Princeton Tec Apex (with U2SVOH), quick review

It's a very nice looking headlight, comes in orange, black, and camo I believe. The one I picked up is orange. The color is really down to personal preference, because of its design, camo and black will not be any steathier than orange, you'll see why shortly.

Pretty stock photo


Crappy my photo


As you can see from the above photos, it has a main power LED, and 4 5mm LED. What great about this headlight's UI is unlike most other headlights, it's not necessary to click through all of them to get to the mode you want. There are two electronic clickies under the light, each control one type of the LED. Power LED cycles through hi and lo, hold down button to turn off. 5mm LED cycle through hi, lo, and blink, hold down button to turn off. Turn on one automatically turn off the other, so it's not possible to have both power LED and 5mm LED on at the same time. Interesting thing, you can actually turn one LED off by holding down the other button. The little LED below power LED is the power level indicator. It lights up when headlight is on, and go from green to yellow to red as battery runs down. When the headlight is turned off, it continues to blink every 6 seconds or so as a locator signal for 24 hours (and it's pretty visible in the dark). Aside from this, when the light drop out of regulation whatever LED you have on will also blink a couple of times to let you know. The unit is attached to back plate via a hinge to allow it to tilt up and down for 100° or so.

Princeton tec claims 5mm LED used are from nichia, no bin is specified. Power LED is either Luxeon or SSC P4. New model that say 130 lumen on packaging is SSC P4, but there are still old stock with Luxeon going around at this time. Mine came with luxeon, but I swapped in a U2SVOH bin SSC P4.

The headlight is powered by 4 AA batteries. Alkaline, Nimh, and lithium (NOT lithium ion rechargeable) can be used, and the headlight is fully regulated on all three. All 4 batteries reside in the battery pack, which is sealed by a rubber o ring. The o ring tend to pop out when pulling the tray out so watch for that. I used a bit of Permatex ultra black RTV silicone to glue it in so there's no more problem. The slide out tray has cutout in the back so batteries are easily pushed out, no need for fingernail breaking prying. Tray is locked closed via a cam on bottom of pack, which is also sealed with o ring. Princeton Tec specified time in regulation is pretty much spot on with alkaline cells. With Nimh however you are looking at over 3 hours in regulation with main LED on high, compare to 1 hour with alkaline.



On back of head unit is the most substantial heat sink I've ever seen on any LED light, it's basically an aluminum CPU heat sink residing in a plastic cage, with emitter directly attached via thermal paste on the inside. You probably can't get any better heat management than this.



The whole unit sits on head comfortably. You can get away with not using the top strap if you don't move around, but if you do it's necessary or it slides down your head. The whole thing with battery installed does weight quite a bit, and while it's still very comfortable walking around with it, you can definitely feel the weight if you jump/run around with it.

Onto some beamshots. Keep in mind large manufacturers like Princeton Tec doesn't specify tint bin when purchasing LED so the tint you get will vary. Also the below photos are taken with DAYLIGHT color balance, so the 5mm LED appears to be bluer than perceived during use. In reality it's very similar to fenix e01 GS. However you can also see how nice the U2SVOH SSC is. Exposure and aperture are locked between photos.

The 5mm LED are quite floody, while main LED is more throwy (although still less so than most handheld flashlights). All 4 modes are quite bright actually, 5mm low is enough to move around. There is no true low mode on this light, any of them will blow your night adapted vision out of the water. I would say 5mm low is same brightness as fenix e01 GS.

Control


5mm low


5mm high


main LED low


main LED high


That's all the outdoor photo I'm going to take for now, as you can see it's already snowing, so it's cold out.

I used to not like headlight much and thought they were geeky, and a flashlight clipped to hat bill works. Now that I have one thou, I wish I had picked it up sooner, it's really handy, and works a lot better (at least this one does) than regular light clipped to hat bill.

Like:
Both throw and flood in one package
Great UI that doesn't require click through all the mode with one button
Full regulation on alkaline, Nimh, and lithium

Dislike:
The tint on 5mm LED could be whiter

Wish it had:
Option of detachable battery pack with different length of cable so it can be attached to either back of head or elsewhere on body.

Great review. Thanks. I'm glad they upgraded the main LED. I was with someone who was using the 5mm leds to light our way and was suprised how bright they were.

I've been using an Apex on my bike helmet for a couple years, great light. I normally use the main LED on low, plenty bright. High power is nice on occasion, and the flood LEDs are nice for tasks and in fog and snow. I use it for about an hour every morning, and four lithium batteries last a few months, even in the winter. The flashing when low is a great feature, I wish all lights did that. I switch to a lower setting and continue on, very nice.

The buttons are easy to operate with winter gloves on.

I didn't know they'd upgraded the main beam, not that it needed it, but when don't you need more light? I assume it'll use more battery, but that hasn't been a problem.

I somehow think PT is using Rebels for their updated LED. If they use it for the EOS why not the new 130 lumen Apex?

It's possible, but I was under the impression it's a ssc p4. I haven't seen any confirmation either way.

