new Infinity or Old?

I know it's been discussed here but blast if I can find it. I want to get a red LED infinity but don't know whether to get an old one or new one. I'm looking for the longest run time; runs the battery dry. Any ideas?
TIA,
LT

If I could find another one of the original red LED Infinities, I'd buy it. Mine is very bright indeed, and has a very nice beam for a colored LED. Almost as nice, if not as nice, as my white LED Infinity Ultra. And, you can't beat the 40 hour runtime.

I have both models and find the light emitted from the older model is only slightly dimmer and just as useful as the light from the newer model, so if it were me I would choose the older style for the longer run time.

-Tim

I just saw this on batterystation.com :

EARLY model Infinities in gift tins with new battery
LED colors are red, green, or yellow
Part # Inf-Tin (specify color of LED)....$12.00

Batterystation's a great dealer to buy stuff from, I've had a few dealings with Kevin, and he's top notch! Else you can also look at some of the other CPF dealers who may still have them in stock. Off the top of my head, Meridian Tactical and Brightguy I think has some as well...

Edit: Sorry, to answer your question, the original Infinity will have the longer runtime. You're looking for the Infinity Task Light, not the Infinity Ultra (tho I doubt there's anymore of the CMG ones left). IIRC Gerber is only producing the Ultras and no more Infinitys. So you might want to grab them while you still can!!

sotto,

I just bought a couple more green Infinities from the Battery Station's CPF Special page a few weeks ago. You're probably not going to do better than $12.

If the red ones are gone before you get one, check out The LED Light Bargain Basement. They are still listing thirteen pieces in stock for the red one ($14.80). I ordered four Infinities from their Bargain Basement four to six weeks ago and the shipping was only $6 for four lights.

I like the green Infinities (in tins) from Battery Station best. The green Infinities really are useful, IMO. They are a very bright for a light that runs 40-60 hrs on 1AA cell.

If you want more of the old Infinity Task Lights, you'd better hurry. I have an email from GERBER very plainly stating that they've dropped this cool light from the line. I bought six of them since CMG was sold.

Uh oh, not good.

Is Gerber still going to produce the Infinity Ultras?

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Lunal_Tic said:
I know it's been discussed here but blast if I can find it. I want to get a red LED infinity but don't know whether to get an old one or new one. I'm looking for the longest run time; runs the battery dry. Any ideas?
TIA,
LT

[/ QUOTE ]
If you're looking for a red LED version, I'd opt for the old style Infinity, not a newer model or an Ultra.
The older style red Infinity has a remarkably smooth, bright red beam, and its battery lasts a long, long time.

Here is a very old beam photograph; taken in early 2000 from before I bought a decent camera:



IMPORTANT: Light does not have that pinkish tinge as it appears to in this photograph.

Something else you may want to consider....I just got word from Gerber that they're now estimating the new (third generation) Infinities will be available in October or November. I'm guessing the circuitry will be the same as the Gerber Infinity Ultras that are available now but the styling will be different. I believe the new ones will have a tail switch. At this point, it's anyones guess if this will be an improvement over the existing style.

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flashlite said:
At this point, it's anyones guess if this will be an improvement over the existing style.

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Something tells me it won't. Just a gut feeling.

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KevinL said:
Uh oh, not good.

Is Gerber still going to produce the Infinity Ultras?

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Not as we now know it.

As already mentioned, GERBER will eventually drop the bezel twistie for a tail twistie.

I like the old style so well that I....I panicked. I bought up a few Ultra-Gs and a handful of the old Infinity Task Lights in the colors I like. The new tail twistie may be just fine but in the past I have not liked the ergonomics of a tail twistie on this small a light. Then there's another ugly question -- will the new switch make the light any longer? Will they drop the real lanyard hole for the increasingly popular 'dental floss pseudo lanyard'?

The good news is that the closeout prices and CPF specials (Battery Station, CountryComm) are probably among the lowest prices that these lights have ever been sold at.

