Blast from the past, CMG from ~2003

My cousin is visiting this week and knows already about my interest in flashlights, he brought this interesting light for show & tell.

Its an old CMG Reactor... heres some pics.

3xAA, HUGE plastic rotating bezel, twist for on/off



Optic lens, creates a nice floody beam


Nice O-ring and tailcap


Knurl


Its nothing to really get excited over by todays standards... Its in the ~40 Lumen ballpark. But back in 2003 when these were in production I'm sure they were considered to be somewhat high-end.

Its amazing how far flashlights have come in such a short period of time.

lovecpf

I still have mine, I haven't used it since i got it at EMS years ago.

That was the first Luxeon light I ever bought. Mine is the 2AA version, I think. Rotten green beam, unreliable switch, an unbalanced feel, and I hated the fact that I had to use lithium AA's instead of alkalines to get full brightness.

But it gave me a glimpse of what a high power LED was capable of (as compared to the 5mm LEDs). It has been a long slippery slope ever since. I haven't used it in years, but I still have it.

I LOVE the NX05 optic, hated the green tinted LEDs of the era

I either *almost* bought one of those, or bought one of those and returned it. I couldn't stand the way it looked/felt.

Weird looking. It reminds me of something Gerber would come up with. I guess it isn't so strange that CMG became or was bought out by Gerber as this light could be a Gerber light today and it would surprise no one. reminds me of the shape that is the Gerber Recon. It was a good idea but the colored lenses weren't practical at all and I sent it back.

That said I have an unusual gerber light called the Trio I bought from the surplus sale Sigman here had and it is a quality light I bought for $10.

I remember when the Reactor was only a rumor. Everyone on here hoped, guessed and speculated about it just like we do today about soon to be introduced lights. It was the first LED light that wasn't a 5mm (I think.) It was a very big deal in it's time, but it's time didn't last long if I remember correctly. There were lots of complaints about the "pee green" tint. I wonder what the next big light was?

This particular one here has a slight blue/purple tint.