Gerber Infinity Ultra Question

I received an Infinity Ultra today from Battery Station and I noticed that the LED has numerous scratches on the surface. This causes numerous artifacts in the beam, not too mention that the light itself seems pretty dim. I got the red LED model and when I compare it to my Inova Microlight (white LED), it's not even close. The Microlight is substantially brighter. I know I'm comparing a white and a red LED, but still the Gerber should be brighter on a bigger (AA) battery, right? (Bear with the new guy and flashlight novice.) No way it's producing a 30' visibility area as advertised. I really like the size and style of the Gerber and it seemed to be what I was looking for. Anyway, I emailed Battery Station to see If I'd be able to exchange it. Any thoughts?

cazador: a few of your assertions are very logical, but aren't quite right. Let me help you out a little. First off, the size of the battery has nothing to do with how bright the light will be. Rather, it depends on the type of LED and the voltage going into it. The AA battery the Infinity uses puts out only 1.5 volts; LED's generally need more than 3 volts, so the Infinity uses a boost circuit to boost up the voltage at the cost of some efficiency. What a bigger battery does do is store more energy, so it can run the light at a given brightness for a longer time. The microlight uses 2 3volt lithium batteries- at six volts, they can drive an LED much harder which will make it brighter. However, those tiny batteries only store a miniscule fraction of the energy a AA can store, so the light won't stay that bright for long, only a few hours. The white Infinity is about as bright as the microlight but will stay bright for four times as long.

Now, about colored LEDs. White LEDs are made by applying phophor, which is yellow, on a blue LED. This not only makes white light, but also smooths out the beam. Red LEDs don't have anything to smooth out the beam, so you see the bond wires and other imperfections projected in it. The scratches most likely have nothing to do with it.

The red looks dimmer because the eye is much less sensitive to red light. Red has the advantage of not breaking down the chemical that lets you see in the dark (preserves night vision so you can still see somewhat after you turn the light off). However, red is much harder to see with- depth perception is much harder and as you said, the light looks dimmer. Its best to use it after your eyes have adjusted a bit. For general purpose use, white light is better as it uses your whole visual system and you can recognize objects much faster with red light.

Hope this helps and welcome to CPF!

You might notice a difference with a lithium AA battery. Is it an original lug style infinity? I understood that the old style red led had really long run time. I have a pallight red led and the focusing lens helps make the beam more visible by concentrating it.

Did you get the "early model" Infinity? In that case, you're dealing with an Infinity Task Light, precursor of the Infinity Ultra, and much dimmer.

Appreciate the responses. I'm assuming it is one of the new models. It's says Gerber Infinity Ultra on the package.
Solstice, informative post, thanks. I think I'll hang on to this one. I took it to work with me last night in order to check it out in the "real world." I think it going to serve it's intended purpose well. I wanted a small light that would not mess up my night vision and be pretty inconspicuous so as not to give away my position. This looks like it will do that. I think I'll give that lithium AA a try too. Thanks again.

I no longer own a red Infinity Ultra as I sold it to someone that 'just had to have it' but just this Sunday, I had my white (white-ish) Ultra out with my father-in-law clearing out some lanes for deerstands and though I own many brighter lights, I can assure you that when it is actually dark, the Ultra casts a quite usable beam, even outdoors.

I do sort of wish the beam was whiter and less blue to greenish, but in actual use, at least outdoors, it isn't really noticable. Plus at close to 24 hours of runtime... it's definately a light worth keeping. I'd pick up a red Ultra if I found one and the 4 selectable color Recon is on my short list of lights to buy.

When I got my original CMG non-ultra red Infinity when they first came out I was shocked how dim it was. Today I'm still using it to eat up near empty AAs that would not power anything else. At night with adapted eyes, it works just fine. Dim red lights with very long runtimes do have their purposes.