Gatlight or something comparable?

Hi all!

I am looking for a LED flashlight which is small (and light) enough to fit in a pocket but still is as bright as possible for its size and with a controllable brightness level so I can use it in different situations. Now the Gatlight TI looks really great but I didn't really find any information about how it compares to other flashlights in its size, especially the brightness. But I also don't know a lot about how to compare two flashlights, I read some articles and a lot of posting but its still complicated. The only otehr flashlight I found that seems to be similar in brightness and size is the P7, but that one costs so much less that I'm not sure if I'm overlooking something. So could anyone perhaps help me out with some information or comparisons?

Thanks!
- Emnasut

Welcome to CPF, Emnasut.

There is a very useful comparison review of some 1x CR123A size lights, posted by selfbuilt, one of our members here.

These use the same battery as the Gatlight. Most of them are actually smaller than the Gatlight, and of comparable brightness. Also, as they are not custom lights made of titanium, they are not as expensive.

You might want to read through that review and other threads before making your decision - it will give you an idea of what is available.

Deleted

Thank you very much for your answers! I will check out the review and search for those flashlights you mentioned. Although I don't know if I would be able to mod a light (I prefer if it's done and I can't break it by trying to make it better...) I'm sure it will help a lot for my decision. And I guess you are right that for EDC the Gatlight would be a bit pricey, though I always loved LEDs and flashlights but never got to actually own a really great one, maybe that's why I aimed a bit high? Oh well I'm just rambling on again like some old guy. ^^

Anyways thanks again for your help!
- Emnasut

What are you looking for?

If you want a single CR123 powered light with multimode, you have choices from under $20 to over $200.
So:
What size?
What output?
What runtime?
Price range?
Multimode?

The Welcome Mat should help explain some of the terms.

Do you mean the Seoul P7, which is a LED, or the LedLenser, which is a flashlight with a Cree XR-E LED.

Also if you want a single user definable mode, look a the Nitecore EX10.

Have you looked at Fenix, Nitecore, Surefire, RA lights, Liteflux, Novatac, Neofab, iTP, Olight, Jetbeam, Lumapower, or the other brands?

:welcome:

The Dereelight C2H is small and drives the LED at 1A so it's very bright for a small light. It has 4 levels, low, medium, high, and burst. Burst being the 1A, but it will heat up the small flashlight fairly quick so you need to use some common sense and shut it off if it feels like it is getting too warm. You have the option of a smooth or textured reflector.

If you go slightly less bright there are a lot of options out there.

Gunner12 said:

What are you looking for?

If you want a single CR123 powered light with multimode, you have choices from under $20 to over $200.
So:
What size?
What output?
What runtime?
Price range?
Multimode?

Click to expand...

Size: Not longer than 110 mm, around 80 mm would be perfect. Diameter not more than 25 mm if possible, but not as important as length

Output: 140+ lumen (based on what i've read so far) but the higher the better

Runtime: 30+ minutes at max, a lot more on lowest setting (days if possible)

Price Range: Not more than 500$

Multimode: (If I understand this correctly) Continously controllable light levels would be best, if that's not possible then at least four or five levels. No strobe effects and such stuff is needed. Also I would prefer a knob (or something) to turn/twist instead of a button I have to hold / click multiple times.

Gunner12 said:

What are you looking for?

Do you mean the Seoul P7, which is a LED, or the LedLenser, which is a flashlight with a Cree XR-E LED.

Click to expand...

Umm, I don't know... I just saw it mentioned a lot in this forum and thought there was only one... But I think it was the Cree one.

Gunner12 said:

What are you looking for?

Also if you want a single user definable mode, look a the Nitecore EX10.

Click to expand...

That one looks great overall, a bit more output would be cool though. Also 65 hours on low seem a bit short compared to some lights which list 200+ hours? Although I guess they are bigger, the EX10 is really small (which is good!)...

Gunner12 said:

What are you looking for?

