Black Diamond Vectra IQ review - FLR

[Quickbeam]

Black Diamond Vectra IQ

Lots of options with this one!

Enjoy!
Doug P.

 

[STEVENT6]

Quickbeam,

Thanks for another great review, but for throw you have:

Incandescent High 562 (23.71)
Incandescent Med 153 (12.37)
Incandescent Low 35 (5.92)

I was wondering if this was an error or typo. Since its a 4AAA light.

Thanks,
Steven

 

[Quickbeam]

Nope - they're correct. It's a four AA light, not a four AAA light.

 

[Lara]

Quickbeam, you must be a very kind and gentle person! Four stars for this light is very generous. I've used a BD Gemini for a long time and was very happy with it. When I got my Vectra IQ last december, I was extremely disappointed. The beam is terrible! All the old models had such a nice smooth beam and now they are selling us these? The package says "Focused, artifact-free light with new Ultem reflector". This must be a joke for insiders, cause you won't find many lights with poorer beams! Another disappointment: the "intelligent circuitry for constant illumination" is not regulation (as one would expect). This light gets dimmer and dimmer until it's out. Looks like the brightness levels are just different resistors (a runtime plot would be interesting). Now the battery indicator: it's worthless, because it changes almost randomly. It might show "red" just 30 minutes on new batteries, then after being turned of for just a second it's back on "green" for another hour! This light is seriously troubled and way too expensive for what you get.

 

[STEVENT6]

Thanks Quickbeam and Lara,

You both saved me the hassle of buying and taking the light back, to EMS since they have a liberal return policy. The 4AAA was a typo on my part. I've looked at this light several times and almost bought it. Being in a well lit store I couldn't really gage the brightness. I was hoping the Incandescent was about as bright as a Streamlight or UK 4AA. But their helion is brighter, not to mention the 99 cent neveready or a minimag. This could have been the headlamp that had it all.

 

[Quickbeam]

Hmmmm.... Perhaps too generous. I'll take another look at it - thanks for your input Lara - perhaps I will do a runtime test on it after all, just on the high setting.

 

[Phaserburn]

QB, did you ever get back to the Vectra? Seems quite a difference of opinions here. Also, the Vectra should be able to run the BD Soliras "searchlight" bulb. That would be very interesting to see.

 

[Quickbeam]

Awwww, krud. I forgot about it. Too much going on. I'll go load it up and get it going.

 

[Quickbeam]

runtime is up...

Pretty lousy considering they advertise a 3 hour runtime on incand. high mode. The light loses 1/2 star for that one.