Little Monkey - Rude Nora

[ahorton]

I won't post a link but you can search for their website.

This thread is for the discussion of the new Little Monkey 'Rude Nora'.


My early impressions:

No price listed yet but I know it'll be expensive.
It strikes me as an updated Scurion, but with some nice energy source options.
XM-Ls! Love it!
Pure flood - great! Probably also a reasonable medium beam. It won't be a pure throw beam because it's an XM-L with TIR optic. It will probably be enough for cavers.
Am waiting eagerly to find out what tint bins.
Many pretty colours (body that is).
I don't like the button. Rubber boots don't interest me anymore. I also wonder how easily accessible it is. I assume they've considered this, but I wonder if ease-of-manufacture and simplicity won the day.
Good electronic UI.
Helmet only is a slight downer but good to have a solid design for the cavers. I always appreciate the purest single-purpose products.
A bit heavy for any use other than helmet.
Great waterproofing (as you'd expect for a caving light).
Hopefully the pivot for the lighthead doesn't loosen itself. It's the sort of design that has a habit of working loose over time.

What do you guys reckon? Can't wait for someone to buy one!

 

[uk_caver]

It won't be a pure throw beam because it's an XM-L with TIR optic. It will probably be enough for cavers.

Generally, I think there's a limit to how much throw most cavers need or even want. There's always a tradeoff betwen maximum light at long distances and usable beam width for closer work like path-spotting.
Personally, I'd be happy with a caving lamp that puts usable light on things ~50-70m away, when my eyes are fairly dark-adapted, but I very rarely need more than that

The RN UI is nice, giving various options without cluttering up the main sequence, and at the caving show at the weekend, most people seemed to get it pretty quickly.

The rubber boot is only really a dirt cover for a switch that's already waterproof, and I'm pretty sure it's replaceable - presumably Bif could confirm if/when he posts here.

 

[jeffkruse]

How bright will it be? It mentions lumens but is that for each LED or for a total of the two?

 

[ahorton]

The rubber boot is only really a dirt cover for a switch that's already waterproof, and I'm pretty sure it's replaceable - presumably Bif could confirm if/when he posts here.

That is good news!

 

[Bolster]

Range of 10-850 lumen. To figure out which mode gives you which brightness you have to toggle between this page and this page.

 

[jeffkruse]

If it's only 850 max lumens then how can it be considered in the same class as the Scurion? Is'nt the Scurion 1500 lumens?

 

[uk_caver]

If it's only 850 max lumens then how can it be considered in the same class as the Scurion? Is'nt the Scurion 1500 lumens?

That rather depends which Scurion model you're comparing against.

I'm not sure what fraction of cavers could justify buying a Scurion 1500 purely for use as a cavng lamp without any planned photo/video uses.

 

[jeffkruse]

Your right but I was hopping for Scurion performance priced like an Apex. For 850 lumens and 3 2600mA 18650 I would be happy to pay $200, OK to pay $300, Not so hot to pay $400.

What would you pay?

 

[uk_caver]

I don't know what the machining costs for the headset and battery box are, but any small-volume light is going to cost a fair amount even if profits are limited.

Personally I can't easily say what I'd pay, since I make my own lights. Heavier, dimmer, more complicated and much less attractive than his, but they do what I want and cost me relatively little, so I'm not really in the market to buy anyone else's.

 

[psychbeat]

To bad there's no strap mount option. Look pretty nice tho!!

I emailed them about these a while ago and never got a response.

Spot + flood combo FTW!

 

[kevinm]

Looks like a smaller Scurion; you're right! Looks, nice, but $400...ouch!

The one I'm building will be cheaper. :)

 

[psychbeat]

 

[jeffkruse]

It looks nice and I really want one but I think it will cost me around $600 US when all is said and done. I have to assume since it's not being driven so hard that the LED's aren’t going to die on me like my other Fenix handheld lights. That is a worry I have.
I do have a question about the light output while the battery is discharging. What will the max light output be when the batteries are at 50%? I would us the light on mode 6 or 4 all the time. Also, if I chose the 4000K LED how much less than 850 lumens will it be?

 

[jeffkruse]

I hope I get a chance to see this light in person.

 

[kevinm]

The Rude Nora looks nice, but it's a bit pricy and has the same failing as all the others so far: the LED's will be outdated in 3 months. Also, plastic battery pack?!!?

(Over-excited partial thread hijack removed!)

 

[ahorton]

That was a bit 'rude' kevinm.

 

[kevinm]

Hehe...I like the pun!

 

[uk_caver]

The Rude Nora looks nice, but it's a bit pricy and has the same failing as all the others so far: the LED's will be outdated in 3 months.

That rather sounds like a recipe for never buying anything.

I know some people here do care about such things, but not many cavers I know care that much (or even know) if a slightly more efficient bin of a particular LED comes out, or a new LED comes out which is slightly more efficient than existing designs.

Also, plastic battery pack?!!?

The battery box does look very solid, and seems to be designed to keep any potential scraping wear away from the sealing area.

In any case, what's fundamentally wrong with plastic?

Though it's a different material/design, there were battery boxes on the old Petzl Laser carbide/electric lighting setups made from what seems to be something like polyethylene/polypropylene.
They weren't particularly thick, but would last for ages - some people might wear through the lid eventually if they were caving a lot and were rough with kit, but I had one that survived close to 20 years of pretty active caving without any great damage before I switched away from carbide.

I'd be interested to see what a thin aluminium battery box would have been like either with my usage, or used by the people who wore out boxes while I didn't.

 

[uk_caver]

[duplicate post deleted]

 

[kevinm]

That rather sounds like a recipe for never buying anything.

It just means I spend a LOT of time with a soldering iron... :)

I know some people here do care about such things, but not many cavers I know care that much (or even know) if a slightly more efficient bin of a particular LED comes out, or a new LED comes out which is slightly more efficient than existing designs.

True here too, except when I go caving with them. Most of the cavers here in Colorado now pay some attention to advances in LED's.

The battery box does look very solid, and seems to be designed to keep any potential scraping wear away from the sealing area.

In any case, what's fundamentally wrong with plastic?

Though it's a different material/design, there were battery boxes on the old Petzl Laser carbide/electric lighting setups made from what seems to be something like polyethylene/polypropylene.
They weren't particularly thick, but would last for ages - some people might wear through the lid eventually if they were caving a lot and were rough with kit, but I had one that survived close to 20 years of pretty active caving without any great damage before I switched away from carbide.

It's good to hear that theirs looks/feels solid. I just doubt you can get the kind of durability you can get from aluminum at the same weight with Delrin or ABS. And the Scurion box lid pops right off. Those things are too expensive for that!

That written, I have a Duo with the plastic battery case that's 10 years old and (aside for a broken clip retainer) going strong.

It also depends on the type of caving you do. Here in Colorado, you could get away with no water protection at all. But the crawls are tight and there are a lot of them. Things get scraped against rock all the time. Knee pads (the good ones) only last a year or two.

I'd be interested to see what a thin aluminium battery box would have been like either with my usage, or used by the people who wore out boxes while I didn't.

Thin would be bad. We want 3mm walls!

Kevin