agent8698
Newly Enlightened
I ordered it on Saturday from Dan's website at tacticalwarehouse.com in Colorado. I received it in yesterday morning's mail: 2 days later! Now there's something for you to shoot for, Mr Botach, and Mr Goncz.
The light is 8" long and weighs 19.2 oz (with battery pack) according to my digital scale. The website says 21 oz.
I have never seen any of the competing lights, so I cannot compare. All I can compare it with is my SureFire 8AX. I would say it puts out at least twice as much light as my freshly charged 8AX. I shone both beams onto the wall and asked myself: if I had another 8AX and shone it on top of the first 8AX, would the result be as bright as the TigerLight? And the answer was: maybe. It's hard for me to judge, because light does strange things when you increase it. The TigerLight might be more than twice as powerful as the 8AX.
I'm happy with the brightness, this is what I was looking for. The beam quality does not have the Star Trek perfection of SureFire, but it is not ringy, either, nor does it have any dark spots at any distance. What it does have is a slight visible texture: if you shine the light against the wall, and then rotate the light, you will see a slight texture that rotates with the light. I wouldn't call it concentric rings, because there are no rings. It might be called "clouds": a gentle texture that is only noticeable if you look for it, and it gets even smoother as the distance increases. So this is a very acceptable compromise. It's a very good beam. I'll have to take some pictures at various distances when I can borrow my sister's camera.
I was not so happy with the charging cradle and the ergonomics of how to put the light into the cradle. There are two spring-loaded plastic "claws" on the cradle. You move the light past the spring-loaded resistance of those claws so they can snap shut and clutch the light and hold it in the charging position. You really have to push the light hard, with maybe 30 or 40 pounds of pressure. And when you clear the point of resistance, the light snaps hard into position, hard enough that you wonder how many times the bulb will take that shock. But then you still have to make adjustments to the final position of the light, so that the electrical contact is established and the red LED comes on. Despite the heavy spring-loaded claws, the contact is loose. I thought I had it, and then 2 minutes later I check it, and the LED was off. I had to go back and push the light deeper into the cradle, applying heavy pressure, to make the LED come back on. In my opinion, the ergonomics of that charger interface is problematic, and you have to work with it and find a way, and if it moves just slightly, which it easily does, the contact is lost. So: 30 to 40 pounds of pressure (maybe more) to snap the light into the cradle, a nasty bang when it does snap in (there's no way to soften it), then you still have to slide it around hoping to make the electrical connection, and once you've achieved it, it's still a physically weak, delicate, skin-of-your-teeth connection that can go out just by touching the light, or even all by itself. I don't think that my light is defective, I think this is a design weak point. The electrical contacts in the cradle are also spring-loaded, but the dimensions of the interface between light and cradle are such that the spring-loaded contacts barely have a chance to make any contact at all. If you move the light ever so slightly, even just letting it go after putting it in the cradle, the contact can be lost. I'm still experimenting with how to make it work best.
Very nice light, glad I bought it. I don't find the body too thick (1 5/8"), although I wouldn't want it any thicker. I'm quickly getting used to the location of the switch. It's a clickie, but you can also do momentary on with less pressure, very reliably.
Others have commented on the "cheap plastic lens". Well, so far, it doesn't look cheap or feel cheap, it seems to be just fine, but the question is, what happens 6 months down the road, how many scratches will be on the lens, and will that affect the light output? I don't know, obviously, Pyrex would be better, but it doesn't strike me as a problem.
Highly recommended. Get it for only $111.99 shipped (sale price for CPF members only, through 11-30-02) via this link: http://www.candlepowerforums.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=10;t=000162# 000000
Max
The light is 8" long and weighs 19.2 oz (with battery pack) according to my digital scale. The website says 21 oz.
I have never seen any of the competing lights, so I cannot compare. All I can compare it with is my SureFire 8AX. I would say it puts out at least twice as much light as my freshly charged 8AX. I shone both beams onto the wall and asked myself: if I had another 8AX and shone it on top of the first 8AX, would the result be as bright as the TigerLight? And the answer was: maybe. It's hard for me to judge, because light does strange things when you increase it. The TigerLight might be more than twice as powerful as the 8AX.
I'm happy with the brightness, this is what I was looking for. The beam quality does not have the Star Trek perfection of SureFire, but it is not ringy, either, nor does it have any dark spots at any distance. What it does have is a slight visible texture: if you shine the light against the wall, and then rotate the light, you will see a slight texture that rotates with the light. I wouldn't call it concentric rings, because there are no rings. It might be called "clouds": a gentle texture that is only noticeable if you look for it, and it gets even smoother as the distance increases. So this is a very acceptable compromise. It's a very good beam. I'll have to take some pictures at various distances when I can borrow my sister's camera.
I was not so happy with the charging cradle and the ergonomics of how to put the light into the cradle. There are two spring-loaded plastic "claws" on the cradle. You move the light past the spring-loaded resistance of those claws so they can snap shut and clutch the light and hold it in the charging position. You really have to push the light hard, with maybe 30 or 40 pounds of pressure. And when you clear the point of resistance, the light snaps hard into position, hard enough that you wonder how many times the bulb will take that shock. But then you still have to make adjustments to the final position of the light, so that the electrical contact is established and the red LED comes on. Despite the heavy spring-loaded claws, the contact is loose. I thought I had it, and then 2 minutes later I check it, and the LED was off. I had to go back and push the light deeper into the cradle, applying heavy pressure, to make the LED come back on. In my opinion, the ergonomics of that charger interface is problematic, and you have to work with it and find a way, and if it moves just slightly, which it easily does, the contact is lost. So: 30 to 40 pounds of pressure (maybe more) to snap the light into the cradle, a nasty bang when it does snap in (there's no way to soften it), then you still have to slide it around hoping to make the electrical connection, and once you've achieved it, it's still a physically weak, delicate, skin-of-your-teeth connection that can go out just by touching the light, or even all by itself. I don't think that my light is defective, I think this is a design weak point. The electrical contacts in the cradle are also spring-loaded, but the dimensions of the interface between light and cradle are such that the spring-loaded contacts barely have a chance to make any contact at all. If you move the light ever so slightly, even just letting it go after putting it in the cradle, the contact can be lost. I'm still experimenting with how to make it work best.
Very nice light, glad I bought it. I don't find the body too thick (1 5/8"), although I wouldn't want it any thicker. I'm quickly getting used to the location of the switch. It's a clickie, but you can also do momentary on with less pressure, very reliably.
Others have commented on the "cheap plastic lens". Well, so far, it doesn't look cheap or feel cheap, it seems to be just fine, but the question is, what happens 6 months down the road, how many scratches will be on the lens, and will that affect the light output? I don't know, obviously, Pyrex would be better, but it doesn't strike me as a problem.
Highly recommended. Get it for only $111.99 shipped (sale price for CPF members only, through 11-30-02) via this link: http://www.candlepowerforums.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=10;t=000162# 000000
Max
