kukula
Enlightened
Ever since I joined CPF a month or so ago, the Gladius was one light that intrigued me. I have read, and reread, almost all posts that deals with it. During that same period, I ended up purchasing several flashlights, the latest one was my U2, purchased one week ago. Although I have been very happy with these lights, the Gladius was always at the back of my mind. Somehow, something inside me kept telling me that I have to get this light one time or another. What finally convinced me was the way Ken Good handled customer support for this product. I thought that hey, I have nothing to fear, if anything comes up, I know Mr. Good will be there to offer support. This, coupled with the excellent "advices" CPF forumers gave me finally convinced me to get one today.
I will be as honest as straightforward as I can be. I wasnt expecting much when I went to pick up my Gladius. I have learned in life not to expect much in everything, that way you wont end up disappointed. Anyway, when i arrived at the dealer, my friend was already waiting for me. I phoned him earlier to prepare several Gladius so I can choose which one I want. Thus when I arrived, he had three Gladiuses ready for me, one black and two OD. Btw all of his Gladius are in Cerakote finish. What immediately caught my attention is the excellent packaging of the lights. They come in a plastic, gun like container, similar to my Glock. Inside comes a lanyard, two Duracell batteries and the light.
I immediately set about testing the lights. For comparison I brought along my U2. One thing I immediately noticed is that the U2s throw is about the same as with the Gladius. The main difference is that the U2, as Ed has already mentioned, is like a "Ram of Light" while the Gladius has more of a focused beam. Another thing I immediately noticed is that my U2 has a whiter light. All the three Gladius has a somewhat yellowish light. This isnt noticeable until you compare it side by side with the U2. I pointed this out to my friend who also agreed with my observation. He remakred that the last batch of U2 he sold also has a yellowish tint to it. Now this isnt a good thing or bad. The yellowish tint, like I mentioned, is barely noticable. Besides, I know some people actually like their LEDs to have a somewhat yellowish tint since it presumably adds more to depth percetion as what I have read in the forums. Anyway, my friend offered to get some more Gladius to check it out. This time he brought out another black Gladius. Broke the seal and again we checked it out. We were both amazed to see that it has a perfect tint. I have mentioned in my previous post that my handpicked U2 has the whitest tint I have seen. But this time, when compared to this last Gladius, I immediately noticed that the U2 actually has a very slight, almost not noticeable greenish tint. The Gladius was perfectly white! Out of curiosity, we decided to check the serial numbers. It turned out this last Gladius has a SN 00333 while the other Gladiuses has it in the high of 2k and 5k plus. Upon checking his records, my friend told me that this particular light belongs to the very first batch he got from Night Ops. Needless to say, I immeditately bought this light and took it home.
For the last several hours, I have been playing with the Gladius. And I have to say that this is prolly the best light in my currnt collection. All the negative hype it received are actually non-issues to me. Let me point out those hypes now and how i feel about them in the very short time this light has been with me
Complicated tail switch: This is one issue I have always seen about this light.
Apparently some people feel that it will be difficult to use the gladius esp in high stress situation. I have to say this is very untrue. IMHO, in just ten minutes I was able to master all the different uses and modes of the light. It only sound complicated but is actually very very easy in actual use. You will have to test it out yourself to find out. Admittedly I too was concerned about this before. But now that I have the light, all those doubts have been erased. What I did was in mode 3, I programmed the light to start at its lowest level. The lowest level is even lower than the lowest setting of the U2 btw. And I think its excellent! Once click and you can add more light if you want to. It takes about 4 seconds for the light to go from the lowest to the highest setting with a permanent click. Anyway I reckoned that I want the light to start at the dimmest setting to protect night vision. Anyway if i want the brightest setting then I can immediately go to Mode 1(temporary on) and it will immediately give me the brightest setting. The lock mode to me is also very very good. I have read somewhere in the forum about another gladius user who said that this is actually the only light he carries in lock out mode and I totally agree with him. Just a slight press and twist and i have locked out my Gladius. Then just a slight twist and its out of the lock mode. Excellent! The beauty aobut this is that you can actually operate this light single handedly, in BOTH left or right hand. With other lights, two hand operation is needed, since you have to actually twist the tail cap to get it out of lock out mode. This is a big issue for me if you have to use a light asap.
