Wattnot
Enlightened
NOTE: The beamshots you will see are temporary. It's close to single digits here as soon as it gets dark enough for beamshots, not to mention the 6 inches of snow still on the ground!
The EagleTac XPGs are here and WOW! Mike of PTS-flashlights.com and EagleTac-usa.com sent me THREE new releases, all with the XPG emitter. The T20C2 Mark II, the P20C2 Mark II, and the P20A2 Mark II. They're compact, tough and bright as the sun (well, almost!). Join me on a tour of these "technology envelope pushing" lights built by EagleTac. I'm going to review them all together to save time and space for all. I heard from a little birdy that there will be other reviews of these same lights so you're going to get it from all angles. In my reviews I like to emphasize comparison, real world beamshots and the layman's perspective. I look forward to the reviews of my fellow CPF reviewers who no doubt will delve deeper into the "science."
Manufacturer's features and specifications (from the EagleTac USA store site):
Model T20C2 MKII
Housing Material - Aircraft Grade Aluminum
Output Power -380 Lumen (300 OTF)
Continuous Runtime - 300 Lumen - 1.7hrs / 60 Lumen - 13hrs / 5 Lumen - 100+hrs
Operation/Functions
Flashlight operation: Forward click switch, soft press for momentary or click for constant on. Change from high to general mode by twisting head. The tail switch activated strobe now comes disabled until the operator enables it with 15 continuous presses within 10 seconds. To deactivate strobe repeat the activation method. With the strobe enabled every other press goes to strobe. When left off for more than one second the circuit resets and starts on high again.
Lamp assembly - Cree XP-G R5 LED
Reflector - Smooth or OP (textured)
Digital special features
4 Hidden Modes which includes Low (5 lumen), Strobe, Beacon and SOS. The hidden modes are easily accessed by a double twist of the head when the light is on in either high or general mode.
Battery type
Two Lithium CR123A batteries (also compatible with one or two Li-ion rechargeables)
Body diameter 1.0"
Bezel diameter 1.4"
Length 5.9"
Weight 4.25oz
Finish - Black Hard Anodize/HA III
Water Proof - IPX-8 Rated to 10 Feet
Anti Roll - Yes
Beam Characteristics - Moderate throw with good balance of flood
Model P20C2 MKII
Housing Material - Aircraft Grade Aluminum
Output Power - 380 Lumen (300 OTF)
Continuous Runtime 300 Lumen - 1.7hrs / 60 Lumen - 13hrs / 5 Lumen - 100+hrs
Operation/Functions Flashlight operation: Forward click switch, soft press for momentary or click for constant on. Change from high to general mode by twisting head. The tail switch activated strobe now comes disabled until the operator enables it with 15 continuous presses within 10 seconds. To deactivate strobe repeat the activation method. With the strobe enabled every other press goes to strobe. When left off for more than one second the circuit resets and starts on high again.
Lamp assembly - Cree XP-G R5 LED
Reflector Smooth or OP (textured)
Digital special features - 5 Hidden Modes which includes Low (5 lumen), Strobe, Beacon and SOS. The hidden modes are easily accessed by a double twist of the head when the light is on in either high or general mode. Battery type Two Lithium CR123A batteries (also compatible with one or two Li-ion rechargeables)
Body diameter - 0.8"
Bezel diameter - 1.0"
Length - 5.1"
Weight - 2.5oz
Finish - Black Hard Anodize/HA III
Water Proof - IPX-8 Rated to 10 Feet
Anti Roll - Yes
Beam Characteristics
Good throw with a nice balance of flood
Model P20A2 MKII
Housing Material - Aircraft Grade Aluminum
Output Power - 300 Lumen (230 OTF)
Continuous Runtime - 230 Lumen - 1.5hrs / 60 Lumen - 8hrs / 15 Lumen - 30hrs
Operation/Functions
Flashlight operation: Forward click switch, soft press for momentary or click for constant on. Change from high to general mode by twisting head. The tail switch activated strobe now comes disabled until the operator enables it with 15 continuous presses within 10 seconds. To deactivate strobe repeat the activation method. With the strobe enabled every other press goes to strobe. When left off for more than one second the circuit resets and starts on high again.
