Just got back from a 4 day camping trip and took 3 lights with me to navigate the woods at night. It was the first time I had used any of them for camping. The one I most enjoyed using was the Arc-P. This tiny bomb is amazing, at least for the first few hours until it starts to dim a bit. Nice little spot and great spill. My companions were duly impressed. I also took a CMG Infinity Ultra and while the beam is nothing special these days, it's perfectly adequate. It clearly showed the way 25+ ft ahead while walking off trail and because of its long runtime will become my primary bug out light until something better comes along. I'm assuming the Gerber IU has similar characteristics.
But the one that surprised me was the Pak-Lite. This thing is so small and light weight when it's not snapped to a 9 volt that you can easily lose it if you're not careful. There's a new "Super" version available and I don't know if I had that one or the older model. The packaging didn't say "Super" so I'm assuming it was the older model. The low setting is only adequate for finding stuff in the tent at night or reading, but it's also low enough to not mess with your night vision too much which can be very helpful. The high setting was just a tad less bright than the CMG I.U. but just about as useful. Plenty bright enough to navigate through the woods. The runtime for the new "Super" model is advertised at 30hrs. on high and 600 hrs. on low. Runtimes for the older model are much longer. Yes the light is relatively expensive (unnecessarily so I think) but from what I've experienced so far, worth the price just to have a light that can work with a 9 volt if that were all that was available for some reason. I don't know how well it would react to getting wet while its on, so will have to look into that.
Bottom line is I'd feel comfortable having any of these 3 lights for night time navigation, but because of runtime (the most important factor for a camping or shtf light in my opinion) the nod would have to go to either the Infinity Ultra or the Pak-Lite. Tired, time for bed.
But the one that surprised me was the Pak-Lite. This thing is so small and light weight when it's not snapped to a 9 volt that you can easily lose it if you're not careful. There's a new "Super" version available and I don't know if I had that one or the older model. The packaging didn't say "Super" so I'm assuming it was the older model. The low setting is only adequate for finding stuff in the tent at night or reading, but it's also low enough to not mess with your night vision too much which can be very helpful. The high setting was just a tad less bright than the CMG I.U. but just about as useful. Plenty bright enough to navigate through the woods. The runtime for the new "Super" model is advertised at 30hrs. on high and 600 hrs. on low. Runtimes for the older model are much longer. Yes the light is relatively expensive (unnecessarily so I think) but from what I've experienced so far, worth the price just to have a light that can work with a 9 volt if that were all that was available for some reason. I don't know how well it would react to getting wet while its on, so will have to look into that.
Bottom line is I'd feel comfortable having any of these 3 lights for night time navigation, but because of runtime (the most important factor for a camping or shtf light in my opinion) the nod would have to go to either the Infinity Ultra or the Pak-Lite. Tired, time for bed.
