Maglite Mag-Tac - Not impressed...

[leon2245]

Having thoroughly used one for the last month, in a law enforcement capacity, I can say that the Mag Tac has performed great. No problems with the lens, and the light is carried in my leg sap pocket (a small pocket located underneath the traditional pant rear pockets), so the clip is subjected to all sorts of contact/abrasions, and has survived without any significant damage.

Overall, I can highly recommend the light as a viable 2-cell (CR-123) light.

One trend I find fascinating is the trend of people trying to out design the designers.

Good to know, & thanks for providing some real world feedback on this one.

 

[scout24]

A good friend of mine from work picked up an XL50 ( if I remember the nomenclature properly) after Sandy came through here. He's been sporting a 2xAA led Maglite and an EO1 that I gave him a few years ago. LOVES the XL50... Arguably, he should have more expensive tastes as I have dangled more than a few high end lights in front of him. It's bright, throws well so he can scan his whole yard before letting his dog out, runs on common cells, was inexpensive at a big box store where he could pick it up and try it, and has a great warranty. These were his reasons for liking and being happy with it, so I congratulated him on his purchase. If he's happy, I'm happy for him. May not ever be on my radar, but we can't all be flashaholics, lumens junkies, and tint snobs who dissect beam profiles. ( Guilty! ) I gave him the 6p/ P60 dropin speech before he bought and let him play with a few, but this works for him.

 

[silver_bacon]

Maglites may not have the best performance, but they appeal to the general public and the specific groups Maglite targets, and that is exactly what they are supposed to do. Plastic doesn't always mean poor quality either. I don't have much experience with plastic clips on flashights, but the Nightstar has a plastic body and is extremely durable and I have heard the BrightStar Razor is as well. I have had more than my share of metal clips break and the MagTac clip is removable so it is presumably easily replaced.

A good friend of mine from work picked up an XL50 ( if I remember the nomenclature properly) after Sandy came through here. He's been sporting a 2xAA led Maglite and an EO1 that I gave him a few years ago. LOVES the XL50... Arguably, he should have more expensive tastes as I have dangled more than a few high end lights in front of him. It's bright, throws well so he can scan his whole yard before letting his dog out, runs on common cells, was inexpensive at a big box store where he could pick it up and try it, and has a great warranty. These were his reasons for liking and being happy with it, so I congratulated him on his purchase. If he's happy, I'm happy for him. May not ever be on my radar, but we can't all be flashaholics, lumens junkies, and tint snobs who dissect beam profiles. ( Guilty! ) I gave him the 6p/ P60 dropin speech before he bought and let him play with a few, but this works for him.

The XL50 is a great light if you don't mind using 3 AAA. Many people have no problem using the 3 AAA 9 LED lights. So I have recommended it numerous times to people who want a good performing light with a decent price. Sort of like an upgrade to those 9 LED paper weights.

 

[dano]

LOL

See, if your expectations are low enough, you CAN be a market niche!

Are you going to continue to crap in this thread, or provide any worthwhile opinion other than the tired and old mag-bashing?

They're still doing something right, considering Mag is the best selling light worldwide, irregardless of the yuppity anti-Mag attitude that some people on CPF seem to harbor.

 

[Big_Ed]

I have been very pleased with my Mag Tac. So have my coworkers. It has replaced my Surefire E2L as one of my work EDC lights. I think a plastic lens makes perfect sense. Sure, it will scratch, but will not fracture as easily as glass. And so far no problems with the plastic clip. And even if it were to break, it can easily be replaced. A home run in my book.

 

[Retinator]

Scratches and nicks in the window have never made a difference to me. I prefer not to have them, but the beam quality in use doesn't really suffer much. I just had a cree'd Minimag Led, take one drop too many and died, was scratched to hell, but performed ok enough for me.

 

[TEEJ]

Are you going to continue to crap in this thread, or provide any worthwhile opinion other than the tired and old mag-bashing?

They're still doing something right, considering Mag is the best selling light worldwide, irregardless of the yuppity anti-Mag attitude that some people on CPF seem to harbor.