Lamp assembly - Cree XP-G R5 LED
Reflector - Smooth or OP (textured)
Digital special features
4 Hidden Modes which includes Low (5 lumen), Strobe, Beacon and SOS. The hidden modes are easily accessed by a double twist of the head when the light is on in either high or general mode.
Battery type
2 - 1.5V AA battery (not included), inexpensive and widely available
Body diameter 0.8"
Bezel diameter 1.0"
Length 6.4"
Weight 3.3 oz
Finish - Black Hard Anodize/HA III
Water Proof - IPX-8 Rated to 10 Feet
Anti Roll - Yes
Beam Characteristics
Moderate throw with good balance of flood
Initial Impressions:
It's been a few months since I've broken the seal on any new flashlights. Boy, have things changed, at least in this case. As you can see in the photos, ET has improved their packaging a great deal. Not only that but all three lights came very well equipped. In fact, there were more "toys" included with these than I've ever seen before (I'll talk more about those later in the review). All three lights have a great, balanced feel (the T20C2 fit my hand the best of these three). They all sport a "semi-gloss" black finish with nicely done white lettering. They came with the easily removable clip already installed. All three seem like quality pieces; Nice lines, sturdy yet lightweight and good looking too. My initial impression of the output was WOW. I was excited to get into these fine looking specimens and learn more.
UI:
The user interface on these lights can be simple, or complicated. If you hand it to a "normal" person (c'mon, we're not still pretending to be "normal" now, are we?) they will push the button and get light. After that, it can get a little weird but nothing a flashaholic can't handle after a few minutes of playing. None of the functions of this light are programmable except that you can disable "quick" access to the strobe. Contrary to some early rumors I read, you cannot completely disable the strobe/beacon/SOS functions. You can tuck them away somewhat, but if you're a strobe hater, read the rest of this paragraph carefully to decide if these lights are for you. I feel strobe haters will be okay, but read for yourself and decide.
Make sure you're twisting the knurled ring below the head and not unscrewing the head. That happened to me once during all of my frantic twisting!
These lights have a tailcap mounted forward clicky with a momentary activation on a half press. With the strobe function option activated, pressing once and holding without clicking, or by pressing all the way and clicking, you get full output. A second half or full press (or quick on/off click cycle) gets you a very rapid strobe at full output. Half press again and you're back to full. In all cases, turn it off for 2 seconds and you start over. Okay, now stay with me because it's going to get a little crazy from here. First, there are two states you can initially turn the light on in and that's whether the strobe function is "disabled" or not. Those two ways are on high with the head twisted tight, or medium with it loose (it's about an 1/8 of a turn and it's not "loose" but for simplicity's sake I will call it "tight" and "loose"). Second, after it's on, twisting changes the modes. So we'll start with everything I'm covering now as having the optional strobe function ENABLED. I will let you know when it' DISABLED. A quick note on twisting: Twisting one way to loose and staying loose, or very rapidly twisting loose and back to tight has the SAME EFFECT. It puts you in the secondary mode, whatever that might be at the time. Twisting slower instead causes the TIGHT setting to go back to HIGH. Here we go: So it's on and you twist it loose. It goes into medium. You twist tight and loose and now it's in low (that's about 5 to 15 lumens, depending on model). From low, if you twist tight/loose again, you get the strobe. Twist tight/loose again and you get the beacon. This isn't the like beacon you've ignored in the past, this beacon is a constant flash, more like a very slow strobe. Finally, twist tight/loose again and you get SOS. Continue to twist and you start the cycle over again: medium-low-strobe-beacon-SOS. ALL of these modes I just described are with the head loose, or it could be tight too, IF you twist very fast twist back to tight. Tightening always returns you to HIGH unless you do it very fast. Clear as mud yet? Okay, now we'll do the procedure to DISABLE the strobe: From on, half pressing 15 times within 10 seconds toggles the strobe being accessible from the tailcap. You will get a quick confirmation flash. So now the strobe is disabled, right? Well, not exactly. It IS definitely disabled from the rear tailcap with the head tight. Momentary tailcap presses with the head tight simply turn HIGH on and off. You can do your own momentary signaling or just press for high. No matter what you do with the tailcap, you are working with HIGH or OFF only, or if it's twisted loose, you get medium and off only. However, when you start twisting, there is NO CHANGE from what I described above in the "strobe enabled" section. You will STILL have to cycle through medium-low-strobe-beacon-SOS in the secondary mode. To never see strobe, you will have to do the disable procedure and not twist again when it's on low. If you twist while it's on to get down to low, you can only avoid strobe by shutting it off for 2 seconds. Again, from low, twisting the head tight then right away loose, even with the strobe mode "disabled" will put you into the full output strobe mode. However, if you twist with more than 2 second pauses, you will never see the strobe/beacon/SOS. These pauses can be from either a loose or tight head. Have I completely lost you yet? Like I said at the beginning of this section, it can get pretty complicated when you start twisting. I had to stop as I was typing this to keep my head straight and as I proof read what I wrote above, I still do some head scratching!
