People are getting them. There are a couple of reviews in the review forum here, see
this and
this. A lot of people are posting their impressions in the
MRV announcement thread.
I was lucky enough to get mine early
and I'm not sure what exactly to make of it. Here are my initial thoughts.
The fit and finish are very nice though the hi-lo adjustment is too stiff for my tastes, even after cleaning and lubing the threads and o-ring. The smooth collar doesn't help - it's too slippery. I wish they'd made it with a matte finish both for the sake of both appearance and functionality.
The notch in the tailcap makes it really hard to get in the holster - the sharp corners of the tabs want to snag on the elastic. Actually, the holster baffles me. It's got a wide elastic band that I assume is what is supposed to hold the light. But with the flared tailcap and those tabs it's a two-handed struggle to get the MRV in. There's no way I could do it while the holster was clipped to my belt/pack. The holster also has two velcro flaps whose purpose escapes me. You could use them instead of the elastic to hold the light, but it wouldn't be secure at all. I'm guessing that's not what they were intended for. Oh, and I can't believe they didn't include a lanyard.
The beam is impressive. It has an amazingly focused hotspot and a surprisingly useful spill. I believe there will be an OP reflector made available and, though it may be sacrilege for a "throw" light, I'll probably get one. I'm hoping it would give a combination of throw and spill that would make it a great general purpose hiking/outdoor light.
Unfortunately, I just built an ROP HI light so, even though it's a bit of an apples to oranges comparison, that what's I'm comparing the MRV's output to. Even though the MRV might technically compete in throw distance (MOP reflector on the ROP), the ROP blows it away in volume of light at distance. Again, I realize it's not a fair comparison but the ROP is tempering my enthusiasm for the MRV.
Still, I suspect the MRV will eventually find a useful place in my collection. It puts out a h*** of a lot of light in a fairly small, sturdy package and there's gotta be a place for that. If I can just figure out how to carry it...