River Rock 2C @ Target

On sale for $23 at my local haunt. It looks nice but I have no experience with the 1.5 watt Nichia Jupiter it uses. It claims regulation and I know it is highly focused.

I tried search but it kept taking me down dark allies without useful info. I will appreciate any help. Thank you for any replies.

I got one when they had them 1/2 price,$11.Its very unique like the old inova x1 with a moon beam.It projects a circle of light with no spill.pretty bright.For the $11 its worth it at 23 Im not sure. It is well built and nice size. There is no easy way to mod it.

Yeah! I read where the AA was on sale, some time ago, at $10, so $11 for the 2C was quite the deal.

I, too, have the River Rock 2C. It does produce a focused beam of light with great brightness and throw. The perfect circle of light it projects is much broader than that of the older version of the Inova X1 and produces an absolutely uniform illumination within that circle. In addition it does have some faint ringy sidespill (enough to keep me from stumbling over something), also unlike the X1. I suspect this light is largely a matter of taste, but I really like mine. It's built like a tank, gives a sense of high quality and I like the characteristics of its beam.

Mark

Hmmm ... I wonder how long the LED would last with 3 CR123s in it?

I had one of these for a while and really wasnt impressed with it. The light felt good in the hand, but the spot beam was useless for me. I figure the total light output couldn't have been more than 15-18 lumens. The runtime wasn't that good, and it wasn't regulated either.

Thanks for the feedback, fellows (non-gender useage implied), your descriptions follow what I found with the River Rock.

I went crackers this month because of my third CPF anniversery. Buying lights was the appropriate action to take, considering the considerable importance of the CPF.

Let's see...A B C - 1 2 3. C would be the "right" (#3) cell size and I should get to buy three lights to correspond with my third time passing go @ CPF. Right??? Since I already have three, 3C cell lights, I had to compromise and only buy three, 2C lights this month.

Lowes Task Force 3W 2C is the brightest with the most throw and probably most overall light. It consumes only 10% more current than the Victorinox 2C, that arrived at my doorstep, but doubles the brightness.

The V2C has the best beam, and better machining. For me, this light has, excellent, near perfect feel, especially the grip - it won't slip.

The RR 2C also has a nice feel and appearance but not quite up to the Victorinox, which is made by Emissive Energy. The RR's small spot will have limited usefulness for me, too, but it's an interesting light and I'm not done playing with it. Perhaps a proper use for the RR will avail itself - even if I must invent one!

Seems like next year will be a 4 D cell excuse. Since I have three, four D cell lights...I'll only have to buy ONE more. I'll hope for a 4D, 10 - 20 watt HID price breakthrough.

Hi, new member here, was lurking and reading messages, decided to take the plunge and buy one of these River Rock 2-C lights, and to sign up and post here. Still learning the jargon. This is my first high-power LED product purchase, had bought a set of 4 LED flashlights at Target (a Christmas item I bought on clearance for $7.50 I think) with varying numbers of std. white LED's, but the switches are going flaky and they are of course not very bright.

I am seeing the same tight, perfect circular beam, but there is a blue-tinted ring on the outside edge of the beam, while the inner part is fairly pure white. Wondering if anyone else has that type of ring with theirs, not sure that I like that, perhaps I will want to replace the reflector/lens/maybe the LED too later. If I understand correctly and it doesn't have a regulator circuit, I will be likely to try to upgrade it some time.

Forgive me if this is too newbie a question, but I thought I would try using heavy duty carbon-zinc batteries in it, thought it might be more economical than using alkalines, but am a bit concerned over whether I could get leakage from that type of battery, should I even be trying that? I did see at least one LED flashlight sold with heavy-duty batteries so I figure I can't be completely out in left field by trying it. Thanks in advance for any replies.

Kram said:

I, too, have the River Rock 2C. It does produce a focused beam of light with great brightness and throw. The perfect circle of light it projects is much broader than that of the older version of the Inova X1 and produces an absolutely uniform illumination within that circle. In addition it does have some faint ringy sidespill (enough to keep me from stumbling over something), also unlike the X1. I suspect this light is largely a matter of taste, but I really like mine. It's built like a tank, gives a sense of high quality and I like the characteristics of its beam.

Mark

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ron_in_michigan said:

Forgive me if this is too newbie a question, but I thought I would try using heavy duty carbon-zinc batteries in it, thought it might be more economical than using alkalines, but am a bit concerned over whether I could get leakage from that type of battery, should I even be trying that? I did see at least one LED flashlight sold with heavy-duty batteries so I figure I can't be completely out in left field by trying it. Thanks in advance for any replies.

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Carbon zinc isn't really the way to go for any flashlight. Alkalines are better, particularly for that light.

NiMH are best, but that's probably more than you want to deal with for now with that light.

That sounds normal for a optic/lens light.

NiMh batteries would be best but considering the price of the light, I would spend the money on a light with the current gen LED. Use alkalines would be the next best solution.

:welcome: ron_in_michigan

Thanks for the replies. I was looking at the "alkaline battery shootout" and saw how poorly a heavy duty zinc did vs. all the alkalines, so now I know to forget about those. I also found a post with photos of someone elses River Rock and it had the same blue ring, so it's normal for that model.

I have a nice collection of NiMH AA & AAA cells, no C's though, maybe I'll get & try the AA to C adapters with a few NiMH's , that'll make it less heavy which I wouldn't mind.
Edit: Thought of trying this: Wrapped sheet foam packing material around 2 of my AAs, slipped them in the barrel and that works great. I measured 500 mA current draw, the cells are 2100 maH, so I guess I could get close to 4 hrs runtime before it gets seriously dim.

Ron