I stopped by REI today to see if there was anything interesting on sale. I was mainly looking for xc ski pants and running shoes, but came home with this. I had inquired about it in the LED forum two or three weeks ago, but apparently no one had seen it yet. I was just at the store the other day and it wasn't in then, so it a nice surprise to see it and I had to take one home.
I checked it out as best as I could in the well lighted store, comparing it to several other lamps by shining the lights at the ceiling and other things. The Black Diamond Zenix was on sale for $34.93. The Zenix's 1W was much dimmer and had a strong blue cast to the beam. (I also read somewhere else that there's an update called the Zenix IQ coming out soon.) For about the same price ($38.95 EOS, $39.95 Matrix2), the Matrix 2 was similar in brightness and color to the EOS, but the beam was not quite as smooth and I don't think it's regulated or has any brightness modes. The Matrix 2 runs 8-10 hours on 2 AAs vs. 2 hr regulated high/6.5 hrs run time to 1/2 lumen (how bright is that?) on high for the EOS on 3 Alkaline AAAs according to the specs. 2 hrs is my minimum requirement for a bright mode, since that's the length of my usual workouts, running or xc skiing, so the EOS passes there for me, assuming that it's bright enough for those activities. I much prefer the simple one strap self contained design of the EOS, Aurora, Tikka Plus, etc. because it easily tucks into a small pocket and is nicer for backpacking. There were two Yukon HLs on display. They are not what I want because of the price and bulkiness, but I wanted to compare their beams to the EOS. Strangely, one Yukon HL had a white beam, and the other had a strong blue cast to its beam. I think they were similar in brightness to the EOS, but I don't see the point of the Yukon HL now with the EOS except for run time maybe. The Tikka Plus and Taktikka Plus were dim, probably like the Aurora that I have already. (The non-HL Yukon's incandescent light was brightest of all that I looked at. The Myo 5's incandescent was pretty dim, but maybe the batteries were dying.)
At home, I compared the EOS to my Aurora. It is about about twice as thick as the Aurora and the package states that it weighs 3.7 oz with batteries, about an once heavier than the Aurora. Small enough for me anyway. The button is nicer than the Aurora. It clicks positively. The mode function is similar to the Aurora except that it has one instead of two flash modes. The sequence is off-high-medium-low-flash-off and if you wait more than 3 seconds, the next push will turn it off. The pivot does not use a screw hinge and it has clicks now. That's probably an improvement since I've read that the screw has come loose on some people and then it just dangles if you don't have a screwdriver. The battery compartment opens with a thumbscrew and inside you just see plastic instead of the open circuit board in the Aurora. Princeton Tec rates the light as waterproof to 1 meter.
I put new batteries into my Aurora and took them both into my back yard. The Aurora dimly lights up my back fence. The EOS looks like its good for at least two or three times the distance, able to light up a couple of my neighbors' houses. The beam has a cleanly defined bright center and a dimmer flood surrounding the center. The Aurora has a diffuse even light. On high, the EOS is very bright against my fence and the flood section is also much brighter than the Aurora on high, so it lights up the lawn much better with the beam aimed at the fence. This makes it much nicer for trail or off trail running/hiking/orienteering than the Aurora. On medium, the EOS is still much brighter against the fence than the Aurora on high, but the flood section on the grass has dimmed down to the Aurora-on-high's level. On low, the EOS is about the same as the Aurora on high in the spot on the fence, but the flood section is useless. A good reading light intensity. Many hikers say that the Aurora is adequate for hiking at night, but I have been disappointed. I think the Aurora is just good enough at a walking pace, but only for the first 45 minutes or so on fresh batteries. I know it was not meant to be compared to 10-20 watt orienteering headlamps, but I could barely move around in my O-club's night orienteering race last year with my Aurora. The EOS won't compare to the 20 watters either, but I think it will be good enough to run around with in the woods.
Other details: It can run on lithiums. The packaging says that NiCads and NiMH's can also be used, "but may result in reduced brightness in some modes due to the lower nominal voltage of these cells". I'm not a flashlight geek, so does that mean that the high mode probably won't work with rechargables keeping in mind that its regulated? The run time on medium is 9.5 hrs regulated/12.5 hrs run time. On low it's 44 hrs regulated/60 hours total.
