the box and the light. No need to duplicate that good work here. That and my current camera is old and feature-less!
The box looks good but it's basically paper. It has a cute little magnet that holds it closed but if you're a box lover, you won't think much of it. They did include a plastic card (just like a credit card) with warranty info, model and serial number. The instruction manual seems adequate and the translation is only slightly flawed - still very readable.
The threads feel a little gritty, getting only slightly better after wiping and applying some Deoxit. My AW protected 18650 fit tight but I had no trouble pulling it out after getting a good grip. The Tenery protected fit in perfectly. I only noticed only one O ring on both the head and tail. This surprised me as most lights with the IPX-8 standard seem to have two. I'm new, so please forgive me if that's not a big deal. The reflector appears to be the same depth and "peel" texture of my OP CL1H. The clip is a bezel up clip extremely similar to a Surefire clip, specifically the A2's clip. There is a lanyard hole in the tailcap. It came with a lanyard but I did not install it. Weight with battery is 5.4 oz compared to 6 oz for the CL1H. Fit and finish seems very good with excellent and subtle logo printing. It appears that this light will easily take some abuse. The knurling seems to fit right between the smoothness of my CL1H and the roughness of my A2. It felt good in the hand . . . I can see some people EDC'ing this with cargo pants or a jacket. It's a bit much for a shirt pocket. I don't feel qualified enough yet to rate clickies but this one (reverse) seemed fine. I did have a problem accidentally putting it into the "hidden" mode a couple of times but I'm sure I'll get used to that. Once I get used to forward clickies or G2 type momentaries, it takes me a little time to adjust to reverse clickies!
I love the UI. It's similar to the Novatac 120P in that you have 3 "slots" that you can program any way you like. You can program it come on with any intensity and/or add any of the many strobe options. The default is high first, then low then a beacon type strobe. Strobe/sos haters can simply program that out if they like, or never see it by keeping it in the third slot and avoiding cycling through the third slot. I thought I read where this has a memory to come on to the same mode in use when you last turned it off. This is not the case. It always comes on with slot A then a light press (or rapid on/off cycle if you're thumb heavy) will cycle to slot B then C. Turn it off for at least 2 seconds and you are back to slot A. Perhaps what they meant by memory was when you program the intensity of a slot from the programming mode, then shut it off, it memorizes that intensity. In normal, non-programming use, after 2 seconds, it always comes on to whatever you set in the first slot.
On my white wall the beam had the typical Cree ringy-ness with a slight purple tint when compared to the CL1H. Not bad at all but I'm easy to please when it comes to beams.
Current draw was 1 amp on high and barely moved the meter on whatever they set the default low to (looks like 10 or 20 percent?) so it looks like they got the efficiency circuits right on this one. For comparison, my Simpson meter read 1.1 amps for the CL1H (1S pill). I can do more tests if someone wants to know what 50% reads.
Here are some beamshots followed by a pic of the light next to a CL1H. Comments will be below each photo:
The JetBeam III is on the left, Dereelight CL1H on right - 100 feet.
Jetbeam 100'
Deree 100'
Jet on left, 6 feet, normal exposure
Jet on left, 6 feet, under exposure
Surprisingly small for an 18650 light!
Conclusions. I may edit this but for right now, I'm very glad I bought this and it's definitely a keeper! It seems just as bright as my CL1H only with a little less spill and slightly smaller hotspot with a sharper transition hotspot to spill. I'll even dare to say it seems slightly brighter than the CL1H in the outdoor shots but that could be tint thowing me off. The feel in the hand is nice, construction seems nice and the UI is as good as they promised.
:wave:
Hi All. This will be my first attempt at a review AND beamshots. I'm doing this because I want to pay back for some of the great reviews and beamshots I've seen here! Feel free to critique. I hope this gets moved to the review section!
Here goes:
First, I'm going to link you to a recent thread full of close up photos of the box and the light. No need to duplicate that good work here. That and my current camera is old and feature-less!
The box looks good but it's basically paper. It has a cute little magnet that holds it closed but if you're a box lover, you won't think much of it. They did include a plastic card (just like a credit card) with warranty info, model and serial number. The instruction manual seems adequate and the translation is only slightly flawed - still very readable.
The threads feel a little gritty, getting only slightly better after wiping and applying some Deoxit. My AW protected 18650 fit tight but I had no trouble pulling it out after getting a good grip. The Tenery protected fit in perfectly. I only noticed only one O ring on both the head and tail. This surprised me as most lights with the IPX-8 standard seem to have two. I'm new, so please forgive me if that's not a big deal. The reflector appears to be the same depth and "peel" texture of my OP CL1H. The clip is a bezel up clip extremely similar to a Surefire clip, specifically the A2's clip. There is a lanyard hole in the tailcap. It came with a lanyard but I did not install it. Weight with battery is 5.4 oz compared to 6 oz for the CL1H. Fit and finish seems very good with excellent and subtle logo printing. It appears that this light will easily take some abuse. The knurling seems to fit right between the smoothness of my CL1H and the roughness of my A2. It felt good in the hand . . . I can see some people EDC'ing this with cargo pants or a jacket. It's a bit much for a shirt pocket. I don't feel qualified enough yet to rate clickies but this one (reverse) seemed fine. I did have a problem accidentally putting it into the "hidden" mode a couple of times but I'm sure I'll get used to that. Once I get used to forward clickies or G2 type momentaries, it takes me a little time to adjust to reverse clickies!
I love the UI. It's similar to the Novatac 120P in that you have 3 "slots" that you can program any way you like. You can program it come on with any intensity and/or add any of the many strobe options. The default is high first, then low then a beacon type strobe. Strobe/sos haters can simply program that out if they like, or never see it by keeping it in the third slot and avoiding cycling through the third slot. I thought I read where this has a memory to come on to the same mode in use when you last turned it off. This is not the case. It always comes on with slot A then a light press (or rapid on/off cycle if you're thumb heavy) will cycle to slot B then C. Turn it off for at least 2 seconds and you are back to slot A. Perhaps what they meant by memory was when you program the intensity of a slot from the programming mode, then shut it off, it memorizes that intensity. In normal, non-programming use, after 2 seconds, it always comes on to whatever you set in the first slot.
On my white wall the beam had the typical Cree ringy-ness with a slight purple tint when compared to the CL1H. Not bad at all but I'm easy to please when it comes to beams.
Current draw was 1 amp on high and barely moved the meter on whatever they set the default low to (looks like 10 or 20 percent?) so it looks like they got the efficiency circuits right on this one. For comparison, my Simpson meter read 1.1 amps for the CL1H (1S pill). I can do more tests if someone wants to know what 50% reads.
Here are some beamshots followed by a pic of the light next to a CL1H. Comments will be below each photo:
The JetBeam III is on the left, Dereelight CL1H on right - 100 feet.
Jetbeam 100'
Deree 100'
Jet on left, 6 feet, normal exposure
Jet on left, 6 feet, under exposure
Surprisingly small for an 18650 light!
Conclusions. I may edit this but for right now, I'm very glad I bought this and it's definitely a keeper! It seems just as bright as my CL1H only with a little less spill and slightly smaller hotspot with a sharper transition hotspot to spill. I'll even dare to say it seems slightly brighter than the CL1H in the outdoor shots but that could be tint thowing me off. The feel in the hand is nice, construction seems nice and the UI is as good as they promised.
:wave:
Last edited:
, but the beam from my Jet-III looks pretty white to me.
