Shootout! Novatac 120P vs Nitecore Defender

Would anyone who owns both of these lights be kind enough to give us a showdown on how they compare to each other side-by-side in terms of performance, beam, hotspot, programmability, etc? (Plenty of pics please :naughty

They seem like very similar suited lights in form factor and in function. I know the nitecore is slighter longer and higher output and the novatac is shorter and stockier - Is the user defined programmable output infinite with both? How low can you get the low on each? Is the UI easier and more reliable on once vs the other or are they about the same once you have it mastered?Any flickering issues with the nitecore on very low settings?

Any other input from the owners who have used the light for awhile would be helpful and very appreciated.

I'm interested in buying one for EDC purposes and using it for general use - ie - for jogs/walks at night on dimly lit streets, walking around a dark house at night to check the *bumps* in the night - very low setting to not disturb anyone but would like to be able to quickly ramp up to extreme brightness if needed.

Thanks in advance for any input or advice you can offer - You bring the review and I will bring the popcorn :thumbsup:

Draven451 said:

Would anyone who owns both of these lights be kind enough to give us a showdown on how they compare to each other side-by-side in terms of performance, beam, hotspot, programmability, etc?

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I don't own both, just the NDI, but I'll tell you what I know:

How low can you get the low on each?

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Pretty low with the NDI, but from other threads I've read the Novatac goes much lower.

Any flickering issues with the nitecore on very low settings?

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None in my light.

very low setting to not disturb anyone but would like to be able to quickly ramp up to extreme brightness if needed.

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I'm not sure about the Novatac, but with the NDI you can just twist the head and have it switch to full power instantly.

Howdy Draven 451,
You can find reviews of both lights, along with the ability to see side-by-side comparisons of beamshots and features here:

http://lightreviews.info/reviews.html

I do own both lights.... and I actually EDC BOTH, ha. I think overall the NovaTac is a more refined, versatile, and ultimately more useful light, with the absolute best user interface that I've yet encountered .... giving you the ability to customize the light to how YOU want it to work..... and you can change that setup with only a few clicks any time you want.

However..... I do like the NDI for it's ability to run on common AA batteries, which is one reason I also EDC it. I run mine with a Sanyo Eneloop NiMh rechargeable, but it's nice to know I could pop in any AA alkaline in a pinch if I needed to.

The NovaTac is NOT infinitely adjustable... but I find it MUCH easier to select exactly the right light level from it's 22 choices (Plus 2 strobes or SOS) because it steps slowly thru them, so you can know precisely what level you are on, and how much runtime you can expect, where the NDI goes from low to high (or high to low) in about 7 seconds, and you need to turn it off at just the right spot in order to save that setting. Not ideal for me.... but not terrible either.

The NovaTac goes from .08 to 120 lumens in 22 steps, while the NDI (using a NiMh 1.2 volt cell) goes from about 1.3 lumens to 100 lumens in what appears to be a near infinite stepless fashion. I don't notice any flickering on any of the NDI's levels. My first NovaTac had a flickering issue on it's lowest level, but that was quickly replaced by NovaTac and my new one (6 month old now) has had no such problems.

I think it would be hard to beat the beam of the NovaTac, it's darn near perfect in my opinion... with a nice tight hotspot which transitions smoothly into the corona and then into the bright spill beam. It not only looks beautiful on a white wall, but translates well into the real world where you get excellent throw and also a nice wide spill beam.... the perfect walking light (especially with the addition of the NOS HDS 17670 battery tube available at Lighhound.com which looks to extend max runtime at 120 lumens from 30 minutes to 140 minutes).

The NDI beam is more typical of what we've come to expect from a Cree LED..... a very bright and well defined hot spot with a slight (but not bad) darker area around the corona and then a wide and bright spill beam. It's actually a very nice and usable beam, a tiny bit cooler than the NovaTac's Seoul LED, and also quite suitable for out walking at night or around the house duties.

While the NDI can quickly go from it's low setting with a quick twist of the bezel... there is a slight 1/2 second delay before that change takes place.... while the NovaTac can be programmed to give you INSTANT access to Max ouput anytime by just pressing the rear switch.... and then it will return the previous level by releasing the switch, very cool.

Then one thing I REALLY DON'T LIKE about the NDI are the sharp corners of it's 3 prong bezel and tailcap guard. I can see those eating away a pocket in no time and I've considered sanding them down, however I've ended up carrying mine bezel up in my pocket and that seems to have helped so far, but I seriously think Edgetac should reconsider that design as it is definitely NOT pocket friendly.

I don't find the NovaTac obtrusive at all in my pocket but was worried about it slipping out, so I bought a coil tether from CPF member greenLED and now I'm very secure knowing it will not be lost accidentally.

