Gerber Protean/Mongoose?

spoonrobot

Enlightened
Joined
Aug 2, 2005
Messages
396
The two lights have the same basic form factor; the Protean is White, Red, Blue, Green and IR with a price of @30$

The Mongoose is White, Red, Blue, Green and UV with a price of @20$.

I'm on the edge about these lights. Basically a glorified keychain light with 5 different lighting options and some other features. But the multitude of colors is an attractive set-up, especially the UV.

Anybody have a review or any in-hand input?

Mongoose
Protean
 

Wes_Robinson

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Dec 29, 2007
Messages
10
i have the mongoose its great for what it is, if your looking for enough light to say read map, or inspect public toliets before using, money detection, find you way threw a dark house, or in the car at night. its a keychain light. alot easier then carring and swapping filters your primany flashlight. hope that helps or makes sense, i can take photos of it if need be.
 

darknessemitter

Enlightened
Joined
May 14, 2008
Messages
202
The two lights have the same basic form factor; the Protean is White, Red, Blue, Green and IR with a price of @30$

The Mongoose is White, Red, Blue, Green and UV with a price of @20$.

I'm on the edge about these lights. Basically a glorified keychain light with 5 different lighting options and some other features. But the multitude of colors is an attractive set-up, especially the UV.

Anybody have a review or any in-hand input?

Mongoose
Protean


The Mongoose is a fun light, and seems to be well-made, but keep in mind it's a lot bigger than a typical coin-cell light.

In addition to the 5 main leds, there is a tiny "mode indicator" white led that faces up, right in front of the switch, and as you rotate the selector dial for the the different colored leds, the dial moves different colored filters over the indicator light, corresponding to the currently selected led. When the the momentary button is pressed partway but not all the way, the indicator led will shine through the filter, allowing you to see what mode it's in without having to turn on the brighter main leds.

Pressing the momentary button in all the way or sliding the constant on switch into the "on" position keeps BOTH the selected led and the indicator led on.

Now here's why that last part matters: the selector dial has a "lock-out" position when you turn it as far as it will go counter clockwise. None of the main leds will light up in this position when the switch is in the on position, but the tiny indicator led WILL. You won't see the indicator light directly because in place of a color filter it will be blocked out by opaque plastic; however, you can still see light leak out the front of the flashlight around the forward facing leds.

This means you have to make sure the constant-on switch is OFF even if the dial is in the "lock out" position to avoid draining the batteries.

The UV led is not very deep UV, but is still enough for basic use.

The white, red, blue and UV leds have pretty decent beams, but the green led has a strange, very obvious ring in the beam, a lot like the beam patterns of the blue and green leds of the Coast 4-Color light.

I would recommend removing the weird magnetic flexi-strap thing that comes clipped onto it unless you actually expect to use it; it's bulky, and the powerful magnet makes me worry that it'll de-magnetize something.
 
Top