White Wall Hunting:
Below are underexposed wall shots. I found an excellent light to compare to the T20C2 and that's my Dereelight CL1H with the 1.2A, 4.2V single mode module. That's the same current draw of the T20C2. The other shot are the three lights in this review to each other.
T20C2 left - Dereelight CL1H w/1.2 module right
T20C2 - P20C2 - P20A2
Logistics:
All three lights have well polished and deep reflectors with a light orange peel. The beams were a nice white (they made the TK40 and Surefire E2DL and L1 look yellow by comparison). The hotspots smoothly and quickly transitioned to corona and spill and I didn't notice any ringy-ness. White wall hunters will be pleased. The emitters were well centered. There isn't much conventional knurling along the bodies but the bodies are definitely busy and diverse with a mix of checkering, cuts, grooves, and other grip surfaces that I'll let you try and name! The only problem I had was one instance where I was unscrewing the head instead of twisting where I was supposed to. It was my fault as there IS knurling in place below the head for just that purpose. Button top cells are required. My flat top Wolf Eyes brand 18650 and 17670 did not make contact without help. No discernible pwm detected on any of them on any intensity. A 15 minute test on high with the T20C2 laying on the counter made me think I was losing it . . . the light was barely even warm!! The P20C2 was as expected, comfortably warm but not hot. The threads were very well lubed and became fairly smooth after working them for a minute. There are 3 O-rings, one at each thread point. The whole head comes off, or you can unscrew the head in the center to get to the reflector/emitter module. The modules were well beyond hand tight on all three lights and I saw no reason to remove any as they're only removable for the purpose of replacement in the unlikely event of LED failure. There was minor battery rattle in all 3. The T20C2 was tested with an AW 18650 and it rattled a little bit. They do include a sleeve for use with CR123s. The protruding tailcap switches prevent tailstanding on any of the models but they do include a tail stand ring in the goodies bag. I mentioned a bunch of "toys." They all come with a clip. This is the same clip design as on earlier EagleTacs. It's not a full "ring" around the body but an open "C." You can pull it straight off. It takes a little force but it will pull right off. If you wear this on the outside of a belt, it is feasible that it could unintentionally pop off on you, causing you to loose the light. I would treat this more as a pocket clip for that reason, or just be aware this could happen if you sit with it. I prefer wearing them outside, clipped to my belt and this did NOT happen to me, but I can envision it happening if you wear it too far behind you and sit in a car or a mushy couch. Don't like the clip? No problem. You also get a nylon holster (complete with a small D-ring) AND a lanyard. There's a glow-in-the-dark clicky cover and several replacement O-rings and the tail-stand ring. And that's not all! There's also what they call a tactical ring (rubber) and a DIFFUSER! To use the diffuser you have to unscrew the stainless bezel and screw in the diffuser. It works well except it's a little slower into action than a slip on one (like the Surefire F04). It would have been nice to see a place made for the diffuser on the holster. Maybe next time!
