Why do people buy LED LENSERS?????

I WAS Foooled to buy one! 120 hours of battery, 100 lumens, water tight integrity (not fully waterproof though I took it to the shower once during an outage water seeped in through the lens, Crappy BEAM with square patterns, I thought most German brands were good like Leica and BMW, etc, gold plated contacts but NO REGULATION for $100, had the light for 5 months and the O-rings are worn off, horrible build quality, not reliable, plastic lens (I though LED lenser used goood lens not lens that take like $.10 to build, no modes. Please share your experience with Lensers

I agree, I bought 2 at the same time, the p2 and p5, couldnt bring myself to buy a 3AAA version (search for a post by me about why I hate 3 cell lights).

The tailcap buttons are very hard to press, the threads are shocking, worse than a minimag, poor runtime, not anywhere near splashproof, cheap anodizing, no glass lens, are these torches for kids or what?

Not buying one ever again, even as a gift.

I bought the V2 6 chipo dual color at Lowe's for $25. And on the 4th day the buttons fell the eff off while it was in my pocket!! It "looked" well built, but i guess not

Their focus-beam optic was developed by Fraen, specifically for LL initially. After chatting with Fraen engineers at a Steategies In Light convention 2-3 years ago (where they cautiously pulled prototype lights out of their pockets to show me)... I CAN GURANTEE YOU... theres WAY more R&D behind the optics in these lights than you are giving them credit for.

Its a GOOD optic at what it does. It adjust-ably focuses the beam, while still capturing most of the emitted Lumens, while most aspheric an fish-eye optic designs waste HUGE amounts of light inside the bezel. Sure there are rings and artifacts... but NEWSFLASH to you, they wash out when used in the field (based on the models I have used).

Just because the optic is plastic does not mean anything. Some of the best commercially available TIR lenses from Freaen and Khatod are high efficiency optical plastics. its not uncommon for plastic TIR lenses to be more efficient than traditional reflector/glass lens designs. once again you have the facts wrong.

I am not a LL fan in any way (for various reasons)... but you need to understand the facts here.

Condescending terms removed. - Norm

Because they're the best small throwers they can find at Lowes and Home Depot?

Nap.

I agree with the OP (except for the lens part).
I was duped into buying one of these by the marketing guff, when I was new to flashlights.
But after that, I discovered CPF, and then I discovered companies like Fenix and 4Sevens...
Disappointments about my LL P14 include:

• Not waterproof
• Not hard anodized
• Not recommended for NiMH by manufacturer
• No circuitry to maintain brightness as battery sags
• Not ANSI or OTF lumens ratings. Who knows where they pull them from...

Other than that it's a reasonably good flashlight.
By standards of 10 years ago, it's an excellent flashlight.
I'm fairly happy with the beam and the lens focusing function.

But it gets the least use of all of my lights. In fact, typing this, I realise I should probably sell it, as it's hardly seen any use. I got the Fenix LD20 R4 only a few weeks after the LL, and the LD20 has been used a great deal ever since whilst the LL has sat in a drawer.

I'll probably be in a small minority here, but I actually quite like my P14.

Irrespective of the recommendations, I use mine with NiMH batteries, and haven't had any issues so far in doing so.

Yes, there are better lights out there for the same or less, and yes, I'd like to see regulation, modes, less reliance on battery packs, newer LEDs, etc. The M7R brings some of these features to the Led Lenser range - though still not a perfect implementation, and only at an even higher price tag!

So yes, there is still work to be done, but things are getting better.

Having said the above, why do I still think that they have a place, and are worth keeping an eye on as things improve? Pretty much entirely for the focus system. There are a number of focusing light out there, and I admit that I have only tried a small selection of those lights, but the Led Lensers work the best in that respect of the focusing lights that I have tried. The flood setting provides a very even level of light right across the beam, with only one ring in it (an artifact caused by the optic, and pretty much inavoidable with the optic being used) - otherwise, very clean. That can then adjust to a bright, pencil thin beam that throws a good distance. Admittedly, white wall hunting shows the tight beam to be very ringy - but that isn't uncommon with XR-E emitters. You don't notice the rings at a distance in normal use.