Poor Finish: This is another issue that I kept on hearing, about the poor wear of the Cerakote finish. My light is still new and I still havent subjected it to the normal wear and tear of daily use so I cant say so. But to me, a flashlight is a tool. Sooner or later, if you use it, your light will suffer nicks and dings, wether HA or not. I just have to look at my 6P to know this. Besides, Night Ops has already come out with the HA version so this is no longer an issue. But if it were to me, I prefer the ceramic coating. It looks different, feels different.
Easily Damaged Tail Cap: Another issue that has often been brought up is the tendency of the Gladius to break when it drops and is in the lock mode. This too has been addressed by Night Ops since they announced that they will be coming out with a new design soon.
Strobe Feature: Ok. This is one feature that has intrigued alot of people. Some people feel its effective, some dont. Truth be told, the first time I handled the Gladius, I immediately strobed myself and wasnt impressed. I thought yeah sure its glaring, but I am not convinced. So when I got home, i went to my room, turned off all the lights, and allowed myself to adopt my eyes to the darkness. After about 5 minutes, I asked my wife to shine the strobe in my eyes. Guess what? I got so disoriented and got blinded that I didnt even notice that my wife was already standing right in front of me not untill she touched my shoudlers. It was effective!!!! I still have a headache to show prove this. Now if you were to test it under the bright lights of the dealer you wouldnt feel this feature to be good. But try it with night adopted eyes and you will be a believer.
Another excellent quality of the Gladius is its ability to switch from one mode to another IMMEDIATELY. Let me give an example scenario. Lets say you are in Mode 3 with the lowest setting of light. Then you heard a sudden crash behind you. Instinct tells you to immediately check it out. In this situation you dont have to hold the swithc till it reaches high. All yu have to do is push-turn the switch to Mode 1, then click and you will have immediate bright light. No need to turn of Mode 3, then move to Mode 1 here. It does transition smoothly and immediately. I know it might sound more complicated than it realy is but believe me it is not. If you were using a U2 in this situation, you would hve to grabe the turn dial with the other hand, twist it to get your desired light intensity. And that is the beauty of the Gladius. It offers extreme one handed versability and ambidexterity.
Night Ops is selling this light as a Tactical Light. Though I am sure it is definitely so, I also believe that it also offer all the advantages of any other light plus more to the average user. Its ability to adopt to any situation with a one hand flick of the control knob is its selling and most excellent point. Sure it may have some production problems, but this is to be expected since this is Night Ops first flshlight offering. At the price, I consider this to be the best light out there.
I will be as honest as straightforward as I can be. I wasnt expecting much when I went to pick up my Gladius. I have learned in life not to expect much in everything, that way you wont end up disappointed. Anyway, when i arrived at the dealer, my friend was already waiting for me. I phoned him earlier to prepare several Gladius so I can choose which one I want. Thus when I arrived, he had three Gladiuses ready for me, one black and two OD. Btw all of his Gladius are in Cerakote finish. What immediately caught my attention is the excellent packaging of the lights. They come in a plastic, gun like container, similar to my Glock. Inside comes a lanyard, two Duracell batteries and the light.
I immediately set about testing the lights. For comparison I brought along my U2. One thing I immediately noticed is that the U2s throw is about the same as with the Gladius. The main difference is that the U2, as Ed has already mentioned, is like a "Ram of Light" while the Gladius has more of a focused beam. Another thing I immediately noticed is that my U2 has a whiter light. All the three Gladius has a somewhat yellowish light. This isnt noticeable until you compare it side by side with the U2. I pointed this out to my friend who also agreed with my observation. He remakred that the last batch of U2 he sold also has a yellowish tint to it. Now this isnt a good thing or bad. The yellowish tint, like I mentioned, is barely noticable. Besides, I know some people actually like their LEDs to have a somewhat yellowish tint since it presumably adds more to depth percetion as what I have read in the forums. Anyway, my friend offered to get some more Gladius to check it out. This time he brought out another black Gladius. Broke the seal and again we checked it out. We were both amazed to see that it has a perfect tint. I have mentioned in my previous post that my handpicked U2 has the whitest tint I have seen. But this time, when compared to this last Gladius, I immediately noticed that the U2 actually has a very slight, almost not noticeable greenish tint. The Gladius was perfectly white! Out of curiosity, we decided to check the serial numbers. It turned out this last Gladius has a SN 00333 while the other Gladiuses has it in the high of 2k and 5k plus. Upon checking his records, my friend told me that this particular light belongs to the very first batch he got from Night Ops. Needless to say, I immeditately bought this light and took it home.
