Buy a fenix E20, you wont be sad

Just got my E20 today and its great. I think I might like it more then my L2D (Premium). I actually bought the E20 for my father but after playing with it I will be buying one.

With the E20 fully focused for throw:
On turbo the L2D is brighter up to like 20 yards, after that its all E20 (but it has less flood then the L2D). It is very impressive and kills my 2 C cell flashlight. I will test it with my 3 D cell tomorrow but I don't think the results will be any different at all. Just really impressive for the size and cost. I mean $38 - 8% + shipping... if I had to pay the $60 something I paid for the L2D I would and it wouldn't bother me. (When fully focused it has no bright and dark spots like my 2 C cell and 3 D cell if you know what I mean. Just a great very clean beam)

With it focused for flood:
Still pretty bright but not touching the L2D on turbo. It is about the same as the L2D on high but the L2D wins because it has no bright and dark spots (textured reflector). Overall not the best but still very impressive. I don't think I will ever like the light from a smooth reflector but I assume you need it to get such great throw.

Other:
The only "bad" thing is the battery run time. 3.3 hours I think. It really doesn't bother me because I would always have extra batteries if I would use it for this long but would be nice to have more run time (not at the cost of lumens tho :duh2

Overall:
Throw = great
Flood = good
price = great
value = great

Just buy one!

Note:
One last thing, the light is VERY white. I like this. It makes my L2D look yellow and my mlights look... brown?

Just looking at the specs, I would take the L2D and pay the extra $$$ for it in a heartbeat. The E20 puts out 109 lumens for 3.3 hours. The L2D on "high" (not turbo) is 107 lumens and runs for 4.0 hours. Not only do you get the extra runtime, but you get the modes as well.

A 2 "AA" light is going to be longish anyway. That being the case, I can't think of any situation where a E20 would be more advantageous to having an L2D. Price of the L2D is only $13.50 more than the E20, a paltry amount at best.

I just bought three E10s, one in blue, one in silver (titanium) and one in gold, each for $15. Each came with a spare washer and a metal retainer. No lanyard strap was included, though there's a hole there. Light output is fairly pathetic, but one "AAA" battery will provide about 20 hours of enough light to read by, though I don't know how dim the "moon" mode is. (Actually, I think "moon mode" is one of those things that the marketing people have created. The runtime is okay, but not stellar.) I got the E10s only for emergency situations where I may have some AAAs lying around.


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I wish the price was lower...would make a great gifting light. $20 or so. But for most of us...compared to L2D Q5...seems not that great.

105 lumen...thats good...but my LxD Q5 would better it on only one batt...And give me two other long time run choices...I find the 12 lumen low to be very usefull...light my living room up very well for example...and can run all night doing it...probably 2. So I don`t know...price is the reason to buy the E20...And it`s not low enough to make me buy.

The problem is that the L2D is such a great light that other lights must have a hard time trying to beat it for value / function.

The E20 looks very good though, for its own features. Thanks for the information on the E20.

I'm looking at the E20 really just for the throw really. I've read in other threads that the throw is great too. If it can light up the flag on a par 3 pitch and putt, thats would be perfect. The L2D is great for trying to spot the ball when it lands though.

Well, if a "throw" is what one is looking for, the E20 might be better, I don't know. Only someone who can compare them side-by-side could tell, and I'd like to see some photos. I use my L2D when I hear foxes and raccoons raising a ruckus around the house and on turbo it's throwing and spilling all over the place. In short, I doubt an E20 could outdo an L2D on turbo, but I could be wrong.

In a recent poll, I was surprised to find out just how popular the L2D was, even compared to the venerable P3D. I was sure the latter would outdo the former, but I was wrong about that.

IMO, very few LEDs are as sexy as an L2D. I think every soldier should have one as part of their standard equipment (as well as a red filter and a diffuser).

I just ran into the T20K thread a few moments ago and now it looks like thats the one for throw.

Good ol' candlepower forums, it'll make a poor man out of me but I'll be well lit

my e20 is in the mail and I should get it tmrw or the day after woot! thanks for your post, it was very reassuring.

