Noob alert - T7 or..?

Hi guys - I am new and looking for a new LED flashlight. I am in the UK and have a budget of approximately £50 STG. I was looking at the LED Lenser T7s as a possible new purchase but have recently read that that may only operate at full power for a short while on full (ie new) batteries.

Am I making this up and is this the case with all LED flashlights? Would you recommend something other than a 200 lumen T7? I would be looking for the brightest I could buy for my money. Apologies if this is in the wrong section.

johnnyguitar said:

Hi guys - I am new and looking for a new LED flashlight. I am in the UK and have a budget of approximately £50 STG. I was looking at the LED Lenser T7s as a possible new purchase but have recently read that that may only operate at full power for a short while on full (ie new) batteries.

Am I making this up and is this the case with all LED flashlights? Would you recommend something other than a 200 lumen T7? I would be looking for the brightest I could buy for my money. Apologies if this is in the wrong section.

Click to expand...

Coast/LEDLenser lights are unregulated. Simple circuitry means that they get dimmer every second from the moment you turn them on until they turn off. Battery characteristics like voltage recovery mean that brightness partially recovers when it's off. But the brightness/battery life they give is "Brightness on new batteries"/"Run time to dim."

Regulated lights are more expensive, but have almost no change in brightness until the batteries are very dead. They also often have multiple levels of brightness, something I find useful. The no-change-in-brightness presents its own problems, as there's little warning when you're out of power until you are. (protected) Rechargeable Li-Ion powered regulated lights tend to suddenly turn off when the low-volt protection on the battery trips.

My LEDLenser lights are simple, durable, and effective, but they spend almost none of the time putting out the stated lumens, and I replace the batteries due to dimness hours before the stated runtime.

As an example; They claim '78 hours' runtime. They're held in low regard here on CPF because of these ridiculous numbers. Direct-drive lights get dimmer as the battery voltage drops, so they also drain the batteries more slowly towards the end. But after 30 hours I doubt you'd be patient enough to continue using the T7; you'd light a candle and blow it away.

Thanks for the reply, that was very clear and e asy to understand.
Is there a regulated flashlight around the same budget level of the T7 that are rated at around the same brightness (200 lumens) or am I going to have to spend a lot more cash?

Lumens are often overrated. I'm a fan of the Quark series, you may want the Quark AA^2 flashlight. It is not a heavy 'thrower,' so you won't be beaming light huge distances. There's a 'Tactical' version, which has 2 differences:
Cannot tailstand
You can only get to 2 settings immediately. You program 'loose' and 'tight' bezel, which takes about ten seconds per setting, then you can get to those presets very easily.

The regular is a normal click-through-the-modes light. I often use the moonlight mode. This light uses AA batteries, I suggest Eneloops.

The T7 has a spot-to-flood head that's rare in high-end lights. I don't know off the top of my head what else does. Check out reviews for the Quark and see if it does what you want.

Have you looked at the 4Seven Quark range of torches.
I am currently waiting ( bl##dy Icelandandic volcano ) for delivery of a Quark AA2 Tactical R5 which has 206 OTF lumens.

Johnnyguitar - Dude, awesome name! And what a coincidence as well... I very recently opened a youtube account with JohnnyGuitar as part of the name.

If you can spend just a bit more, you'll have a lot more to choose from, and can maximize your money by picking up a used light at the CPFMarketplace.

Happy shopping, and :welcome:

johnnyguitar said:

have recently read that that may only operate at full power for a short while on full (ie new) batteries.

Am I making this up and is this the case with all LED flashlights?

Click to expand...

If you look at many of Selfbuilt's reviews of AA torches you'll see that it's certainly true for an awful lot of torches on the max setting when run on Alkalines.

Different story when the P7/M7 is run on NiMH rechargeables (I get long bright performance on them) but not everyone will recommend using them in the LL's.

Plenty of threads to read on Led lenser torches here for you to wade through though it's often a bit hard to sift out the personal agenda based posts to get to real world practical experienced based info.

