gadgetnerd
Enlightened
In my relentless search for the perfect AA torch I decided to take a punt on one I'd heard very little about: the Wolf Eyes Angel-A. I got mine in from www.wolfeyes.com.au for AUD $99 + $10 postage, thanks to Glen for really excellent service.
So, essentially a nearly $100 AA torch, is it worth the cash? Here's my impressions and a few pix. It's not dark here yet so no beamshots. Glen is promising a few more up at www.wolfeyes.com.au in the near future.
The torch arrived in a nice gift box, containing the light, a 14500 protected 750MAh Wolf Eyes battery (more on this later), a wrist lanyard, and a simple instruction manual. Pulling the torch out I was immediately impressed with its looks. Simple clean lines, not too aggressive, but with enough grip points. The light is actually a little larger than I expected. The powder textured Type III anodising is a really nice silver grey, I've not seen it this colour before. In general the fit/finish is essentially perfect, no blemishes, no dust or smudges on the lens or reflector, no stray blobs of solder on boards. Wolf Eyes have a reputation for extremely well built torches, and this one fits that bill.
The Angel uses a simple non programmable UI with a reverse click switch. It turns on at 100% brightness, 1/2 press to 20%, 1/2 press to 2%, 1/2 press to strobe. The clicky feels pretty nice and firm. It protrudes enough to make tail standing possible but not terribly secure. There's a non-removable tail clip built in, and hole for a lanyard just above the clip. I'm not sure how you'd go about getting to the switch if it or the rubber tailcap needed replacing.
There's no bezel component to the UI, so the head actually screws into the body, with an O ring to ensure waterproofing. The threading is very smooth. The Cree Q5 LED is perfectly centered at the bottom of a quite shallow OP reflector. The lens is glass, o-ring protected, but I'm not sure if it is actually antireflective coated.
OK, put the 14500 in and fire the beast up. Wow! It's advertised at 180lm (1hr runtime) and I actually believe it, it's significantly brighter than any other CR123 or AA torch I have. 1/2 click brings about 40lm (5 hr), 1/2 click to 5lm (50 hr), 1/2 click to 180lm strobe. The brightness control is via PWM, but the frequency is high enough to not be too annoying (compared to say the Proton Pro). There's a very slight inductor whine in med/low.
The beam itself has a very tight hotspot, with the usual cree ring and artifacts. The tint is perfect white.
So far so good: rock solid build; nice simple UI; thermonuclear brightness on high. Let's pop a NiMH in...
Light comes on at 40lm, 1/2 press to 10lm, 1/2 press to 2lm, 1/2 press to 40lm strobe. Yes folks, this is essentially a 14500 only torch, the electronics just can't drive the LED very well from NiMH, alkaline or E2 lithium. On NiMH it'd be perfectly useful around the house, reading at night on low, but for blasting possums out of trees at 50 paces, the NiMH is just not going to cut it. I have to admit I was a bit disappointed with this, since much cheaper lights like the NDI are perfectly willing to pump 100+ lm out of an NiMH.
So here we are at the end of the review. Summary time
Pros:
Beautifully built
Astonishingly bright on 14500
Uncomplicated UI
Cons:
The usual cree artifacts
PWM (but not bad)
Not a performer on normal AA
Expensive
I really like the torch a lot, despite its high price. It's not the perfect AA light, but then again I don't think such a beast exists yet.
So, essentially a nearly $100 AA torch, is it worth the cash? Here's my impressions and a few pix. It's not dark here yet so no beamshots. Glen is promising a few more up at www.wolfeyes.com.au in the near future.
The torch arrived in a nice gift box, containing the light, a 14500 protected 750MAh Wolf Eyes battery (more on this later), a wrist lanyard, and a simple instruction manual. Pulling the torch out I was immediately impressed with its looks. Simple clean lines, not too aggressive, but with enough grip points. The light is actually a little larger than I expected. The powder textured Type III anodising is a really nice silver grey, I've not seen it this colour before. In general the fit/finish is essentially perfect, no blemishes, no dust or smudges on the lens or reflector, no stray blobs of solder on boards. Wolf Eyes have a reputation for extremely well built torches, and this one fits that bill.
The Angel uses a simple non programmable UI with a reverse click switch. It turns on at 100% brightness, 1/2 press to 20%, 1/2 press to 2%, 1/2 press to strobe. The clicky feels pretty nice and firm. It protrudes enough to make tail standing possible but not terribly secure. There's a non-removable tail clip built in, and hole for a lanyard just above the clip. I'm not sure how you'd go about getting to the switch if it or the rubber tailcap needed replacing.
There's no bezel component to the UI, so the head actually screws into the body, with an O ring to ensure waterproofing. The threading is very smooth. The Cree Q5 LED is perfectly centered at the bottom of a quite shallow OP reflector. The lens is glass, o-ring protected, but I'm not sure if it is actually antireflective coated.
OK, put the 14500 in and fire the beast up. Wow! It's advertised at 180lm (1hr runtime) and I actually believe it, it's significantly brighter than any other CR123 or AA torch I have. 1/2 click brings about 40lm (5 hr), 1/2 click to 5lm (50 hr), 1/2 click to 180lm strobe. The brightness control is via PWM, but the frequency is high enough to not be too annoying (compared to say the Proton Pro). There's a very slight inductor whine in med/low.
The beam itself has a very tight hotspot, with the usual cree ring and artifacts. The tint is perfect white.
So far so good: rock solid build; nice simple UI; thermonuclear brightness on high. Let's pop a NiMH in...
Light comes on at 40lm, 1/2 press to 10lm, 1/2 press to 2lm, 1/2 press to 40lm strobe. Yes folks, this is essentially a 14500 only torch, the electronics just can't drive the LED very well from NiMH, alkaline or E2 lithium. On NiMH it'd be perfectly useful around the house, reading at night on low, but for blasting possums out of trees at 50 paces, the NiMH is just not going to cut it. I have to admit I was a bit disappointed with this, since much cheaper lights like the NDI are perfectly willing to pump 100+ lm out of an NiMH.
So here we are at the end of the review. Summary time
Pros:
Beautifully built
Astonishingly bright on 14500
Uncomplicated UI
Cons:
The usual cree artifacts
PWM (but not bad)
Not a performer on normal AA
Expensive
I really like the torch a lot, despite its high price. It's not the perfect AA light, but then again I don't think such a beast exists yet.
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