So, both are good lights......and at half the price the NDI could probably fill your needs quite well, however you might still be able to find a NovaTac 85P in the $100 range (or keep your eyes open for a 120P on B/S/T). If I had to choose just one there is no question it would be the NovaTac ...... but I do feel better having both lights with me.

I hope that helps.

I've got them both, and the DI has knocked the Novatac out of it's place as my EDC pocket carry for 2 main reasons:

One, I like to be able to select my high or low mode without having to cycle through the other modes to get to it. With the DI, it's a twist of the cap, with the Novatac, you have to turn on to your primary, then cycle through to the desired setting.

Two, the size. I could never get comfortable with the Novatac in my pocket due to the diameter. The DI is so slim I don't even know it's there. I carry it on a lanyard so the sharp corners on the bezel aren't an issue, it just kind of hangs there in my pocket.

Having said all that, I usually still have my Novatac on me, I just bought a holster for it.

mapper66 said:

with the Novatac, you have to turn on to your primary, then cycle through to the desired setting.

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Not necessarily true, depending on how you've configured your Novatac.

You can set it up to always come on in "Primary," or you can configure it to remember how it was when you last turned it off.

Even the term "cycle through" is misleading, as getting from one level to any of the other three takes only a series of clicks; you never see any intermediate light levels as you switch among them.

Both lights are nice; the buttery smooth flood beam of the Novatac and the super low makes it my go-to light for inside use, while the versatility of the power sources and slim shape of the Nitecore gives it more time out of doors (where the multiple dark rings that plague my unit are less visible, though still annoying).

mapper66 said:

I've got them both, and the DI has knocked the Novatac out of it's place as my EDC pocket carry for 2 main reasons:

One, I like to be able to select my high or low mode without having to cycle through the other modes to get to it. With the DI, it's a twist of the cap, with the Novatac, you have to turn on to your primary, then cycle through to the desired setting.

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mapper66, maybe you own the 120T, but this discussion was about the 120P as per the original poster's thread title.

The 120P allows you to program it to come on in ANY of it's 4 user definable settings.....primary, secondary, max, or low..... and of course you can program all 4 of those settings to ANY of the 22 light levels between .08 lumens-120 lumens or 2 different strobes or SOS..... OR..... you can have the light remember the last level you were using when you switched it off and it will come on in that level. The choice is yours.

Fallingwater said:

I'm not sure about the Novatac, but with the NDI you can just twist the head and have it switch to full power instantly.

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The NDI takes a long time to switch from low to high. Mine takes almost two seconds. If I turn it to high when it is off, I can use it for minutes of half second bursts before it evenually goes to high. This is one of the things that bug me about the NDI, though I still like it a lot. The second thing is flickering and connection issues with the switch when trying to use momentary, the third is a blue tint which is not really a NDI issue, but Cree issue. The Novatac (I have a 120P with the tactical tailcap) switch works flawlessly. Mine had some low level flicker issues at first, but that went away by itself quickly even though I use the second lowest level as my low, and that is the level I use the most.
The HDS and Novatac do have a short delay going from a level to max as well, but not very long, maybe a quarter second.

I think Derek has done a great job describing the differences between these 2 lights.

I have both and like both. Overall, the Novatac is far superior tho. If the Novatac was available in AA, I would be all over it.

I do think the NDI is a good light, not worth $80, but a good light. I just think the Novatac is a lot better.

Why?

- I like the interface better. Easy access to 4 programmable evels.
- Trust in the company. People seem to like HDS more, but Novatac is better than Nitecore (no disresepect to Nitecore tho, they are doing a good job).
- More reliable operation. I've seen the insides of the Nitecore switch. It's okay, but these forward clickies are not the toughest things. Even Surefire has problems with it's forwad clickies!
- Good protection for Li-on batteries. Thermal protection too.
- No reliance on squeaky clean threads to maintain reliable operatoion.
- Cool upgrades (lenses, bezels etc) available for Novatac.


Again, the main reason I like the NDI is that it runs on AA/14500 (and performs well on AA too). It's also cheaper and slimmer.

The Novatac is better overall to me tho.

Blindasabat said:

The NDI takes a long time to switch from low to high. Mine takes almost two seconds

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Yours is not like mine, and those of everybody else I've heard about around here. It's possible you got a pre-release review version; IIRC, those had a 2 second delay and took longer to go from minimum to maximum power.
A normal NDI has a half-second delay.
You should get yours serviced/replaced by EdgeTac.

The second thing is flickering and connection issues with the switch when trying to use momentary

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Again - contact EdgeTac.

I have both.. The only thing that comes to mind is that song that goes 'Anything you can do I can do better, I can do anything much better than you!' The Novatac 120p is better than the NDI in all respects other than cost.

The OP asked about input from users. I find the ability to select either high or low on the DI before I hit the tailcap switch useful.

I have the 120P. No matter what you have programmed the levels to do, you have to hit that first click to get to any of the others. So if I've programmed for low on primary, but I want high when I turn it on, I've got to get to primary before I can get to the others. No way around it, you've got to turn the light on.