So, electronically, not a great light, but the optics make up for it - assuming of course you need a light with adjustable focus. That's the LL's forte. If they can eventually combine that feature with modern electronics, and bring it to market at a reduced cost (yes, I want my cake AND eat it), then you could have a genuine contender.

My P7 rocks man i love it quality,well bright,compact,nice feel ect what more you want for brand new LL .....divide the man from the mouse lol
UK £25=40 U.S.D not gonna let orther peoples opinion ruining my enjoyment of my TORCH.!

cooool

Simple, they dont know any better, for the money, they are always last in class.

I had one pre-CPF and I was reasonably happy with it. I found CPF and learned a few things about flashlights I hadn't known before. So I took the thing all apart and I was pretty disappointed. When I realized other manufacturers were selling lights that were superior in every respect for the same price, and then bought some of those lights and saw for myself what could be done with a light, I was a bit more upset. A Lux III on a star pressed against a 3AAA pack inside a poorly machined tube does not a $50 flashlight make. I got hosed and I won't make that mistake again.

Too bad you bought a light that where not suitable for you, but is it Led Lenser's fault or yours? If you wanted multiple modes, you should have bought multimode light. If you wanted a regulated light, you should have bought a regulated model. And the "crappy" square beam comes from the modern LED's that have square die's.

And to the topic:
Maybe people buy them because LL offers the best focusable optic?
Or maybe because they have long warranty?
Or maybe because they can be bought from many local stores?
Or maybe because they just are good lights?
I don't see any REAL reason why not to buy Led Lenser, if it fits your needs.

I think honest output and runtime ratings and prices that reflected what you are really getting would go a long way toward increasing their credibility around here.

I always thought the whole focusing beam flashlight thing was a bit of a gimmick.

Since you can get something like that for $10 why pay $100 especially if the build quality or electronics are no better?

Obviously some people like them and therefore it's worth it to them but I agree for the most part with the OP...when you look at the price and then see what you get for that price there is somewhat of a disconnect (IMO).

LL's output ratings have been quite honest from what I've seen.
The the runtimes they give are probably to some quite low output % with the low setting (the longest runtime you can get out of the light). But yeah, there might have been some inconsistency with some of the runtimes.

Just go and compare the $10 light and some Led Lenser.. I bet you'll notice the difference.

A few months back i heard of these wonderful latest tech LED Lenser lights. Well i wanted a fancy new super bright long lasting LED light so i jumped online to research and found this forum. I never bought the LED Lenser but instead discovered brands such as 4Sevens, Klarus and Fenix of which lights have since bought. I had never heard of these brands prior to 6 months ago.

cheers

I was given a P7. Found it bright and the ability to focus from spot/flood very good but the blue tint was killing me after my fenix/ZL collection and it just wasn't getting used.

I gave it away with some enloops to my nephew (9yo) after his cheap $10 one fell apart (literally as he was changing the batteries the internal mechanisms fell out) I am sure he will like it.

It does the job of illuminating the dark and found it reliable when I did use it, but I think there is better out their for me.

People buy them because of the packaging! You press the lever and go, Damn! That's bright as the mirror blasts you in the eyes. I fell for it, and I actually came on here to research a p14 .
I've since purchased 5 lights, none of which were led lensers.

I like my Led Lenser P7. It's not my favorite light, but I have no regrets about buying it. I was looking for a bright 2xAA light with adjustable beam and brightness. My P7 only has one brightness setting, but I knew that when buying it, so I'm not terribly disappointed. My P7 does a great job at switching from spot to flood (a great deal better than any Mag I've had) and it looks good while doing it. The squarish beam looks funny on a white wall, but while using the light I never notice.

I also don't play with it in the bath tub, so I don't mind the lack of waterproofness.

So, to answer the OP, I think the main reason an informed buyer would purchase a LED Lenser is that there doesn't seem to be any other quality focusable flashlights at the moment. If another company develops that, LL will be forced to step up.

My P7 was a decent torch until I dropped from like1.5 meter it and it stopped working

look on the bright side. now you know better than to trust unverified marketing claims. :thumbsup: