gearcarrot

Reviewer’s note: Special thanks to Stanley for donating this light for review and sponsoring FCW-6.

The Stanley Performance LED Aluminum Flashlight 3D (aka #95-153 or the Stanley 3 D Alkaline Aluminum Flashlight) is quite the workhorse. Stanley is not exactly known for their flashlights but recently they have stepped up their game, introducing some excellent products into their lineup such as the infamous Stanley HID spotlight (at $70, currently one of the best lumens-to-cost ratio ever) and the mini Stanley LED spotlight. The Stanley 95-153 is no slouch either, providing plenty of light and plenty of runtime in a solid flashlight with upgrade potential.

It is rated at 70 lumens, and with three D cells it should run for a very, very long time. Stanley rates the runtime at 60 hours, which I have no trouble believing. A rubber ring around the head prevents the 95-153 from rolling around when you set it down and the heavy aluminum construction ensures that it will take a good beating, accidental or otherwise.

A smooth reflector gives the 95-153 excellent throw, making it a good flashlight to keep around the house to light up the yard, and paired with the excellent runtime, makes an excellent car camping light as well. It is also an excellent choice for those who need a relatively inexpensive, but bright and long running work light when portability is a necessity. Unfortunately the smooth reflector paired with the Cree XR-E creates a fairly ringed beam, which is quite noticeable on a white wall but quite easy to overlook when real work is being done.

The 95-153 is quite well-made and has o-rings for water resistance on the threaded parts. It is solidly built and has a good amount of knurling on the body to give it an effective non-slip grip. It also has some very attractive yellow rings around its diameter, giving it a distinct look and making it easier to find when it is stowed away.

A bonus for flashlight aficionados: the LED is easily accessible and should be a piece of cake to swap for the flavor of the day. This makes the Stanley 3D an interesting platform to be modded and also adds value to an already affordably priced light.

Not everyone will find a large, heavy 3 D-cell light appealing, but for those who refuse to compromise on runtime and output, the Stanley 3D has its place.

Recommended, if you have huge pockets, or need an affordable workhorse.

Reviewer’s note: Special thanks to the great guys at Dorcy for donating this light for review, as well as sponsoring another great CPF event, FCW-6.

Dorcy is not a company you hear very often in the discussions of flashlight enthusiasts. In my opinion, this is a mistake. Dorcy is a company devoted to bringing very good lights at excellent prices to the market, which, while not necessarily appealing to the aficionado, are well-made, thoughtfully designed, and offer good performance and exceptional value.

I received the Dorcy LED Dynamo for review and I was pleasantly surprised by its quality. This is a dynamo light that stands well apart from much of the junk offered on the market. It has three white LEDs focused by a plastic lens and puts out more than sufficient light to navigate in the dark or do other tasks that may require a flashlight and runs long enough on a few minutes of cranking that you can actually get stuff done. A few minutes of cranking provides several times that in runtime, so it is quite effective and not the least bit a joke as many other “human-powered” lights on the market are.

When I first turned on the Dynamo I was quite surprised at how much light it puts out. It will illuminate a 20 x 20 foot area at 40 feet quite sufficiently to make out details and is probably still useful at even longer distances, which I did not test.

Interestingly enough, the lens is designed to emit a little bit of light at the side, making this a good choice for someone looking for a handheld that enhances side visibility. It is actually shaped a good bit like a wide variety of bike lights that are on the market, and vaguely fish-shaped which makes it comfortable to hold and crank. On that note, the crank feels sufficiently sturdy enough that there is no large concern of breaking it so long as you are not especially rough with it.

The Dorcy LED Dynamo also has a second mode where it blinks the three white LEDs and two red LEDs on the side as a sort of signal or beacon mode. It is noticeable from a good distance away and from three out of four sides so it should prove effective should the need to get attention arise.

The instructions on the Dorcy say you should crank it a few minutes every three months, presumably to prevent the internal rechargeable battery from dying, which is a good thing to instruct consumers, but somewhat questionable as many buyers will probably want to chuck it in an emergency kit and promptly forget about its existence until it is convenient to remember its presence.

A huge bonus about this light is that it is supposed to be waterproof and also floating, making this truly a superb emergency kit light. It also has a convenient lanyard attachment point to ensure you do not drop (and subsequently lose your light).

Those who are looking for a crank light to add to their kit or emergency kit would do well to consider the Dorcy LED Dynamo. It’s a solid little light, priced fairly (MSRP $14.99) and certainly does the job.

