bicyclista
Newly Enlightened
- Joined
- Jun 30, 2013
- Messages
- 1
Hi. wanna start by saying how great the forum is. lurked around here for a few weeks deciding which light to buy and have found the site to be tremendously helpful and interesting.
Background:
I recently purchased a V11R Mirage. I chose it based mostly on the UI. my criteria is: wanted a click switch, tailstand, various light levels including super low, battery versatility or minimum AA support.
I further chose the Mirage edition due to preference for something 'stylish' or at least 'not black' as I plan to keep light forever and find unique things acquire more love and emotion over time. Value was also a factor in my choice as I paid $80 from fasttech, which considering includes the AA extender and is numbered is a good value IMHO--- as long as it will last a lifetime and work flawlessly every time i turn it on.
At the time I wasn't aware of the V11R neutral, or I would probably have chosen that one, though I must say I am not overly bothered by the 'coolness' of the light. The illumination quality would trump body aesthetics for me.
I need a light that does everything. I will carry it every day in NYC but also I do backcountry trips in CO and AK, as well as frequent travel often in wilderness environments. I need something that I can trust everywhere, forever, pretty much no matter what. I didn't buy it as a collectors item to save on a shelf, I bought it as a key piece of gear to use a lot. I need to feel like i can trust it. To me, thats what makes it worth ~$100.
Unfortunately, my initial experience of the light is marred a few things, and I can't tell I can't tell if the light I received is broken or if this is what it is. I'm trying to keep an open mind as I decide to stick with this model or perhaps go for a different brand.
"Problems"
The most concerning thing is that that it does not work at all with the AA extender. Am i doing something wrong? I've tried several different AA batteries and none work. I read in another thread about people filing or otherwise adjusting something on this however I don't quite understand the issue but more importantly, I don't want to modify a ~$100 light-- it should minimally 'just work'. you can imagine my trust level sunk radically when I opened my brand new light, put in a brand new AA battery, clicked the switch and.... nothing. not a good first impression at all. IMHO should never happen at this price point and product positioning (i.e. precision crafted, rugged, lifetime guaranteed)
The light level adjuster has radically inconsistent resistance. if i turn it back and forth, after 2 times or so it goes into a 'full slip' mode where there is no friction at all. I can not tell if this is a bug or a feature (note in real world usage i can't imagine turning the light up and down with the ring like this except to 'play' so i'm not sure how big a deal this is) The resistance also seems to be greatly affected by temperature: i'm leery of how usable this is going to be in winter camping. I have seen this issue mentioned on many threads related to the V11R's. Due to this, I'm concerned about the long-term durability of the adjustment ring: while i love the ability to infinitely adjust the brightness, and would be willing to sacrifice a few minutes of battery life, i would give all that up if this is going to be a fail point in ~5 years.
When i shake the light near my ear, I hear a faint (and somewhat disconcerting) rattle sound. is this normal? again, might be an issue with my light, might be typical of them all, but it doesn't impute the level of quality i would expect at this price point and product level.
"Observations"
These are things i didn't notice until i had actually seen the light in person.
regarding the color: it doesn't really look like the photographs on the sunwayman website. in fact the light is a 3 color camo with black basecolor camo'd with a dark gray or olive color and dark red. personally i think the light looks great, but it doesn't look like the tan/bright red in SWM photos. while it does have some camouflage characteristics, it seems mostly like 'camo style' rather than 'tactical camo' (i don't care about this, i wish the photos represented the color better, but it still looks very good and i bet most of the people who think the photos are ugly would find the light better looking in person as it is more subtle)
i didn't notice that the Mirage edition does not include the light level indicator on the other v11r's ie. the min-max wrap and indicator point on the dial. this was disappointing to me at first, however i wonder how useful this is in real life? it seems like most of the time if i need to turn on the light, it would be too dark to read the scale and i would just adjust the brightness 'by feel' winding to min and turning it up to my relative desired brightness. the fact that i can do this before i turn the light on is the best feature for me. I'd like to know if others find the brightness markers on the V11R useful tho, and in which circumstances.
the brightness level is dissapointing so far. i'm not sure if this light is broken, (see above about rattle, battery issues) but i purchased at the same time a olight i3s which to the naked eye appears 'brighter' i haven't tried with rechargeable batteries as i'm waiting to invest in high quality batteries and charger until i'm sure which light will ultimately join my kit.
thank you for any feedback observations suggestions or advice.
