MacTech
Enlightened
This thread should be the official thread in which CPF'ers who were able to purchase Quickbeam's "Mystery Box" in B/S/T, rather than clutter up Quickbeam's thread with the contents (and the inevitable reviews) of the lights in our "Mystery Boxes"
There's no way I could even hope to write reviews of the caliber and completeness of the ones found on FLR, so i'll just do quick capsule reviews
I'll break down the lights as follows;
Lights I *KNEW* would be great;
Pelican M3 LED; Very solidly built, bright, nice tight hotspot, throwy beam, Luxeon lottery winner, minor artifacts in the spillbeam, and minor ringiness, only visible when WWH'ing, unnoticeable in normal use, comes with a very nice nylon sheath with room for 3 extra 123a's
Seems to be relatively upgrade-freindly, the Lux3 star is held in place with a simple friction ring, a simple star-swap should allow the installation of a Cree or SSC emitter
Inova X5 (original style) I have a newer X5 already (smooth body, brighter LED's, knurled tailcap), but what really surprised me is how much better the *old* X5 is, the new X5 trades runtime for brightness, the old X5's white LED's are not the "Angry Blue" of Nichia CS LED's, they are nice, neutrally balanced , a little blue, but also a little yellow, no angry blue hotspot with a yellow flood, just a good, basic, balanced flood beam
the grooved body of the light is a lot more grippable than the new X5's smooth slabside body as well
the "Peak Pack" Now i know why Peak has such a cult following here, the brass bodied Peaks are *phenominal*, excellent machining, and a good solid heft, they simply ooze Quality, my favorites are the multi-LED models, the brass 7 LED single 123a cell model, the 5 LED AA cell model, and the 3 LED AAA model, no they're not the brightest lights out there, but they are quite usable, and exceptionally solidly built, heck the single AA 5 LED model weighs more than a 2 cell Minimag, as does the 3 LED single AAA
I have no "N" cell batteries yet, so i haven't yet been able to try the diminuitive Shasta N cell series, looking forward to that one, especially the single LED pocket bodied brass Shasta
the only real dissapointment in the Peaks is the single LED polished reflector 1AA model, it's exceptionally dim, lets hope it has a ultra-long runtime to make up for it....
Good, solid lights
Streamlight TwinTask 3AA; not a bad little light, sort of an "anorexic A2 Aviator Wannabee", nice solid construction, floody low beam LEDs, very similar to the A2, the incan however, can't compare to the Mighty A2, the TT-3AA is about half as bright and with a less sharply defined hotspot, still, a great general purpose light, not really EDC'able, but a good car light or nightstand/bathroom light
Diamond 10X; looks remarkably like a Coast light, with the narrow waist behind the head, very wide, smooth flood, much brighter than a stock incan Minimag, good heft to the light as well, feels solidly built, a definite incan Mag killer for those needing a floody light
AdvanceMart 3AAA .5W quite a decent little light, a few artifacts in the hotspot due to the smooth reflector, but not bad for general use, has a nice smooth spill, loses points for the 3aa battery carrier though
AdvanceMart .5w 123a Nickel Plated Brass a nice little long running battery sipper, it's also (according to FLR) RCR123a compatible
Pleasant Surprises
Coast LED Lenser V2; I know Coast doesn't have a good reputation here on CPF, so i wasn't really expecting much from the V2, well, i was wrong, the V2 has an *incredibly* wide flood on white, a very nice, smooth, wide flood, arguably the widest flood i have, the red LED in the center is somewhat ringy (as red LED's usually are) but not bad, great white flood though
Brinkmann Legend LX; It's no SureFire, that's for sure, however it is a decent, solidly built Xenon light with an adequate focusing system, not a bad starting point for someone getting into high-powered 123a based incans
Petzl Myo 5; a good, solid hybrid headlamp, nice floody LED's, and a usable focusing incan beam, the 3-point headband wasn't as uncomfortable as i thought it would be
Nuwai 6 AAA 1W i expected a 6 AAA Luxeon light using an extanded battery carrier to have either crappy output, or mediocre runtime, but this Nuwai has neither, it puts out a surprisingly usable amount of light, has a decent hotspot (minor greenish corona, but not objectionable), and according to FLR, actually has decent runtime, around 10 hours or so, this is one battery-carrier based light that's actually decent
Dorcy 4AA focusing lantern; this one definitely caught me off guard,these Dorcy lanterns look like a truly gimmicky product that would be absolutely mediocre, in trying to be both a flashlight *and* a lantern, you'd think it'd do neither one well, well this one's a definite diamond in the rough...