Current draw:
The current draw figures were as expected. I tried different battery configurations and chemistries on a couple of them but only measured on high this time. Where the voltage was lower, the current draw was higher and vice-versa. I did Ohm's Law and the wattages were the same (when comparing the same light with the different battery types) so the regulation circuitry is doing it's job nicely. With an 18650 the T20C2 drew 1.2A and 800ma on 2 CR123s. The P20C2 drew 1.2A from a 17670 and 800ma from it's 2 CR123s. The P20A2 drew 1.2A from the Energizer lithium primaries and 1.5A from Eneloops (nimh). Just for fun, I dropped a couple of alkalines in the P20A2 and measured a 1.4A draw. These lights appear to have only buck regulation. I tested them with nearly depleted batteries and they all ran with dimmed output. Be sure to use protected cells. I'm not sure when the low voltage protection of either the battery or the light (if it has it) is supposed to kick in but I stopped the single cell test at 3.1 volts with the light still going. However, I'm impressed with the regulation . . . or it could be the lower VF of the XPG emitter. Either way, the single cell performance matched or beat the 2 CR123 performance on both the T20C2 and P20C2. In some of my other lights that can take both, you can notice a small improvement with 2 CR123s over a single 18650 or 17670.
In the hands of "babes:"
This is the part of the review where I take the light over to my neighbor Joe and get his "I don't care about flashlights the way you care about flashlights" opinion. He is a highly skilled mechanic and has an impressive array of tools but to him a flashlight is a good old stock Mag. I've been slowing converting him but there's no "passion" there, so this makes him the perfect subject. I handed him the lights and the first thing he commented on was how light they all were, yet they still had a solid feel. He found the twist quickly (he saw the labeling) but I had to help him find the concealed mode. Of course he was thoroughly impressed with the output (he better be . . . I'M thoroughly impressed with the output) of all three. Joe was disappointed they wouldn't tailstand but when I told him they all came with a tailstand adapter, he was impressed. He was further impressed when I described all of the other accessories. He really liked the diffuser. However, he felt the accessories would quickly get lost. He thought the package would be perfect if the included holster had a little pocket for the tailstand adapter and the diffuser. He gravitated toward the T20C2 for the same reason I chose it as my favorite of the three, but as soon as he learned about the battery choice, he lost interest. "Oh, another one of those," he said. As I always say, non flashaholics are better off with mainstream batteries. So after hearing that the P20A2 took AAs, that one became his favorite, despite having a little less in the output department. His overall comments were that he liked the lights but thought they were overly complicated, even with the strobe mode "disabled." He found them lightweight yet solid, very nicely finished and a good value for what you got.
Beamshots:
Now we'll move on to what you've all been reading for . . . the BEAMSHOTS! However, as I explained above, the weather is preventing my usual spectacular (well at least I HOPE so) outdoor beamshots. The best I could do for now was 40 feet in my messy basement. NOBODY is allowed to comment on the mess!
Captions will now be BELOW each photo.
T20C2 left - CL1H right
T20C2 left - P20C2 right
P20C2 left - P20A2 right (lotta flooding going on!)
The 4 way shot should give you a good idea of how these compete. The exposure settings were identical and 2 stops underexposed.
I hope those shots give you enough of an idea for now. The lights all performed as expected. I'm looking forward to taking some 100 foot outdoor shots but from shivering on the deck I can tell you the T20C2 beats out the CL1H in both hotspot size and intensity. Since they both draw the same current, you will see how much more efficient the XPG emitter is over the older Q5 in my CL1H.
Conclusions:
EagleTac has 3 winners here. Just pick your battery type! I personally like the T20C2 best because of it's feel in the hand and performance on 18650s, which was the same or ever so slightly better than on CR123s. The much smaller P20C2 has an enormous rated output for it's size, but can't keep up with it's big brother, no doubt because of the smaller reflector. These XPGs have a nice low VF so single cell performance should match or even beat CR123 performance. As for output, the T and C 20C2 are rated the same. However, the T20C2's larger reflector puts more lux on the target and increases throw. The P20A2 is a great light too. It's even thinner than the P20C2 in the body and can use a much cheaper and widely available power source. The cost is that it's longer than both of the CR123 models and the output isn't as high. The P20A2 would be an excellent choice for someone who doesn't want to mess with expensive CR123s or 18650s and dedicated chargers you might not otherwise need. I always recommend 2xAA lights for non-flashaholics for that reason. NIMH batteries and chargers are everywhere (even near the cash registers at supermarkets). Thanks to digital cameras, lots of people are now familiar with them and this light "shines" on nimhs. Of course there's also the AA alkaline (gasp!) option for when nothing else is available and the light had no trouble sucking 1.4 amps from my lowly little Energizer alkalines The bunny would be pleased. After the outdoor beamshots are done, I'll know more and may modify these conclusions.