Background:
I recently purchased a V11R Mirage. I chose it based mostly on the UI. my criteria is: wanted a click switch, tailstand, various light levels including super low, battery versatility or minimum AA support.
I further chose the Mirage edition due to preference for something 'stylish' or at least 'not black' as I plan to keep light forever and find unique things acquire more love and emotion over time. Value was also a factor in my choice as I paid $80 from fasttech, which considering includes the AA extender and is numbered is a good value IMHO--- as long as it will last a lifetime and work flawlessly every time i turn it on.
At the time I wasn't aware of the V11R neutral, or I would probably have chosen that one, though I must say I am not overly bothered by the 'coolness' of the light. The illumination quality would trump body aesthetics for me.
I need a light that does everything. I will carry it every day in NYC but also I do backcountry trips in CO and AK, as well as frequent travel often in wilderness environments. I need something that I can trust everywhere, forever, pretty much no matter what. I didn't buy it as a collectors item to save on a shelf, I bought it as a key piece of gear to use a lot. I need to feel like i can trust it. To me, thats what makes it worth ~$100.
Unfortunately, my initial experience of the light is marred a few things, and I can't tell I can't tell if the light I received is broken or if this is what it is. I'm trying to keep an open mind as I decide to stick with this model or perhaps go for a different brand.
"Problems"
The most concerning thing is that that it does not work at all with the AA extender. Am i doing something wrong? I've tried several different AA batteries and none work. I read in another thread about people filing or otherwise adjusting something on this however I don't quite understand the issue but more importantly, I don't want to modify a ~$100 light-- it should minimally 'just work'. you can imagine my trust level sunk radically when I opened my brand new light, put in a brand new AA battery, clicked the switch and.... nothing. not a good first impression at all. IMHO should never happen at this price point and product positioning (i.e. precision crafted, rugged, lifetime guaranteed)
The light level adjuster has radically inconsistent resistance. if i turn it back and forth, after 2 times or so it goes into a 'full slip' mode where there is no friction at all. I can not tell if this is a bug or a feature (note in real world usage i can't imagine turning the light up and down with the ring like this except to 'play' so i'm not sure how big a deal this is) The resistance also seems to be greatly affected by temperature: i'm leery of how usable this is going to be in winter camping. I have seen this issue mentioned on many threads related to the V11R's. Due to this, I'm concerned about the long-term durability of the adjustment ring: while i love the ability to infinitely adjust the brightness, and would be willing to sacrifice a few minutes of battery life, i would give all that up if this is going to be a fail point in ~5 years.
When i shake the light near my ear, I hear a faint (and somewhat disconcerting) rattle sound. is this normal? again, might be an issue with my light, might be typical of them all, but it doesn't impute the level of quality i would expect at this price point and product level.
"Observations"
These are things i didn't notice until i had actually seen the light in person.
regarding the color: it doesn't really look like the photographs on the sunwayman website. in fact the light is a 3 color camo with black basecolor camo'd with a dark gray or olive color and dark red. personally i think the light looks great, but it doesn't look like the tan/bright red in SWM photos. while it does have some camouflage characteristics, it seems mostly like 'camo style' rather than 'tactical camo' (i don't care about this, i wish the photos represented the color better, but it still looks very good and i bet most of the people who think the photos are ugly would find the light better looking in person as it is more subtle)
i didn't notice that the Mirage edition does not include the light level indicator on the other v11r's ie. the min-max wrap and indicator point on the dial. this was disappointing to me at first, however i wonder how useful this is in real life? it seems like most of the time if i need to turn on the light, it would be too dark to read the scale and i would just adjust the brightness 'by feel' winding to min and turning it up to my relative desired brightness. the fact that i can do this before i turn the light on is the best feature for me. I'd like to know if others find the brightness markers on the V11R useful tho, and in which circumstances.
the brightness level is dissapointing so far. i'm not sure if this light is broken, (see above about rattle, battery issues) but i purchased at the same time a olight i3s which to the naked eye appears 'brighter' i haven't tried with rechargeable batteries as i'm waiting to invest in high quality batteries and charger until i'm sure which light will ultimately join my kit.
thank you for any feedback observations suggestions or advice.
