Eicca
Newly Enlightened
- Joined
- Aug 3, 2019
- Messages
- 108
At $110 MSRP, it's not exactly cheap. Is it worth the dough? I've only had it for a few hours now but here are my thoughts. I approach this more from the angle of everyday life than listing specs and build quality and little tiny details. Here goes:
It's on the bigger side, running almost the full length of my hand. And with a head as wide as it is, nobody's going to pocket cary it. The holster fabric seems tough but the velcro leaves me with some questions. And the light does not fit in the holster with the cigar ring attached. Prepare to carry it in a pack or outside the waistband.
Speaking of holsters and rings, the act of holstering and unholstering can tweak the selector ring, making it start in a mode you're not expecting.
It's heavy, particularly in the head, which throws the balance off, but it feels very chunky and robust in a good way.
The battery does slap around inside. I always wrap my batteries in a few layers of paper to keep them from rattling. This one seems to be a little looser than other lights I've come across.
It doesn't appear to reach the full 1000 lumens, even with a fully-charged 3500mAh Fenix 18650. My Fenix PD35 v2.0 measured 230 lux on my phone light meter app, and the SRT7GT couldn't crack 173. Keep in mind, this test is just me with a phone in my darkened apartment shining the lights at the ceiling, but the results consistently showed lower output from the NiteCore than the Fenix. A little disappointing in that regard, but to the naked eye, I can't tell at all.
The UV light seems weaker than I would expect of such a "rough and tough" light, but it did help me find the dog whizz that I've always suspected was in my carpet. Now I can show the management and get them to send in a real good carpet cleaner.
The selector ring is a fantastic interface. Being able to know where the output is before the light is activated is a huge plus. This should put an end to me getting up to pee in the dark and accidentally boiling my eyes out of my head because I left my light on max last time I used it.
The ramping of the brightness isn't linear. It's only something you notice as the operator, but it seems to plateau and then jump again around the 40% and 85% marks. Loses a few points on the fit-and-finish score for that.
The range of output is phenomenal. Being able to dim it down to 0.1 lumen makes it incredibly handy for not destroying my night vision. And of course, the max setting is nothing to sneeze at. The throw is stated to reach 450m. I can't say for sure, but I can say that if something is close enough for you to want to see it, it'll light it up real good.
A REALLY STRONG POINT: The SRT7GT probably the most foolproof strobe activation you'll ever find. The strobe setting lies at the end of the ring's range in the "high" direction. Give it a good solid twist and you can't screw it up. Very easy to do quickly and with zero thought. This seems like a much more dependable way to activate strobe if your adrenaline and nerves are on overdrive. I've always felt that with shaky hands the "tap the button" method of activating strobe is likely to go awry. Big point to NiteCore for this design.
The reflector pattern looks a little cheap. Having the bores for the auxiliary colors around the edge is to blame, but it's not rotationally symmetrical either. Makes it feel a little "Walmart" in that department. Also, the way the emitter sits on a large black circle at the bottom of the reflector seems low rent as well.
The cigar ring is plastic. We'll see how long it lasts.
The amount of features it has does worry me slightly. "The more lights you have on your tree, the greater your risk of burning your house down." I've also seen a few more reports of NiteCore light defects on this forum and others than I'm entirely comfortable with. As such, I don't think I'll ever rely on this as my one-and-only if I'm heading into more critical or isolated situations, like outdoor adventuring and the like. My PD35 will always come along as backup. And my PD25 lives in my pocket by default.
Is it gimmicky? Or is it useful in a Swiss-Army-Knife sort of way? It does seem to me like it's trying a little hard to be taken seriously. I can't really imagine a seasoned police officer using the SRT7GT as his duty light, even though the packaging says it's great for tactical and law enforcement... Again, too many frills to feel like it's 100% dependable, and as cool as the ring interface is, it is more likely to get bumped when off. For some, this could be a problem.
But for average peeps, I think it's totally killer. I've been messing with it all day and coming up with excuses to use it. It'll be my "casual-ish" primary light for sure. Feels beefy, looks beefy, and does a bunch of neat tricks.