Great replies so far! Thanks for everyones time and input.

Can anyone post and pics of the two lights side by side so we can see a size comparison? Any chance of taking pictures of the beams at different settings to see the difference in beam shapes and patterns?

CPF'ers Rock!

:twothumbs

Hmmm........ after re-reading the post a few more times.... I see that I might have misread what mapper66 was saying..... which is that when the NDI is off, you can turn the bezel which allows you to select whether the light comes on in low or high. I'm sorry if I mis-interpreted that mapper66.

However.... the NDI does have a quirk in that department. If you turn the light off in the user defined low mode and then tighten the bezel, when you turn the light on it will come on in low first, then 1/2 second later it will change to high.

With the NovaTac, you can set your light so that from off it will come on in low with one click....or max with a click-hold, in which case it is acting very similar the NDI... it comes on briefly in low and then quickly (much faster than the 1/2 second of the NDI) switches to max.

Actually, I've always thought the Fenix L1D handled this type of action superbly, giving instant access from off to either low or high by setting the bezel to the appropriate position before turning the light on.

ooo, ive been looking for this, thanks Derek Dean

Crenshaw

Derek Dean said:

However.... the NDI does have a quirk in that department. If you turn the light off in the user defined low mode and then tighten the bezel, when you turn the light on it will come on in low first, then 1/2 second later it will change to high.

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Yep, I conveniently left that out. I get around it by turning to high before I go to off. It would be nice if it acted like the Fenix. After reading that torture test done on the T1 recently, I might need to check one of those out. Not to throw another light into the mix for the OP or anything......:devil:

Don't get me wrong, I REALLY like the NDI. I'm amazed at how bright it is using a single AA NiMh cell, and I've found the UI to be exceptionally easy to use, and I too like that it can turn on in either high or low, which is why it's my back up EDC..... it's a great little light.... but I do hate the bezel on it..... almost a deal breaker for me ......... but not quite.

Anyway, here is a photo of both lights side by side along with with my keychain light, the Lumapower Avenger:



And here are some comparison beamshots. Canon G3, full manual, color balance set to daylight, lights 3 feet from the wall, camera 4 feet. The first series was shot at 1/5 second at F 2.0. The second set was shot at 1/15 second at F 2.0.

Do remember that these photos were done with the NDI running a 1.2 volt NiMh cell. I think it is a bit brighter using a 3.7 volt lithium-ion cell. The NovaTac is running a 3.7 volt RCR123.

NDI 1/5 sec. f 2.0


NovaTac 1/5 sec. f 2.0


NDI 1/15 sec. f 2.0


NovaTac 1/15 sec. f 2.0


So, there you go. 2 excellent lights. I think you would be happy with either one. It might come down to whether you want something slimmer and a bit longer, or shorter and a bit thicker.

Excellent! pictures Derek Dean - Thanks for contributing to this post.

Looking at the beamshots it appears that the Novatacs hotspot while intense and bright diffuses very nicely into the overall corona of the light very nicely whereas the nitecore's hotspot is very bright and clearly more defined and identifiable. How do these two different beam patterns effect illuminating objects at say 20-30 feet?

For me there are two other important factors: price and battery type. The DI will become my 24/7 EDC light when I buy it.

Draven451 said:

How do these two different beam patterns effect illuminating objects at say 20-30 feet?

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Here you go. The bush in the middle is about 25 feet. Canon G3, full auto (except white balance which I forgot and left set to 'auto'). All exposures 2 seconds f 4.0. ASA 400. BTW, I threw in the L2D-CE, Avenger, and Microstream for fun.

NDI set to full output with a Sanyo Eneloop 1.2 volt NiMh cell


NovaTac 120P set to 85 lumens


Fenix L2D-CE set to High (not turbo)


Lumapower Avenger set to Turbo running an AW 10440 cell


Streamlight Microstream 1xAA fixed at 20 lumens


I'll let you draw your own conclusions from those photos.

Anyway, there you go. Do remember that there are a LOT of new lights coming out in the next few months, so don't be in to much of a hurry. Enjoy the hunt!

mapper66 said:

The OP asked about input from users. I find the ability to select either high or low on the DI before I hit the tailcap switch useful.

I have the 120P. No matter what you have programmed the levels to do, you have to hit that first click to get to any of the others. So if I've programmed for low on primary, but I want high when I turn it on, I've got to get to primary before I can get to the others. No way around it, you've got to turn the light on.

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Can't you get to maximum with NovaTac 120P instantly from off...
" Click Press: Maximum setting from off "

Quote from the "Quick Start" section in the manual, or does it go to primary when you release the "press".

I am considering buying one of these two today. I have been up all night thinking about it and I am getting lost and confused after looking at so many for so many weeks, but I think today is decision time

Not a user yet..,
Fathom