I was looking for a single mode AA thrower at a reasonable price for hiking at night as a supplement to my headlamp. This looked to fill the bill nicely and I have one on the way. Yes, there are nicer lights, but spending lots of money on a light that gets used rarely and lives in my pack is nuts.

Gordon

c3lica said:

Note:
One last thing, the light is VERY white. I like this. It makes my L2D look yellow and my mlights look... brown?

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Interesting to see different preferences; I've been trying to get natural white and others like pure white :tinfoil:

Good to hear you like your E20; it's not my cup of tea as I prefer a diffused flood.

got mine about a week ago, and i love it, use it all the time when walking the dog

Got it the other day. Waited for night and went out to play. I had a hardish time finding stuff far enough away here in the neighborhood to light up without being obnoxious. I couldn't be happier with this light.

Gordon

gajslk said:

I was looking for a single mode AA thrower at a reasonable price for hiking at night as a supplement to my headlamp. This looked to fill the bill nicely and I have one on the way. Yes, there are nicer lights, but spending lots of money on a light that gets used rarely and lives in my pack is nuts.

Gordon

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Please, someone, what is the size of E20 reflector ?

I mean... is it a really big head, or it is just a L2D head, with a focusable device ?

Bigger than a L2D head but not that big, its almost like an example of what is to come for the surefire UA2, i got to recommend this light to my friend who uses maglites more.

+1 for the E20 from me.

Federal LG said:

Please, someone, what is the size of E20 reflector ?

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External diameter at head opening: 25.4mm (E20) vs 21.6mm (L2D)

The E20 is 26.1mm at the band of knurling on the head.

I am not impressed with mine at all. The beam is noticeably offcenter. As i rotate the head I can see the crescent moon rotate with it. If it set it to a tight beam its there. The good part is that I can use the head to get to the point where it dials out and disappears in a medium flood position. Going to wider flood setting causes the donut in the middle so its does not have a true flood useable range due to the dark spot in the center. If this is unique to mine then all the more reason to not be impressed with such variability.

It handles well, good grip better than the L2D and if you consider that it has a way to dial out beam artifacts and leave it there than it is an okay light. But this level of light to me is less impressive than say the $25 Terralux TLF 3L2AA "140 Lumen" 2AA light. Better beam in general, more light, less money. I have both. I will be giving this Fenix away.

Confederate said:

I just bought three E10s
(...)
I got the E10s only for emergency situations

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I suppose you are dealing with the E01, not "E10"

I got one of these and I love it, it feels great in the hand, is nice and bright and I think the best thing is that I press the tail cap switch and it turns on with a nice positive feel. Press it again and it turns off. No worrying about whether it's in the right mode.

Fenix finally made the AA powered light that I have been waiting for when they made the E20. For the longest time I have been trying to find a bright, tough, tactical light that not only used alkaline batteries, but was intended to use alkaline batteries as a primary source of power.

I had a L2T R80 at one point. It took AA batteries, it had a forward clicky, and it was bright. However, when using alkaline batteries it got dimmer over time and was dead before 40 min were up. Also, the forward clicky was soft and felt cheep. While I never owned an L2D, I can see from the numerous runtime tests done on the forum that the L2D's performance on alkaline batteries is not much better. That was the big problem for me. Fenix, Olight, and other super bright AA lights were really intended to be used with rechargeable or lithium batteries in order for them to perform ideally. You can use alkaline batteries in them, but the results are not very impressive when you do.

Well, I'm too cheep to use lithium batteries all the time, and I've had bad experiences with rechargeable batteries and self-discharging, so I wanted a light to fill that alkaline niche. The E20 not only runs for over an hour on alkaline batteries, but its output with alkaline batteries is constraint. And make no mistake, while the E20 is not the brightest light you can buy, it is still very bright and it throws light far. And remember the cheep switch on the L2T R80? Well, the switch on the E20 is very robust in comparison.

As a final plus for the E20, on the 2nd night I was using the E20 on the job it got dropped 3 feet onto concrete. Not only does it still work perfectly, but I can't find a dent on it from where it hit the ground.

I was very hesitant to give the E20 a try. I've tried many AA powered lights and was unsatisfied with all of them. Take the word of someone who works in the dark, the E20 is a great light and the best one you can get if you want to use or plan on using alkaline batteries.