IMO people are really going to miss these little lights. I love GERBER and have bought from them for over thirty years but I think that they're making a mistake in dropping the old Task Light. There are many people who value dim lights. In a year light newbies and campers and backpackers will be reading the glowing reviews for these lights on the web and they'll wonder what happened to them.

Or not. I don't know. Just my view.

Thanks for the opinions, speculation and info. I'm now officially panicked. I ordered one of each like a good CPFer from Kevin but now I'm second guessing my order; should I have bought more to spare me the shock of Gerber messing with success. Thanks for the help . . .I think. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon15.gif

LT

People had a bad reaction to the CMG Sonic tail twistie but maybe they can do a better job with the Infinity. The Dorcy AA tail twisty worked fine, for example. And the new Gerber Trio has a tail twisty (I haven't tried one yet). And if you don't like what Gerber ends up doing to the Ultra, there's always the Arc AA.

Re lanyard, I suspect the new Infinity will have a similar tail to the Trio. That may mean a small hole with a split ring. That's generally worked fine on other lights; nobody's been complaining about the lack of a large lanyard hole on the Arc AA.

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paulr said:
...Re lanyard, I suspect the new Infinity will have a similar tail to the Trio. That may mean a small hole with a split ring. That's generally worked fine on other lights; nobody's been complaining about the lack of a large lanyard hole on the Arc AA.

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Who knows? Suprising as it may seem, many people will not bet their lives on a split ring. Many. The current trend is towards ever smaller holes which are alleged to be for lanyards. If the continuing shrinkage of the holes stopped at the size of the ARC-AA, that would be one thing. That is not the case. At this point there is no indication that GERBER will provide a hole will even be as big as that of the ARC-AA.

Take a look at the NightCutter Sport. You may need your glasses to make out the hole. It is much smaller than that of the ARC-AA. In fact, the split ring that comes with the ARC-AA will not even fit on the NightCutter light. One thickness of the wire will fit through the hole but two will not. That means that it won't fit. So as small as the hole in the ARC-AA is, the problem has gone far beyond that.

Light makers have figured out that they can make their lights shorter by using a smaller hole. They know that the 'armchair' flashlight users will never know the difference. No one who really needs a light with a lanyard will buy into that crap for one second. Look at the real lanyard holes on the Inovas. It's not for looks. They get it. Look who they sell them to. Look at Tektite, often offering three different points to tie on to. That's not for looks, either. Look who uses their lights.

I've had this very discussion with others who usually end up folding by saying something like, "Well, I'm not going to be using my light on the side of a cliff." Exactly. That is my point. But some people do. They need a real lanyard. Nothing else will do. That is why some light makers have not followed the herd over the cliff. The fact that some makers SAY that they have provided for a lanyard is irrelevent.

My point was that the CMG Infinities and Ultras have a real lanyard hole in which a real lanyard may be attached if you need one. We do not know what the new model will have. You can rationalize it until the end of time if you like. Whether the ARC-AA hole and split rings are 'good enough' for your particular situation is irrelevent. There is no comparison between the real utility of the old CMG lanyard holes and the ARCs -- and the smaller ones like on the NightCutter Sport are not even worth honorable mention -- if the task requires a real lanyard.

I think the Infinity/Ultra circuit board is more prone to failure than the Arc AA split ring is. The Arc AAA lanyard hole is also pretty small, and also drilled very close to the edge of the lanyard lug, so the split ring can go through it. I haven't seen the Nightcutters.

What's a "real lanyard", anyway? You don't want it to be too strong, since it could hurt you if it snags something. That's the point of those breakaway connectors, right?

I think the Inova X5 etc. have a hole about like the Arc LS twisty or the Minimag. The 24/7 has no lanyard hole at all, just a spring clip, though the clip has a slot in it. And that's supposedly a survival light.

If you want lots of attachment points, Tektite is probably your best bet. Strapping the light down has to be better than having it flop around on any type of lanyard. I can't be sure that those plastic tabs will be stronger than the metal lug on an Arc AA though.

