What's the Ultrastinger got going for it? (mini review)

What\'s the Ultrastinger got going for it? (mini review)

I had the great opportunity to borrow a dual-pattern (half stochastic, half smooth) Ultra Stinger from one of my favorite flashlight dealers.

It's a wonderful light if you want a rechargeable.

Here is what I found.

I could focus the bright central spot to be about 8% brighter than a SureFire SRTH--the SRTH is nominally 15,000cd when measured at 10 feet and the brightest I could get the Ultra Stinger was 16,000 cd at ten feet. (this is footcandles multiplied by 100).

The US had a central pattern which was about 1/3 the area of the Surefire SRTH. At 10 feet, the US's central hotspot measured approximately 6 inches in diameter (28 sq in), while the SRTH's was about 9x12 inches (85 sq in).

So, the SRTH is putting almost 3x the number of lumens into the bright center spot.

HOWEVER, what is really nice with the Ultra-Stinger is a second circle (about 3 feet in diameter at 10 feet) which falls off from about 1500 cd to 700 cd. This is a lot of light over a broad area--enough to illuminate shadows in a room.

This large area takes a lot of lumens to light this brightly.

The real-world test on my neighbor's pine trees, however, showed substantially more contrast and the ability to make out details of bark and needles with the smoother beam of the SRTH.

On the other hand, if I were going into a dark room, the SRTH is too specialized and the secondary beam of the US is great. The US's secondary beam is wider than the beam of a P90 or P91 lamp assembly, also.

__IF__ I wanted a rechargeable light, I think an US would be a great choice. However, I prefer primary lights as I keep them more for emergencies and infrequent use.

So, the US is going back (it was a loaner) but is staying as the one rechargeable light (exclusive of the banana spotlight) on my Web page. I feel better putting it up there now that I've evaluated it.

Cheers,

Richard

Re: What\'s the Ultrastinger got going for it? (mini review)

Originally posted by rlhess:
I had the great opportunity to borrow a dual-pattern (half stochastic, half smooth) Ultra Stinger from one of my favorite flashlight dealers.............

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Richard,

Very nice and informative review. Do you know the distance to your neighbor's trees?

Thanks,
Brightnorm

Re: What\'s the Ultrastinger got going for it? (mini review)

Hi, Brightnorm,

I'm guessing the hypoteneuse is about 150-200 feet or so--not the tests that you ran!

I think the larger hotspot of the SRTH had a lot to do with "seeing" into the trees.

I hope to METER a longer throw soon. I'm not sure I can get a much longer throw that isn't obnoxious or dangerous.

Cheers,

Richard

Re: What\'s the Ultrastinger got going for it? (mini review)

Well, despite my pneumonia, I braved the 40F weather of my back patio to set out a course of 73 feet for longer-range measurements.

The SRTH SureFire did 18,700 cd (with slightly low batteries, that caused it to read 14,000 rather than 15,000 at 10', so this might indicate a peak of close to 20,000 cd)

The UltraStinger was tried with several focusing positions, and the hottest spot I could find at this test distance measured 13,500 cd. Now the light had been off charge, but not used very much, for about six hours.

I think it fair to say that we're splitting nits here and both are 15,000cd peak-class lights.

But, once again, the inverse square law proved itself--just for those who doubt the measurements.

I did find I needed to get about 20-30 feet out with something as big around as the Vector 137CO, but most small lights fully develop their beam at 10 feet. Really small lights get measured at two feet or one meter.

Cheers,

Richard

Re: What\'s the Ultrastinger got going for it? (mini review)

My US is my furthers throwing torch I own. Even more than my Tigerlight!