River Rock Nightfire 2xAA Rebel

[mhubble]

Got this today at My local Target in Virginia. This light was mentioned a few months ago but have been very scarce ever since. Very well made, forward clickie. Seems brighter than the advertised 60 lumens. The beam is focusable. From a wide beam to a tight focus. Either one pretty much sucks. Im thinking of replacing the collimator lens with glass and reflector. Getting to the led is easy so it can be modified.

 

[f22shift]

beamshots?

 

[mhubble]

beamshots?

Sorry my camera is lousy at beamshots.

 

[kramer5150]

I saw that one the other week too. Nice, thanks for the pics. Its rare for a River Rock to be so easily taken apart.

 

[Yapo]

wow i never knew there was any lights with focusable collimator lens apart from led lenser

 

[kramer5150]

FWIW... I don't think you can just toss in any optic lens. My understanding is that they are designed to refract light patterns for specific emitters. Using a Cree-designed Fraen with a Lux rebel (for example) will create less than stellar results.

 

[Stress_Test]

Wow, I wondered what ever happened to these lights!

I bought one from Target months ago -- it was the last one on the shelf, and I haven' seen one since! I thought maybe they had gone out of production.

On my example, the flood (full defocus) is really nice! It's pretty much completely smooth except for a ring around the very edge. I don't know why everyone else complains about it unless I got one that was a little different??

Anyway, the only fault I've found with it is that I've had some flickering. This seems to be related to use of NiMH batteries though. Perhaps the circuit doesn't like the lower voltage?

Anyway, I like it for "around the home" usage because of the broad, clean flood and no sudden-death shutoff like the 2AA MiniMag LED has.

My 2 cents

 

[shadowjk]

Lower voltage is a myth.

 

[kramer5150]

Perhaps the circuit doesn't like the lower voltage?

My 2 cents

Its possible, although it would have to be a VERY poorly (defectively) designed DC circuit to be that sensitive to the difference between cell chemistries.

My $.02 added to your $.02

:twothumbs

 

[Stress_Test]

I've seen the same flicker on occasion in the Minimag leds. Another theory I had was that maybe there was some instability in the circuit design, like when you have poorly tuned gains in a PID control system (I'm NOT a circuits guy by any means though, this is just speculation on my part!)

Anyway, regarding the original post:

I just got back from a grocery run to Target, and lo and behold, they had the 2AA Nightfire and the 2C cree Nightfire! I've never seen the 2C version until now!

If I didn't already have a Taskforce Cree, I'd have picked up the 2C RiverRock.

Maybe if they go on sale during the fall clearance, I'll snag one and keep it in my desk drawer at work or something.

 

[Lookin4U]

Re: River Rock Nightfire 2C Cree

I recently acquired a River Rock 2C and have been very pleased with it. As per my other post concerning it:
"I purchased a River Rock 2C at Target a week ago on a whim... Turns out that it puts out more useful light than my Surefire 9AN Commander. I have used it every night this week for work on the original set of alkaline batteries and it has yet to diminish at all (very good regulation). My Surefire 9AN does throw further, when freshly charged, but does not put out as much useful spill and diminishes continuously as it runs... providing slightly less than an hour of "useful" light for my purposes....
The River Rock's emitter star sits in a nice, large, aluminum heat sink that can be unscrewed with a spanner, is marked 'CREE 7090', has an aluminum OP reflector, and nothing is glued so the light can be completely disassembled. The finish is a simple, but even and flawless, black anodizing, the threads are smooth, even and well cut, both ends are sealed with o-rings, and the switch is a tail cap forward clicky with momentary on. For @ $27 its a very nice light!"

This is my third River Rock light, the other two being a 1xAA that has a reverse clicky and frequently flickers :ironic: and a 2xCR123 headlamp that appears to use the same Cree emitter and reflector as the 2C. After getting very frustrated with both my Streamlight and Surefire while working a scene, I ran to a nearby Target and found the headlamp and gave it a try. I like it a great deal and it was a life saver a few days later when a hurricane hit our area. I have also been very pleased with the 2C.
*Now mind you, I actually use my lights so all this "throw obsession" means nothing to me, I really need illumination!:thumbsup:

 

[f22shift]

On my example, the flood (full defocus) is really nice! It's pretty much completely smooth except for a ring around the very edge.

is there any donut holes in the flood setting?