the first thing it needed was a bulb, and as expected, the MagLED bulb was too wide to fit it, so i went with the next-best thing, the Sears PR base Luxeon bulb, dropped in the Sears PR Lux, screwed the lid back on and installed the batteries.....
when you first switch on the lantern, it's in flashlight mode, and at initial turn-on it has an *exceptionally* tight, focused beam, i mean a *seriously* collomated beam, as you slide the bulb holder up, the beam unfocuses into a sharply defined flood spot and you get sidespill diffused through the sides of the lantern, it's not the prettiest beam profile out there, WWH'ers will absolutely *hate* it, but it's the most useful LED lantern i've used yet, it easily outperforms my 3x as expensive Brunton camping lantern
toss a Sears PR based Lux in the Dorcy focusing lantern and you have a very versatile light source, nice work, Dorcy
AdvanceMart 41 LED "Showerhead" light; yes, yes, i know, according to FLR, this is a mediocre light, it burns through a set of batteries in 20 minutes, it's a simple, primitive, direct drive light, decidedly unsophisticated and rough
but it has it's charm, when all 41 LED's light up for that 20 minute runtime, you're treated to a nice wide, smooth flood, this thing is a superflooder, and i'm rather partial to floody flashlights, heck, the 20 minute runtime doesn't even bother me, as i have plenty of cheapo Rayovac 750 mAH rechargables i can feed it, when i start to see dimming, i recharge one set and drop in another set
and finally, we come to, sadly.....
Dissapointments
Hey, they can't *ALL* be winners, can they?
Generic 3AA 6 LED flashlight; the body's rather nice looking, smooth, wavy aluminum, a light blue anodizing, unscrew the cap and drop in 3 AAA cells, hit the tail clickie....
and you're treated to a somewhat dim, greenish floody beam, it's not *bad*, mind you, but it's just average, if not a little below average, it'd be fine for the Unenlightened, but not for afficionados like us....
Streamlight 2AA Tasklight WHAT?!?, i hear you say, why the frak is MacTech putting a Streamlight flashlight in the "Dissapointment" category, heck, he put that 41 LED AdvanceMart Cheapie that burns through batteries in 20 minutes in "Pleasant Surprises", yet he puts a Streamlight in the Dissapointment category??? what gives, has he gone *insane??* (no, don't answer that )
the reason i put the SL 2AATL here is because of (according to Quickbeam) it's "Parasitic" circuit, simply leaving batteries in the light will drain them, and to me, that's an inexcusable design flaw, especially on a flashlight that's meant to be tossed in a drawer until it's needed....
performance-wise, the 2AATL is a decent performer, it's actually nice to have 2 power levels on a 2AA light, but having to remove the batteries when you're done is an annoyance, if the light didn't have a parasitic circuit, it would have been placed in my "Decent light" category, but the parasitism doomed it, sorry....
CMG Reactor 3 I know The LED Museum often uses the term "Urine-yellow" to humorously describe the tint most LED flashlights *DO NOT* have, but i never thought i'd see one that *HAS* that tint....'
This is the one, the Lux emitter has a sickening yellow-green tint (Vomit-Tint, i call it), which is sad, really, because otherwise, it's actually not a bad light, it's got a nice balanced beam profile, a somewhat floody beam, if i could only get inside it's hermetically-sealed body, it could benefit from an emitter swap, maybe even a Cree or SSC, turn it into a Sleeper light, but as it stands, the horrible tint drops this one to "Dissapointments"
and finally, the last light in the bunch;
Gerber Meridian; Long story short, Gerber probably got the Lux in this one from the same batch as the CMG Reactor 3, this one also has a horrible "****-yellow" tint, and also has a hermetically sealed head, making emitter replacement difficult, if not impossible, just like the Reactor 3, if it had a better emitter (or even a less-repulsive tint), this would have rated a "solid"
Doug, many thanks for the opportunity to own a piece of FLR history, hope i didn't step on your toes with the last four mini-reviews, they can't *all* be winners, can they?.....
