NiteCore Defender Infinity - First Impressions thread

The NightCore Defender Infinities are beginning to be received by CPFers.

There are a myriad of different reviews out there, and some great photographs of the light - the quality of most of them I wouldn't ever come close to, so I won't even try.

In this thread, post your first impressions of the light, what you like and don't, and whether you would recommend it at the retail price of around $80.00.

I was surprised (very pleasantly) to receive mine today.

I had read every post in every thread about it, and I think I've seen every picture. I knew what to expect, but was still impressed when it arrived.

The box is great. The foam gives it a feeling of an expensive electronic instrument, which I guess it is.

Fit and finish are very good. The anodize was very even and matching on my sample, and seems quite tough. I tried to scratch the inside of the anodized tailcap with a knife using reasonable pressure, and was unable to. The threads are clean and smooth.

They could do without some of the markings which clutter up the appearance of the light.

The output seems to be amazing. I put it up against my LiteFlux LF5, both on 14500 cells, and the LF5 was humiliated. I can't wait for darkness so I can put it against my Fenix P3DR100.

There was some mention early on of a connection between NiteCore and JetBeam. The parts of my JetBeam Jet-I are interchangeable with the NiteCore, lending some creedance to this "rumor".

Bottom line is... I'm very impressed. I only bought one for the introductory $60.00 price. I thought about buying two, and am sorry now that I didn't.

Highly recommended light, easily worth the $80.00.

:twothumbs

mchlwise, thanks for your impressions. let us know how it fairs against the almighty P3D. Can't wait till mine shows up.

A snowstorm went through Utah last night, but I went out in a break and braved the cold to take some beamshots of the NiteCore. It's surprisingly bright!

First, a control shot of the subject - a bench in my back yard with a table in front of it, a birdhouse on the table, rosebushes and the house behind, and a fresh layer of snow on all of it (I was about 15 feet away):



I wanted to put the NiteCore against the best that I had - a Fenix P3DR100. I never expected the NiteCore to be as bright as the Fenix, but was pleased with how well it did:



It's definitely brought the single AA form-factor into a range that makes it competitive with the 123 cell lights such as the LiteFlux LF3).

What was really impressive was it's performance on NIMH. I threw some freshly charged NIMH cells into it and a Fenix L1DR100 (a P2DR100 head on a single AA body):



The NightCore is as bright as the LF3 (which runs on a 123 cell), and brighter than the Fenix (on a NIMH cell). I compared it in the above shot also with the LF5 on 14500. The NiteCore has a brighter hotspot, but I think overall it's putting out about the same lumens as the LiteFlux. It's amazing to me though - because the LiteFlux is on a 3.7 volt 14500, and the NiteCore is on a NIMH!

It's not perfect. The ringiness typical of cree based lights is there, in spite of the orangepeel on the reflector, and the Q5 doesn't have near the color-rendering of the Rebel. The NiteCore washed out warm colors noticeably compared to the P3D.

After playing with it outside at night (briefly :green I'm very impressed and definitely stick to my first impression of it being worth the $80 retail price.

I plan a full-on comparative review when I finally get mine. Mind you, it'll take a few weeks... :shakehead

Thanks alot for taking those pics.. looks pretty impressive with 14500. I never ran those before so this will be a first for me.

Nice!

Looking forwards to taking mine out.

mchlwise said:

It's not perfect. The ringiness typical of cree based lights is there, in spite of the orangepeel on the reflector, and the Q5 doesn't have near the color-rendering of the Rebel. The NiteCore washed out warm colors noticeably compared to the P3D.

Click to expand...

The NDI also has a narrow and dim outermost ring of light. I wonder if that's due to the strike bezel?

Thanks for braving the cold and taking those nicely controlled shots.

Great feedback mchl. I generally seem to have similar reactions to lights as you do so I put a fair amount of stock in your opinion!

I like my Liteflux lights (LF2 and LF5) a lot and this seems to be more of a direct competitor to the LF5 than anything else on the market right now. To compare the Nitecore seems to be basically a two stage light with 100% and a user selectable mode - somewhat like the P1 and user adjustable modes on the LF lights if P1 is fixed at 100% and user adjustable is accessed through loosening the bezel?

I have a Dereelight CL1H (had a Fenix T1 and would like a Fenix L1T v2.0) and I like a two stage with clickie arrangement - this seems to add the ability to adjust one of those modes.

I asked in another thread but how does the ramp up/down compare to the LF series (it's one glaring weakness)?

It does seem that the SSC P4 - which is a nice emitter and has a nice smooth and floodier beam, is being outpaced by the Q5 emitters - although the LF light driver board does seem to sacrifice some efficiency for features - no question the Nitecore seems to have a pretty efficient driver to combine programmability along with a high output.

Gatsby said:

I like my Liteflux lights (LF2 and LF5) a lot and this seems to be more of a direct competitor to the LF5 than anything else on the market right now. To compare the Nitecore seems to be basically a two stage light with 100% and a user selectable mode - somewhat like the P1 and user adjustable modes on the LF lights if P1 is fixed at 100% and user adjustable is accessed through loosening the bezel?

Click to expand...

Yeah, I guess the NiteCore's closest competitor is the LF5. They're both multi-mode lights with programmable brightness.