The EagleTac XPGs are here and WOW! Mike of PTS-flashlights.com and EagleTac-usa.com sent me THREE new releases, all with the XPG emitter. The T20C2 Mark II, the P20C2 Mark II, and the P20A2 Mark II. They're compact, tough and bright as the sun (well, almost!). Join me on a tour of these "technology envelope pushing" lights built by EagleTac. I'm going to review them all together to save time and space for all. I heard from a little birdy that there will be other reviews of these same lights so you're going to get it from all angles. In my reviews I like to emphasize comparison, real world beamshots and the layman's perspective. I look forward to the reviews of my fellow CPF reviewers who no doubt will delve deeper into the "science."
Manufacturer's features and specifications (from the EagleTac USA store site):
Model T20C2 MKII
Housing Material - Aircraft Grade Aluminum
Output Power -380 Lumen (300 OTF)
Continuous Runtime - 300 Lumen - 1.7hrs / 60 Lumen - 13hrs / 5 Lumen - 100+hrs
Operation/Functions
Flashlight operation: Forward click switch, soft press for momentary or click for constant on. Change from high to general mode by twisting head. The tail switch activated strobe now comes disabled until the operator enables it with 15 continuous presses within 10 seconds. To deactivate strobe repeat the activation method. With the strobe enabled every other press goes to strobe. When left off for more than one second the circuit resets and starts on high again.
Lamp assembly - Cree XP-G R5 LED
Reflector - Smooth or OP (textured)
Digital special features
4 Hidden Modes which includes Low (5 lumen), Strobe, Beacon and SOS. The hidden modes are easily accessed by a double twist of the head when the light is on in either high or general mode.
Battery type
Two Lithium CR123A batteries (also compatible with one or two Li-ion rechargeables)
Body diameter 1.0"
Bezel diameter 1.4"
Length 5.9"
Weight 4.25oz
Finish - Black Hard Anodize/HA III
Water Proof - IPX-8 Rated to 10 Feet
Anti Roll - Yes
Beam Characteristics - Moderate throw with good balance of flood
Model P20C2 MKII
Housing Material - Aircraft Grade Aluminum
Output Power - 380 Lumen (300 OTF)
Continuous Runtime 300 Lumen - 1.7hrs / 60 Lumen - 13hrs / 5 Lumen - 100+hrs
Operation/Functions Flashlight operation: Forward click switch, soft press for momentary or click for constant on. Change from high to general mode by twisting head. The tail switch activated strobe now comes disabled until the operator enables it with 15 continuous presses within 10 seconds. To deactivate strobe repeat the activation method. With the strobe enabled every other press goes to strobe. When left off for more than one second the circuit resets and starts on high again.
Lamp assembly - Cree XP-G R5 LED
Reflector Smooth or OP (textured)
Digital special features - 5 Hidden Modes which includes Low (5 lumen), Strobe, Beacon and SOS. The hidden modes are easily accessed by a double twist of the head when the light is on in either high or general mode. Battery type Two Lithium CR123A batteries (also compatible with one or two Li-ion rechargeables)
Body diameter - 0.8"
Bezel diameter - 1.0"
Length - 5.1"
Weight - 2.5oz
Finish - Black Hard Anodize/HA III
Water Proof - IPX-8 Rated to 10 Feet
Anti Roll - Yes
Beam Characteristics
Good throw with a nice balance of flood
Model P20A2 MKII
Housing Material - Aircraft Grade Aluminum
Output Power - 300 Lumen (230 OTF)
Continuous Runtime - 230 Lumen - 1.5hrs / 60 Lumen - 8hrs / 15 Lumen - 30hrs
Operation/Functions
Flashlight operation: Forward click switch, soft press for momentary or click for constant on. Change from high to general mode by twisting head. The tail switch activated strobe now comes disabled until the operator enables it with 15 continuous presses within 10 seconds. To deactivate strobe repeat the activation method. With the strobe enabled every other press goes to strobe. When left off for more than one second the circuit resets and starts on high again.
Lamp assembly - Cree XP-G R5 LED
Reflector - Smooth or OP (textured)
Digital special features
4 Hidden Modes which includes Low (5 lumen), Strobe, Beacon and SOS. The hidden modes are easily accessed by a double twist of the head when the light is on in either high or general mode.