Okay, next "Mystery Box" owner, feel free to add to this thread
I'll take some pics tomorrow and add them to this thread, it's late and i'm tired, got no sleep last nigh.........zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz............................
There's no way I could even hope to write reviews of the caliber and completeness of the ones found on FLR, so i'll just do quick capsule reviews
I'll break down the lights as follows;
Lights I *KNEW* would be great;
Pelican M3 LED; Very solidly built, bright, nice tight hotspot, throwy beam, Luxeon lottery winner, minor artifacts in the spillbeam, and minor ringiness, only visible when WWH'ing, unnoticeable in normal use, comes with a very nice nylon sheath with room for 3 extra 123a's
Seems to be relatively upgrade-freindly, the Lux3 star is held in place with a simple friction ring, a simple star-swap should allow the installation of a Cree or SSC emitter
Inova X5 (original style) I have a newer X5 already (smooth body, brighter LED's, knurled tailcap), but what really surprised me is how much better the *old* X5 is, the new X5 trades runtime for brightness, the old X5's white LED's are not the "Angry Blue" of Nichia CS LED's, they are nice, neutrally balanced , a little blue, but also a little yellow, no angry blue hotspot with a yellow flood, just a good, basic, balanced flood beam
the grooved body of the light is a lot more grippable than the new X5's smooth slabside body as well
the "Peak Pack" Now i know why Peak has such a cult following here, the brass bodied Peaks are *phenominal*, excellent machining, and a good solid heft, they simply ooze Quality, my favorites are the multi-LED models, the brass 7 LED single 123a cell model, the 5 LED AA cell model, and the 3 LED AAA model, no they're not the brightest lights out there, but they are quite usable, and exceptionally solidly built, heck the single AA 5 LED model weighs more than a 2 cell Minimag, as does the 3 LED single AAA
I have no "N" cell batteries yet, so i haven't yet been able to try the diminuitive Shasta N cell series, looking forward to that one, especially the single LED pocket bodied brass Shasta
the only real dissapointment in the Peaks is the single LED polished reflector 1AA model, it's exceptionally dim, lets hope it has a ultra-long runtime to make up for it....
Good, solid lights
Streamlight TwinTask 3AA; not a bad little light, sort of an "anorexic A2 Aviator Wannabee", nice solid construction, floody low beam LEDs, very similar to the A2, the incan however, can't compare to the Mighty A2, the TT-3AA is about half as bright and with a less sharply defined hotspot, still, a great general purpose light, not really EDC'able, but a good car light or nightstand/bathroom light
Diamond 10X; looks remarkably like a Coast light, with the narrow waist behind the head, very wide, smooth flood, much brighter than a stock incan Minimag, good heft to the light as well, feels solidly built, a definite incan Mag killer for those needing a floody light
AdvanceMart 3AAA .5W quite a decent little light, a few artifacts in the hotspot due to the smooth reflector, but not bad for general use, has a nice smooth spill, loses points for the 3aa battery carrier though
AdvanceMart .5w 123a Nickel Plated Brass a nice little long running battery sipper, it's also (according to FLR) RCR123a compatible
Pleasant Surprises
Coast LED Lenser V2; I know Coast doesn't have a good reputation here on CPF, so i wasn't really expecting much from the V2, well, i was wrong, the V2 has an *incredibly* wide flood on white, a very nice, smooth, wide flood, arguably the widest flood i have, the red LED in the center is somewhat ringy (as red LED's usually are) but not bad, great white flood though
Brinkmann Legend LX; It's no SureFire, that's for sure, however it is a decent, solidly built Xenon light with an adequate focusing system, not a bad starting point for someone getting into high-powered 123a based incans
Petzl Myo 5; a good, solid hybrid headlamp, nice floody LED's, and a usable focusing incan beam, the 3-point headband wasn't as uncomfortable as i thought it would be
Nuwai 6 AAA 1W i expected a 6 AAA Luxeon light using an extanded battery carrier to have either crappy output, or mediocre runtime, but this Nuwai has neither, it puts out a surprisingly usable amount of light, has a decent hotspot (minor greenish corona, but not objectionable), and according to FLR, actually has decent runtime, around 10 hours or so, this is one battery-carrier based light that's actually decent
Dorcy 4AA focusing lantern; this one definitely caught me off guard,these Dorcy lanterns look like a truly gimmicky product that would be absolutely mediocre, in trying to be both a flashlight *and* a lantern, you'd think it'd do neither one well, well this one's a definite diamond in the rough...
