JET-III PRO ST or wait for Quad Cree?

The new JET-III PRO ST seems like exactly what I'm looking for...high power from a small light. The only drawback that I see with it is it's inability to use CR123's in a pinch. Other than that, it looks awesome.

My question is should I pre-order this one, or hold off until something even better comes out, like the Quad Cree? I doubt we will see much better from a Q5 light, unless maybe Fenix or Nitecore comes out with something comparable, in the Q5 form.

What are your thoughts?

Thanks

When the Quad Cree comes out I guarantee there will always be something better to wait for. If you are always waiting for that new light, you will never buy anything.

As for only being able to use 18650s, I see that as a good thing. Most light that are able to use the higher voltages drop out of regulation really fast with 18650.

Personally, I'm gonna wait(a short while) for a review!

04orgZx6r said:

When the Quad Cree comes out I guarantee there will always be something better to wait for. If you are always waiting for that new light, you will never buy anything.

As for only being able to use 18650s, I see that as a good thing. Most light that are able to use the higher voltages drop out of regulation really fast with 18650.

Personally, I'm gonna wait(a short while) for a review!

Click to expand...

+1
Waiting is pointless.

+1
18650 has a lot of juice; efficient buck-boost with flat regulation is what I like.

+1
Spec can be awesome, but usually reviews are more objective.

Thanks guys, both of your replies are very true. I've never owned an 18650 LED light, so I'm not that familiar with them. The dropping out of regulation thing is very true. The Jet III Pro ST seems like a light that rocks, although I've had good luck with Fenix and Nitecore lights. My main thing is that a Quad Cree light, if it's close to the same size and uses an 18650, would be worth waiting for, especially if it's just around the corner.

Is there any word on this?

Cutter stock the chip late aug / early sept 08; I'm guessing that flashlight manufacturer might take some time for the sake of profit (waiting for the chip price to come down). I wouldn't hold my breath.

Aaron said:

Thanks guys, both of your replies are very true. I've never owned an 18650 LED light, so I'm not that familiar with them.

Click to expand...

I'm a big fan of 18650 lights for their power, runtimes, and rechargeability.

But you have to realize that they are a different animal from primaries, so what often (always?) happens is that the designer of a light will either optimize their electronics for best efficiency and power with either the 18650 or CR123 primaries.
Whenever you see a light that "can" use both, what you get is a light that works better on one than it does on the other. The example that quickly comes to mind is the A8 and A9 Tiablo.
Either of those lights will use both 18650 or CR123 batteries, but the A8 works better on the 18650 while the A9 works much better on CR123 primaries. You would choose which of those lights to get based upon which type of battery you intended to use most often in them.

So what I do is to simply choose a light that uses a particular battery best and go with it.
Since I have lights that operate on just 18650's, and I have lights that use just CR123's, I have all the bases covered. I use the 18650 lights more regularly due to their "free" lumens of rechargeability, but I also have my CR123 lights ready with lot's of stashed primaries ready for power outages.

As far as waiting for the "next" generation of LED, if you do that, you'll never buy another light again because the "next, new" LED will ALWAYS be just around the corner.
My opinion is that, starting with the Q5's, we have now gotten to the point where any light with that LED or later is more than enough for 99% of any situation.
In fact, I use the lower settings on all my lights more often than their higher settings because I simply don't need that much light most of the time. For the (rare) times when I need some "real" light, I just whoop out my AE 25W Xenide and have at it. :naughty:

For the record, I've already pre-ordered both the ST and the Pro because I really like "free" lumens. :twothumbs

My .02