> Mine came with luxeon, but I swapped in a U2SVOH bin SSC P4.

How did you do this? Is it easy?

Very easy if you know your way around a soldering iron.

Thanks! Just ordered a couple for mine and my gf's Apex's. She'll think I'm crazy. Hope I don't screw it up... :thumbsup:

i just hope they have improved there build quality. on my pro the battry box leaks the hinge crackeds after a month and cracks appeard by the screws. its a nice light but made buy morons.

they also need to make the low lower or just use 2 of the 4 led.

I love this lite. Modded with P4.

Only concern is crappy case. Will crack if dropped to the ground. They should have made the housing from some kind of metal.

I bought this lamp a few months ago in lieu of a Scurion whose price I really couldn't justify to myself at the moment. It was a replacement for a lost Black Diamond Zenix IQ which I was very happy with (especially after modding it with a P4).

It is sadly far from what I hoped it would be. Yes, it is apparently more watertight (although I seldom get into situations where this is important to me). The fact it takes 4 x AA and has a reasonable over-head strap were definitely factors when I got it and no problems there - It is reasonably comfortable, sits solidly on my head and has good runtime with some Ansmann 2850 mah nimh AA. However, in terms of build quality and reliability it has turned out to be very disappointing:
Even after light usage and without having been dropped (though I suppose it may have been slung into a bag), I realised after a couple of weeks that the plastic where the lamp head pivots had cracked. A few weeks later another fault developed.. It automagically fails to turn on after being turned off once - I have to pop one of the cells out and back in again.

Grr.

No comment on customer service - I have been out of the country for a while in Croatia and will get in touch on my return to the UK and hopefully organise a replacement.

It's a pity. I knew of the issue of case quality before buying it but it really surprised me that with such light usage it ended up broken. Yes, it is bright and yes it does have good run time but it isn't so good that I would pay so much again. My Zebralight, purchased at the same time, has ended up being my primary lamp. Coupled with a Fenix L2D-CE, I feel safe I can stumble about in the dark and not worry too much about being caught out.

jzmtl said:

It's possible, but I was under the impression it's a ssc p4. I haven't seen any confirmation either way.

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I talked with a PT rep today and this guy told me they used the Rebel for the EOS but with somethingelse for the new Apex. Thinking maybe the Seoul P4 as it would an easy upgrade for the factory.

petersmith6 said:

i just hope they have improved there build quality. on my pro the battry box leaks the hinge crackeds after a month and cracks appeard by the screws. its a nice light but made buy morons.

they also need to make the low lower or just use 2 of the 4 led.

Click to expand...

The customer service at PT is very good. Send them an email. I am certain it would be taken care of it. So far no cracks in mine and used it more than a few times. But have heard of these issues from others.

Why can't one use Li-ion rechargeables? Voltage too high? Does anyone know if the Apex Pro can handle the rechargeable CR123s? TIA

zemmo said:

Why can't one use Li-ion rechargeables? Voltage too high? Does anyone know if the Apex Pro can handle the rechargeable CR123s? TIA

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4xlithium/NiMH/Alkaline=6V max

4xli-ion=16.8V max

The PT Apex can handle up to 8.4V which means you can use 2 Li-ions with your Pro or another Apex if you make your own battery pack.

The battery indicator does not give a low warning with Li-ions so either use protected cells or check your cells so they aren't overdischarged.
With protected cells there is no warning before the light turns off when the battery is low.

I use mostly use 2 Li-ions with my Apex Pro (either 16340s in the stock pack or 2 18650s in my own pack)

I thought about doing something like that to my apex, cut the wire and make an optional extension, so I have the option of mount the pack on either back of head or remotely, and different packs for different batteries. Haven't found a connector that's waterproof, won't let me connect the wrong way in the dark, and symmetrical (probably not the best word here) so I can add an optinal extension in the middle.

jzmtl said:

I thought about doing something like that to my apex, cut the wire and make an optional extension, so I have the option of mount the pack on either back of head or remotely, and different packs for different batteries. Haven't found a connector that's waterproof, won't let me connect the wrong way in the dark, and symmetrical (probably not the best word here) so I can add an optinal extension in the middle.

Click to expand...

It doesn't have to be waterproof unless it is to be used in salt water, low voltages and current with the Apex so there should be no issues.

I use these:
http://www.rctoys.com/rc-toys-and-parts/DE-ULTRA/RC-PARTS-CONNECTORS-WIRING.html

Since they can not be connected wrongly and are made for very high currents. The contact surfaces are also easily cleaned and an extension can easily be put in.

Sverre

Looks good, although they look bigger than I'd like. Now I need to work up the courage to cut my not even a month old light.

Woods Walker said:

The customer service at PT is very good. Send them an email. I am certain it would be taken care of it. So far no cracks in mine and used it more than a few times. But have heard of these issues from others.

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I also had a good experience with PT's customer service. My Apex died after one year. None of the lights would turn on. When I called PT, they said it had a lifetime warranty and to just mail it to them and they would take a look at it. I did and they mailed me a brand new Apex. I don't think it took two weeks total. Very pleased.