Yet Another Recommendation Thread

[yowzer]

I'm in the market for a 2AA thrower to use outdoors, mostly in forested areas. I'm trying to decide between the Eagletac P100A2 and the Fenix TK20. Sway me to one or the other, or an even better third choice in a similar price range. Thanks.

 

[Zeruel]

P100A2 is the current leader in the 2AA thrower category. Most would recommend TK20 because of its hardiness and warm tint which provides better color rendering for outdoors. Personally, I'm not a warm tint person, so here're my top 3 choices.

 

[NonSenCe]

good options you have there..

one more to suggest: quark 2aa. with warm tint. (outdoors i believe the warmer tints are better.. heck i think them better everywhere.)

tk20 is the most robust of the bunch. and warm tint.

eagletac cheapest with "normal" tint.

quark has the most modes to pick from (tactical version allows you to pick 2 that you like most and use them)

sometimes its nice to use lower output too.

 

[Toaster]

Eagletac P20A2 Neutral White

 

[EagleAg]

Looking into the same thing myself so I am curious where this thread will go. So far I have looked at the Quark AA^2, the Olight I25/T25, and a new light I saw on another thread, the EagleTac P20A2. Seems like a good light but there is nothing on Eagle Tac's website which is a bit disconcerting.

Hopefully someone will post a review sometime soon.

 

[hyperloop]

Fenix TK20 is a tank of a light. Am planning to take a look at one and test it sometime this week.

Let me throw a budget light at you, i own this Romisen RC N3 II Q5 and love it to bits, for its price point its a great buy IMHO.

2 modes, 3 hrs on high and a further 2 hours on low, 12 hours or so on low. Has a forward clicky which i gather is rare on these lights and can also be used as a 1xCR123 light, i run mine with an RCR123 and its blazingly bright for about 45 minutes and i carry the extension tube along with 2xAA eneloops in my bag.

 

[yowzer]

Some clarifications: This will be primarily for nighttime SAR missions. I have headlamps and other handhelds for close-up lighting, I just want something at times with more range to supplement them. I don't really need something with a very low light level for this, but it never hurts to have more output levels.

Water resistance and general ruggedness is important (Cue TK20).

I'm also trying to stay at around $50 budget-wise. I have some flexibility to go up, but not too far.

A warm or neutral white emitter would be desirable but it isn't a deal breaker to have cool white.

On some of the suggestions:

I thought about the D20; I have a D10, and love it, but, while great for lighting up things close by, it doesn't have a lot of throw. I'm under the impression that the D20 has the same property.

Another one I was considering is the iTP C8, but IIRC it's another one with a beam pattern better suited for area lighting. How does the Quark do when it comes to throw?

That P20A2 looks quite nice, too, give the extra lower level. Is it being sold anywhere yet in neutral white? EDIT: I just noticed that one of the links about it was to a store, not to a thread here about it. It's now in the lead...

 

[hyperloop]

ah, good clarification there, when you talk about a bit more throw, what sort of distances did you have in mind? And are you adamant about sticking to the AA cells? The more dedicated throwers that i know of use either CR/RCR123s or 18650s.

I recently got a Ultrafire WF-500 xenon which is an amazingly bright light, lit up the garden pathway 12 floors down and highlighted everything, could pick out scraps of litter, leaves etc and this was in conditions of quite a fair bit of ambient light. The light runs on 2x18650s.

But for AA throwers, not too sure, you might wish to check out selfbuilt's awesome 2xAA roundup and light-reviews.com to get a better idea of what's out there. Click 'reviews' on light-review.com then 'AA/14500' in the pop down and then again on 'lux' to sort by lux numbers.

in selfbuilt's round up, the Olight T25, Jet I Pro EX v2.0 and Fenix Tk20 were remarked to have good throw and the light i mentioned earlier Romisen RC N3 II Q5 also has a nice mention there.

On light-reviews, the Fenix TK20 has the 4th highest lux numbers (which i take to mean for throw purposes) with the Fenix TK40 (which is a giant 8xAA light) holding the no. 1 spot, the Olight P100A2 is 3rd and 2nd is the LED Lenser P6 (which i am unfamiliar with but i do own the P14 and P5 which throw pretty well too)

I assume you have a headlamp already, but if you dont, get a zebralight h501 for trekkin in and to keep your hands free (may be essential for SAR), it runs off a single AA and also has 3 modes.

hope this is of some use, cheers.

