I have purchased very few flashlights in the past 6 months. Money has been tight, and frankly, there hasn't been much that really got me interested.
I bought a KL1 as soon as they became available, getting #A00250. I thought this was one of the very best lighting products I'd ever seen, although the violet tint was slightly annoying. But the light output was very good, the beam was *excellent* for EDC. Four hour burn time seemed just wonderful, compared to the 75 minutes (actually, around 60 before the beam got yellow enough to bother me, so I'd put in new 123's)of the MN03 incandescent lamp.
So I did my taxes, and I'm getting some money back; not a lot, but....hmm, what to do...? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/help.gif
I bought an Arc-LSH-P, which is a *very* nice light. So nice, I'm carrying *both* the Arc-LSH-P and my SF E2 HA +KL1. I had to tweak the Arc LSH-P some to suite me, but I had everything I needed on hand, so it wasn't a major annoyance. I hate getting a new light, and then having to immediately go out and order, and *wait for*, the parts to arrive to really make it work the way you want it to.
Then I was looking over ElectroLumens' site last week (Hey, that banner on CPF sold another flashlight for you!), and I saw he had the *green* Blaster II+/III's (with the 30 mm optics) for $10 less than the black ones. As it happens, I'm very fond of the color green. And at $49.99, it was hard to resist. Impossible, in fact. It's a very nice, dark grass green color that I find very appealing, among my dozens of black flashlights
Got the light today, and all I can say is WOW! And WOW AGAIN! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/bowdown.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/bowdown.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/bowdown.gif I never would have believed that a 1W Luxeon Star could put out so much pure white light.
The color of this light is as close to perfect as I could possibly want. My Arc-LSH-P is very, very white, but with a very tiny amount of yellow green. Compared to the blue/violet KL1, and the very bluish earlier Arc-LS's, it's very, very nice, of course.
The Blaster just blows it away, in terms of both color, and sheer lumen power. The color is almost pure white, with just a tiny bit of blue in it. I actually prefer the small amount of blue in it to the color of the much more expensive Arc-LSH-P; but it's obviously not a candidate for EDC.
The beam is quite tight; not quite as tight as a 3D Maglight at tight focus, and with more spill light. But much more of a spot, than anything else. In a light this big, I'm not going to use it for reading a map in my car. This is the light you use when you want a LOT of light, with a LOT of throw! Walking in the woods; lighting up house numbers from your car, intimidating rookie LEO's. Unbelievable!
It's brighter than a 3D Maglight with a halogen lamp; I have a HPR53 lamp in my 3D Maglight; they are a significant improvement over the standard krypton lamp. The Blaster is brighter, in a side to side comparison, with identical batteries, at least to my eyes. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it myself. I'm sorry I have no way to produce beamshots.
I live right in the city, with lots of ambient light. For the past 10 years or so, my test of how well a light throws, is to shine in on a neighbor's white garage, on the back of his lot, across the street, from the back of my lot. The distance is around 200 feet; probably a bit more.
The Maglight has a little tighter beam, but by the time it get to the white garage door, it's very yellow, and only adequately bright.
The Blaster, OTOH, delivers what looks like much more light, because it is simply so white. The slight amount of blue is lost at this distance, and the Maglight looks like a focused candle lantern, compared to the Blaster.
The workmanship on this light is nothing short of phenomenal. It's shorter than the 3D Maglight, with a significantly smaller head, but it weighs as much; as near as I can tell; (I don't have any way to weigh it accurately). The aluminum appears to be significantly thicker, and measuring with my dial caliper reveals the Blaster to have walls approx. 43% thicker than the Maglight.
That's a *big* difference, in my book. This flashlight is ready for 'Rodney King' duty, and then some!
The radial grooves on the light provide an excellent grip. At first look, it doesn't look as though they would provide as good a grip as the more common knurling. But the ridges, while tiny, are very numerous, and cover the entire light. So unlike a Maglite, which only has knurling on a portion of the grip area, the Blaster is completely covered with these little aids to good gripping. I like it!
