SHOT SHOW REPORT: LED LENSER

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MattK

Flashlight Enthusiast
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We've never carried LED LENSER before. I always thought that they were overpriced and didn't offer high levels of performance.

Well - all of that's about to change. I visited their booth today and ordered every new light they're coming out with - a vast new line of Cree and Nichia DS based lights offering variable output and variable focus with outputs of up to 1068 MEASURED Lumens...yup, 1086 MEASURED Lumens.

There's more than 20 new models so I'm just gonna go over a few - it's too late and I am too tired to describe 20+ lights. I've got a catalog but no pics online that I can find. Fit and finish is examplary, the optics are a work of art.

All of these lights offer 2+ output levels:

X7, 16" long. 7 Q4+ Emitters, slide focus head, 4XD, 1068 lumens. MSRP $500.

P19, 9.5" L, 3 Q4+ Emitters, slide focus head,8XAA, 515 lumens, $250 MSRP

P18 13" L, 3 Q4+ Emitters, slide focus head, 3XD, 462 lumens, $200MSRP

P17 13" L, 1 Q4+ Emitter, slide focus head, 3XD, 188.9 lumens, $140 MSRP

P14 8.5" L, 1 Q4+ Emitter, slide focus head, 4XAA, 172.8 lumens, $120 MSRP

P7 5.5" L, 1 Q4+ Emitter, slide focus head, 4XAAA, 167 lumens, $130 MSRP

7736TS 5.0" L, 1 Q4+ Emitter, slide focus head, 3XAAA, 167 lumens, $130 MSRP $75 OPTIONAL: Strobing tailcap, Tape switch, Gun mounts

There are then a pile of 1XAA, 2xAA, 1XAAA, 2XAAA with slide focus, 11-78 lumens. The smallest lights use Nichia DS LED's. They all make the perfect circular beam like the Gen 1 Inova X1's when tightly focused.

There are also a number of Cree based headlamps.More on that later.

I spent quite a bit of time with the owner of LED LENSER and he's an amazingly knowledgable guy. He's clearly an engineer type and is obsessive about optics and it's refreshing to see the owner of a company who knows more about his products and how they are engineered than anyone who works for him. He answered every crazy technical question I asked and had fun doing it. I'm excited to be carrying these new products and only regret that they are not expected to be in stock until April.
 
Re: SHOT SHOW REPORT: LED LENSER - WOW!!

MattK,
Thanks for that report, I have a modded Coast Focusing Lenser and it is bright as can be. If the new ones are as bright, that there is good stuff.
 
Re: SHOT SHOW REPORT: LED LENSER - WOW!!

Are these lights going to be regulated? My main complaint about LED lensers in the past is the lack of regulation.
 
Re: SHOT SHOW REPORT: LED LENSER - WOW!!

Matt,
I'd love to hear more about the 1xaa and 2xaa lights when you are up to it.
Cheers.
 
Re: SHOT SHOW REPORT: LED LENSER - WOW!!

T5 / P5 look interesting:

2008 Led Lenser

Thanks for the link BigBoy. I like the look of the X7 but the "125hr runtime" suggests to me that the light is badly regulated and dims down very quickly on alkalines. I hope it performs better on rechargeables. Similar comments on the P19.

The focusing optics do look very nice though and three stage switch could be useful. I'd like to see the output vs. time graphs with various battery types before I make up my mind. I wish the FLR website was still being updated.
 
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Re: SHOT SHOW REPORT: LED LENSER - WOW!!

The lights look awesome, but they seem a little expensive considering most of these must be direct drive or use a resister. I always wished that Coast would use a constant current regulator in their lights. Either way I'll most likely pick up a couple of them as long as the selling price is substantially less than the MSRP.
 
Re: SHOT SHOW REPORT: LED LENSER - WOW!!

$500 for a alkaline driven 7-emitter, 1000+ lumen light?

Yeah.

Not out of my wallet.

Besides, I haven't been all that impressed with LED throw strength.

Yeah, they work great indoors, and even outdoors to 30, maybe 40 yards. But after that, they are a little peaked.

Maybe this will be better.

It'll have to be a LOT better before I'm gonna take a pass on half of a new AR-15 rifle to get it.

John
 
Re: SHOT SHOW REPORT: LED LENSER - WOW!!

$500 for a alkaline driven 7-emitter, 1000+ lumen light?

Yeah.

Not out of my wallet.

Besides, I haven't been all that impressed with LED throw strength.

Yeah, they work great indoors, and even outdoors to 30, maybe 40 yards. But after that, they are a little peaked.

Maybe this will be better.

It'll have to be a LOT better before I'm gonna take a pass on half of a new AR-15 rifle to get it.

John
Newsflash! :poke: You can get D cell rechargeable batteries!

And, perhaps you can point us to all the other adjustable focus $500 MSRP LED lights that have over 1000 measured lumens? :thinking:
 
Re: SHOT SHOW REPORT: LED LENSER - WOW!!

The led lenser lights have excellent optics, and i am really impressed how they "use the lumens". My old led lenser hokus focus rated at 60 lumens has much better throw than my l2d reb 100. I don't know where the fenix lumens disappears. Even when the led lenser is set to full flood it looks really bright, MUCH brighter than the l0d rebel 80 rated at 60 lumens. The optics must be magical.
 
Re: SHOT SHOW REPORT: LED LENSER - WOW!!

$500
Besides, I haven't been all that impressed with LED throw strength.

Yeah, they work great indoors, and even outdoors to 30, maybe 40 yards. But after that, they are a little peaked.

John

Have you seen a Tiablo A8 or A9? I've not seen an incan of the same size that out throws them unless it has 1/10th the runtime.

The led lenser lights have excellent optics, and i am really impressed how they "use the lumens". My old led lenser hokus focus rated at 60 lumens has much better throw than my l2d reb 100. I don't know where the fenix lumens disappears. Even when the led lenser is set to full flood it looks really bright, MUCH brighter than the l0d rebel 80 rated at 60 lumens. The optics must be magical.

How do they compare after 40 mins of runtime?
 
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Re: SHOT SHOW REPORT: LED LENSER - WOW!!

Well, im running it on nimh batts, and the last time i took the batteries out to charge them the charger put 600mah into them (1000mah batts), i tried it before i took the batteries out, and it was still pretty bright. When shining it into the woods about 150 meters away i could still see better with the led lenser than my l2d. The led lenser serves as a "family flashlight" so i rarely use it, i like the multi modes of my l2d. A friend has a led lenser too and he's running it on alkalines, and i dims really fast, but so does the l2d on alks.
 
Re: SHOT SHOW REPORT: LED LENSER - WOW!!

These new lights must be the reason local Coast/LED Lenser dealers (including Lowes) have recently started dropping the prices on the Luxeon based and Nichia CS based lights...

Need to clear out the old to make way for the new. :popcorn:
 
Re: SHOT SHOW REPORT: LED LENSER - WOW!!

That is really cool! Can't wait to see pictures!
 
Re: SHOT SHOW REPORT: LED LENSER - WOW!!

omg, I need a second job. Looks like 2008 will be a very good year for flashaholics.
 
Re: SHOT SHOW REPORT: LED LENSER - WOW!!

cool
 
Re: SHOT SHOW REPORT: LED LENSER - WOW!!

Amazing how little talk there was about Shot and so many good offerings are coming, especially from Surefire at least so far. Keep em coming guys! :twothumbs
 
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