the first thing it needed was a bulb, and as expected, the MagLED bulb was too wide to fit it, so i went with the next-best thing, the Sears PR base Luxeon bulb, dropped in the Sears PR Lux, screwed the lid back on and installed the batteries.....
when you first switch on the lantern, it's in flashlight mode, and at initial turn-on it has an *exceptionally* tight, focused beam, i mean a *seriously* collomated beam, as you slide the bulb holder up, the beam unfocuses into a sharply defined flood spot and you get sidespill diffused through the sides of the lantern, it's not the prettiest beam profile out there, WWH'ers will absolutely *hate* it, but it's the most useful LED lantern i've used yet, it easily outperforms my 3x as expensive Brunton camping lantern
toss a Sears PR based Lux in the Dorcy focusing lantern and you have a very versatile light source, nice work, Dorcy
AdvanceMart 41 LED "Showerhead" light; yes, yes, i know, according to FLR, this is a mediocre light, it burns through a set of batteries in 20 minutes, it's a simple, primitive, direct drive light, decidedly unsophisticated and rough
but it has it's charm, when all 41 LED's light up for that 20 minute runtime, you're treated to a nice wide, smooth flood, this thing is a superflooder, and i'm rather partial to floody flashlights, heck, the 20 minute runtime doesn't even bother me, as i have plenty of cheapo Rayovac 750 mAH rechargables i can feed it, when i start to see dimming, i recharge one set and drop in another set
and finally, we come to, sadly.....
Dissapointments
Hey, they can't *ALL* be winners, can they?
Generic 3AA 6 LED flashlight; the body's rather nice looking, smooth, wavy aluminum, a light blue anodizing, unscrew the cap and drop in 3 AAA cells, hit the tail clickie....
and you're treated to a somewhat dim, greenish floody beam, it's not *bad*, mind you, but it's just average, if not a little below average, it'd be fine for the Unenlightened, but not for afficionados like us....
Streamlight 2AA Tasklight WHAT?!?, i hear you say, why the frak is MacTech putting a Streamlight flashlight in the "Dissapointment" category, heck, he put that 41 LED AdvanceMart Cheapie that burns through batteries in 20 minutes in "Pleasant Surprises", yet he puts a Streamlight in the Dissapointment category??? what gives, has he gone *insane??* (no, don't answer that
)the reason i put the SL 2AATL here is because of (according to Quickbeam) it's "Parasitic" circuit, simply leaving batteries in the light will drain them, and to me, that's an inexcusable design flaw, especially on a flashlight that's meant to be tossed in a drawer until it's needed....
performance-wise, the 2AATL is a decent performer, it's actually nice to have 2 power levels on a 2AA light, but having to remove the batteries when you're done is an annoyance, if the light didn't have a parasitic circuit, it would have been placed in my "Decent light" category, but the parasitism doomed it, sorry....
CMG Reactor 3 I know The LED Museum often uses the term "Urine-yellow" to humorously describe the tint most LED flashlights *DO NOT* have, but i never thought i'd see one that *HAS* that tint....'
This is the one, the Lux emitter has a sickening yellow-green tint (Vomit-Tint, i call it), which is sad, really, because otherwise, it's actually not a bad light, it's got a nice balanced beam profile, a somewhat floody beam, if i could only get inside it's hermetically-sealed body, it could benefit from an emitter swap, maybe even a Cree or SSC, turn it into a Sleeper light, but as it stands, the horrible tint drops this one to "Dissapointments"
and finally, the last light in the bunch;
Gerber Meridian; Long story short, Gerber probably got the Lux in this one from the same batch as the CMG Reactor 3, this one also has a horrible "****-yellow" tint, and also has a hermetically sealed head, making emitter replacement difficult, if not impossible, just like the Reactor 3, if it had a better emitter (or even a less-repulsive tint), this would have rated a "solid"
Doug, many thanks for the opportunity to own a piece of FLR history, hope i didn't step on your toes with the last four mini-reviews
, they can't *all* be winners, can they?.....Okay, next "Mystery Box" owner, feel free to add to this thread
I'll take some pics tomorrow and add them to this thread, it's late and i'm tired, got no sleep last nigh.........zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz............................
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