Re: What are the Pelican Black Knight\'s like?
Hi Al,
I've had the M9 for about 18 months now and the M7 for about a year or so. Both are good lights with different strengths. The M7 is a neat little light that uses a rechargeable battery pack of what appears to be AA NiCads (I never peeled the plastic). Runtime is about 75 minutes as I recall. It's moderately water resistant= if you drop it in a puddle it'll be ok, if you swim with it, it's toast. Pretty resiliant design with the rubber-encased bezels and the rubberized or plastic handles. It has a rear tailcap switch which is a plus. The biggest downside for the M7 is that is has the Laser Spot lamp- it's very narrow without much side light which decreases it's usefulness. It comes with a wall/dash mount charger and since the light is so lightweight (3oz. loaded) you can velcro/(double-sided) tape it to charge it (car adapter is an extra but is only a $12 accessory).
The M9 shares the rubber coating but carries it to the handle as well. The hexagonal shape and rubber bezels keep all the lights from rolling (NICE change of pace) and weighs only 8.5oz. It has a runtime of 60 minutes using 3 sub-C NiCads in a pack. It puts out 6.6W (same as the Streamlight Stinger/Polystinger). It comes with a smart/rapid charger (3-4 hour rated, usually has been closer to 2 hours) and can also use a car adapter (again, extra). I'm not too keen on the switch placement for the M9/M11- it's similar to the Mag/Streamlight standard placement right behind the bezel.
One of the best things about the Pelican Black Knights is that the charging circuitry is in the charger base, not the light- like SureFire and Streamlight. Drop the light and you can't damage the charging unit-nice safety backstop.
I also have the M13- now THAT is quite a light! Big and heavy (4lbs) but it's waterproof to 500', runs off a sealed lead-acid battery and has a burntime of 2h 15m. Focusable lens allows for wide flood to thinner spot. A dual filament lamp makes for a good long life- 30 hours runtime per filament (60 hours total) and the lamps are only around $7. If one burns out, you use the other one- nice feature. Two way switch allows you to choose filament. The handle can be configured in fourteen (yes, 14)different ways (not all of them comforatble IMO) and it has a great wire folding stand that has about 6 locking postitions to hold the light. This thing is great for poweroutages - pointed at the ceiling you can light up a large room (30x30 with 12' catherdral ceilings)- we tested it a few times this past winter- we didn't even know the power was back due to it's brightness.
It also comes with a Smart/Rapid chrager and a lanyard. And it's good for a dive light being waterproof and all. It puts out 80,000CP (peak I'm guessing).
Not as bright as SureFire but has more features in some cases and IMO is preferable to the Streamlights for some uses. The beam does have rings however, so since you are spoiled by SureFire, you might not like the light.
That's all I got.
