Finally took the Fenix plunge...

After reading so much about Fenix products for the last couple of years, I finally broke down and bought myself an Olive L1D Premium Q5...and I love it! I think it lives up to the hype, very high build quality, very versatile and VERY bright on the "High" and "Turbo" settings. And the "Strobe" feature will be fun to use to irritate the girlfriend! I can see many years of use with this one.

I had some extra money and decided to get a new 1AA light, but a "quality" one this time from a respected brand. I spent a lot of time reading about the many different higher end single cell AA lights and narrowed it down to the L1D Q5. It was a VERY tough decision, there are a LOT of really cool 1AA lights out there, but the L1D seemed to fit my needs the best and the fact that it doesn't use PWM on the lower settings sealed the deal.

Maybe I'll have to buy one of the other single AA lights some day, just to check them out. I had better wait a good while though...I've had Flashaholism BAD lately! I've bought a Surefire G2 (yellow) and a M60L to go with it, then a SF 9P with another M60L and now the Fenix, all in the last two months! I've GOT TO STOP!!! At least for a while. Should be too much of a problem though, I think I'm more than covered for pretty much any situation, light-wise.

I should have followed the advice I read in a CPFers sigline (that member's name escapes me at the moment)...it reads: Why buy a bunch of cheap lights, when you could take all that money and buy one really good one?" or something close with the same sentiment. I have learned there are some good cheaper lights out there, but consistent quality isn't cheap. You do get what you pay for in most cases.

did u get an extension tube for the l1d?

Not yet, but I'm thinking about it...all I've seen are black tubes, which probably wouldn't look all that great with Olive head and tailcap. I'm still tempted though...

And :welcome:

I'm a big fenix fan too. Haven't saved up enough yet for anything really nice from them yet tho. I have the e0,e1 and the lod-q4. Im a city boy so the keychain lights have been the most useful for me. However, I really like the e20, I may give in and get it very soon. If you don't have one you should definitely get one of their keychain lights, they are wonderful.

I was thinking about getting an EO1 or an LOD CE for the girlfriend's keychain, depending on how generous I feel when her B-day time comes.

Congrats. The L1D is a great light. One of the top 2 or 3 for 1AA lights for sure.

When you've had a chance to let your wallet recover, consider buying a L2D tube so you can throw 2AAs in it for even brighter turbo output and longer run time.

Toohotruk said:

And the "Strobe" feature will be fun to use to irritate the girlfriend! I can see many years of use with this one.

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Presumably referring to the L1D, not the girlfriend if that strobing continues!

As for the L1D Q5, great light.
Maybe add a little brother for it to you flashlight family, L0D Q4...?

Toohotruk said:

I was thinking about getting an EO1 or an LOD CE for the girlfriend's keychain, depending on how generous I feel when her B-day time comes.

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Get here an L0D, a very nice light, and she will be more accepting of your future purchases. The only downside to is she'll have to be happy with a more conservative color. Hell get her both!

Toohotruk said:

Not yet, but I'm thinking about it...all I've seen are black tubes, which probably wouldn't look all that great with Olive head and tailcap. I'm still tempted though...

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Fenix Store have the olive body and tailcap available.

HeadCSO said:

Fenix Store have the olive body and tailcap available.

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I don't know how I missed that! :thinking: Unless they just put it up in the last day or so...might have to go for that...then I'll stop for awhile...I swear I will! :duh2:

At least I have a couple of months to decide what to get the girlfriend, but I'm leaning toward the L0D. Guess I'll just see what she says about my L1D and if she doesn't like it, then she'll get an EO1. :devil:

Toohotruk said:

I should have followed the advice I read in a CPFers sigline (that member's name escapes me at the moment)...it reads: Why buy a bunch of cheap lights, when you could take all that money and buy one really good one?" or something close with the same sentiment. I have learned there are some good cheaper lights out there, but consistent quality isn't cheap. You do get what you pay for in most cases.

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Because you won't cry as much when you lose a $30 light over a $230 one.

That's how I got my SF Scout weapon light and I know some poor ******* was hating life.

-Trevor

Toohotruk said:

After reading so much about Fenix products for the last couple of years, I finally broke down and bought myself an Olive L1D Premium Q5...and I love it! I think it lives up to the hype, very high build quality, very versatile and VERY bright on the "High" and "Turbo" settings. And the "Strobe" feature will be fun to use to irritate the girlfriend!