Recommended.

Reviewer’s note: I received the review unit from Princeton Tec for the FCW-6 event, free of charge. Special thanks to the guys at Princeton Tec for sponsoring another great CandlePowerForums event!

The EOS is one of Princeton Tec’s most popular headlamps. It is a classic headlamp, having been on the market for more than five years now, but despite its classic status, it is not outdated or outdone by competitors. Princeton Tec recently upgraded their popular EOS model to the Rebel Maxbright 100 LED, which is an excellent LED by a company that practically invented power LEDs, Lumileds. It’s a modern emitter, performing comparably to the EZ1000 die-based LEDs, the Cree XR-E and Seoul P4, and has allowed Princeton Tec to raise their lumen rating from the original paltry 20 lumens to a whopping 70 lumens, which, is more than bright enough for most users’ needs. Thankfully, the EOS has 3 output levels, so that you do not blind yourself and everyone around you when less light is necessary.

What separates the EOS from the rest of the pack in the crowded consumer headlamp sector is that the EOS is one of the only headlamps that run fully regulated, meaning that there are electronics that maintain a constant level of brightness until the batteries can no longer sustain that output. Princeton Tec smartly designed the EOS to drop into direct-drive after the regulation can no longer be sustained, which prevents the user from being unexpectedly left in the dark without a light.

The packaging claims that this headlamp is made in the USA, which is a refreshing change of pace, but would be naught if the quality and performance of the headlamp itself were terrible. Thankfully, this is not the case. The EOS is stunning.

Before writing this review, I have taken the EOS on several camping, backpacking, and hiking trips, using it extensively for camp chores, night hikes, and around the house. It has greatly exceeded my expectations and is looking like an extremely strong contender for my upcoming 5-month long thru-hike. Since the EOS’s target market is outdoorsmen, I will evaluate the EOS from that perspective.

The EOS is molded from some high-tech polymer, the kind that is shatter- and impact-resistant, so it is both light and very strong. When I pack my EOS for a trip I do not bother to put it in a case, I just chuck it in my pack. At 105 grams (3.7 oz) loaded with batteries it is not quite as airweight as I would prefer but it is still fairly light and hardly heavy enough to ever consider leaving it behind.

The EOS is water-resistant, and Princeton Tec rates it as being waterproof to 1 meter. This is more than sufficient for their target audience, hikers and backpackers, and it survived several heavy rains unprotected. I also used it in the shower once during a power outage, with no indications of water ingress or damage.

This headlamp, like many others that are offered alongside it in retail, runs on 3 AAA batteries. This is not my preference, but appears to be the industry standard for headlamps in this price range. Given the EOS’s extremely good performance on said batteries, I have reversed my initial stance on the 3 x AAA form-factor — I no longer believe that using so many AAA batteries is necessarily an indicator of poor performance, although it seems to me that this headlamp is an exception to the norm. Princeton Tec says that lithium primary AAA batteries are okay to use in this headlamp, which should make it lighter and run for up to six times longer on high, by the company’s measurements. (Low is virtually unchanged with lithium primaries, only gaining 10% more runtime.)

To change the batteries in the EOS, one must simply unscrew a single thumbscrew (aided by the plastic band adjuster), swap three batteries, and screw the thumbscrew back on. The door and its hinge both appear very sturdy, with the thumbscrew having a metal nut to screw into, so this light is designed to last. Also notable is the gasket on the door, which prevents water ingress into the battery compartment. The visible internals of this headlamp are quite remarkable, in fact, oozing of quality that is very surprising at its fairly low retail price ($45 MSRP, although it can be found for a good deal less).

Princeton Tec rates the EOS as running for 1 hour regulated on the brightest mode, (70 lumens), which seems like an understatement from my experience, although I do not have the equipment to measure  to be certain. Runtimes increase significantly with lower output settings, getting 10 hours at the medium setting and 50 hours on the lowest setting. Based on my experience using the headlamp with Duracell alkalines, I have no reason to believe that these runtimes are exaggerated.

The output levels are well-spaced, although I would have preferred even greater differentiation between the three levels. I consider the lowest output to be more than enough for night hiking, which means the low mode isn’t  quite low enough for my tastes for reading in bed, for example. However, the spacing of the output levels isn’t enough of a concern to dampen my high opinions of this headlamp.

