Kroma Milspec, post your reviews

Now that the Kroma K2-MS is finally in the hands of us low life civilians, post your feedback, whether you EDC, how you feel about it, likes, dislikes, frank reviews, cheers, jeers. I am still a member of the gallery but I think the light will be cutting edge, but if enough good reviews are out I will join the hallowed ranks of of K2-MS owners.

Well, I am sure that if you check reviews on the reg. Kroma you will get a good enough perspective of what people think about it. The only difference is the addition of the Y/G and IR Leds. But as I have stated, I love the light...I don't really EDC it often due primarily to me not wanting it destroyed. If you have no use for the IR though, the standard Kroma is sufficient.

Here are some differences between the Kroma (K2)and Kroma Milspec (K2MS) and A2s

The selector ring on the K2MS: starting extreme counterclockwise (from the rear of the light), there is white high and low, yellow green, blue, red, and IR. The bright white is not available in the color modes. The ring is very positive, with tactile and audible clicks.

The K2's selector ring is only tactile, and runs high blue, low blue, white, low red, high red from counterclockwise to clockwise. Bright white is available in all modes.

The K2MS red is in between the K2 reds, toward the dim end. Reds are floody in both lights. The K2MS red is comparable in output to the A2, but the A2 is throwier.

The K2MS blue is a "biohazard" kind of pattern as opposed to the K2's even, floody blues. The K2MS blue has about as much output as the K2 low blue.

The yellow green in the A2 is much righter than in the K2MS. Both have a "lumpy" floodish beam of roughly the same quality.

Color runtime is listed as 80 hrs in the K2MS instruction manual. White is listed as 1 hr/20 hrs at 50/2 lumens, respectively.

Now if it would only get dark . . .

Scott

P.S. Edited to add runtimes.

A little nighttime update:

I took a good long walk around my field with both Kromas and both A2s.

The K2MS's low white is a tad brighter than the K2's low white, but both high whites are basically identical. I had found the low white on my K2 a little on the dim side, so had been using the blues to get around with outside. Maybe others had the same impression?

The high white of both my Kromas looks like it puts out a bit more light than the A2s, but the A2s have a slight edge in throw. The A2 beams are spottier. I like the Kromas' light distribution better. Where the A2s have a "ring of darkness" around the hotspot, the K2s fade more evenly. So, for me, the scene I am looking at is better lit with the K2/K2MS.

We had fog here last night, and I was out messing around with one of my A2s and my K2 Kroma. The A2 was a little better, but I am not sure if that was purely because of the incan beam, or because of the fact that the A2's beam is tighter than the K2. That will cause the A2 to have less backscatter. Wavelength/spectrum does play a part, but there are other factors than LED vs incan that cause the A2 to be a better fog cutter.

Color of course is a lot different between the white LED and the A2's incan. I don't know if you can say that one is better at seeing color than the other. The LED beam is truer to daylight, but has some holes in its spectrum. The A2's beam is skewed way red. So I think each type of light has its problems.

Scott

Wow! some good responses, a lot of stuff to ponder, but I like the versatility of the Kroma.

After having done an exhaustive review on the K2 KROMA ("Surefire K2 KROMA & KROMA MilSpec", Post #40), I decided to take my own advice and NOT buy the K2MS. Since I do not NEED the Y/G or IR colors for night-vision use, and the Red/Blue colors have a much better beam quality and are much more versatile on the regular K2 KROMA with the high/low intensity option, this is a much better light for me. It also seems to be a much better option for hunters and pilots. In addition, the ability to overshine the blue or red colors with "high white" on the K2 KROMA gives you more spectrum and intensity versatility than the K2MS version. Just a few thoughts - not the Holy Grail.

Hope this helps,

Flashdark sends,
Flashdark spends.

bumped for the info

grrr, not all of us have ours yet!

Ryan

I don't think I mentioned it above, but the Milspec "dies" better. As the batteries die, the bright white just gets dimmer. In my regular Kroma it suddenly stops wrking.

I think the "PK" milspecs are different animals. They seem to have a different user interface than the newer milspecs. I think the PK milspecs have bright white available with each color, whereas the newer ones only have the single brightness level for colors. (Can someone confirm that about the PKs?)

Scott

You can have both leds come on at the same time if you turn the bezel to the in between position.

rscanady said:

grrr, not all of us have ours yet!

Ryan

Click to expand...

I don't have one yet either that is why I wanna hear what the owners say.

I have both the K2 KROMA (got it several months ago) and K2MS KROMA-MILSPEC (arrived less than a week ago). Right now I think the K2 is the better general purpose light, since I like the fact that the high-white output is available no matter what position the LED selector ring is in. But right now I am EDCing both lights so that opinion may change as I play with the K2MS a bit more.

I posted some pics comparing the lights in this thread: The Kroma Zone: Register Your Light Here

Just got my Kroma Milspec today. It fits my needs perfectly. I like the fact that I cannot inadvertently flash the high white thereby desroying night vision, or compromising position. It truly is well thought out as a tactical piece of equipment, and the versatility is what makes it such a value, especially at the price I got it for from WWW.TACTICALSUPPLY.COM.

For those who don't have to worry about the opposition and do not require the IR capability I would imagine that the standard Kroma would be the perfect setup.

As for my Milspec, the pocket clip has already been removed and it is riding comfortably in my Milt Sparks 6P/Mag combo pouch. One word of caution though to any who use the 69/Mag pouch. Once you stretch it to fit a Kroma or U2 the pouch does not safely retain the 6P light. It's a one way trip.

keeping thread alive for reviews

I bought a PK Kroma for an acquaintance headed to Iraq. IIRC viewed from the back of the light, the far right was low and high white, turning left was IR (don't know if it was two-level or not - there was an occasional "blip" of white when the switch was pushed all the way), turning left was low and high green, turning left was low and high red and one more left was low and high blue.

(It's possible the green and IR spots are reversed, just can't remember)

Here are my first thoughts on the Kroma MILSPEC:

First of all, I think it's a shame they don't use the two-stage switch for the colored LEDs. Either it could be used to have 2 brightness levels for the colored LEDs or it could be used to activate the white main LED like it's done on the regular Kroma. There would be NO downside to this as you could always lock-out the high position with the tailcap, just as you do with the A2, L2 etc. I can only think of one explanation for this: they'd have to alter the circuit too much to allow for this, so they decided not to do it.

WHITE beam: This is good, the low beam is a little bit brighter than on my regular Kroma, otherwise they are pretty much the same. Yes, this is not a Cree, not even a K2, it's just a LuxIII, but the beam is useful and will do the job in most cases. Good!

RED beam: Low output with usefull flood beam and little artifacts, this is just about what you need when it comes to night-vision preserving low-output red light. Very good!

GREEN beam: *VERY* low output with a pretty narrow beam with some artifacts. Might be useful when Gen3 night vision equipment is used nearby, otherwise totally useless, even for color-coded maps (because of its narrow beam).

BLUE beam: Very poor beam almost entirely made of artifacts, hard to understand how they could go for these LEDs. A blue Photon Micro offers more output and a beam that is close to perfection when compared to the blue beam of the MILSPEC.

IR beam: The beam is very floody, which is good for most NV situations. Output is very low, even the good old M1 looks like a bright little sun in the beam of the MILSPEC, when other IR lights like the PentagonLight S2-IR or even the X5TM-IR are used, you can no longer decide if the MILSPEC's IR beam is on of off. Don't know what to think about this. If you're reading maps with NV equipment, then the MILSPEC's IR beam is perfect. I can also see it work when moving inside buildings. However, for outside use and fast moving, you need more output.