Have you looked at Fenix, Nitecore, Surefire, RA lights, Liteflux, Novatac, Neofab, iTP, Olight, Jetbeam, Lumapower, or the other brands?

Click to expand...

I looked at some of them (Jetbeam, Surefire, Liteflux) but I have to read up on the others, thanks for the list!

WadeF said:

The Dereelight C2H is small and drives the LED at 1A so it's very bright for a small light. It has 4 levels, low, medium, high, and burst. Burst being the 1A, but it will heat up the small flashlight fairly quick so you need to use some common sense and shut it off if it feels like it is getting too warm. You have the option of a smooth or textured reflector.

If you go slightly less bright there are a lot of options out there.

Click to expand...

Thanks, that one really looks great! A question though, as selfbuilt has stated in this thread:
https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/217772
it has some problems, i.e. being only really bright for 30 seconds and having a bad output/runtime efficiency, or did I misunderstand something?


Also thank you all for the nice welcome! :thanks:

Ok I looked at a lot of reviews and I got it down to these candidates, sorted by size:

Fenix P2D RB100
LiteFlux LF3 XT
Dereelight EDC C2H (Not bright enough on the levels 2-4? Efficiency issues?)
Ra Twisty (Great ui and size, but only 85 lumen? Is there a mod for more?)
Neofab spartaninan II
Olight T10 Q5
iTP C9R
NiteCore Extreme
Olight Titanium Infinitum
Jetbeam Jet-II IBS (too focused on throw and too big for a pocket?)

What do you guys think about those? :thinking:

I don't need throw as much as I like to light up more things that are closer. Also efficiency / runtime is important. I want to use rechargeable 123s if possible. Also waterproof would be a plus.

Emnasut said:

Ok I looked at a lot of reviews and I got it down to these candidates, sorted by size:

Fenix P2D RB100
LiteFlux LF3 XT
Dereelight EDC C2H (Not bright enough on the levels 2-4? Efficiency issues?)
Ra Twisty (Great ui and size, but only 85 lumen? Is there a mod for more?)
Neofab spartaninan II
Olight T10 Q5
iTP C9R
NiteCore Extreme
Olight Titanium Infinitum
Jetbeam Jet-II IBS (too focused on throw and too big for a pocket?)

What do you guys think about those? :thinking:

I don't need throw as much as I like to light up more things that are closer. Also efficiency / runtime is important. I want to use rechargeable 123s if possible. Also waterproof would be a plus.

Click to expand...

Fenix P2D RB 100
Old model not likely available anymore. Newest Model is PD20 Nice light for the money, has blinkie modes.

Liteflux 3 XT
Liteflux is one of my favorite companies so I'm probably biased. Very nice light if you don't mind the complex programmable UI.

I have no personal Experience with teh Dereelight C2H

Ra Twisty
Toughest production light on the planet. They get up to 100 lumens, the 85 lumen model is the one with the red for low. Bulkier (fatter and heavier) than most of the other lights.

No personal experience with the Spartinian II. A very unique way to control the light.

Olight T10 Q5
Like the Fenix, a good all around light with blinkie modes.

ITP C9R - I have virtually no knowledge about the ITP lights check the reviews.

Nightcore Extreme
Not a bad light, the UI is slightly more tricky than some other lights. Personally I'd go for a Nightcore EX10 over the Extreme. An EX10 is one of the smallest CR123 lights out there.

Olight Titanium Infinium, no clue.

Jetbeam Jet II IBS
I like the IBS User interface personally. Many of the above lights are geared toward throw performance but the Jet II does have the larger head so it' snot much of an every day carry (EDC) light. Lots of blinkie stuff... but only if you decide to program it into one of the three modes.


There's another small light with a simple 3 mode UI that you haven't mentioned yet. Lumapower Incenio. Not the brightness champ but a nice simple small 3-mode light.

