I got a BT3 after all, so thought I'd do a mini-review about it:
OVERALL: I like it a lot. It's a specialized, ultra-durable, ultra-thrower, and a really bright flashlight.
USABILITY: Very bright and easy to use. Being an angle-head, you can set it on its base to work with both hands. It is flat on its "backside" so it lays beam-up nicely if you want to light up the whole room by shining on the ceiling.
USER INTERFACE: It has a button on the side which is protected by a shroud but still can be used with gloves. Push to click for 600 lumens. Push and hold 2-1/2 seconds for 100 lumens (which seems more like 3/4 power - human eyes are roughly logarithmic in sensitivity). Push and hold longer for steady blinking at full brightness. turn it off and on again to get to full brightness. The point of this light is to have full brightness right away - it is designed for firefighters.
BATTERIES: You can get a rechargeable pack, or get that straight away:
http://www.foxfury.com/catalog/prod...breakthrough-bt3-led-right-angle-light-orange
High brightness lasts nominally 2 hours; low is nominally 5 hours; blinking, 8 hours.
The rechargeable version would be nice for a firefighter, but this is a farm light for me, so I chose AA size and use rechargeables. They fit in the battery pack just fine. Evidently there were some design revisions a few years ago.
BEAM: Tight! The BT3 is so named because its beam is 3 degrees. It has some spill, but is best for looking at some specific thing. It was designed to cut through smoke. Its sibling, the BT2, has a 2 degree beam and puts out 200 lumens on high. I got the thing to find my cows at the back of my field, about 300 m from my barn. It does that really well. Green reflective eyeballs are plainly visible in the distance, even in light fog.
DISCUSSION: The light obviously is very well thought out and is intended for fairly . . . eh . . . vigorous . . . use on the fire ground at night.
For example: the battery compartment door is on the bottom and opens with a quarter turn of the inset cap. Except the lid doesn't open. (WTF! You mean I have to READ the manual!?!?) See, it isn't too hard to unlock the lid, and you can't have your battery falling out when you are literally saving someone's life or your own might be put at risk if that happens. To actually open the lid you retract a safety peg with an allen key - something you should be doing at the station or in the truck, not up on a ladder. But if you are just checking your cows you can retract it and leave it retracted all the time. I did that, and presto - quarter turn and open.
Similarly, the belt clip on the back is way too stiff to use on your pants pocket. You'd damage your pants in no time. No, it is for clipping to your gear REALLY firmly so it doesn't get knocked off when you need it. But it comes with a key ring and small carabiner for convenient quick attachments to belt loops, etc.
I was a volunteer firefighter for 15 years in another life, which burns (oh dear!) a deep appreciation of good, dependable emergency equipment into you. There are an awful lot of finer points about this light that I won't go into but which I really like. Part of that is an almost sentimental attachment, but when it comes down to it, the vast majority of us are doing "the flashlight thing" because it is our way of pursuing happiness. In that sense, it is a very enjoyable light to own and use. Other lights would check on cows in the mist just fine, but this light is vastly more better for me.
BOTTOM LINE: FoxFire's BT3 is an excellent purpose-built light for the fire ground. It is also a most excellent light for this flashaholic on his farm ground.