 

[yowzer]

ah, good clarification there, when you talk about a bit more throw, what sort of distances did you have in mind? And are you adamant about sticking to the AA cells? The more dedicated throwers that i know of use either CR/RCR123s or 18650s.

Hmm. 150-200 feet over an open area?

I'm trying to stick with AA or AAA. It just makes life easier when 99% of my various battery-powered gadgets run on the same cells (Flashlights, pager, remotes, wireless mice, avalanche beacon, etc. etc. etc.) I realize that that means that when it comes to light, I'm loosing out on runtimes and brightness a bit.

I assume you have a headlamp already, but if you dont, get a zebralight h501 for trekkin in and to keep your hands free (may be essential for SAR), it runs off a single AA and also has 3 modes.

I have a couple of decent headlamps including an H50 that's my main recreational backpacking light. It's perfect around camp at night! On SAR missions, I've been using a Black Diamond Icon, which has good range, but having to always switch modes between a lower one for trail walking to a higher one to look off in the distance and back is a pain. I want to experiment with a smaller headlamp for close-up lighting and a handheld for spotting. Well, maybe not smaller. The new Fenix one is making me drool...

 

[hyperloop]

H501 is awesomely small, click once and release quickly it goes to high. Do a slower click and release it goes to low, click and hold and it ramps up lo-med-high.

Double click when on high, it goes into strobe. And tiny? Man, this is such a light headlamp you dont even feel that its there, its barely the length of my index finger (and i have small hands as i am asian).

For AA lights, take a look at those that i was talkin about, will test my RC N3 tonight but i think 150 feet should be fine, especially if its really dark but i would really consider the TK20 in your case.

 

[yowzer]

H501 is awesomely small, click once and release quickly it goes to high. Do a slower click and release it goes to low, click and hold and it ramps up lo-med-high.

Double click when on high, it goes into strobe. And tiny? Man, this is such a light headlamp you dont even feel that its there, its barely the length of my index finger (and i have small hands as i am asian).

I went with an H50 because I wanted the wider beam. Not having an annoying strobe mode (Even if it's not part of the regular cycle of output levels) was a bonus. Oh, and since it doesn't have a clicky, it's even smaller.

Zebralights are kind of the antithesis of thrower, anyways. Back to handheld lights...

 

[hyperloop]

Well, i'd go with an Eagletac P100A2 then, 2 modes low and high, 195 lumens on high for 1.8 hours on 2xeneloops. For $45 it sure sounds good, i'd sell off my other 2xAA lights but thing about those is that they have alternate cell uses (CR2 and CR123 respectively) so i might just get this Eagletac as my next 2xAA purchase.

according to eagletacs site, it can hit 160 yards which should be ample for your needs.

There's also an eagletac P10A2 but that's $63 and apparently throws 10 yards less (according to eagletac's site) but at a higher lumen level, 220 but a 25 lumen difference isnt really very apparent at those levels.

 

[jankj]

Hmm. 150-200 feet over an open area?

The TK20 should manage 200 feet by a good margin. I've played with it, and would say it has a useful beam well beyond 100 meters / 300 feet. Fenix claims 150 meters / 450 feet. I won't dispute their number, in fact it may prove useful beyond 150 meters, but the big problem is that the "useful range" depends on such a large number of factors (wet/dry, color of background, color and size of what you're looking for etc...) that it is hard to judge objectively.

In fact, I find the fenix L2D (old LD20) to be usefull just beyond 100 m / 300 feet in the woods. The TK20 is better (more throw (smaller hot spot, reaches furter), and a better outdoor color), but not really by such a large margin.

So... based on my judgement of TK20 / L2D I would expect those other lights you ask about to be somewhat similar in performance. Based on the specs, all of them should be useful beyond 200 feet by a good margin, but I haven't tested them...

I have a couple of decent headlamps .... The new Fenix one is making me drool...

Me too! In fact I would not be to suprised if the beam of the new fenix headlight will be similar to the LD20 (l2d). It's a good flood/throw combination that reach quite far and is very usefull. If only they would make a warm or neutral version...