Gerber/ CMG Infinity Ultra

Hi all,
This is my first post on the forum. I've been searching the site and reading reviews for the past few weeks.
After going through Mags, Fenix E01, Olight T15, Nitecore DI, Zebralight etc, I've finally found almost my perfect light. The Gerber Infinity Ultra.

If only it switched on by turning the bezel instead of the tail. Then I found that the old CMG Infinity did turn on that way.

Does anyone know if these are still available anywhere? I've searched and come up with nothing.

Welcome to CPF, wentworth. Kudos for doing your homework studying the reviews. Someone found a site the other day that claimed to still be selling the CMG Ultra Infinity, but I have my doubts they really have it. Sorry I can't recall where it was. You might go to the CPF Marketplace and put in a request. There are certainly thousands of them floating around. It's a good choice. Most folks like the Gerber model, too.

Geoff

I doubt if there are any stores or online merchants who have any of the CMG versions left. They stopped making those a couple years back. Maybe try the CPF marketplace. They really are good little lights. I have 4 or 5 of them.

:welcome: Place an add here http://www.cpfmarketplace.com/mp/forumdisplay.php?f=65 someone may want to get rid of one. You will have to sign up again it is a separate forum.
Good choice I still have mine and at the time I bought it considered it to be my first decent LED light.
Norm

I love my old 1st run green one! That thing is wonderful. I will allways have it. I think it was my first decent LED as well.

I wish they were not potted so well. It would be nice to throw in a new LED.

The CMG is an easy mod. Oh well, still an excellent battery vampire.

Closest thing to it in an off the shelf light would be the Peak Kilamanjaro. Other Peak 1AA head twisty lights offer other options like P4 LEDs and LEDs under glass, but there's not much functional difference between the Kil and the old CMG, and the Kil has a more modern LED in it.

I had some CMGs and went for spring loaded twisties instead, i.e. Gerber IUs and Fenix twistys. Goes to show how tastes vary...

Even though I love my CMG this thread makes me want a AA E01.
:sigh:

a shop i enquired said his agent will take about 2-3months for the GUI to arrive.
maybe i should get 2 instead of 1 since its appeal seems so certain for such a long time...

Thankyou all for the quick response!
I looked at the Peak Kilimanjaro page. It does look nice. I take it the output would be similar to my Gerber? The runtime says 12 or so hrs. Is that 12 hrs to a flat battery or 12 hrs till 50% and then another 88 hrs of dimming light like an IU?

About 2 months ago, botachtactical.com had some leftover CMG's from the pre-Gerber days. Unfortunately, they are all gone now... If you really look hard and spend alot of time going deep into the search page results, you may find a company who still has some old stock.

Good Luck!

I've found a shop that sells the older style gerber infinity, looks identical to old CMG ones. Is this worth getting? It turns on from the bezel, which is what I was after, but is the quality similar to the CMG?

Oh do give us that source:twothumbs, i'm in for a group buy on this one if anyone is interested as well.

I don't have a Gerber, but do have an old CMG Infinity, not an Ultra but same construction. It's very solid. One thing to consider before buying is that the newer Gerbers might be a bit brighter. I assume Gerbers use a newer LED (Nichia DS?). Also the CMG's do not have a spring in the battery tube. They're what is called here, "battery crushers". You'll hear the battery rattle a bit when it's turned off, and you wouldn't want to really crank it down hard turning it on.

The CMG was very popular, and it's sort of a classic, but I think most folks here have moved on to brighter, smaller, multi-level lights. It won't perform any better than the Gerber, except maybe standing up to extreme abuse.

Geoff

Yes, FT everything you say is true.

...But, the form factor is so perfect.. how many people have been waiting for Fenix to come out with an E02?... an AA equivelent to the arc?... Uh personally, I would like to ram a hi low driver, an xp-e on a 14mm, and have a pretty spry AA light at under 26$.

I really need a few more to play with. My last 8 year old IU has been boiled, modded, and beat to death on more occasions than i care to remember (or can remember for that matter). It's been relegated to being a backup for the backups backup:candle:

wentworth said:

I've found a shop that sells the older style gerber infinity, looks identical to old CMG ones. Is this worth getting? It turns on from the bezel, which is what I was after, but is the quality similar to the CMG?

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It is identical. Gerber bought CMG and rebranded the remaining inventory of Infinity Ultras with the Gerber logo but it was the same flashlight. When those ran out, Gerber switched to its own design with the tail switch.

The old models are built like tanks but note that leds back then were not as efficient as they are today. The Ultra/Ultra-G will produce about 3 lumens for 12-15 hours on an alkaline cell with some dimming as the cell discharges. The newer Gerber model and the Peak Kilimanjaro will do a bit better because of their newer led.

You can occasionally find the even older CMG Infinity (sometimes confused with the Ultra). This looks just like an Ultra but runs at lower power, about 1 lumen for around 40 hours.

These are all great old lights and while they're not terribly hard to find, people who have them tend to want to hang onto them, so expect to pay a bit more for them on CPFMP than they cost when they were new. Every now and then someone locates a dealer who still has some in stock and then they are always cleaned out immediately. If you did find such a dealer, make sure to get your order in before telling anyone else the url . Note that it's still in some dealer catalogs and web sites even when the dealers are long out of stock, so don't be surprised if the place you found doesn't actually have any left.

The most desirable of the old models is probably the Ultra-G, which was a US government contract model that had a hard anodized finish that held up a better than the regular version.

As for battery rattle, the simplest fix is to wrap a post-it around the battery before putting it in the tube.

Sgt. LED said:

Even though I love my CMG this thread makes me want a AA E01.
:sigh:

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Yup... nice sub-$20 light with long runtime and the right brightness for most EDC tasks. Just PLEASE don't use that fugly GS. I'll take the 10% hit to effiecency and get the much better beam pattern of the DS.

Who wants to start a group email to fenix?

Buck91 said:

Yup... nice sub-$20 light with long runtime and the right brightness for most EDC tasks. Just PLEASE don't use that fugly GS. I'll take the 10% hit to effiecency and get the much better beam pattern of the DS.

Who wants to start a group email to fenix?

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You can get the current model Gerber IU for $15 or so. It is quite easy to mod, I've heard. I guess the Fenix E01's styling is a bit nicer so a hypothetical AA version might look nicer too, but it would be basically the same light as the Gerber. The CMG's construction was a heck of a lot more solid than the E01 or almost any other light, and that is the characteristic that I think most of us remember it for.

Buck91 said:

Yup... nice sub-$20 light with long runtime and the right brightness for most EDC tasks. Just PLEASE don't use that fugly GS. I'll take the 10% hit to effiecency and get the much better beam pattern of the DS.

Who wants to start a group email to fenix?

Click to expand...

I am with you! :thumbsup:

Acutally Paul brings up a good point about the modding, a quick search brings up this thread. Only thing is, I can't imagine a tail twisty being very one-hand freindly (I have enough trouble with bezel twisties).

On a seperate note, has anybody played with the mil-spec version of the IU? Is there any real benifit to it (other than the covert-style led shroud)? Don't both versions have the potted driver?