For me, P7/T7 is a good quality torch of wonderful reliabilty that does not have fancy modes and circuit based "regulation" (neither of which I want or need). The variable optic system allows maximum use to be made of the light available in throw and spill modes and it thus provides much more throw in spot mode and stronger flood in spill mode than most reflector based torches can do with similar lumens power. It does not throw away light making spill when you want spot nor waste any on a hot spot when you want flood. It works and it works damned well. Bit large for a pocket and lack of a clip make it a shelf light for me nowadays.

nightcore d20 r2 from heinnie haynes is around the mark 200 hundred lumin with quite a good runtime

AnAppleSnail said:

Coast/LEDLenser lights are unregulated.

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Not true... some like the T5/P5 have regulation circuitry as does their new M series lineup :thumbsup:

Check your private messages Johnny,ive just sent you one.

CM2010 check your PMs.

Thanks guys for the wealth of info so far. I never knew there was so much choice.

Having quickly bombarded my brain with information, I have decided that I want as much light as I can afford and would ideally like the output to be regulated so I can get the most consistent output that I can from a set of batteries. I have just been looking at the Quark lights on the 4sevens site, but at present I think that would have to be a no from me, only because my wife is doing a midnight charity walk this weekend and there is some urgency to my search. Unfortunately having stumbled across this site by chance, I have a feeling that this first purchase is not going to be my last! :twothumbs

So - my shortlist currently has the Fenix TK11 and PD30s on, as well as an Olight tactical torch I saw (can't remember which model ) and - er - whatever is in the UK in the marketplace at the right spec and price

Keep the suggestions coming though, all help is gratefully received!

Oh and I am John and I play the guitar!

You could do a lot worse than either the TK11 or the PD30, I was going for a PD myself but but decided on a Quark 123x2 as it suited my needs better. The TK is more of a thrower whereas the PD is less throwy but still has good distance. I guess it depends on what you'll be using it for.

If you don't mind a smaller form factor have a look at the NiteCore Extreme (I got mine from Heinnie), which is a little pocket rocket - easy to use and very bright.

AnAppleSnail said:

Coast/LEDLenser lights are unregulated. Simple circuitry means that they get dimmer every second from the moment you turn them on until they turn off. Battery characteristics like voltage recovery mean that brightness partially recovers when it's off. But the brightness/battery life they give is "Brightness on new batteries"/"Run time to dim."

Regulated lights are more expensive, but have almost no change in brightness until the batteries are very dead. They also often have multiple levels of brightness, something I find useful. The no-change-in-brightness presents its own problems, as there's little warning when you're out of power until you are. (protected) Rechargeable Li-Ion powered regulated lights tend to suddenly turn off when the low-volt protection on the battery trips.

My LEDLenser lights are simple, durable, and effective, but they spend almost none of the time putting out the stated lumens, and I replace the batteries due to dimness hours before the stated runtime.

Click to expand...

I learned that the hard way with my first "real" flashlight, a TK12. I was at work in a dark area, then all of a sudden I went from hand held sunshine to mag solitaire. It really annoyed the hell out of me, I thought it would at least go into a "moon mode" long enough to get to new batteries, but its barely usable light lasted less than a minute.

I own a couple cheapo direct drive LEDs lights and though their brightness isn't great, they won't leave you hanging on a moments notice. They may dim noticeably over usage, but they give loooooong notice to change the batteries before it dies out.

Although being a beginning flashaholic means getting to know your batteries and always having spares on you.

Thanks guys - will certainly look at the Nitecore Extreme as well. Also been looking at the Olight M20 R5 - spec makes it look like a great bit of kit!

Finally made my mind up yesterday and went for an Eagletac T20C2II - should be here to do and will hopefully be more than up to the job!

M@elstrom said:

Not true... some like the T5/P5 have regulation circuitry as does their new M series lineup :thumbsup:

Click to expand...

Not true... I have a P5 and M1 and neither have regulation.

I bought a Fenix PD10 and IMO it blows them both away, it's spill is brighter than the P5 on flood and on spot the P5 appears to throw only slightly, if any, further but is no more useful as the Fenix is brighter.