Eagletac makes the P10C which is a simple 2 mode light with very good output and runtime (efficiency)

Finally, the Gatlight (I own one, a V3)
Fatter than some lights out there. The twist switch is pretty neat and works well. It uses an Optic instead of a reflector and some light leaks out the side making it slightly annoying at times because it produces some glare. Plenty bright but I haven't ever seen a direct measurement of it's brightness.
Another light which has a similar twist interface is the Surefire T1A. It's been continually delayed but some are holding out hope that it will see the light of day sometime before 2010. Keep an eye out in case it actually does get shipped in the next month.

Thanks for all the input!

Hm the T1A has only 70 lumens, I think i want more...
Good point about the Jet II, I want the light as an EDC so I guess it's too big with the bulky head.
I didn't find any real lumens for the LF3 XT, do you happen to know how bright it is compared to e.g. the Olight T10 Q5? The T10 looks good, although it is almost a bit too long for me...
I considered the Nightcore Extreme because of the 220 lumens output, that sounds like a lot! Although the size of the EX10 is better for EDC I guess.
The Lumapower Incendio was listed with around 130 lumens, that's why I didn't list it, I was aiming for more. Same goes for the Eagleatac P10C. Although I always read that it's hard to notice the difference the brighter it gets? I wonder how the 130 lumens compare to e.g. the 220 from the Nightcore Extreme. I know there are beamshots from most of the candles but I they are all at 0.5 m distance and I guess I'm too knew to all this and I'd need a "real life" example, like a garde picture at night...

Finally the Gatlight, yeah I was considering getting a TI but wanted to look into the alternatives first, that's how I found this forum and all the other great flashlights out there and now I'm just confused... :shrug:

It appears that Olight has an aluminum version of their Infinitum available next week.

I'm not familiar with the Infinitum, yet :naughty:

Looking forward to adding the AA and CR123 versions to my ever increasing stable of lights.

The Nitecore Extreme is fine for EDC. About 2cm longer than an EX10, but nearly 100 extra lumens. The clips have been improved so it's more secure on belt or pocket.

If you want 200 lumens in something smaller, cuter, cooler and blingy, then the Lummi Raw NS may be just the thing. With the option of tritium vials installed in the grooves.

http://www.lummi.co.uk/Raw_NS.html

Yes theres Lummi's lights ,very nice lights
also Bitz are a fav aswell ...
both of these are very compact and quality.

It is very hard to have something comparable to a light that is incomparable.
I think the Gatlight is quite unique.
Norm

Norm said:

It is very hard to have something comparable to a light that is incomparable.
I think the Gatlight is quite unique.
Norm

Click to expand...

It is totally unique, but then so is the Lummi. They're both standalone lovely lights.

as I said theres the Ti Bitz and a Lummi Raw I got one coming in the post
but there are many others not yet mentioned

as to brightness

130lumen V's 200lumen
the increase in light to the eye is a lot less than the increase in power consumption...

if you want a mini flamethrower get something modded with a p7 or MC-E
in B/S/T that might be more fun ... I love my DX modded MCU with a P7
and I want a 18650 battery version aswell..... this is not much bigger and carries multi mode options ...so you can have days of runtime on low low output.

so in the tradition of a true flashaholic .... don't buy one ... get them all :devil:

The Olight Titanium Infinitum was a limited edition model which sold out long ago. However next week Olight will be releasing the alumnium version of this light, the I10 Infinitum. It seems pretty close to what you're looking for. 205 lumens, Cree R2 emitter, infinitely adjustable, runs on RCR123, and fits your size requirements.

Thanks for all the help guys!
lovecpf
I finally got a Nitecore Extreme R2 and it's great!
Although the
I'm using unprotected RCRs I think (ICR17335, 3.7V), is that ok? Also they are charging quite long, about 6 hours and the charger is still charging and they are quite warm/hot, is that normal?
And the Lummi Raw NS looks cool too! Too bad it has only two fixed modes, it's so small!

It should be fine with RCR123s(and be a bit brighter).

I'd buy AW's protected RCR123s now. I'm not sure about the charge time but I'd think that they would be charged by now.