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When you tire of the strobe and SOS functions (most of us do), try the Fenix L1T RB80. It won't be quite as bright on High, but, 95% of the time, you'll just be using the lower mode (Fenix calls it Low, I would call it Primary). You will probably come to prefer the simple operation of the momentary-on, forward-clicky switch. The light is also available with a Q2 emitter, but I would personally recommend the Rebel emitter - it has a more even beam, brighter hotspot, no rings, and is a much better color to my eye than the blue Cree beam.

jag-engr said:

When you tire of the strobe and SOS functions (most of us do), try the Fenix L1T RB80. It won't be quite as bright on High, but, 95% of the time, you'll just be using the lower mode (Fenix calls it Low, I would call it Primary). You will probably come to prefer the simple operation of the momentary-on, forward-clicky switch. The light is also available with a Q2 emitter, but I would personally recommend the Rebel emitter - it has a more even beam, brighter hotspot, no rings, and is a much better color to my eye than the blue Cree beam.

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I have a cheapie DX Rebel 1AA and I really do love the warm hot spot, and I can just imagine one in a Fenix...might have to keep my eyes open for one on BST...

Niconical said:

Presumably referring to the L1D, not the girlfriend if that strobing continues!...

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Somehow I missed that comment when I read through the posts the first time...

LOL, I guess I meant that I plan to get many years of annoying my girlfriend with the strobe function on my L1D, meaning I will likely keep them both for a long time.

Well, I couldn't help myself...I took the advice offered above in this thread and I bought an olive L0D Q4 a couple of weeks ago. Excellent little light! I was at a concert (NIN) a few days ago, and the warm-up band wasn't good at all, so I was playing with my new toy, turning on the strobe (you know, messing with the GF as usual), and shining it up toward the ceiling. It was surprising how that little sucker put an 8' wide hot spot on the ceiling of that arena! I heard a few comments about how bright it was from a few people around us...too bad I didn't take my L1D!

Speaking of the L1D...I'll tell you, this flashaholism is getting BAD!!! I also took some advice from this thread, but instead of getting an L2D body, I got a P2D body for my L1D head! This is going to sound stupid, but I thought the P series lights had to be bigger in diameter than the L series...of course, I was wrong, and when I saw there was an olive P2D body that would fit the L1D head, I grabbed one up! Had I done a little more research in the size difference between the two, I would have jumped on the P2D instead of the L1D. I LOVE the size difference! It seems so short after EDCing 1AA lights for so long! It will be good to have the option to run either type of battery, so having to pay for the extra body isn't too big of a deal.

Anyway, I do have a couple of stupid questions about this combo...is the performance the same as it would be with an actual P2D? I'm guessing the heads are the same with the exception of the engraving. :shrug:

One more question...would I be safe running an AW 3.7V RCR123 in this light? The last thing I want to do is burn it up!

I LOVE my L1P2D! :twothumbs

The L1D and P2D use the same head, so there is no difference to your L1D Q5 head + P2D body compared to if you were to buy a P2D Q5 direct, other than the usual tint lottery.

Thanks for the confirmation!


Does anyone know if it will handle a 3.7V RCR123?

Does anyone know if it will handle a 3.7V RCR123?

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It can, BUT all of the levels will be the same, which will be high. I'm not sure if fenix store will honor their warranty if you use 3,7v rcr's in it.
You could try a LifePo4 3.2v rcr, AW sells them. I hear that they work well and you still have the lower levels.

Thanks for that info...I think I'll stay away from rechargeables though, I was curious about the 3.7s because I have a few of them that I run in my Surefires. The runtime using primaries seems to be very acceptable, at least so far. Actually, I'm pleasantly surprised at how this thing keeps running, and running, and running, still on the first Battery Station primary cell! I have mostly used the lower levels, but I've played with it a LOT the last few days! I've even had it get quite warm several times on Turbo and High and it's still kicking. I can afford to run it on primaries with this kind of efficiency, and I haven't really been trying to conserve juice with this first battery. You could go a long, long time between battery changes, using it on the lower levels, if you use it for a few minutes at a time a few times a day.