ANyone have a Streamlight Survivor LED Light ? What do you think ?

[jtice]

I have been interested in the angled lights for a while, and was thinking of modding a military 90 degree angle light, but they always seem to cheap and junky.

Now I see that Streamlight has an LED version of the Survivor.
http://www.streamlight.com/product/product.aspx?pid=88

High, Low, and Strobe modes, water tight, and can run off 4AAs.
Only rated at 65 lumens though 🙁
Sure is a shame they dont have a Cree or Souel in them, wonder if they are moddable?

Anyway, has anyone seen one of these in person? anyone own one?
What do you think, are they worth a try?

Thanks
~John

 

[wasBlinded]

They have a highly focused hotspot. Easy to mod. It has a battery carrier, so replacing the AA cells is a small hassle (unless you have a spare carrier).

I don't like it a whole lot as a general purpose light, but others do. If the search is working, there is a pretty good thread devoted to it.

 

[macforsale]

*

 

[Gointothelight]

If you want a quality angled light with a Cree you might want to take a look at the Anglelux, I have one and it's a great light:
http://elektrolumens.com/AngleLux/AngleLux.html

 

[jtice]

Thanks for the comments guys.
I found a couple other threads on it, seems folks were happy with them.
Even a couple Seoul and Cree mods.
Seems it should be fairly easy to mod.
Think I may have to find me one of these.

~John

 

[woodrow]

jtice: I bought one with the recharge kit form brightguy for over $100.00. Sold it when I was going on a Cree buying craze. I missed it and had to buy another one. I trust is over any of my cree lights if I could only take 1 light into a dark twisty cave. It has awesome throw...better than the SL Tl-3 incan at 50 yards, and will run for hours with common AA's. It is just a great light.

 

[jtice]

Thanks woodrow, great input.
I have 4 Streamlight 4AA LED Poly lights, and a 3C version,
they have all been great, especially for the price, and the runtime has been great.

I am hearing great things about the survivor, especially about its throw,
I have a couple of the TL3 lights, I am not a big incan fan, and I still like them.
Hearing that the Survivor generally outperforms them sounds great.

I think I am going to get the regular non rechargeable version.
I have a ton of nimh AA cells to feed it.
I like that the rechargeable could be set in the charger, ready at all times,
but at more than double the cost, I dont think its worth it, to me.

How do you like the size?
I know its larger than a 4AA light should typically be, due to it being designed around their battery pack.
Just hoping it isnt too big to be practical.

~John

 

[BB]

Don't know anything about this 1AA right angle light (currently with 1/2 watt LED)--but looks interesting:

http://www.countycomm.com/MOLLELIGHT.htm

-Bill

 

[ernsanada]

Changing the 4AA batteries is not very user friendly. Note the 4 clips that need to be released to open the carrier.

I have a review at, http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=135169

 

[jtice]

BB,
I have had the Molle light for about a month now.
Very nice light, and fills a nitch of design that has not been done before really.
Fits well in your hand, and is quite unergonomic.
Main complaints, its not all that bright, but hey, its only a 0.5W LED,
and its not very well regulated, so it dims over time.
Its actually the light that got me started looking at the Survivor due to the angled design !

ernsanada,
Thanks, I found your review while searching CPF for info on the light, nice job.
The battery carrage does concern me a bit, does seem to be a bit of a pain,
Do the NON rechargeable ones still have the 2 contact points on the bottom of the lights door, for the charger?
I saw that you can get the battery packs separate, bit didnt know if they would be of use int eh none rechargeable ones if they didnt have those contacts.
Oddly, doesnt it run just as long on AAs as it does the battery pack?

~John

 

[ernsanada]

I was wondering about the rechargeable battery pack. I wonder if the rechargeable version has some kind of charging port on the side of the Survivor. Can anybody confirm this?

 

[jtice]

The rechargeable one uses two round terminals on the bottom plate of the light.
The Light sides down in the charger, just like Pelican's Big Ed lights.
Actually, looking back at your review, yours has them also,
so they much be the same light, some just come with the pack and charger.


~John

 

[ernsanada]

The rechargeable one uses two round terminals on the bottom plate of the light.
The Light sides down in the charger, just like Pelican's Big Ed lights.
Actually, looking back at your review, yours has them also,
so they much be the same light, some just come with the pack and charger.


~John

Thanks John!

 

[macforsale]

*

 

[woodrow]

I sometimes regret buying the light with the recharge kit the second time. Just because it is so much lighter with NIMH or Alkaline cells. It is nice to just slide the light on and off the base though. As for its size, it is too big to throw in anything but a winter coat's pocket, but it is not nearly as large as most lanterns that have a similar beam pattern.

 

[jtice]

Well, I just won a Non Rechargeable Yellow one on Ebay for $47 shipped, so I shall see how I like it soon 😀
I will probably end up doing the Seoul swap.
Where is a good place to get Seouls, and some of the copper 0.03 spacers?

~John

 

[TigerhawkT3]

The Shoppe has them in stock at the moment.

http://theledguy.chainreactionweb.com/index.php?cPath=48_52_85

 

[jtice]

Thanks Tiger,
I will have to get some of these.
I assume that the spacers should be used in any light that I swap from a Luxeon to a Seoul?

~John

 

[jtice]

Well, I got the SL Survivor LED the other day.

First Impressions:
It is a bit large, especially for a 4AA light.
Though, it is much lighter than it looks, you would almost assume there are no batteries in it.
The button is fairly large, and very easy to operate, would even be easy with thick gloves on.
It will NOT do momentary on though, you must give it a full click to turn it on.
Pressing the button for more than about a second will make it goto Low mode.
You can also turn the light on by pressing for over a second,
the light will turn on on High, and then drop to low once you hold the button for about a second.
It acts the same way for Strobe when you hold for over 2 seconds.

Low is still quite bright, its not really a LOW, its at least half as bright as high, maybe alittle more.
So I wouldnt mind that being a bit lower, but it is nice to have it, seeing how it doubles the runtime. to 6 hours.

The reflector is smooth and DEEP, very Deep!
The side spill is alittle narrow for my taste, but not bad at all.
Its certainly usable, I just tend to like overly wide side spill.
Side spill is nice and bright, with very little artifacts.
The Spot is very tight, much tighter than the 4AA or 3C Poly Luxeons.
It has a few small blobby artifacts to it, but they are only noticeable up close.

Slightly too large to use in some situations, but it holds well in the hand.
And it stands up on a table etc. rather nicely, that should make it handy also.

Me and my buddy are planning on purchasing a small boat soon, so I think this will make a great light to have on my life vest at night.
We plan on doing long "float trips" that may extend into the night.
I think the tight spot will be great for spotting the shore line.

~John