During my weekly check of the local Academy Sports to see if they have anything new in the flashlight department, I stumbled on a S&W Galaxy light...3 LED's powerwed by 3 N cells. It looked pretty neat with it's clickie switch and two operating modes(constant on and flashing mode), so I decided to take a chance. At $19.99 it didn't look like a bad deal.
The "fit and feel" of the light aren't bad. It's about the same length as a MiniMag, slightly slimmer with a slimmer/tapering head, and feels pretty good in the hand. Aesthetics aside, don't bother spending your hard earned $$ on this light. The clickie switch feels pretty cheap and will undoubtedly fail before too long...it just "feels" too fragile. In terms of output, this light is SORRY for three LED's! In fact, my Ultra G with 1 LED is noticeably brighter than this light. On the package, run time is stated as 100 hours on 3 N cells. As badly underdriven as these LED's appear to be, that figure probably isn't too far off. The strobe mode is kinda neat...it flashes at a rate of approximately 3-4 times per second, so as a safety light for changing a tire on a dark road it might be kind of useful. Aside from that and maybe finding a niche as a nightstand light, IMHO it's just too dim for anything other than extremely up-close tasks such as chart reading or something like that.
After purchasing this light, I did a search and saw that Craig had done a review on it. Shame I didn't recall seeing his review on this one (which is suprising, because I spend a lot of time at the Museum!), because I would've saved the 20 bucks. As it is, I'll still keep the light in my collection (that's grown from 11 lights to 93 lights since becoming a member in March of last year...I have a VERY understanding and patient "significant other"!!!), as I'm sure it will get some use somewhere.
Anyway, IMHO, save yer $$$ and stay away from this one...
Craig's review: http://ledmuseum.home.att.net/galaxy.htm
PJD
The "fit and feel" of the light aren't bad. It's about the same length as a MiniMag, slightly slimmer with a slimmer/tapering head, and feels pretty good in the hand. Aesthetics aside, don't bother spending your hard earned $$ on this light. The clickie switch feels pretty cheap and will undoubtedly fail before too long...it just "feels" too fragile. In terms of output, this light is SORRY for three LED's! In fact, my Ultra G with 1 LED is noticeably brighter than this light. On the package, run time is stated as 100 hours on 3 N cells. As badly underdriven as these LED's appear to be, that figure probably isn't too far off. The strobe mode is kinda neat...it flashes at a rate of approximately 3-4 times per second, so as a safety light for changing a tire on a dark road it might be kind of useful. Aside from that and maybe finding a niche as a nightstand light, IMHO it's just too dim for anything other than extremely up-close tasks such as chart reading or something like that.
After purchasing this light, I did a search and saw that Craig had done a review on it. Shame I didn't recall seeing his review on this one (which is suprising, because I spend a lot of time at the Museum!), because I would've saved the 20 bucks. As it is, I'll still keep the light in my collection (that's grown from 11 lights to 93 lights since becoming a member in March of last year...I have a VERY understanding and patient "significant other"!!!), as I'm sure it will get some use somewhere.
Anyway, IMHO, save yer $$$ and stay away from this one...
Craig's review: http://ledmuseum.home.att.net/galaxy.htm
PJD