Battery type
2 - 1.5V AA battery (not included), inexpensive and widely available
Body diameter 0.8"
Bezel diameter 1.0"
Length 6.4"
Weight 3.3 oz
Finish - Black Hard Anodize/HA III
Water Proof - IPX-8 Rated to 10 Feet
Anti Roll - Yes
Beam Characteristics
Moderate throw with good balance of flood
Initial Impressions:
It's been a few months since I've broken the seal on any new flashlights. Boy, have things changed, at least in this case. As you can see in the photos, ET has improved their packaging a great deal. Not only that but all three lights came very well equipped. In fact, there were more "toys" included with these than I've ever seen before (I'll talk more about those later in the review). All three lights have a great, balanced feel (the T20C2 fit my hand the best of these three). They all sport a "semi-gloss" black finish with nicely done white lettering. They came with the easily removable clip already installed. All three seem like quality pieces; Nice lines, sturdy yet lightweight and good looking too. My initial impression of the output was WOW. I was excited to get into these fine looking specimens and learn more.
UI:
The user interface on these lights can be simple, or complicated. If you hand it to a "normal" person (c'mon, we're not still pretending to be "normal" now, are we?) they will push the button and get light. After that, it can get a little weird but nothing a flashaholic can't handle after a few minutes of playing. None of the functions of this light are programmable except that you can disable "quick" access to the strobe. Contrary to some early rumors I read, you cannot completely disable the strobe/beacon/SOS functions. You can tuck them away somewhat, but if you're a strobe hater, read the rest of this paragraph carefully to decide if these lights are for you. I feel strobe haters will be okay, but read for yourself and decide.
Make sure you're twisting the knurled ring below the head and not unscrewing the head. That happened to me once during all of my frantic twisting!
These lights have a tailcap mounted forward clicky with a momentary activation on a half press. With the strobe function option activated, pressing once and holding without clicking, or by pressing all the way and clicking, you get full output. A second half or full press (or quick on/off click cycle) gets you a very rapid strobe at full output. Half press again and you're back to full. In all cases, turn it off for 2 seconds and you start over. Okay, now stay with me because it's going to get a little crazy from here. First, there are two states you can initially turn the light on in and that's whether the strobe function is "disabled" or not. Those two ways are on high with the head twisted tight, or medium with it loose (it's about an 1/8 of a turn and it's not "loose" but for simplicity's sake I will call it "tight" and "loose"). Second, after it's on, twisting changes the modes. So we'll start with everything I'm covering now as having the optional strobe function ENABLED. I will let you know when it' DISABLED. A quick note on twisting: Twisting one way to loose and staying loose, or very rapidly twisting loose and back to tight has the SAME EFFECT. It puts you in the secondary mode, whatever that might be at the time. Twisting slower instead causes the TIGHT setting to go back to HIGH. Here we go: So it's on and you twist it loose. It goes into medium. You twist tight and loose and now it's in low (that's about 5 to 15 lumens, depending on model). From low, if you twist tight/loose again, you get the strobe. Twist tight/loose again and you get the beacon. This isn't the like beacon you've ignored in the past, this beacon is a constant flash, more like a very slow strobe. Finally, twist tight/loose again and you get SOS. Continue to twist and you start the cycle over again: medium-low-strobe-beacon-SOS. ALL of these modes I just described are with the head loose, or it could be tight too, IF you twist very fast twist back to tight. Tightening always returns you to HIGH unless you do it very fast. Clear as mud yet? Okay, now we'll do the procedure to DISABLE the strobe: From on, half pressing 15 times within 10 seconds toggles the strobe being accessible from the tailcap. You will get a quick confirmation flash. So now the strobe is disabled, right? Well, not exactly. It IS definitely disabled from the rear tailcap with the head tight. Momentary tailcap presses with the head tight simply turn HIGH on and off. You can do your own momentary signaling or just press for high. No matter what you do with the tailcap, you are working with HIGH or OFF only, or if it's twisted loose, you get medium and off only. However, when you start twisting, there is NO CHANGE from what I described above in the "strobe enabled" section. You will STILL have to cycle through medium-low-strobe-beacon-SOS in the secondary mode. To never see strobe, you will have to do the disable procedure and not twist again when it's on low. If you twist while it's on to get down to low, you can only avoid strobe by shutting it off for 2 seconds. Again, from low, twisting the head tight then right away loose, even with the strobe mode "disabled" will put you into the full output strobe mode. However, if you twist with more than 2 second pauses, you will never see the strobe/beacon/SOS. These pauses can be from either a loose or tight head. Have I completely lost you yet? Like I said at the beginning of this section, it can get pretty complicated when you start twisting. I had to stop as I was typing this to keep my head straight and as I proof read what I wrote above, I still do some head scratching!