Everything about this light reeks of top quality, down to the smallest details. The threads in the tailcap are machining perfection, perfctly done, and deeper than a Maglite. The O-rings are at least 50% thicker than those found on a Maglite, and are well lubed with a silicone compound.
Even the switch is substantially better than the Maglite switch. The switch on a C or D cell Maglite doesn't take much pressure to turn it on; after the second time I found a dead Maglite in my car's glove compartment, I started using the old Boy Scout trick of reversing one battery to prevent accidental battery drain. But that meant I had to open the Maglite, and turn the battery around before I could use the light. A *major* PITA. I later fabricated a guard to prevent the Maglite switch from being accidentally activated. Still a nuisance.
This isn't necessary on the ElectroLumens Blaster II+/III. The switch is in the same place as on a Maglite, but the switch requires a firm pressure to turn it on, and it turns on *as* the switch rises back to it's 'rest' position, making accidental activation vastly less likely than with the inferior Maglite switch design, IMHO.
Despite this, putting on my heaviest insulated gloves, the Blaster is easy to turn on.
If I were a LEO, or in the military, or in any profession where it my life could depend on my flashlight, I'd want that flashlight to be an ElectroLumens Blaster II+/III.
I haven't been this excited by a flashlight since I got my SureFire E2, and that was over 2 years ago. I wasn't nearly this pleased when I got my SureFire M6, since The ElertroLumens Blaster II+/III has so many advantages over any incandescent light. I won't be burning up 6 123's in an hour,(Which cost $3.25/ea back then) and buying a new $25 lamp after a mere 20 hours of use.
So go buy a Blaster II+/III, in either green or black, if you want a light with an unbelievably bright, white, perfect spot beam, with very useable spill light, that looks like it could stand up to a lifetime of really hard use, and that gets 25 hours of full output light, and another 50 hours beyond that, on a single set of inexpensive D cells. Awesome.
Oh yes: no spare bulb in the tail cap. Gee, in about 60 years of using the light for 4 or 5 hours every night, the emitter may need replacing...I certainly won't still be here to that happen...
I bought a KL1 as soon as they became available, getting #A00250. I thought this was one of the very best lighting products I'd ever seen, although the violet tint was slightly annoying. But the light output was very good, the beam was *excellent* for EDC. Four hour burn time seemed just wonderful, compared to the 75 minutes (actually, around 60 before the beam got yellow enough to bother me, so I'd put in new 123's)of the MN03 incandescent lamp.
So I did my taxes, and I'm getting some money back; not a lot, but....hmm, what to do...? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/help.gif
I bought an Arc-LSH-P, which is a *very* nice light. So nice, I'm carrying *both* the Arc-LSH-P and my SF E2 HA +KL1. I had to tweak the Arc LSH-P some to suite me, but I had everything I needed on hand, so it wasn't a major annoyance. I hate getting a new light, and then having to immediately go out and order, and *wait for*, the parts to arrive to really make it work the way you want it to.
Then I was looking over ElectroLumens' site last week (Hey, that banner on CPF sold another flashlight for you!), and I saw he had the *green* Blaster II+/III's (with the 30 mm optics) for $10 less than the black ones. As it happens, I'm very fond of the color green. And at $49.99, it was hard to resist. Impossible, in fact. It's a very nice, dark grass green color that I find very appealing, among my dozens of black flashlights
Got the light today, and all I can say is WOW! And WOW AGAIN! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/bowdown.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/bowdown.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/bowdown.gif I never would have believed that a 1W Luxeon Star could put out so much pure white light.
The color of this light is as close to perfect as I could possibly want. My Arc-LSH-P is very, very white, but with a very tiny amount of yellow green. Compared to the blue/violet KL1, and the very bluish earlier Arc-LS's, it's very, very nice, of course.
The Blaster just blows it away, in terms of both color, and sheer lumen power. The color is almost pure white, with just a tiny bit of blue in it. I actually prefer the small amount of blue in it to the color of the much more expensive Arc-LSH-P; but it's obviously not a candidate for EDC.