For the last several hours, I have been playing with the Gladius. And I have to say that this is prolly the best light in my currnt collection. All the negative hype it received are actually non-issues to me. Let me point out those hypes now and how i feel about them in the very short time this light has been with me
Complicated tail switch: This is one issue I have always seen about this light.
Apparently some people feel that it will be difficult to use the gladius esp in high stress situation. I have to say this is very untrue. IMHO, in just ten minutes I was able to master all the different uses and modes of the light. It only sound complicated but is actually very very easy in actual use. You will have to test it out yourself to find out. Admittedly I too was concerned about this before. But now that I have the light, all those doubts have been erased. What I did was in mode 3, I programmed the light to start at its lowest level. The lowest level is even lower than the lowest setting of the U2 btw. And I think its excellent! Once click and you can add more light if you want to. It takes about 4 seconds for the light to go from the lowest to the highest setting with a permanent click. Anyway I reckoned that I want the light to start at the dimmest setting to protect night vision. Anyway if i want the brightest setting then I can immediately go to Mode 1(temporary on) and it will immediately give me the brightest setting. The lock mode to me is also very very good. I have read somewhere in the forum about another gladius user who said that this is actually the only light he carries in lock out mode and I totally agree with him. Just a slight press and twist and i have locked out my Gladius. Then just a slight twist and its out of the lock mode. Excellent! The beauty aobut this is that you can actually operate this light single handedly, in BOTH left or right hand. With other lights, two hand operation is needed, since you have to actually twist the tail cap to get it out of lock out mode. This is a big issue for me if you have to use a light asap.
Poor Finish: This is another issue that I kept on hearing, about the poor wear of the Cerakote finish. My light is still new and I still havent subjected it to the normal wear and tear of daily use so I cant say so. But to me, a flashlight is a tool. Sooner or later, if you use it, your light will suffer nicks and dings, wether HA or not. I just have to look at my 6P to know this. Besides, Night Ops has already come out with the HA version so this is no longer an issue. But if it were to me, I prefer the ceramic coating. It looks different, feels different.
Easily Damaged Tail Cap: Another issue that has often been brought up is the tendency of the Gladius to break when it drops and is in the lock mode. This too has been addressed by Night Ops since they announced that they will be coming out with a new design soon.
Strobe Feature: Ok. This is one feature that has intrigued alot of people. Some people feel its effective, some dont. Truth be told, the first time I handled the Gladius, I immediately strobed myself and wasnt impressed. I thought yeah sure its glaring, but I am not convinced. So when I got home, i went to my room, turned off all the lights, and allowed myself to adopt my eyes to the darkness. After about 5 minutes, I asked my wife to shine the strobe in my eyes. Guess what? I got so disoriented and got blinded that I didnt even notice that my wife was already standing right in front of me not untill she touched my shoudlers. It was effective!!!! I still have a headache to show prove this. Now if you were to test it under the bright lights of the dealer you wouldnt feel this feature to be good. But try it with night adopted eyes and you will be a believer.
Another excellent quality of the Gladius is its ability to switch from one mode to another IMMEDIATELY. Let me give an example scenario. Lets say you are in Mode 3 with the lowest setting of light. Then you heard a sudden crash behind you. Instinct tells you to immediately check it out. In this situation you dont have to hold the swithc till it reaches high. All yu have to do is push-turn the switch to Mode 1, then click and you will have immediate bright light. No need to turn of Mode 3, then move to Mode 1 here. It does transition smoothly and immediately. I know it might sound more complicated than it realy is but believe me it is not. If you were using a U2 in this situation, you would hve to grabe the turn dial with the other hand, twist it to get your desired light intensity. And that is the beauty of the Gladius. It offers extreme one handed versability and ambidexterity.
Night Ops is selling this light as a Tactical Light. Though I am sure it is definitely so, I also believe that it also offer all the advantages of any other light plus more to the average user. Its ability to adopt to any situation with a one hand flick of the control knob is its selling and most excellent point. Sure it may have some production problems, but this is to be expected since this is Night Ops first flshlight offering. At the price, I consider this to be the best light out there.
Anyway I carry my Gladius in a nice holster thats made by Night Ops. They have one thats specially made for the Gladius. As an added bonus it also fits my U2 carried bezel up 