The Gerber Trio and Gerber LX3.0 do not come with split rings.
At least, mine didn't. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ooo.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif

Well, is there a hole in the Trio/LX3 large enough to take a reasonably sturdy split ring?

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paulr said:

What's a "real lanyard", anyway?

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Probably something between the size of a round, braided lace for a dress shoe and any old piece of paracord.

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paulr said:
You don't want it to be too strong, since it could hurt you if it snags something. That's the point of those breakaway connectors, right?


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No. Not at all. I don't think it would hurt me. You can use systems which are difficult to inspect and evaluate if you like, but that will not be good enough for everyone, in all situations.

Most of the following is relevent to this discussion:
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Sub_Umbra said:
When using a wrist lanyard I also rarely slip the lanyard onto my wrist. For safety reasons it is nearly always better to grip the light with the doubled lanyard wrapped around the back of your hand and only actually looped around your thumb. The advantage of this method is that you can nearly always let go of it, instead of being sucked into a machine or left dangling from an overhead. Remember, if something has got hold of your lanyard/light it may have grabbed enough of it that you may no longer be able to slip your hand out. With practice you can train yourself to retain the lanyard with your thumb and the light will be quite secure.

EDIT 08.26.04: The same would be true of knives, ice axes, saps or anything else that you may feel is important to have the ability to get away from whenever you decide you need to. END EDIT.

While on this subject it should also be noted that in most environments if you are using any type of lanyard in any manner, you should probably have a knife on your person, ready for instant use.

<RANT>
I should mention that my above comments do not include many new lights which seem to use the same way too thin lanyard, which is very much in fashion at this time. The issue with the too thin lanyards is not that they are not strong enough; it's that they are so thin that they may be too damaged to be effective before you even notice the damage. Even if noticed in time to fix, the user is severely limited in materials that may be used for repairs. There is something really creepy about the idea of having to fix the lanyard on an $80 light with a paperclip because nothing else will fit. Of course, that's only if you're lucky enough to have a paperclip. If you are 'in back of beyond' when these lanyards need fixing, (and they will) you will just be out of luck. No replacing these new lanyards with a piece of para-cord or a spare shoelace. These ultra thin lanyards so popular today would have automatically disqualified many otherwise fine lights for use when I was far more active and adventurous. These new lanyards also fall way short in that they are one size fits all and cannot be fitted to the user. They are lanyards in name only.

INOVA and TEKTITE, among others, have a very good understanding of what lanyards are all about, IMO.
</RANT>

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It depends on what your needs are. You may deny that others may have different needs than you but that does not make it true.

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Sub_Umbra said:
Light makers have figured out that they can make their lights shorter by using a smaller hole. They know that the 'armchair' flashlight users will never know the difference. No one who really needs a light with a lanyard will buy into that crap for one second. Look at the real lanyard holes on the Inovas.

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Sub_Umbra:

Jumpin' Jehosaphat! Not the lanyard hole thing again. I thought we settled that a long time ago.

This is the Flashaholic site, not the "Hole"-aholic site. There must be one of those somewhere else on Internet.

Just kidding /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/happy14.gif

Well, I think you're asking for something that most users don't care about. I like the FF2 system best; it can accept a lanyard (via a split ring) and it can tail stand. What's wrong with a split ring, anyway? Do you really expect a stainless steel split ring to fail before a piece of nylon does?

I have a 1aa Tektite light here and its lanyard tab (at the end) looks like it can hold one thickness of paracord but not two, making a double loop impossible. It has those ears on the sides, but those are for web straps, not a lanyard. The UK 4AA has something sort of similar, a single ear with a slot for a web strap and a smaller slot for a lanyard. The lanyard slot looks like it can accept a double paracord loop. You might also like the UK 2AAA eLED as an alternative to the Ultra, since it should also be able to accept a double paracord loop.

Worst of all seems to be the Surefire system where the lanyard goes through a little bail on the pocket clip.