Carpenter
Enlightened
I took my son to a cub scout outing this weekend. Now, I'm not much for camping and really wasn't looking forward to the weekend however I took some of my lights along to play with. I wanted to see what they could do in an outdoors settings away from ambient lighting and houses. Well, I got neither as the place we camped at was actually a historical site surrounded by residental houses and the parking lot lights, although not close or super bright, was close and bright enough. :sigh:
I let one of the leaders borrow my EDC light (L1 Cree) to finish putting up his tent. He gave it back about 10 minutes later after he finished stating that it was starting to get hot. I told him (an electrical engineer) that the LED is pushed hard enough to cause some heat from the heatsink to radiate to the outside metal. He laughed and asked if there was a heat warning on the light which I promptly showed him where it was on the bezel. I think he really wasn't expecting to see that on a flashlight.
The light I really wanted to play with however was my SureFire 10X. I wanted to see just how powerful this search and rescue light really was. So with a couple of the scouts taking verbal bets, (They know about my hobby from the Mag623 I used last year to start the camp fire) I aimed my light at the rear of the mansion about 150yrs away. I started with the 60 lumen bulb. There was too much ambient lighting, as you could not see anything on building. However when I pushed a little further and started up the 500 lumen bulb. It looked like the sun just came back out. The entire rear of the mansion was lit up. People close to the mansion were looking around trying to find out what was going on. Several of them were looking up. Probably for the police helicopter. I just stood there for a couple of seconds with a smile on my face kinda like this-->
I used it on high a couple more times that evening when trying to locate a wandering scout within the tent maze that was setup.
This light is a keeper IMO. The 60 lumen bulb can last three hours on a single charge. While the 500 lumen bulb sucks the battery dry quickly, you really don't need it that often. And with the smartcharger and DC plug for the car, it really doesn't take long to bring it back to life again.
On a side note, I also played with my PKEF Kroma's this weekend. While the main beam could punch a hole through the darkness, the low power LED setups were totally useless unless I was in my tent. There was just too much ambient lighting to make any use of them. They immediately went back into their boxes and back into the locked box under a pile of blankets.
Thanks for reading my story.
I let one of the leaders borrow my EDC light (L1 Cree) to finish putting up his tent. He gave it back about 10 minutes later after he finished stating that it was starting to get hot. I told him (an electrical engineer) that the LED is pushed hard enough to cause some heat from the heatsink to radiate to the outside metal. He laughed and asked if there was a heat warning on the light which I promptly showed him where it was on the bezel. I think he really wasn't expecting to see that on a flashlight.
The light I really wanted to play with however was my SureFire 10X. I wanted to see just how powerful this search and rescue light really was. So with a couple of the scouts taking verbal bets, (They know about my hobby from the Mag623 I used last year to start the camp fire) I aimed my light at the rear of the mansion about 150yrs away. I started with the 60 lumen bulb. There was too much ambient lighting, as you could not see anything on building. However when I pushed a little further and started up the 500 lumen bulb. It looked like the sun just came back out. The entire rear of the mansion was lit up. People close to the mansion were looking around trying to find out what was going on. Several of them were looking up. Probably for the police helicopter. I just stood there for a couple of seconds with a smile on my face kinda like this-->
I used it on high a couple more times that evening when trying to locate a wandering scout within the tent maze that was setup. This light is a keeper IMO. The 60 lumen bulb can last three hours on a single charge. While the 500 lumen bulb sucks the battery dry quickly, you really don't need it that often. And with the smartcharger and DC plug for the car, it really doesn't take long to bring it back to life again.
On a side note, I also played with my PKEF Kroma's this weekend. While the main beam could punch a hole through the darkness, the low power LED setups were totally useless unless I was in my tent. There was just too much ambient lighting to make any use of them. They immediately went back into their boxes and back into the locked box under a pile of blankets.
Thanks for reading my story.