Sorry.

I was mostly ad libbing.

Best selling doesn't = best performance...otherwise there would be a lot more Ferraris on the roads, etc. The TITLE of the thread WAS about NOT being impressed though, which at least IMPLIES a general feeling of disappointment with the light, and a tone for the projected replies. If the tone is now about defending the light, fine...its a free country, well, some states at least.

I will leave y'all to your mag-nificence now though, out of respect.

 

[enomosiki]

I have been very pleased with my Mag Tac. So have my coworkers. It has replaced my Surefire E2L as one of my work EDC lights. I think a plastic lens makes perfect sense. Sure, it will scratch, but will not fracture as easily as glass. And so far no problems with the plastic clip. And even if it were to break, it can easily be replaced. A home run in my book.

Most of Surefire's TIR lights, E2L included, use 5mm Pyrex.

Unless you shoot the thing out of a cannon, I don't see a practical way of breaking it.

 

[Brian900]

Problem solved Hate I had to go to China to get the features I wanted. The mag tac will make a decent shotgun mount I guess.

 

[AVService]

A good friend of mine from work picked up an XL50 ( if I remember the nomenclature properly) after Sandy came through here. He's been sporting a 2xAA led Maglite and an EO1 that I gave him a few years ago. LOVES the XL50... Arguably, he should have more expensive tastes as I have dangled more than a few high end lights in front of him. It's bright, throws well so he can scan his whole yard before letting his dog out, runs on common cells, was inexpensive at a big box store where he could pick it up and try it, and has a great warranty. These were his reasons for liking and being happy with it, so I congratulated him on his purchase. If he's happy, I'm happy for him. May not ever be on my radar, but we can't all be flashaholics, lumens junkies, and tint snobs who dissect beam profiles. ( Guilty! ) I gave him the 6p/ P60 dropin speech before he bought and let him play with a few, but this works for him.

I have 2 XL50 and EDC them often at work.
I have 2 so I always have 1 working all the time and I have had probably 10 of then since I got my first one.

They are not a bad light to use but they eat batteries like crazy and the battery carrier is just bad and breaks by design I think.
Luckily the best Mag feature is avaialability and I can always go back to Home Depot and exchange them and I do often.

Otherwise I really do like them and I also use AA LED Mags all the time for the same reasons. They on the other hand rarely break and for the money I have not seen a better light I don't think when all is considered?

I recently bought 2-4/7 MA2 lights for the price of one.
I got them and have been comparing them to the Mag AA all week and I am pretty sure they will not last as the bodies are just so cheaply made and they just do not inspire confidence although I like the output well enough and the hidden extra modes.

I also bought several Mag AA 2-paks for the price of one which is 1/2 the price of the 4/7 deal I got.
The Mag are finished at a much higher level and they feel indestructible compared to the 4/7 to me.

Mag may not be the best but if its not broken why fix it?
It has worked for them for a long time.

 

[silver_bacon]

I have 2 XL50 and EDC them often at work.

They are not a bad light to use but they eat batteries like crazy and the battery carrier is just bad and breaks by design I think.

They really do devour batteries, but AAA batteries have very little capacity. I only use rechargeable batteries in them now.

Problem solved Hate I had to go to China to get the features I wanted. The mag tac will make a decent shotgun mount I guess.

That's unfortunate. What features were you looking for?

 

[Verndog]

wrong thread

 

[Verej79TA]

I would have to disagree, i think the magtac has been maglites first real innovation in a while and a good one at that, i will probably be getting the black, crowned bezel

 

[GordoJones88]

I would have to disagree, i think the magtac has been maglites first real innovation in a while and a good one at that, i will probably be getting the black, crowned bezel

That's kind of the problem.
If this is their first real innovation in years,
I think it is extremely underwhelming.
It is a mere 300 lumens and nearly 5.5" big.
It does not take 16340 or 18650.
It has a plastic clip which will break.
Finally, a truly outrageous $100.

