Premierlight, your opinions please

Hi all,

I work for Premierlight in the UK, and deal with European exports and get involved in the development of current and new products.
I would like to ask you all, the end-users, what you would like to see from our future products so that we can improve the products available to you.

We acknowledge there have been reliability issues in the past and this is something that has already been, and will be continually improved as a matter of urgency. However in order to improve any other problems we first need to know what you all have found using our products.

I hope that by listening to our customers that the Premierlight brand can continue to evolve in the global marketplace.



Thank you for taking the time to read this.



Lee Vincent.

Premierlight (UK) www.premierlight.co.uk

double-posted in LED forum... start by following rules...

Might want to give a website address in your signature so those of us who don't know who/what you are can learn...

Apologies for the double post, can a mod please delete the LED thread and keep this one?

Thanks,

Lee

I've never owned a PL, but came close a couple of times. Their reputation at that time was that they were built like tanks, but had unimpressive performance.

So, maybe put a few of the new, powerful emitters in there (Cree, SSC), and keep/update the nice bodies?

It would also help (for U.S. customers) if you had a U.S. dealer with a reputation for strong customer service.

Thanks for your input,

I really don't want to try turn this into a corporate advertising thread but will say that we are updating the range as we speak, to include the latest LED's including the Cree xr-e, amongst others so watch this space.

It is very positive to hear that the bodies are well thought of though. We are re-launching the brand worldwide with new staff in the US office, so we are confident that side of things should improve as well.

Lee

Bodies, expecially heads, really look like Chinese products. In fact, I think the heads were identical to some of the old MXDL heads. Asking price on some of the lights was through the roof. I've seen, on one site, the 5w light sell for $203 bucks! Others had it for $139. I think that was WAY too much for what they are. I managed to get a couple of the 5w lights for what I thought was cheap ($73 a piece, on eBay), but they ended up being so underperformaning, that $73 was still way too much, especially when there were 5W lights that were superior to the PL, and cost even less. I think I tried selling one of the 5W lights for $60, still unused, and nobody wanted it. I gave that one away. Actually, I forgot I even had the other one, until seeing this thread. Hmmm..... Also, of the two I had, even though one was just a single mode light, and the other dual (on and SOS, not high/low, which is stupid), the performance differed great. The dual mode light had the weakest performance of any 5w light I've ever seen, and shouldn't have even made it into the public's hands, especially when it could have potentially been sold for $203 bucks; this leads me to be QC is very poor. I doubt anybody on CPF would be a big fan of the beam produced by the optic, either.

Thanks, this is exactly the kind of information we need to be able to improve the performance of the products.

Thanks again for taking the time to reply,
Lee

Trashman said:

I doubt anybody on CPF would be a big fan of the beam produced by the optic, either.

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I prefer a light with optic. I like a long running, not too bright light, with optic that throws a decent beam. 5mm LEDs are still great.

I ran a passaround of a few of your products some time ago (JonSidneyB was the dealer back then). The switch failure rate was dismal; I'm glad to hear you've worked hard on improving your designs.

I remember them being built like tanks (thick walls), having an overall nice look and finish to them, but some lack of attention to the assembly details (off center optics, gummy switches, etc.). With all the advances in LED technology, it might be worthwhile looking into upgrading the LED emitters to something else. Also, as much as having a light "built like a tank" is appealing to some, it makes the lights extra heavy and larger than they could be.

The PL7 (IIRC) was the one that caught my attention because of the laser function. I kept thinking it'd be a great light to market to business people - always carry a light, and have a laser pointer handy.

I'm sure I'll think of something else later on.

I own several Premierlights and agree with much of what has been said. I love the beefy body walls of the PL-7, and even the tailcap, which is beefier than that of the Inova line. I also love the body of the PL-1. I actually have several of both the PL-7 and PL-1. I wrote a couple of positive reviews a few years ago here on CPF about these lights. But it's very true about the unreliability of their performance. At least 50% of the time the lights work. 50% of the time the act of depressing the switch results in no action. The fix involves unscrewing the tailcap, dropping the cells out, putting them back in, screwing on the tail, and hoping the light will work. Sometimes this involves going through the routine again. Eventually, the light will begin to perform again. But you can't count on it. So how can you rely on it in actual field use?

In addition to improving the switch reliability, I'd like to see a brighter output (which it sounds like you're working on), and a way to override the four-stage interface. I don't like having to cycle through all the modes, including SOS, just to get back to full power.

I was amazed that, while seeking a US contact last year, I discovered that the sole US contact was a person who lives in my city, just a few miles from my house. Haven't looked into that lately, though, so I'm sure this may have changed.

greenlight said:

I prefer a light with optic. I like a long running, not too bright light, with optic that throws a decent beam. 5mm LEDs are still great.

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The optic doesn't produce a throwy beam or even a decent one (unless you're comparing it to an older Lux I, but it ain't, it's a Lux V). It doesn't even produce a nice square beam. It's makes beam that is like a square, but each side is concave. Looks something like a type of star. I think optics are cool, especially when they can get you a beam like the one on the Stryker VG, but this optic doesn't do that. You still get a wall of light, but a very dim one, which an odd, very noticeable shape in the middle of the beam. I guess the four dies of the Lux V mixed with the optic get you this shape, but I think reflector would have been a better choice, anyway.

Thanks everyone for the replies, it's encouraging to see most of the problems mentioned are things we are working on improving already. However, problems like having to cycle through all the settings is something perhaps we need to look at. As with using reflectors instead of optics. This is something we can 'experiment' with. All your feedback will be incorporated into a full review of the range.

Lee