The beam is quite tight; not quite as tight as a 3D Maglight at tight focus, and with more spill light. But much more of a spot, than anything else. In a light this big, I'm not going to use it for reading a map in my car. This is the light you use when you want a LOT of light, with a LOT of throw! Walking in the woods; lighting up house numbers from your car, intimidating rookie LEO's. Unbelievable!
It's brighter than a 3D Maglight with a halogen lamp; I have a HPR53 lamp in my 3D Maglight; they are a significant improvement over the standard krypton lamp. The Blaster is brighter, in a side to side comparison, with identical batteries, at least to my eyes. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it myself. I'm sorry I have no way to produce beamshots.
I live right in the city, with lots of ambient light. For the past 10 years or so, my test of how well a light throws, is to shine in on a neighbor's white garage, on the back of his lot, across the street, from the back of my lot. The distance is around 200 feet; probably a bit more.
The Maglight has a little tighter beam, but by the time it get to the white garage door, it's very yellow, and only adequately bright.
The Blaster, OTOH, delivers what looks like much more light, because it is simply so white. The slight amount of blue is lost at this distance, and the Maglight looks like a focused candle lantern, compared to the Blaster.
The workmanship on this light is nothing short of phenomenal. It's shorter than the 3D Maglight, with a significantly smaller head, but it weighs as much; as near as I can tell; (I don't have any way to weigh it accurately). The aluminum appears to be significantly thicker, and measuring with my dial caliper reveals the Blaster to have walls approx. 43% thicker than the Maglight.
That's a *big* difference, in my book. This flashlight is ready for 'Rodney King' duty, and then some!
The radial grooves on the light provide an excellent grip. At first look, it doesn't look as though they would provide as good a grip as the more common knurling. But the ridges, while tiny, are very numerous, and cover the entire light. So unlike a Maglite, which only has knurling on a portion of the grip area, the Blaster is completely covered with these little aids to good gripping. I like it!
Everything about this light reeks of top quality, down to the smallest details. The threads in the tailcap are machining perfection, perfctly done, and deeper than a Maglite. The O-rings are at least 50% thicker than those found on a Maglite, and are well lubed with a silicone compound.
Even the switch is substantially better than the Maglite switch. The switch on a C or D cell Maglite doesn't take much pressure to turn it on; after the second time I found a dead Maglite in my car's glove compartment, I started using the old Boy Scout trick of reversing one battery to prevent accidental battery drain. But that meant I had to open the Maglite, and turn the battery around before I could use the light. A *major* PITA. I later fabricated a guard to prevent the Maglite switch from being accidentally activated. Still a nuisance.
This isn't necessary on the ElectroLumens Blaster II+/III. The switch is in the same place as on a Maglite, but the switch requires a firm pressure to turn it on, and it turns on *as* the switch rises back to it's 'rest' position, making accidental activation vastly less likely than with the inferior Maglite switch design, IMHO.
Despite this, putting on my heaviest insulated gloves, the Blaster is easy to turn on.
If I were a LEO, or in the military, or in any profession where it my life could depend on my flashlight, I'd want that flashlight to be an ElectroLumens Blaster II+/III.
I haven't been this excited by a flashlight since I got my SureFire E2, and that was over 2 years ago. I wasn't nearly this pleased when I got my SureFire M6, since The ElertroLumens Blaster II+/III has so many advantages over any incandescent light. I won't be burning up 6 123's in an hour,(Which cost $3.25/ea back then) and buying a new $25 lamp after a mere 20 hours of use.
So go buy a Blaster II+/III, in either green or black, if you want a light with an unbelievably bright, white, perfect spot beam, with very useable spill light, that looks like it could stand up to a lifetime of really hard use, and that gets 25 hours of full output light, and another 50 hours beyond that, on a single set of inexpensive D cells. Awesome.
Oh yes: no spare bulb in the tail cap. Gee, in about 60 years of using the light for 4 or 5 hours every night, the emitter may need replacing...I certainly won't still be here to that happen...