 

[Brian900]

I'm going to go out on a limb as say there is nothing innovative with the mag tac. Mag has had years to benchmark this market (i.e. fenix/surefire) and produce a product that, in my opinion, could fit nicely between the quality and price point of these brands.

If I headed this Mag tac R&D project for Mag I would have merely reverse engineered a Olight S20 as a USA built, slightly beefier version and price it at 25-30% more. Simple.

It seems to me that Mag has attempted to enter this market without any benchmarking whatsoever and rely on their name to pull them through. Lazy?

 

[CarpentryHero]

MagLite has never been the copycat type, they do enjoy filing lawsuits on those that copy their designs

 

[silver_bacon]

I'm going to go out on a limb as say there is nothing innovative with the mag tac. Mag has had years to benchmark this market (i.e. fenix/surefire) and produce a product that, in my opinion, could fit nicely between the quality and price point of these brands.

If I headed this Mag tac R&D project for Mag I would have merely reverse engineered a Olight S20 as a USA built, slightly beefier version and price it at 25-30% more. Simple.

It seems to me that Mag has attempted to enter this market without any benchmarking whatsoever and rely on their name to pull them through. Lazy?

There is nothing innovate about the vast majority of lights made in the last several years. But that doesn't make them bad.

That's kind of the problem.
If this is their first real innovation in years,
I think it is extremely underwhelming.
It is a mere 300 lumens and nearly 5.5" big.
It does not take 16340 or 18650.
It has a plastic clip which will break.
Finally, a truly outrageous $100.

Extremely underwhelming to you and many here. But the vast majority of people who will use this light have no idea what a 16340 or 18650 even is. It's cheaper than $100. I see them priced at $65.50 and $75.50 on a dealers website. To most people, an American made light putting out 310-320 lumens with a quality feel to it will been seen as a great deal. Especially if they are use to 2/3D Maglites.

 

[yellow]

yup, but these are not used to feed their lights with expensive CR123 batts ...


unfortunately i m with the rest ...
* the Mag led came years too late,
* that light - planned for a special maket - does not offer what the possible customers "need"
both of their "latest" "innovations" did not put them ahead of the competition

 

[twl]

It has some things in its favor, which some users might appreciate.


First, the prices seen with a quick Google search show $65.95 as typical.
It has 320 ANSI Lumens which is a perfectly acceptable output from an XPG, and doesn't need to "step down" because of poor thermal performance.
It has over 9000 candela from its XPG, which means it will throw better than most lights its size. And will throw better than many XML pocketlights.
It has momentary functions that actually work.
The head is only about an inch wide, so it's slimmer than many lights in its class.
And it's 5.275" length is very close to the SureFire G2x Tactical length, which is its direct competition. And it has a tail clickie in that overall length, because it is a tactical light.
It is designed as tactical, which means that it will be restricted to CR123 primary batteries because of reliability issues of protected li-ions with their PCB protection boards that could be damaged from impact/shock. SureFire and Elzetta also follow this pattern for tactical flashlights.

It has good tactical design, and it's right on the mark with the same street price of the SureFire G2X Tactical competition, so I suspect it will be getting a good look from many police departments.

 

[silver_bacon]

It has some things in its favor, which some users might appreciate.
Where is Maglite's justification for the Mag-Tac price?

I mean c'mon, Fenix UE PD32 is $77 and the Magtac is 79?

I'd take the Fenix over it any day, much better user interface and more light level options and better quality overall and not to mention way more lumens!!

Mag needs to seriously challenge the competion if they are pricing there stuff that high.

Yours Truly,

Lightinsky

You are forgetting a few things. Perhaps the most important being the warranty. Maglite has a lifetime warranty. Fenix has a messy warranty and their limited lifetime warranty isn't really a warranty at all if they charge you for parts. The Maglite warranty adds a lot of confidence to a purchaser. A close second being USA made. That is huge to a vast amount of buyers. People have proven they are willing to pay a premium for USA made products. And there is a cheaper edition, bringing the price range to $65-75. A tactical USA made flashlight with a lifetime warranty is a pretty good buy at $65.