lampeDépêche
Flashlight Enthusiast
- Joined
- May 15, 2012
- Messages
- 1,241
I purchased one of the new Glo-Toob AAA's in white. Here are some thoughts about it.
1) It has three modes: Constant High, Constant Low, Flashing. Company specs say that run-times vary from 4 hours to 15 hours, depending on mode. (15 for CL, 4 for CH, between that for Fl? Doesn't say).
2) It's the first Glo-Toob that I have owned, so I cannot compare it to the predecessors. They were too expensive for my taste, and/or ran on batteries that are too expensive.
3) The light output is not bad, but not brilliant. Sorry I can't put numbers to that; I don't have an integrating sphere. I would *guess* that the outputs are something in the 10-20 lumen range on high, and something in the 3-5 lumen range on low. Flashes probably on high. It's a very fast strobe--probably faster than 5 hz.
4) You cannot use this thing as a flashlight, i.e. holding it in your hand to look for stuff or look at stuff. It simply puts too much light directly into your eyes.
It is somewhat better as an area light, e.g. hanging inside of a tent or illuminating an interior room. Still, it is not terribly bright in that role, and has pretty lousy run-times compared to e.g. a PacLite (even worse when compared to a run-time beast like a Quark or Zebralight). And it still tends to blind you once your eyes are dark-adjusted, if you look over in that part of the room where it is standing up.
For a while I was holding it on the top of my head, vertically. Strange to say, that worked moderately well as a sort of 360 headlamp. It makes the whole room decently visible, and it doesn't shine in your eyes. In fact, that's the only way to keep it from shining in your eyes.
So if you wanted to rig up a fixture that would hold it vertically on the top of your head, you'd have an okay area light slash head-light, as well as looking like a candle. Warning: not ideal for tactical use! (Unless you can get the *other* guy to wear it on the top of his head, in which case it's pretty ideal for tactical use).
5) So what's it good for? Really the thing that it does best is: being seen. Your eyes will see it, and they will see it more than anything else around it. It's a marker.
For a use like marking objects at an accident-scene, or marking people and things on a scuba-dive, I should think it would work very well. (And this one is rated down to 200 feet, i.e. roughly 65 meters).
I bike a lot, and I'm always looking for new tail-lights and side-lights to increase visibility. For that purpose, I rate this okay but not great--the bike-light market has many entries that are brighter.
So I think in a way it's a success at what it is trying to do. It has all of the virtues and all of the flaws of a chemical glow-stick (non-directionality, mediocre output, poor run-time), but it runs on cheap batteries.
6) I suspect it is a very good thing for that market, and I don't want to run it down. I think it's also definitely good that the company is now offering it in AAA rather than 123 or the original 23A. It is cheap enough (like $20 instead of $50) and the batteries are cheap enough, that I was finally willing to experiment with one, and I'm glad to play with it.
So--mixed success, but I'm glad they are trying to expand the range.
1) It has three modes: Constant High, Constant Low, Flashing. Company specs say that run-times vary from 4 hours to 15 hours, depending on mode. (15 for CL, 4 for CH, between that for Fl? Doesn't say).
2) It's the first Glo-Toob that I have owned, so I cannot compare it to the predecessors. They were too expensive for my taste, and/or ran on batteries that are too expensive.
3) The light output is not bad, but not brilliant. Sorry I can't put numbers to that; I don't have an integrating sphere. I would *guess* that the outputs are something in the 10-20 lumen range on high, and something in the 3-5 lumen range on low. Flashes probably on high. It's a very fast strobe--probably faster than 5 hz.
4) You cannot use this thing as a flashlight, i.e. holding it in your hand to look for stuff or look at stuff. It simply puts too much light directly into your eyes.
It is somewhat better as an area light, e.g. hanging inside of a tent or illuminating an interior room. Still, it is not terribly bright in that role, and has pretty lousy run-times compared to e.g. a PacLite (even worse when compared to a run-time beast like a Quark or Zebralight). And it still tends to blind you once your eyes are dark-adjusted, if you look over in that part of the room where it is standing up.
For a while I was holding it on the top of my head, vertically. Strange to say, that worked moderately well as a sort of 360 headlamp. It makes the whole room decently visible, and it doesn't shine in your eyes. In fact, that's the only way to keep it from shining in your eyes.
So if you wanted to rig up a fixture that would hold it vertically on the top of your head, you'd have an okay area light slash head-light, as well as looking like a candle. Warning: not ideal for tactical use! (Unless you can get the *other* guy to wear it on the top of his head, in which case it's pretty ideal for tactical use).
5) So what's it good for? Really the thing that it does best is: being seen. Your eyes will see it, and they will see it more than anything else around it. It's a marker.
For a use like marking objects at an accident-scene, or marking people and things on a scuba-dive, I should think it would work very well. (And this one is rated down to 200 feet, i.e. roughly 65 meters).
I bike a lot, and I'm always looking for new tail-lights and side-lights to increase visibility. For that purpose, I rate this okay but not great--the bike-light market has many entries that are brighter.
So I think in a way it's a success at what it is trying to do. It has all of the virtues and all of the flaws of a chemical glow-stick (non-directionality, mediocre output, poor run-time), but it runs on cheap batteries.
6) I suspect it is a very good thing for that market, and I don't want to run it down. I think it's also definitely good that the company is now offering it in AAA rather than 123 or the original 23A. It is cheap enough (like $20 instead of $50) and the batteries are cheap enough, that I was finally willing to experiment with one, and I'm glad to play with it.
So--mixed success, but I'm glad they are trying to expand the range.