I checked it out as best as I could in the well lighted store, comparing it to several other lamps by shining the lights at the ceiling and other things. The Black Diamond Zenix was on sale for $34.93. The Zenix's 1W was much dimmer and had a strong blue cast to the beam. (I also read somewhere else that there's an update called the Zenix IQ coming out soon.) For about the same price ($38.95 EOS, $39.95 Matrix2), the Matrix 2 was similar in brightness and color to the EOS, but the beam was not quite as smooth and I don't think it's regulated or has any brightness modes. The Matrix 2 runs 8-10 hours on 2 AAs vs. 2 hr regulated high/6.5 hrs run time to 1/2 lumen (how bright is that?) on high for the EOS on 3 Alkaline AAAs according to the specs. 2 hrs is my minimum requirement for a bright mode, since that's the length of my usual workouts, running or xc skiing, so the EOS passes there for me, assuming that it's bright enough for those activities. I much prefer the simple one strap self contained design of the EOS, Aurora, Tikka Plus, etc. because it easily tucks into a small pocket and is nicer for backpacking. There were two Yukon HLs on display. They are not what I want because of the price and bulkiness, but I wanted to compare their beams to the EOS. Strangely, one Yukon HL had a white beam, and the other had a strong blue cast to its beam. I think they were similar in brightness to the EOS, but I don't see the point of the Yukon HL now with the EOS except for run time maybe. The Tikka Plus and Taktikka Plus were dim, probably like the Aurora that I have already. (The non-HL Yukon's incandescent light was brightest of all that I looked at. The Myo 5's incandescent was pretty dim, but maybe the batteries were dying.)
At home, I compared the EOS to my Aurora. It is about about twice as thick as the Aurora and the package states that it weighs 3.7 oz with batteries, about an once heavier than the Aurora. Small enough for me anyway. The button is nicer than the Aurora. It clicks positively. The mode function is similar to the Aurora except that it has one instead of two flash modes. The sequence is off-high-medium-low-flash-off and if you wait more than 3 seconds, the next push will turn it off. The pivot does not use a screw hinge and it has clicks now. That's probably an improvement since I've read that the screw has come loose on some people and then it just dangles if you don't have a screwdriver. The battery compartment opens with a thumbscrew and inside you just see plastic instead of the open circuit board in the Aurora. Princeton Tec rates the light as waterproof to 1 meter.
I put new batteries into my Aurora and took them both into my back yard. The Aurora dimly lights up my back fence. The EOS looks like its good for at least two or three times the distance, able to light up a couple of my neighbors' houses. The beam has a cleanly defined bright center and a dimmer flood surrounding the center. The Aurora has a diffuse even light. On high, the EOS is very bright against my fence and the flood section is also much brighter than the Aurora on high, so it lights up the lawn much better with the beam aimed at the fence. This makes it much nicer for trail or off trail running/hiking/orienteering than the Aurora. On medium, the EOS is still much brighter against the fence than the Aurora on high, but the flood section on the grass has dimmed down to the Aurora-on-high's level. On low, the EOS is about the same as the Aurora on high in the spot on the fence, but the flood section is useless. A good reading light intensity. Many hikers say that the Aurora is adequate for hiking at night, but I have been disappointed. I think the Aurora is just good enough at a walking pace, but only for the first 45 minutes or so on fresh batteries. I know it was not meant to be compared to 10-20 watt orienteering headlamps, but I could barely move around in my O-club's night orienteering race last year with my Aurora. The EOS won't compare to the 20 watters either, but I think it will be good enough to run around with in the woods.
Other details: It can run on lithiums. The packaging says that NiCads and NiMH's can also be used, "but may result in reduced brightness in some modes due to the lower nominal voltage of these cells". I'm not a flashlight geek, so does that mean that the high mode probably won't work with rechargables keeping in mind that its regulated? The run time on medium is 9.5 hrs regulated/12.5 hrs run time. On low it's 44 hrs regulated/60 hours total.
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