Novatac *STORM* - Some Eye Candy and info

[Kid9P]

Hey Guys,

Here's a basic review on the Novatac Storm. :naughty:
No beamshots, pics were taken with my iPhone 3GS.

I just received this today, purchased it on Ebay for 79.99 shipped.
A great price for a 120 lumen light if you ask me :thumbsup:

Arrived in the plastic packaging shown. The clip was actually installed
underneath the bezel ring when it arrived. Also comes with a basic flimsy lanyard. A duracell cr123 was installed in the light.

First things first. The 250 click back door crack works !!! :twothumbs
I disabled force setting, now it turns on at the last level used.
All levels are adjustable like a regular 120P.

It originally comes with 3 pre-set brightness levels:
0.3, 30 and 120 Lumens. Always turns on at Max, you also
get the strobe when you hold down the clicky on any level.

Overall build quality is quite good. My anno was perfect, no missing spots.
The light actually feels a little lighter than my older 120P. The bezel ring had no loctite on, was able to remove the clip quite easily.
No serial number on these.

The tint on my Storm is white, a tad on the cool side.
Brightness and spill are exactly the same as my older 120P.

Pro's:
* You get a 120P light for 79.99......:twothumbs
* Clean build, no missing anno
* Clean reflector and emmiter

Con's:
* My only gripe was a small circular scratch on the lens.
Considering it's a plastic lens, might have happened during production.
I'll probably replace it with a glass lens from LightHound.

Here are some pics:
ANY white marks on the light itself comes from the glare.

Here's a link to LLCoolbeans backdoor crack:
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=213286

 

[kromeke]

Not trying to pass judgment, or change topics, but any indication on where is was made? I'm mostly just curious.

Looks good in the photos. Glad to hear the 250 click trick still works.

Edit:
Any indication on what type of anodize it has?

 

[Budman231]

Thanks for the info. !

So pretty much the same light as previous 120 models it seems.

Wonder what the wait was all about ?

 

[Kid9P]

I checked the packaging and paperwork, does now show where it was made. I believe they are now outsourced from overseas, but I may be wrong on that.

This should have been posted in the review section, I have asked the mods to move it

 

[kromeke]

Wonder what the wait was all about ?

Probably getting their Chinese production line up to snuff. It is only a year late.

Maybe they gave up on China and went with Taiwan.

Novatac needs to update the website. There is no mention of it there.

What is up with the Novatac Wichita?

 

[Kid9P]

Here's the info on the Wichita

 

[chaoss]

Thanks for the update Kid, they look good to me :thumbsup:.

 

[PhantomPhoton]

Okay so what's this bigger classic and special ops model? As usual the manufacturer's website isn't any help.

 

[jslappa]

Looks like the spec ops model only handles 4v to 6v. No RCR123's for that one, or an 18650 for that matter. No word on the classic. That looks like a 3 x 123 tube. Since they don't say you can't use rechargeables with that one, must be able to handle over 12v.

 

[Mopskuchen]

Where did you get it? Could you please post the ebay link?

 

[Kid9P]

I posted the link in the auctions section.
Not allowed to do so here.

 

[karlthev]

Nice review and presentation Ray!:twothumbs


Karl

 

[Petersen]

Okay so what's this bigger classic and special ops model? As usual the manufacturer's website isn't any help.

Think the Classic was planned as a 2xAA and the Spec. Ops 2x123

- If I recall correctly...

 

[:)>]

Ray,

I would love to know if the runtime on high is really only 30 minutes. My 170's, which cost quite a bit more, pump out well over an hour at 120 lumens and my EDC's pumped out well over an hour on high too.

The runtime was a primary reason why I sold all of my Novatacs and bought Ra's but beyond that, I loved these lights.

It looks like the Ano is a little shiny; is it HAIII?

 

[sledhead]

Congratulations on being the 1st to own a new Novatac Ray! That iPhone takes great pics by the way.
Heck of a deal for $80.00- these are going to sell like hotcakes!

Sandy

 

[Kid9P]

Thanks guys

Goat - I don't think it's HA III, but it is on the shiny side.

When I get home I'll pop in a fresh cell and do a runtime test.
I'll post the results later.

 

[Liteskr42]

This is defintely looking like a good deal for $80 but it really bugs me when American companies bail out on America and send production overseas. I know competting on the global market is super hard but it ends up taking one more chunk out of our rapidly declining prosperity . People lose jobs and our dollar falls yet again. Our economy is on the verge of collapse and we produce next to nothing in this country anymore. Though I am tempted to get one of these in 2AA format, it's getting harder and harder to conciously support the deflating of our future in the USA.
I wish they had kept in "In House"

 

[PerttiK]

Did I read correctly, plastic lens on a $80 light?

 

[AILL]

I ask myself, how weak must be the marketing-department of Novatac.

We know these are great flashlights, but to be honest - how big is the market for flashlights priced 80+ $ ?

We were waiting for these new lights so hard, and now they appear on ebay??

No information - no pre-order, hardly to believe but Novatac has ignored us completely - their greatest fans.

What clever marketing can do we see with alle the 4sevens branded lights.

I really want to play Novatac Lego too.

I am a bit dissapointed, as you see.

Sry for my bad English.

Andreas

 

[matrixshaman]

I checked the packaging and paperwork, does now show where it was made. I believe they are now outsourced from overseas, but I may be wrong on that.

This should have been posted in the review section, I have asked the mods to move it

Nice review Ray and thanks for posting this info and checking out the 250 click back door crack. That's awesome that it still works! Actually as far as posting in the reviews section I found out a while back you can't do that anymore. I think they wanted to keep some less appropriate things out of that section so I think most of us just have to post our reviews here and then if the Mods think it is appropriate for the reviews section they will move it there. I'll be looking forward to the Runtime.

It looks like they have kept Henry's circuit basically the same. Maybe it took over a year of waiting because it is exactly the same circuit but they had to do the 250 click mod to change the defaults on every light