Led Lenser M7 vs M7R Rechargeable

Hi All,

This is my first post here so I hope its in the right place!

There is a lot of info available about the M7 or M7R from Led Lenser but I cannot find anything about the difference between the two. The price difference is really enormous considering that it looks like LedLenser have simply added an 18650 battery and charger. Is there some other performance characteristic that I am missing here?

Also, does anyone know if its possible to purchase the 18650 battery holder for an M7R as a spare part and put it in an M7 classic model?

What is the likely performance difference between using the M7 with AAA Eneloops NiMh and the 18650 LiIon apart from the duration of use?

Here in Europe there is a 50 Euros difference in price between the two models! So what am I getting for that sort of extra money?

Thanks
Richard

The Led Lenser does not seem to be very cost-effective. It is really expensive for what you get.

I would recommend looking at a Romisen flood to throw at shiningbeam's website. You can get a variety of styles including AA, 18650, CR123, 3xAAA, etc. I'd recommend getting one with an XR-E emitter with latest bin. That is the smallest emitter and thus works much much beter with aspheric lens.
You can get one for about 25 bucks.

Or for extreme value, get a cheap 10 dollar one off of Ebay. I got several from there and they have worked quite nicely.

I am sure the Led Lenser is better made than the Romisen, but not by much. Nobody here has had a high opinion of them that Ive seen. Romisen will be better than teh 10 dollar ones...probably not 2.5 times better, but if you want a quality upgrade, I'd go for it.
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As for your question, the 18650 and charger is the only significant difference. Plus the M7R will use the latest Rev Bin of the XR-E emitter (R2 I think) instead of the older Q3,Q4,or Q5 that they used before. So a slight efficiency boost.

it's not really worth to buy an M7R... same output (220 lm), bigger and much more expensive. if you want to buy an 18650 powered light with a floody beam, the zebralight sc600 is 20 years ahead, is definitely smaller and is rated at 750 max lumens...
mind that LLs have more or less the same output, whatever the power source is. i bought several before i realized that i was basically rebuying the same light over again!

Lensers are quite expensive for their quality.
For example M7R in here where I live costs 120 EUR / $165.
For that kind of price I can get a quality light and and some quality 18650 cells and a charger and still have some money left over.
I might loose easier charging and focusable beam, but gain water tightness and better quality and durability.
And I own a few lensers, and they quite seldom see any action.

And if you want to use eneloops, better look for models using AA cells, usually more capacity with less cells.

if you want a LL the M14 is fine, and runs reasonably well on 4 AA cells

Thanks folks, all of your advice seems to be good and I see now many options other than LL. I am now wondering whether to forget the whole FTT setup and get two separate lamps, one flood and a small but good thrower for different uses because it seems that these FTT hybrids seem have compromised on everything so you sort of only ever get a little of what you need.

I use my lamps mainly for astronomy so need a decent flood for setting up my kit and then something with just a few lumen with a red filter for later in the night to preserve my night vision (although the size-wise it should not be so small that I cannot find it easily in the dark!).

The link to shiningbeam's website is really useful but I don't see any FTT with an XR-E emitter n the site, can anyone point me to a specific model?

Thanks a lot
R

Time to hack off the moderators....

http://www.shiningbeam.com/servlet/the-215/Romisen-RC-dsh-C8-II-R2/Detail
XR-E R2 bin. Uses 3xAAA or 18650 or 2xCR123.
Romisen RC-C8 II R2 Flood-to-Throw LED Flashlight


Here is a slightly smaller 1xCR123 light. RCR123 works too. http://www.shiningbeam.com/servlet/the-162/Romisen-RC-dsh-C6-II-R2/Detail

It is worth noting that they have a HIGH and MEDIUM only! No low mode at all. This is pretty standard, unless you wanna pay Led Lenser big bucks for their patents...

Hi,
I agree LL's price is too high. I have 2xLL, one M7 and one X21. The M7 is versatile in my opinion. It has a lot of modes + the possibility to adjust the intensity between 15 and 100% by keeping the switch half pressed. The focusable beam is great, it's true it cannot be seen as a flooder, maybe for small distances, but as a thrower is awesome, with 220 lm is close to my M3C4 or TK35. When it's used as a thrower it doesn't have any spill, but throws pretty well.
[Off topic]The X21 is DD, this means no rechargeable, in theory, which is clearly a drawback. But I'm using 3 rechargeable + a dummy battery. This gives me the same voltage . The focusable beam is awesome on this one, as it outputs a lot of light as a thrower and a flooder as well.
Here you have 2 websites where you can choose between thrower, flooder, EDC, battery type and so on:
http://www.msitc-shop.com/taschenlampen-typ-einsatzgebiet/?plentyID=deda73e92d905dd3eb5533fc6a3d7dfa
http://www.selected-lights.de/taschenlampen-und-zubehoer/?plentyID=0f4d0346e0cea372aa8a019771fd64ef

Well after hours of researching I finally ordered both a Zebralight s600 and a Romisen RC-C8 II R2 Flood-to-Throw (at that price it's worth trying - it will always make a good backup to keep in the car/toolbox on something) all for under $125 US. That is about $60 less than the LL M7R (by European prices) so I still have some budget for a few AW 2900mAh 18650s that I will charge with my RC airplane hobby charger- so thanks everyone for your help.

Astro Exploits said:

Also, does anyone know if its possible to purchase the 18650 battery holder for an M7R as a spare part and put it in an M7 classic model?

What is the likely performance difference between using the M7 with AAA Eneloops NiMh and the 18650 LiIon apart from the duration of use?

Here in Europe there is a 50 Euros difference in price between the two models! So what am I getting for that sort of extra money?

Thanks
Richard

Click to expand...

I do not think they sell the 18650 battery holders separately, but if you manage to get one from somewhere I think there's a good change that it might be compatible with M7.
Looking at the specs, the runtime is the only performance benefit for using the 18650.
So what you really get for the extra money is the extra runtime and easy & convenient charging solution.

And the 50Eur for the charging system does not sound unreasonable to me.. since good quality 18650 and charger would pretty much cost that + with separate charger the charging is not that convenient.

Astro Exploits said:

I am now wondering whether to forget the whole FTT setup and get two separate lamps, one flood and a small but good thrower for different uses because it seems that these FTT hybrids seem have compromised on everything so you sort of only ever get a little of what you need.

Click to expand...

I do not see the compromise in LL's focusing optic. Sure, many other focusable lights with reflectors and simple aspheric lenses do make ringy beams and waste light that's emitted to the sides, but LL's optic does not suffer from those.

So if it is pure flood and pure throw beams you are looking for, then there's no reason to forget M7 or M7R. But everything depends on your specific needs&uses.

Astro Exploits said:

I use my lamps mainly for astronomy so need a decent flood for setting up my kit and then something with just a few lumen with a red filter for later in the night to preserve my night vision (although the size-wise it should not be so small that I cannot find it easily in the dark!)
R

Click to expand...

if you can still find one i'd strongly advice a 4sevens quark RGB. it's a pure floodlight, with a wider beam than a de-focused LL, and very similar area saturation abilities; differently from other multi-colour lights on the market both beam and output are identical in white, red, blue and green, with two separate memories for white and coloured light.
i love mine for night photography... i use white on medium, high or max to walk around and red on low or moonlight to set the camera between shots