Beastmaster
Enlightened
There are times where having EDC lights that kick some really good tail are nice. There's times where having killer lights that kick even more tail are nicer. I and some of my family members had a chance to use great lighting tonight thanks to an unplanned event.
Today was a pretty uneventful New Years - family and food and visiting over at my mom's house. Until evening hit...then it was interesting.
To describe the area I was in, my mom's house is in the North Phoenix area. Despite it's heavy population, there are parts where it's still undeveloped/green belts or where there's lots of houses but zero lighting other than the occasional backyard porch light that's maxed out with a 75 watt bulb.
Well - A neighbor's kid was lost. Slightly autistic, he has a tendency to wander sometimes, but generally not far. He's not one to go off someplace for a long time, so a bunch of us were asked to get together to see if we can find him.
At 7:30, it's decently dark. And being that my mom's area is a more established and older area, it's got sparse sodium vapor lighting every 1/4 mile on the street. Green belt areas have zero lighting save for what little eeks out of the street, the backyards and over the walls that butt up against it. We all figured he wandered into the green belt area.
A small collection of the neighbors gathered, and everyone had a flashlight. I lent my E1L to my mom, my brother had his XMas gift (a G2L), I had my well worn 6P with P60L from my truck, and my wife had her E1L. Everyone else had MagLites to your traditional 2D cell plastic Eveready units.
Well, for those people who have decried the P60L lamp assembly - let me tell you that it WORKS. I was able to light up things down the distance of 1 1/2 to 2 backyard lengths (each lot in the area averages to about a quarter acre). Very good throw, and a decent corona spill for flood.
The E1L's (equipped with unregulated 16340's) did nearly as well - at least 1 1/2 backyard lengths. Decent throw, and the TIR lens produced a ring of light to where my mom and wife could see where they were walking.
All four flashlights were able to reach into unfenced backyards and light up things so much and so well - it was very impressive. Words couldn't really describe it...things just worked.
Funny thing - we were searching for about 20 minutes when he just walked into his home. According to his mom - he decided to wander down the street to the area quickie mart, then decided to sit there drinking his drink, refill it, drink it down again, refilled it, then walked home. (I hate to be his bladder after that).
After we were all done - comments from my mom's neighbors were pleasant. They were so amazed at how 4 flashlights that were way smaller than theirs produced tons more light then theirs did. I dare say that some of them will become converts.
I was very pleased at the real world performance of the lights. This was the first time that I've had the opportunity to use the P60L and the E1L's in it's intended use. I knew that if I was using the old P60 incan, it would have done the job. I'm happy to say that the P60L did it much better.
For those of you who fear that the P60L isn't up to snuff - it's definitely far better than the incan version. So much so that I highly recommend it for those that are fearful of non-OEM mods.
Admittedly, I have a Q5 Malkoff drop in for my SureFire on it's way - so as soon as I get it, I will go back to the same area that I walked and will test it out. I bet it'll blow my socks off! Either way - hooray for LED's! You've passed the litmus test for me.
-Steve
Today was a pretty uneventful New Years - family and food and visiting over at my mom's house. Until evening hit...then it was interesting.
To describe the area I was in, my mom's house is in the North Phoenix area. Despite it's heavy population, there are parts where it's still undeveloped/green belts or where there's lots of houses but zero lighting other than the occasional backyard porch light that's maxed out with a 75 watt bulb.
Well - A neighbor's kid was lost. Slightly autistic, he has a tendency to wander sometimes, but generally not far. He's not one to go off someplace for a long time, so a bunch of us were asked to get together to see if we can find him.
At 7:30, it's decently dark. And being that my mom's area is a more established and older area, it's got sparse sodium vapor lighting every 1/4 mile on the street. Green belt areas have zero lighting save for what little eeks out of the street, the backyards and over the walls that butt up against it. We all figured he wandered into the green belt area.
A small collection of the neighbors gathered, and everyone had a flashlight. I lent my E1L to my mom, my brother had his XMas gift (a G2L), I had my well worn 6P with P60L from my truck, and my wife had her E1L. Everyone else had MagLites to your traditional 2D cell plastic Eveready units.
Well, for those people who have decried the P60L lamp assembly - let me tell you that it WORKS. I was able to light up things down the distance of 1 1/2 to 2 backyard lengths (each lot in the area averages to about a quarter acre). Very good throw, and a decent corona spill for flood.
The E1L's (equipped with unregulated 16340's) did nearly as well - at least 1 1/2 backyard lengths. Decent throw, and the TIR lens produced a ring of light to where my mom and wife could see where they were walking.
All four flashlights were able to reach into unfenced backyards and light up things so much and so well - it was very impressive. Words couldn't really describe it...things just worked.
Funny thing - we were searching for about 20 minutes when he just walked into his home. According to his mom - he decided to wander down the street to the area quickie mart, then decided to sit there drinking his drink, refill it, drink it down again, refilled it, then walked home. (I hate to be his bladder after that).
After we were all done - comments from my mom's neighbors were pleasant. They were so amazed at how 4 flashlights that were way smaller than theirs produced tons more light then theirs did. I dare say that some of them will become converts.
I was very pleased at the real world performance of the lights. This was the first time that I've had the opportunity to use the P60L and the E1L's in it's intended use. I knew that if I was using the old P60 incan, it would have done the job. I'm happy to say that the P60L did it much better.
For those of you who fear that the P60L isn't up to snuff - it's definitely far better than the incan version. So much so that I highly recommend it for those that are fearful of non-OEM mods.
Admittedly, I have a Q5 Malkoff drop in for my SureFire on it's way - so as soon as I get it, I will go back to the same area that I walked and will test it out. I bet it'll blow my socks off! Either way - hooray for LED's! You've passed the litmus test for me.
-Steve
