Fenix E 21 and Olight T25 Led Lenser P17 and Led Lenser X21R

RemcoM

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Jan 14, 2012
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631
Hi, i have some questions,

1 I want to buy the flashlights ,Fenix E21 ,Olight T25 , Led Lenser P17 ,and the flagship Led Lenser X21R special edition, What kind of flashlights are they?

2 What kind of brightness can i expect of these flashlights?

3 Is here somebody who has one of these flashlights? And so yes, can you tell something about it?

Remco
 

bedazzLED

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Jan 9, 2010
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Melbourne, Australia
Hi RemcoM.

I don't have the Fenix E21 or Olight T25, but I did have the other two for a while.

The P17 is not too bad if you like a large light running of D cells. Throws pretty good, has respectable brightness and the flood to throw is pretty handy. If I were to give you some advice, I would be looking at a whole lot of other lights before the P17. For example, the TK41 is a whole lot brighter, throws better and is cheaper. Other ones would be the TK50, TK35, BC40, ...

As for the X21R, it's certainly a LARGE light, great flood, very good throw and is EXPENSIVE!. Unless you really need the flood to throw feature, again, I would be looking at other lights first. I would be looking at the SR90, TK70 or TM11. And if you want to get something really special and still less expensive than the X21R, have a look at the Firesword or the Big Bruiser over at elektrolumens.com. These are absolutely beautiful lights. I have a few of his lights and they are simply a work of art. Oh, did I mention they are BRIGHT!!!!

Problem with the Led Lensers, except for the latest ones, they're expensive, not water-proof and unregulated. Other than that, they're not bad.

Hope this helps.
 

Bulb-o

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Apr 8, 2011
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Hi!, I got the Fenix E21 cool white, also the Led Lensers M1, P7 and T7, but not the P17.

Before having it I didn't expect much about the Fenix E21, "ok, it uses the common AA cells so it's convenient for all around home use and that brand is very reliable", were my thoughts. I wanted a cheaper model to use with no respect and saving the LD20 for more serious tasks as camping or trekking. But that flashlight is amazing!, great output with a bright spill and a not-so-narrow hotspot.

Now I see the E21 is as good as the LD20, yes, XPE R2 against XP-G R4 (my version) so its hotspot is not so wide but is very useful and throws very far away. You barely can see the difference between 156 and 180 lumens and, to be honest, a high and medium modes are enough for most of us because sos and strobe maybe could be useful outdoor... once in a lifetime? Maybe never if you don't are into serious problems like be lost in the wild.

About the P17? That brand has also a very good construction with the best zoom system but I agree, you can get more output from many other D cell flashlights and spending less money. Led Lensers are German, but made in China, where else?
 

candle lamp

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Jun 16, 2010
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South Korea
I have E21(XP-E R2 & XP-E Q4). R2 version is cool white and Q4 neutral white. The build quality is very good and both bodys are quite same. The difference is only emitter.

You can see the beamshots of the two versions here. (I just link it through google translation.)
 

marcl

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Dec 31, 2011
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I have a Lenser P7 and a P3. They are both very well made. A lot of people don't like the fact they are unregulated, for me I don't see the problem. With NiMH they seem to act just as if they were regulated, so one less thing to go wrong! The P7 gives me a couple of hours (give or take) of full power on NiMH. It also has the flood/focus function that is excellent, so the throw is very good as is the flood. I know it's not a P7 you are looking at but there is not a lot of difference, apart from the cells. The P17 will be very well built indeed. You will find it hard to beat German engineering, but you will also pay for it.

Any reason you have not included the P7?

Marc.
 

RDPOE

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Jan 10, 2012
Messages
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I have the E21 and love it! It's very well made, puts out what I consider a good beam with enough spill and a decent hot spot and takes AA's. I like the AA factor because they are easy to find, and rechargeables are pretty cheap as well. I went the rechargeable route for mine.

I like the fact that it's a dual mode as well. You will run into some reviews that say there isn't a discernible difference between the two outputs, but I find it easy to tell. To be honest, it was less pronounced for the first few minutes the light was on, and after I put some freshly charged NiMH in, it was pretty obvious. The high of 150 is plenty for most situations, and the low honestly is as well.

I don't know what the other lights you are considering go for, but I think the E21 is a steal. I'll definitely hold on to this one for a while and maybe even get a few more for my brothers.
 

squaat

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Aug 11, 2008
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Vancouver, BC
I have gifted many e21's (and their predessor the e20) and have owned the olight t25. The e21's are great bang for buck, and an awesome place to start with LED flashlights. the t25 is quite a thrower (for it's size) and very sturdily built (though it's an older flashlight...) the t25 is now my sister in laws emergency light (I use 4seven Quarks now). I've had some of the lower end LED lensers before I got my first fenix (ld20) and the olight (t25). They were impressive up until then. I've since given all my LED lensers away. The focusability of the LED lensers is overrrated IMHO.... almost gimicky. For mine multiple stable well spaced output levels are much better.

The lack of regulation is also an issue in LED lensers. I prefer lights that's do their best to maintain a constant output for as long as possible, rather than the unregulated route of gradually dimming over time. The visual drop in output as a flashlight drops out of regulation is a good indicator that you need to change the battery, much harder to judge without regulation. (I find I'm always second guessing myself when using an unregulated light... is it dimmer than it was before? should i switch the batteries, etc, etc) Though it doesn't bother other people, and others like the steady decline.

Personally if you are just starting out, you can't go wrong with the fenix e21. If you search around you can get them at around $30 USD...

After you are done with that I'd consider the 4sevens quark AA^2 or the fenix LD20... after that... well... you'll probably want something smaller to edc... after that there's other battery chemistries to try. CR123, all the various sizes of li-ion. Multi-emitter lights, different LEDs, different tints, different ui's, you'll want to have at least one monster thrower or insane output light too... before you know it you have more flashlights than you can justify... welcome to the club, you are now well on the road to flashaholicism :)
 

hiuintahs

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Sep 12, 2006
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Utah
I don't know anything about the LED Lenser as they don't seem to be talked about much here......so I'm thinking they are lower end light than a Quark, Fenix, Olight, EagleTac, etc.

I have the T25T with XP-G R5 and its a pretty good light. The E21 uses the XP-E Led and so the output (or efficiency) shouldn't be as high.........though Fenix does a good job of their driver circuits. The T25 has a mild orange peel (OP) reflector and I like the beam pattern a lot. Olight/iTP do a good job of current regulated output too. The only drawback that I can think of the T25 is that the medium mode is half the output of the high mode. I personally think medium should be a little lower........and I'm getting less interested in twisting the head to change modes, unless it's a small single cell.

I have three 2AA lights......T25T, Quark X, and iTP SA2. I like the T25T beam the best but I like the Quark X for the programmable 2 mode operation and floody XML (though XML's tend to have just a slight tint of yellow/green but only if comparing to a cool white), and I like the iTP SA2 for the mode select switch on the side but don't like its smooth reflector that makes it too much of a thrower. You see that's the problem. Each light has its specifics and each person likes different things...........thus you find you just buy em' all and then you see exactly what it is you like and don't like and then sell the ones you don't care for because there will be someone that has a differing opinion.

For me I have a data logging light meter and so the first thing I do is graph the output over time. If the output does not fit into the ball park of other similar lights, it gets sold. Over time I'm posting the run time graphs of the lights I own on CPF.

Hope this helps.
 
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