White Wall Hunting:
Below are underexposed wall shots. I found an excellent light to compare to the T20C2 and that's my Dereelight CL1H with the 1.2A, 4.2V single mode module. That's the same current draw of the T20C2. The other shot are the three lights in this review to each other.
T20C2 left - Dereelight CL1H w/1.2 module right
T20C2 - P20C2 - P20A2
Logistics:
All three lights have well polished and deep reflectors with a light orange peel. The beams were a nice white (they made the TK40 and Surefire E2DL and L1 look yellow by comparison). The hotspots smoothly and quickly transitioned to corona and spill and I didn't notice any ringy-ness. White wall hunters will be pleased. The emitters were well centered. There isn't much conventional knurling along the bodies but the bodies are definitely busy and diverse with a mix of checkering, cuts, grooves, and other grip surfaces that I'll let you try and name! The only problem I had was one instance where I was unscrewing the head instead of twisting where I was supposed to. It was my fault as there IS knurling in place below the head for just that purpose. Button top cells are required. My flat top Wolf Eyes brand 18650 and 17670 did not make contact without help. No discernible pwm detected on any of them on any intensity. A 15 minute test on high with the T20C2 laying on the counter made me think I was losing it . . . the light was barely even warm!! The P20C2 was as expected, comfortably warm but not hot. The threads were very well lubed and became fairly smooth after working them for a minute. There are 3 O-rings, one at each thread point. The whole head comes off, or you can unscrew the head in the center to get to the reflector/emitter module. The modules were well beyond hand tight on all three lights and I saw no reason to remove any as they're only removable for the purpose of replacement in the unlikely event of LED failure. There was minor battery rattle in all 3. The T20C2 was tested with an AW 18650 and it rattled a little bit. They do include a sleeve for use with CR123s. The protruding tailcap switches prevent tailstanding on any of the models but they do include a tail stand ring in the goodies bag. I mentioned a bunch of "toys." They all come with a clip. This is the same clip design as on earlier EagleTacs. It's not a full "ring" around the body but an open "C." You can pull it straight off. It takes a little force but it will pull right off. If you wear this on the outside of a belt, it is feasible that it could unintentionally pop off on you, causing you to loose the light. I would treat this more as a pocket clip for that reason, or just be aware this could happen if you sit with it. I prefer wearing them outside, clipped to my belt and this did NOT happen to me, but I can envision it happening if you wear it too far behind you and sit in a car or a mushy couch. Don't like the clip? No problem. You also get a nylon holster (complete with a small D-ring) AND a lanyard. There's a glow-in-the-dark clicky cover and several replacement O-rings and the tail-stand ring. And that's not all! There's also what they call a tactical ring (rubber) and a DIFFUSER! To use the diffuser you have to unscrew the stainless bezel and screw in the diffuser. It works well except it's a little slower into action than a slip on one (like the Surefire F04). It would have been nice to see a place made for the diffuser on the holster. Maybe next time!
Current draw:
The current draw figures were as expected. I tried different battery configurations and chemistries on a couple of them but only measured on high this time. Where the voltage was lower, the current draw was higher and vice-versa. I did Ohm's Law and the wattages were the same (when comparing the same light with the different battery types) so the regulation circuitry is doing it's job nicely. With an 18650 the T20C2 drew 1.2A and 800ma on 2 CR123s. The P20C2 drew 1.2A from a 17670 and 800ma from it's 2 CR123s. The P20A2 drew 1.2A from the Energizer lithium primaries and 1.5A from Eneloops (nimh). Just for fun, I dropped a couple of alkalines in the P20A2 and measured a 1.4A draw. These lights appear to have only buck regulation. I tested them with nearly depleted batteries and they all ran with dimmed output. Be sure to use protected cells. I'm not sure when the low voltage protection of either the battery or the light (if it has it) is supposed to kick in but I stopped the single cell test at 3.1 volts with the light still going. However, I'm impressed with the regulation . . . or it could be the lower VF of the XPG emitter. Either way, the single cell performance matched or beat the 2 CR123 performance on both the T20C2 and P20C2. In some of my other lights that can take both, you can notice a small improvement with 2 CR123s over a single 18650 or 17670.