I highly recommended it for everything short of critical duty. It's unique enough among lights that even your friends who think you're weird for your flashlight collection will think the SRT7GT is rad. Definitely one to own just for what it is.
It's on the bigger side, running almost the full length of my hand. And with a head as wide as it is, nobody's going to pocket cary it. The holster fabric seems tough but the velcro leaves me with some questions. And the light does not fit in the holster with the cigar ring attached. Prepare to carry it in a pack or outside the waistband.
Speaking of holsters and rings, the act of holstering and unholstering can tweak the selector ring, making it start in a mode you're not expecting.
It's heavy, particularly in the head, which throws the balance off, but it feels very chunky and robust in a good way.
The battery does slap around inside. I always wrap my batteries in a few layers of paper to keep them from rattling. This one seems to be a little looser than other lights I've come across.
It doesn't appear to reach the full 1000 lumens, even with a fully-charged 3500mAh Fenix 18650. My Fenix PD35 v2.0 measured 230 lux on my phone light meter app, and the SRT7GT couldn't crack 173. Keep in mind, this test is just me with a phone in my darkened apartment shining the lights at the ceiling, but the results consistently showed lower output from the NiteCore than the Fenix. A little disappointing in that regard, but to the naked eye, I can't tell at all.
The UV light seems weaker than I would expect of such a "rough and tough" light, but it did help me find the dog whizz that I've always suspected was in my carpet. Now I can show the management and get them to send in a real good carpet cleaner.
The selector ring is a fantastic interface. Being able to know where the output is before the light is activated is a huge plus. This should put an end to me getting up to pee in the dark and accidentally boiling my eyes out of my head because I left my light on max last time I used it.
The ramping of the brightness isn't linear. It's only something you notice as the operator, but it seems to plateau and then jump again around the 40% and 85% marks. Loses a few points on the fit-and-finish score for that.
The range of output is phenomenal. Being able to dim it down to 0.1 lumen makes it incredibly handy for not destroying my night vision. And of course, the max setting is nothing to sneeze at. The throw is stated to reach 450m. I can't say for sure, but I can say that if something is close enough for you to want to see it, it'll light it up real good.
A REALLY STRONG POINT: The SRT7GT probably the most foolproof strobe activation you'll ever find. The strobe setting lies at the end of the ring's range in the "high" direction. Give it a good solid twist and you can't screw it up. Very easy to do quickly and with zero thought. This seems like a much more dependable way to activate strobe if your adrenaline and nerves are on overdrive. I've always felt that with shaky hands the "tap the button" method of activating strobe is likely to go awry. Big point to NiteCore for this design.
The reflector pattern looks a little cheap. Having the bores for the auxiliary colors around the edge is to blame, but it's not rotationally symmetrical either. Makes it feel a little "Walmart" in that department. Also, the way the emitter sits on a large black circle at the bottom of the reflector seems low rent as well.
The cigar ring is plastic. We'll see how long it lasts.
The amount of features it has does worry me slightly. "The more lights you have on your tree, the greater your risk of burning your house down." I've also seen a few more reports of NiteCore light defects on this forum and others than I'm entirely comfortable with. As such, I don't think I'll ever rely on this as my one-and-only if I'm heading into more critical or isolated situations, like outdoor adventuring and the like. My PD35 will always come along as backup. And my PD25 lives in my pocket by default.
Is it gimmicky? Or is it useful in a Swiss-Army-Knife sort of way? It does seem to me like it's trying a little hard to be taken seriously. I can't really imagine a seasoned police officer using the SRT7GT as his duty light, even though the packaging says it's great for tactical and law enforcement... Again, too many frills to feel like it's 100% dependable, and as cool as the ring interface is, it is more likely to get bumped when off. For some, this could be a problem.
But for average peeps, I think it's totally killer. I've been messing with it all day and coming up with excuses to use it. It'll be my "casual-ish" primary light for sure. Feels beefy, looks beefy, and does a bunch of neat tricks.
I highly recommended it for everything short of critical duty. It's unique enough among lights that even your friends who think you're weird for your flashlight collection will think the SRT7GT is rad. Definitely one to own just for what it is.
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