 

[StandardBattery]

Wow good to see some postings on this series of lights. I picked up the "C" cell version of the NIGHTFIRE last week, but I was too excited about other stuff that I kind of forgot about it. It's been a long time since I was buying River Rock lights. I'm glad to see this series seems to be useful follow on to some of their earlier lights and that the price has not gone through the roof like several other brands.

I mainly bought it because I wanted to have a really long running C cell light, but it looked really good in the packaging and the "C" version is saying 136 lumens on the package... not 135 lumens but 136 lumens. :green:

I guess this has likely already been posted somewhere since Lookin4U already has posted on this light, but the package is claiming 21hrs at maximum brightness and 60 hrs of useful light. I really liked this kind of labeling, and I'll be even more impressed if the 21hrs is not too optimistic. The "C" cell version is using a fairly deap OP reflector. Put that with the forward clicky and theres a fair bit of light for the money in this package. The green ring between the head and body, and the orange switch boot are nice cosmetic touches.

Now i'm really looking forward to checking it out tonight.

 

[mikekoz]

I have both of these lights and like them very much. I just found the C cell version after giving up looking for it for two months!. The AA light is bright enough for most tasks around the house and the focus works pretty well. The flood is a good flood and the narrow beam will not throw a beam of light 3 miles, but is also useful. The beam is oddly square when it is narrowed down. The C cell version is my favorite. I like lights of this size, and even if it only gives half of its rated full output I will be happy. The beam is very clean and has a good balance of throw and spill. Both seem well made, but they could use a bit of knurling on the center of both lights.

Mike

 

[mhubble]

The beam is very clean and has a good balance of throw and spill

I must have a bad one. The beam on mine is terrible. Tight focus is square but its like a corner of it is being blocked by something. The center hot spot is off center too. The wide focus has a big dead spot in the center and very ringy. I like the light, size, shape, switch, Its even bright enough but the beam is just lousy.

 

[mikekoz]

I must have a bad one. The beam on mine is terrible. Tight focus is square but its like a corner of it is being blocked by something. The center hot spot is off center too. The wide focus has a big dead spot in the center and very ringy. I like the light, size, shape, switch, Its even bright enough but the beam is just lousy.

The beam I was referring to was the one on the C cell version, which is not focusable. The AA version, at least mine, has a square shaped beam when it is tightened up. When I put it in flood mode, there is a ring on the outer edge, but the center is fairly clean.

Mike

 

[StandardBattery]

I just did a small eyeball test with a couple of trips out the back. First the RR 2C against the M60F... well the M60F of course is much nicer, but the RR-2C dispite what seems to be a fairly deep reflector is mostly flood... it has not much throw at all. OK Tought competition... the beam was quite pleasant from the RR.

Next up the Twisty 85Tr... well even this one seemed preferable with better near field illumination and the ability to reach well beyond the RR. Still like I said the RR had a nice beam and in the real dark it is a very reasonable amount of light.

OK taking into account I matched it up against lights costing several times more, running on more exotic power sources; I'm happy with the RR 2C, a nice beam, good for white wall hunting, but also good for near field illumination, including indoors. I think the light is designed with a reasonable light level for dark environments and as such has a good chance of meeting it's runtime specs... which would be fantastic. It is a larger light which will make it easy to hold (I dropped the twisty as it needs two hands to operate), this will be more important as we move into glove season. The body is a bit slippery for a light of this weight (298g with batteries). Some rubber tubing on it would be good, I will have to find something.

As a bonus since it is easy to open the head it could be a nice host for mods or simple LED upgrades in the future.

 

[Stress_Test]

Just a side note -

I noticed that the 2AA shown here is slightly different from the older version I have. The bezel of the new version has an "F" and "S" for flood and spot, whereas mine just has a 1x and 4x. Also, maybe it's just due to the camera, but the new version seems to be more of a gloss black finish, and mine is more flat black.

So anyway, my observations about the beam may not apply to the new model -- YMMV.

 

[Turbo DV8]

Lower voltage is a myth.

Pertaining to flickering? Tell that to Inova X1 owners! More like a strobe on the X1's.

 

[Turbo DV8]

The AA version, at least mine, has a square shaped beam when it is tightened up. When I put it in flood mode, there is a ring on the outer edge, but the center is fairly clean.

So on full flood, some have the dark donut hole in the center, and others have a nice center with some dark distortion at the outer edge. But this is a cheap focusing light with some inherent QC variations. So the real question is, on the ones that see a dark center when in full-flood setting, can you find some point, not necessarily at full flood setting, that you can get a decent flood without dark donut hole?