Trashman said:
datiLED, I'm still waiting to hear the part where you were blown away by it's power and throw (assuming...)!
OK, I am
seriously blown away by the power and throw. I have never experienced a light this bright. I was illuminating trees over 400 feet away with no problem. (I would have lit up the houses, but I didn't want anyone to call the police.) The beam is tight, but, at the same time, there is a tremendous amount of sidespill that illuminates everything in front of the light to some degree. I lit up the the shed in the back yard, 75 to 80 feet away, and could see my feet and the grass around me. The light is most impressive in total darkness.
My first impression was that the head was a little bigger than I expected it would be. However, the light is compact and fits into my hand comfortably. The machining and anodizing are flawless. The XR-E is perfectly centered in the reflector. The light feels quite solid, but is not what I would consider heavy at all. The threads are so smooth and well machined, that when the end of the light is unscrewed, it feels like two lubricated, smooth surfaces against each other. There is no roughness to the threading at all. When the cap is screwed back on, it doesn't feel like it is going to crossthread. Shaking the light does not produce any rattles of any sort. Even the battery is still, but not tight.
Now the beam is a white wall hunter's nightmare. It is ringy and the hot spot shows some color fluctuations within the tight, even circle of light. But if you are looking at what you are illuminating, or outside the house, you will never notice it. I would not want to change the reflector, if it meant losing some of the throw. Basically, it is a non-issue if you are going to
use the light.
LumaPower really did a great job with this light. The
only change that I would want to see, is the addition of a two stage switch. High and low. That is it.
As I said earlier in this thread, LumaPower will be getting the lions share of my flashlight funds in 2007. Not because I got a D-mini instead of an LM301, but because the quality of the light that I have in my hands is amazing. And remember, this thing was designed, built and distributed in record time. It was not based on a similar model, either.
Just my opinion.
Derek
