Mini Review- CMG Reactor Luxeon Star Light

OK, I am going into new light overload. I bought, at the same time, :
Streamlight 4aa 7 LED light (23.95)
Streamlight 3N 3 LED light (14.95)
CMG Infinity Ultra (21.50)
CMG Reactor (27.25)
All purchased at www.brightguy.com

Congratulations to the first low cost, mass produced Luxeon Star flshlight.

The physical light is a slightly unorthodox shape, but has a suprisingly comfortable feel in the hand, and the knurling on the plastic part of the bezel is egronomicly located at the base, making one handed twist on / off operation easy. It is exactly the same height as the mini mag.

While I did not have Lithium batteries, I did put in, the brand new, Rayvoc maximum PLUS AA batteries, from Wal-mart. I'm convinced that these are as fresh as you can get a battery, and based on the comments here, the rayvocs are the best batteres, other than lithiums, for lights.

A nice feature of the twist on / off function, is that you never have to worry about unscrewing your bezel, and you never have to remember which way to turn the light on. This is the first light I have seen that has this function!

As others have said, the twist click on function is nice, but there should also be a twist click off indent also. If this light were to have this, it would be the perfect twist on/off light. Incandecents can't have this, because of the need to change the bulb. However, I still prefer a tailcap on/off switch for any palm sized light.

Now for the light itself. The balance of the light beam is great. A nice center beam, a strong even secondary ring, and gentle tertiary ring. I do not use the term ring in a bad sense, like the rings and shadows found in incandecent bulbs, but rings, like in the perfect rings of saturn, or the rings of a dart board.

OK, now for the color. A beautiful lime (slime) green! Nuff said! This color is not acceptable at all! If this thing were white, it would be a very nice light.

Now the funny thing, is that they specifically state in their documentation, that, and I quote:

"L.E.D. Color - True White"

and in a pictue showing two beams:

beam shot 1
The Reactor's True White Light

beam shot 2
Others Shine a Blueish Light

Since they specifically advertise a "True White Light" and it has a lifetime warrantee, I will probably send the light back in 2-4 months for a replacement, and see what improvements they have made to the light.

Now if I had to use the light for many hours, I would just accept the green color, and actually, there have been several posts here, that say that Turquoise is supposed to be the brighest color of all the led lights, so maybe there is a slight advantage to the green light?!?!?

Now, this light is not the ARC LS. Not the quality, or brightness or color of an ARC LS. Actually, I own an ARC LSs, and I, for the life of me, cannot figure out what is wrong with it.

I think, with some refinements, and better LS, this will be a very nice light. While there are necessary improvements that this light needs, I don't think that it deserves the ultra bad comments that some have given this light.

OK, I am going to bed now!

Regarding the off-color of the Reactor's beam. I've been using the term "rotten dog urine green" to describe the otherwise indescribable color. Mine's the same way, but there are reports that other users have gotten true white Luxeons in their Reactors. So it's pretty much a coin toss as to what you'll end up with.

Another bad luck of the draw with the Reactor Luxeon. Does anybody know if Lumileds is doing anything about the green corona problem? As posted in the Arc forum, they are doping the phospher in the high domes different to create what seems to be a narrower but corona less beam. I am wondering if they are going to do anything about the low dome as well or is it just going to become obsolete once the high domes are in full production?

The only possible advantage of the slime green color its a better light for reading ( IMHO using a white and a greenish white Arc LS). Light green paper is easier on the eyes.

Regarding the off-color of the Reactor's beam. I've been using the term "rotten dog urine green" to describe the otherwise indescribable color.

I prefer "Apple White".

Mine`s not so bad it would seem, but I havn`t run it with alkaline cells, so maybe the colour tint gets worse, the dimmer it gets. No way would it get as bad as the beamshot on the LED Museum review page. Man, that`s bad- and truly deserving of your original description

I must admit I am not too fond of the Reactor, my initial impressions have been less than good. For the price it`s OK and I seem to have gotten me a decent one too, but it has some major design fall-downs that I have yet to come to terms with. Maybe as time moves on I`ll grow to quite like the quirky little (well, not-so-little) thing, but right now, well, best not start my review of it just yet. My rating system doesn`t accomodate negative scores.....

Originally posted by Chris M.:
My rating system doesn`t accomodate negative scores.....

Click to expand...

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">The lowest score I offer is 1/2 of a star. Something like the original TurboSpyder would receive a rating like that. (Don't ask about the ceramic potted 10-LED version - I've never seen that one).

The Reactor is going to do better than that, but maybe not by a whole lot. On the other hand, the new Infinity Ultra is probably going to end up near the other end of the scale. Maybe not five stars, but I don't think they'll complain about what I'll likely be giving them for the Ultra. (Anything from 4-stars and up is nothing to be ashamed of). But that's another topic.

The Reactor has also helped spawned a new abbreviation on the official CPF acronyms page:
PGLS. Stands for "P-Green Luxeon Star"; any LS emitter that emits that curious green color even though it wasn't sold as a green LS.