As far as features and modes, though, the LF5 wins handily. The Nitecore is essentially a 3-mode light: 1) 100%, 2) strobe (at 100%) 3) user-selected level. The LF5 has what... 7 or 8 modes, and all of them are user-adjustable. The Nitecore's only "programmable" mode is the user-selected mode which the light goes into when the head is loose.

The ramp up/ramp down is MUCH more noticeable (and I think better) on the Nitecore. It's much quicker from one extreme to the other. I always have trouble with the Lightflux when it's bright trying to see if it's actually dimming or not. No such problem with the Nitecore. When it gets to where you want, push the button to turn it off, and it comes on again later at that brightness.

The LF5 is MUCH more programmable, but it's also much harder to program. You can program P1 and P2 on the LF5 to be whatever you want them to be - twist a little for a little light and a lot for a lot, or twist a little for a lot and a lot for a little. Either level can be set for whatever intensity you want. (Mine is set for P1 at a low low and P2 at full bright).

With the Nitecore, tight bezel is 100% and loose bezel is whatever you set it to be. You can tighten or loosen the bezel before turning it on to get the level you want (though if you turn it off in low and tighten the bezel, it will come on in low for a split-second then bump up to high).

Strobe is much easier to get to on the Nitecore (start at tight, then quickly loosen and tighten), but it's not programmable. The LF5 has 2 strobe modes which are both programmable, but again only if you have the patience to do so.

One of the downsides of the Nitecore is actually strobe's accessibility. It's easy enough to get into that it can be done accidentally. The light senses if the head is loosened, and if it's tightened again quickly it changes modes. There is just enough play in the threads that if you loosen it slowly, or torque it while you do, or put some pressure on the head, it can lose contact and regain it again and activate strobe without you intending to do so. I've done it a couple times, and so did my wife when she first looked at it. The easy "fix" for this is to twist quickly and aggressively going from tight to loose so it gets far enough away to not make "accidental" contact again and switch to strobe.

I've never been a big fan of the Seoul emitter, but I like it a lot more after having my LF5 and LF3. The beam is much more diffuse and smooth. In the snow last night the cree rings were VERY noticeable, and the cree has a much more defined hot-spot. Of course, this does make it much more of a thrower. As far as throw, the Nitecore is second only to the P3D in my collection.

I really wish they would throw a Rebel into the Nitecore.

Strong Light with NiMH
still waiting for mine as well :candle:

nanotech17 said:

Strong Light with NiMH
still waiting for mine as well :candle:

Click to expand...

I thought you should have received it already, being closer to China?

Anyway, Selamat Hari Raya!

Selamat Hari Raya
I think the M'sia post office personnel are having fun with mine,the customs will release it within an hour as always.
Unless Pos Laju got hold of it than the delivery will be smother.
But i skipped the EMS

Got mine today, I'm in Honolulu, Hawaii. Didn't pay EMS, just took the free shipping...

Initial impressions good so far, just trying to ge the programming down pat. Using Eneloops from the package, I find my hotspot is about 10% bigger than my Inova Bolt (2 x 123) and just a hair dimmer (barely noticed it!) shone on a wall some 8 feet away...

Just got mine today!

General first impressions:
-Its d@mn bright on an AW 14500!
-Nice large hotspot and throw. Especially for a light on the AA platform.
-The forward-push momentary clickie is very smooth- one of the better ones out there IMO.
-UI is a bit of a pain- not a fan of all the twisting. I'll probably end up using the max & user-programmable modes...any strobe function is completely useless for my needs. We'll see if it replaces my Jetbeam C-LE V2.0. I like the Jetbeams UI - simple last function memory, easy to scroll through.
- Fantastic for what I paid but I doubt I'd go for it at the $80 regular price

Overall: great quality thrower in a small package! But I doubt it will be replacing my P3D Q5 or NovaTac 120P as an EDC anytime soon.

I got my three last week. I finally got to clean and lube the threads and o-rings. Everything is perfect. The forward clickies are all smooth and reliable. The UI is great and works perfectly on all units. Output is top of the class.

Down side - slight mismatch on anodizing of one light in particular and slightly stiff bezels to twist (tailcaps are ultra smooth and have anodizing on threads while heads are stiffer with chemcoat(?) on threads.

Overall rating, my favorite AA light by far.

mchlwise said:

The parts of my JetBeam Jet-I are interchangeable with the NiteCore, lending some creedance to this "rumor".

Click to expand...

Does the Nitecore head work on the Jetbeam body?

Mine ARRIVED today! They made it before xmas as promised!:twothumbsFirst impression WOW,very bright on both NIHM and lion.Beautiful white beam
My Ultrafire 14500 fit and work no problem as does AW14500.
Mine arrived NO ems in RI(USA)

A big thanks to Nitecore!:twothumbs Great product!

Paul6ppca said:

Mine ARRIVED today! They made it before xmas as promised!:twothumbs
Mine arrived NO ems in RI(USA)

A big thanks to Nitecore!:twothumbs Great product!

Click to expand...

Our Mail-Men must be Santa Claus in disguise, because he just dropped of my light too!!!

No EMS shipping for me, shipped to CT.

Absolutely love the look and feel of the light. Perfect length, slender body (compared to my EDC P2D), and the clicky tailcap has such a nice soft smooth feel .

You could say I'm just beaming.

Does anyone elses light whine when on? My light is quite loud when there is no background sound.

Just noticed the noise is related to brightness. The brighter the light, the louder. Quite a whine on high mode.