PILA arrived, impressions and review (long)

I ordered 2 flashlights from PILA and some accessories. The accessories where back ordered and the shipment was held until they where available and until PILA had Paypal. It was shipped to me on Monday and arrived today (Thursday) from Hong Kong, not bad at all. It did cost $33.00 for shipping but that isn't bad for 3 days and half a world away during airline problems and a war.

1st. some product background.
PILA has 3 basic lights in the product line that , two of them can be ordered in 2 differing configurations and the third comes only one way.
The G2 & G3 series can be ordered with a fixed clickie cap. The GL2 & GL3 come with a removeable lock out LED tail cap with 4 LED's at 5 lumens. The G series is water resistant to 3m and the GL series are spalshproof. Both series come in an "R" variant using rechargeable LI-ion batteries (1). Therefore you would have G2(fixed clickie) & GL2 (LED switch) Both would use DL123's. The GL2R uses a 3.7 volt lamp and LI-ion batterie. Both are rated at 80 lumes and 40 minute burn for the DL123 and 50 minute for the Li-ion. You can go switch back and forth between batterie types but must swap lamps, the 3.7v will burn out with 6v power. Both lights use a convex polycarbonate lens, the GL4R uses a concave lens. The GL4R (M90 copia) has been reviewed before so I'll stay away from it here. The white LED's have some type of luminous paint that glows slightly after the LED's are turned off

The GL3 series is the same except that it is rated at 130 lumens and 50 minutes . You can swap betterie types without lamp swap. This light usesd (2) Li-ion batteries that are about 1/12 the length of a single DL123. Adapters are provided for the charger as it is designed to charge a batterie the length of 2 DL123's

Fit & finish on these lights is very very nice. Far better machine work than the Pelican M6 and not a whole lot behind the SF line.The lamps are far nicer thanthe ones that wargamer is supplying for the M90 Rattlesnake (PILA GL4R)
The GL2R is slightly smaller than a Surefire G2 but has a wider bezel so my SF accessories will not fit /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif . The quality of light is very nice, one large central hot spot with a nice bright surround easily on par with SF comparable lamps. I ordered mine with a red LED as this will work well for me on duty at night. One bad thing is the LED tailcap must be screwed back to the point of almost falling off in order for it to lockout. I have it screwed back enough that inadvertant activation is unlikely. The clickie tail cap is positive, and has enough meat to get your finger on. It lockouts just fine. The lEDS on the GL2R are rated at 3 1/2 Lumens, on the G2 series it is 5 lumens.

The GL3R was ordered with white LED Tailcap and optional clickie switch. The fit and finish of this light is very nice with only a few very light machine marks in the scallops. The lamp is very clean and free of the imperfections I saw in the M90 lamps from Copia.
The light is crisp, white and focused perfectly. The focus is on a par with my SF P60 &61 and X80 lamps. never having an SF 9v flashligth I have nothing to compare it too but it seems to be about the same size as a SF 3 cell light, a little smaller than I want for on duty at night as it doessn't have the heft and size to be used as an attitude adjuster if needed /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/twak.gif

Tailcaps can not be swithced between models but the LED's can be removed and installed in other tailcaps by loosening one screw.

Both lights came with a small printed multi page instruction booklet and very attractive foam fitted boxes.

While these lights are not inexpensive they seem to be well made and put out a very high quality of light, the LED tailcaps have very long run times GL2R 68 hours and GL3R 60 hours so in the event of a blackout or terrorist attack and the lights go out you can find the bathroom /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif.

I also ordered 2 spare lamps for the GL3R and 3 for the GL2R. I ordered the 168S battery to use one of the 3.7v lamps in my SF G2Z, but jennifer e mailed me that she forgot to sendd an adapter spring to convert the 3.7v to use in a SF, she sent it airmail so I will have it in about 10 days or so.

The only down side I can see to these is the polycarbonate press fit lens.

Jennifer atPILA was wonderful to deal with, answered all questions promptly . When I inquired about the cost of the nylon holsters she threw them in for free and gave me one for the GL4R that I purchased eslewhere. PILA are a class act to deal with.

This thread has the pricing information, for those of you interested.
PILA/COPIA Price list , Straight from Pila

Is there any way trim these links, so they don't hijack the page width? I really hate when I have to scroll (especially since its my fault)!

Looks fine on my screen

[ QUOTE ]
madecov said:
a little smaller than I want for on duty at night as it doessn't have the heft and size to be used as an attitude adjuster if needed /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/twak.gif



[/ QUOTE ]

iirc you looked at me funny when i mentioned this in another thread. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Check this out Floating Spots:PILA/COPIA Price list , Straight from Pila
<font class="small">Code:</font><hr /><pre>Code removed in interest of brevity.</pre><hr />

Now that the example has been used, I've removed it so this thread should hopefully narrow down again. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

TKL, Yeah I know but it really is an illumination tool. I would never ever use it to adjust anyones attitude. That would violate departmental policy and could get you into a civil suit /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ohgeez.gif

Why is this post so wide when there aren't any pictures in it? In my experience the post only widens when pictures are posted that exceed the standard width. This even exceeds 1024 pixels by a considerable margin.

Great review, nightmare scrolling across it though.

Cant you edit it so the link is like this....

[ url=http***linktothread]click here for the link[ /url]

then you get this....

click here for the link

Thanks Treek13.
I'm learning.....
I went back and used (stole) your code.

Thanks again.

You are welcome.

I left it there for you to use(take).

Pat

Thanks for the great review. I've been looking for exactly this to try and decide whether to go ahead and order some lights from Pila. I've been looking at an M3 for a while, but haven't been able to justify it. This just may be the ticket.

Since I work night shift, I got a chance to put both lights through some work.
The GL2R was perfect as far as the red LED's go for illuminating some license plates on occupied suspicious vehicles. In addition I have responsibility to patrol over 40 buildings and respond to alarms, the red LED allows me to illuminate the door lock without blowing my night vision or allerting anyone who might be in the building. It also allows me to illuminate the alarm panels in the buildings.

The GL3R is small, light and bright /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsup.gif it was bright enough to annoy folks on traffic stops and illuminate the rear seat of a car even with dark tint. One down side in an LEO application is the white LED. When you push the switch to light the main lamp it "flashes" the LED. Depending on the position of the light this can cause a momentary distraction to the Officer and in a tactical situation could illuminate yourself for a brief second. The clickie switch is definatly the better way for tactical use. I will leave the clickie on the GL4R and the LED's on the 2 & 3. I am very pleased with the products

After some more "playing" with the lights I found that they can be disabled in similar fashion to the lock out tail cap but with a lock out head. Just turn the bezel until it is no longer tight against the body. This is not a whole lot just loose and the light becomes inactive. This works great on the GL2R as the lock out tail cap (led) requires it to be turned back to the point of almost falling off. Run times have been as advertised and the discharge is very flat with almost no reduction in illumination across the whole run time.

With a little modification my G2Z traffic cone fits the LED side of the GL2 or GL3 and provides more than adequate illumination for traffic direction. The really neat thing is on a major accident that requires extended use of the traffic cone I have anywhere up to 60 hours of illumination of the traffic cone where with any other flashlight I have uop to an hour, all this without having to worry about melting my lens or blowing a lamp assembly /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsup.gif.

The DC charger is great and does not cause any interferance with the radio reception on either the Police radio or the "good time" radio like my Surefire charger.