In the hands of "babes:"
This is the part of the review where I take the light over to my neighbor Joe and get his "I don't care about flashlights the way you care about flashlights" opinion. He is a highly skilled mechanic and has an impressive array of tools but to him a flashlight is a good old stock Mag. I've been slowing converting him but there's no "passion" there, so this makes him the perfect subject. I handed him the lights and the first thing he commented on was how light they all were, yet they still had a solid feel. He found the twist quickly (he saw the labeling) but I had to help him find the concealed mode. Of course he was thoroughly impressed with the output (he better be . . . I'M thoroughly impressed with the output) of all three. Joe was disappointed they wouldn't tailstand but when I told him they all came with a tailstand adapter, he was impressed. He was further impressed when I described all of the other accessories. He really liked the diffuser. However, he felt the accessories would quickly get lost. He thought the package would be perfect if the included holster had a little pocket for the tailstand adapter and the diffuser. He gravitated toward the T20C2 for the same reason I chose it as my favorite of the three, but as soon as he learned about the battery choice, he lost interest. "Oh, another one of those," he said. As I always say, non flashaholics are better off with mainstream batteries. So after hearing that the P20A2 took AAs, that one became his favorite, despite having a little less in the output department. His overall comments were that he liked the lights but thought they were overly complicated, even with the strobe mode "disabled." He found them lightweight yet solid, very nicely finished and a good value for what you got.
Beamshots:
Now we'll move on to what you've all been reading for . . . the BEAMSHOTS! However, as I explained above, the weather is preventing my usual spectacular (well at least I HOPE so) outdoor beamshots. The best I could do for now was 40 feet in my messy basement. NOBODY is allowed to comment on the mess!
Captions will now be BELOW each photo.
T20C2 left - CL1H right
T20C2 left - P20C2 right
P20C2 left - P20A2 right (lotta flooding going on!)
The 4 way shot should give you a good idea of how these compete. The exposure settings were identical and 2 stops underexposed.
I hope those shots give you enough of an idea for now. The lights all performed as expected. I'm looking forward to taking some 100 foot outdoor shots but from shivering on the deck I can tell you the T20C2 beats out the CL1H in both hotspot size and intensity. Since they both draw the same current, you will see how much more efficient the XPG emitter is over the older Q5 in my CL1H.
Conclusions:
EagleTac has 3 winners here. Just pick your battery type! I personally like the T20C2 best because of it's feel in the hand and performance on 18650s, which was the same or ever so slightly better than on CR123s. The much smaller P20C2 has an enormous rated output for it's size, but can't keep up with it's big brother, no doubt because of the smaller reflector. These XPGs have a nice low VF so single cell performance should match or even beat CR123 performance. As for output, the T and C 20C2 are rated the same. However, the T20C2's larger reflector puts more lux on the target and increases throw. The P20A2 is a great light too. It's even thinner than the P20C2 in the body and can use a much cheaper and widely available power source. The cost is that it's longer than both of the CR123 models and the output isn't as high. The P20A2 would be an excellent choice for someone who doesn't want to mess with expensive CR123s or 18650s and dedicated chargers you might not otherwise need. I always recommend 2xAA lights for non-flashaholics for that reason. NIMH batteries and chargers are everywhere (even near the cash registers at supermarkets). Thanks to digital cameras, lots of people are now familiar with them and this light "shines" on nimhs. Of course there's also the AA alkaline (gasp!) option for when nothing else is available and the light had no trouble sucking 1.4 amps from my lowly little Energizer alkalines The bunny would be pleased. After the outdoor beamshots are done, I'll know more and may modify these conclusions.
Last edited:
