I ordered a tan Molle light from Steven at www.tacticalsupply.com and picked it up from the post office today. First impressions are pretty simple :
1. It's really small.
2. It's a really nice light.
The Molle light is not super bright, and doesn't have a lot of features, but it is an extremely practical, useable light. It's plastic, but it weighs almost nothing and seems pretty tough. It's smaller than my Fenix L1D-CE although the 90-degree head makes it a bit less pocketable than the L1D -- on the other hand it's very "clippable" into a pocket.
Size comparison -- new style SF A2, Pentagonlight Molle, Fenix L1D-CE :
Packaging is nice -- you don't need an Arkansas Toothpick (aka Bowie knife) to hack through the packaging, you just unclick it to open. All of my testing (and the pics below) were with the Duracell AA included in the packaging.
The switch is a momentary, but if you push it hard you get constant on ie a conventional clicky. MUCH more convenient than the Fenix -- I haven't really learned to like reverse clickies yet. The switch does a pretty good job of "doing what I want", ie momentary when I want momentary, constant on when I want constant on. There is no audible "click" for constant on, at least nothing I can hear, but if you push firmly you get constant on.
The beam quality is extremely high -- looks very much like my Streamlight Scorpion LED would look on "low" if it had a "low" level. The Scorpion LED was the previous winner of the "basement clearing" exercise I held for a previous review, but IMO the MOLLE light beats the Scorpion out. The beam is just bright enough to penetrate the dark corners in my (relatively small) basement, the spill is bright enough to see clearly over a wide area, and the brightness is sufficiently low that white walls don't blind you. Indoors -- two thumbs up.
Outdoors, with maybe 30 seconds of dark adaptation, this is maybe a 30 foot light. It definitely illuminates further but not sufficiently well to clearly identify what is out there. Ideal for walking around but if there was any risk of predators (2 or 4 legged) I would probably want to carry a brighter light as well and use it maybe 1% of the time.
EDIT -- I guess carrying a loaded shotgun would also work, that way if something DID manage to get close I could at least communicate effectively with it on short notice.
OK, let's get down to what these lights are really designed for -- white walls. The main reason for these beamshots is to give an idea how the MOLLE light fits against a variety of more well known lights.
First comparison was against a Streamlight Scorpion LED. The SL is obviously brighter and the camera washes out the shape of the SL beam but the two beams are VERY similar other than overall brightness. The Pentagonlight beam quality is very good, and shares the "small bright hotspot fading gradually to an even spill" characteristics I like so much in the Scorpion LED. In all of these shots the Pentagonlight MOLLE is on the right; here SL Scorpion LED is on the left :
Next comparison is with the Fenix L1D-CE on Low. The Fenix throws a bit better even on low, but you can see that (a) Pentagonlight beam quality is way ahead, and (b) the spill from the Pentagonlight is *much* brighter. During earlier "basement clearing" exercises I concluded that a bright, consistent spillbeam plus a small bright spot was ideal for room clearing, at least for me. The Pentagonlight has it; the Fenix does not (and, interestingly, neither did a Surefire P60 bulb in a Z2).
Here is MOLLE on the right, L1D-CE Low on the left :
Next is the same shot but L1D-CE Medium on the left. You can see that both spill and hotspot are brighter than the Pentagonlight, so we know that output is brighter than the rated 10 lumens of L1D Low and lower than the rated 40 lumens of L1D high. Makes sense.
OK, next up is a recent A2-WH running on LED. Again, MOLLE on the right, A2 on the left :
The A2 is great for navigating around inside but the spillbeam is relatively weak compared to the MOLLE light. The A2 is actually quite adequate if you are very comfortable with your surroundings (ie going from bedroom to bathroom
) but for basement clearing there was no comparison.
The MOLLE light had enough spill to make a dark creepy basement seem comfortable while the A2 did not. I ran the MOLLE and A2 through the same exercise and honestly preferred the MOLLE light over the A2. Having said that, if I had to pick one light I would still take the A2 for the superior outdoor throw on incan and the longer runtime on LED.
Other stuff :
The tan lights come with red filter; black lights come with blue filter. I'm into astronomy when I have time (roughly every third year) so the red filter was one of the attractions of the light. The filter is pretty dark, but the resulting output seems pretty close to ideal -- bright enough for to see clearly ~12" from the light but dark enough to be difficult to notice and unlikely to bother other dark-adapted people. Without dark adaptation it was a bit hard to walk around and see the ground but the light did stop me from walking into the snowblower, so props for that.
The light comes with a compass tailcap, but not with the pouch that CountyComm is offering (albeit at a higher price). I don't need the pouch, and the compass seems handy as long as you accept that you will need to remove it from the flashlight to use it, ie that you will be using it during the day unless you have another light. No biggie.
After taking the pics I replaced the Duracell AA with an Eneloop AA charged a couple of weeks ago. I *think* the light is brighter with the Eneloop although you should treat this as a low quality data point.
BOTTOM LINE
This is a very useful, practical light. It's very small, weighs almost nothing, has a very practical clip, and has a very nice beam. Great for walking around outdoors and for pretty much any use indoors, but IMO not enough throw to be your only light outdoors in a potentially hostile environment. For camping etc.. I can't think of a better light.
Not sure if the rated 3 hour runtime is with an alkaline or a NiMH AA; will try to run some tests with Eneloop AA and post back.
That is all.
1. It's really small.
2. It's a really nice light.
The Molle light is not super bright, and doesn't have a lot of features, but it is an extremely practical, useable light. It's plastic, but it weighs almost nothing and seems pretty tough. It's smaller than my Fenix L1D-CE although the 90-degree head makes it a bit less pocketable than the L1D -- on the other hand it's very "clippable" into a pocket.
Size comparison -- new style SF A2, Pentagonlight Molle, Fenix L1D-CE :
Packaging is nice -- you don't need an Arkansas Toothpick (aka Bowie knife) to hack through the packaging, you just unclick it to open. All of my testing (and the pics below) were with the Duracell AA included in the packaging.
The switch is a momentary, but if you push it hard you get constant on ie a conventional clicky. MUCH more convenient than the Fenix -- I haven't really learned to like reverse clickies yet. The switch does a pretty good job of "doing what I want", ie momentary when I want momentary, constant on when I want constant on. There is no audible "click" for constant on, at least nothing I can hear, but if you push firmly you get constant on.
The beam quality is extremely high -- looks very much like my Streamlight Scorpion LED would look on "low" if it had a "low" level. The Scorpion LED was the previous winner of the "basement clearing" exercise I held for a previous review, but IMO the MOLLE light beats the Scorpion out. The beam is just bright enough to penetrate the dark corners in my (relatively small) basement, the spill is bright enough to see clearly over a wide area, and the brightness is sufficiently low that white walls don't blind you. Indoors -- two thumbs up.
Outdoors, with maybe 30 seconds of dark adaptation, this is maybe a 30 foot light. It definitely illuminates further but not sufficiently well to clearly identify what is out there. Ideal for walking around but if there was any risk of predators (2 or 4 legged) I would probably want to carry a brighter light as well and use it maybe 1% of the time.
EDIT -- I guess carrying a loaded shotgun would also work, that way if something DID manage to get close I could at least communicate effectively with it on short notice.
OK, let's get down to what these lights are really designed for -- white walls. The main reason for these beamshots is to give an idea how the MOLLE light fits against a variety of more well known lights.
First comparison was against a Streamlight Scorpion LED. The SL is obviously brighter and the camera washes out the shape of the SL beam but the two beams are VERY similar other than overall brightness. The Pentagonlight beam quality is very good, and shares the "small bright hotspot fading gradually to an even spill" characteristics I like so much in the Scorpion LED. In all of these shots the Pentagonlight MOLLE is on the right; here SL Scorpion LED is on the left :
Next comparison is with the Fenix L1D-CE on Low. The Fenix throws a bit better even on low, but you can see that (a) Pentagonlight beam quality is way ahead, and (b) the spill from the Pentagonlight is *much* brighter. During earlier "basement clearing" exercises I concluded that a bright, consistent spillbeam plus a small bright spot was ideal for room clearing, at least for me. The Pentagonlight has it; the Fenix does not (and, interestingly, neither did a Surefire P60 bulb in a Z2).
Here is MOLLE on the right, L1D-CE Low on the left :
Next is the same shot but L1D-CE Medium on the left. You can see that both spill and hotspot are brighter than the Pentagonlight, so we know that output is brighter than the rated 10 lumens of L1D Low and lower than the rated 40 lumens of L1D high. Makes sense.
OK, next up is a recent A2-WH running on LED. Again, MOLLE on the right, A2 on the left :
The A2 is great for navigating around inside but the spillbeam is relatively weak compared to the MOLLE light. The A2 is actually quite adequate if you are very comfortable with your surroundings (ie going from bedroom to bathroom
) but for basement clearing there was no comparison. The MOLLE light had enough spill to make a dark creepy basement seem comfortable while the A2 did not. I ran the MOLLE and A2 through the same exercise and honestly preferred the MOLLE light over the A2. Having said that, if I had to pick one light I would still take the A2 for the superior outdoor throw on incan and the longer runtime on LED.
Other stuff :
The tan lights come with red filter; black lights come with blue filter. I'm into astronomy when I have time (roughly every third year) so the red filter was one of the attractions of the light. The filter is pretty dark, but the resulting output seems pretty close to ideal -- bright enough for to see clearly ~12" from the light but dark enough to be difficult to notice and unlikely to bother other dark-adapted people. Without dark adaptation it was a bit hard to walk around and see the ground but the light did stop me from walking into the snowblower, so props for that.
The light comes with a compass tailcap, but not with the pouch that CountyComm is offering (albeit at a higher price). I don't need the pouch, and the compass seems handy as long as you accept that you will need to remove it from the flashlight to use it, ie that you will be using it during the day unless you have another light. No biggie.
After taking the pics I replaced the Duracell AA with an Eneloop AA charged a couple of weeks ago. I *think* the light is brighter with the Eneloop although you should treat this as a low quality data point.
BOTTOM LINE
This is a very useful, practical light. It's very small, weighs almost nothing, has a very practical clip, and has a very nice beam. Great for walking around outdoors and for pretty much any use indoors, but IMO not enough throw to be your only light outdoors in a potentially hostile environment. For camping etc.. I can't think of a better light.
Not sure if the rated 3 hour runtime is with an alkaline or a NiMH AA; will try to run some tests with Eneloop AA and post back.
That is all.
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