Switching the light through the modes is easy. Starting from ‘off,’ clicking the single button on the top (which is stiff rubber and also well-sealed) will cycle the light from high, to medium, to low, to signal (steady blink), to off. Once the headlamp has been on for a few seconds, clicking the button again will not cycle through modes, instead turning the headlamp off. My preferences dictate that the light start on low first, but again it is not a deal breaker and can indeed be handy — for instance, if you are disturbed at night by a loud noise and wish to look around, a single click will light up your entire campsite with ease. The button itself has excellent feedback with a satisfying click and does not feel the least bit flimsy.

In my uses of the EOS, I was continually impressed by the excellent beam quality and the well-balanced beam, which offers the wearer a good mix of both flood and throw, negating the need to carry a flashlight when one needs to illuminate objects in the distance. (That’s weight saved, right there!) The EOS’s beam is smooth and without artifacts or rings, making it a joy to use at all distances, although it may not be the ideal choice for reading in bed due to the throwy quality of the beam. A floody beam is preferable for close up work, and for those who must read with their headlamps after a long day’s hike, the Remix or Remix Pro might be a preferable alternative. Although color tint of the LED may vary across individual lights, my sample (of two) appear very similar and have a fairly neutral color that appears to be near 5000K.

The elastic band provided is seemingly nothing special but it is comfortable to wear for extended periods of time and so does its job just fine. It is fairly attractive to look at and advertises the fact that you are using a Princeton Tec so that you and your friends do  not forget what kind of headlamp you are wearing.

The hinge that allows you to tilt the headlamp is, sadly the one thing that I find somewhat unsatisfactory on an otherwise incredible light. It performs its function just fine for hiking and walking but one must take care not to do jumping jacks or other excessively vertical movements because it will cause the headlamp to flop downwards. However, while doing normal backpacker stuff, I have never had to readjust the headlamp, so it is likely an issue that most users will never encounter. I am also concerned that it will wear out over time as it is plastic-on-plastic and reliant on the flex and friction of the contact but during my four month evaluation there was no change or noticeable wear. Nearly all headlamps with an adjustable tilt rely on friction to prevent the light from pivoting excessively but in the EOS’s case its heavy body may make it more susceptible to pivoting. I believe that if it should become a problem in the field, a small piece of duct tape on the wear area will rectify the situation. In any case, this concern is mitigated by carrying duct tape in your pack (which you should always carry for field repairs anyway).

Overall I am extremely happy with this headlamp and will probably buy another one as a loaner when some gear-less friend wishes to go backpacking with me. I am impressed with its performance, low cost and high value, and excellent build quality.

Highly recommended.

There are a lot of people out there who offer their opinions of self-defense and related self-defense gadgets. I advise my readers to take all self-defense information with a grain of salt, as many, myself included, have had little opportunity to actually put said information into practice.

I offer my opinion as I offer any other of my writing: take it at face value, without any credentials or preconceptions, this is one person who is sharing his thoughts. Hopefully those of you who read it will think my advice sane advice, but like all information presented on the Internet, advice should be questioned and considered by yourself before you take it as good advice.

Self-defense gadgets appeal to our very instinctual nature. As humans, we are not built for unarmed violence (although we can be very good at it). We are built to be tool users, hence the opposable thumbs, the ability to swing our arms with great force, and our upright stance which frees our hands from the burdens of walking.

So naturally we are more comforted by having in our possession any kind of device which could conceivably be used as a tool of violence. You don’t have to be a human scientist to figure that out. Just think how many times you’ve put your hand in your pocket to fondle your pocket knife during times of stress, worry, or even danger. Or the reassuring weight of your CCW handgun. Or even, if you cannot carry either of these, a handheld flashlight, which can be used as an improvised club, kubaton, or fistload. Walk through a dark alley? Hairs prickle on your neck? Bet you’ll be subconsciously fondling your weapon of choice.

However, in effective self-defense, one must be aware of their natural instinct because some natural instinct leads to serious strategic fallacies. First thing to remember is that any self-defense technique or self-defense gear suffers from the “magic talisman effect,” where if you learn it or carry it you think you’ll automatically be safe from an attacker.

“If a mugger shows up, I’ll teach him a lesson.” If you’ve ever thought that, or anything similar to that, then you’ve felt the “magic talisman effect.” This brings me to my first point about self-defense: knowledge of self-defense techniques and carrying of self-defense gear may embolden you and cause you to walk into more dangerous situations than you would if you were completely unequipped.

My second point is even simpler. Self-defense starts before you get to self-defense. Or more aptly put, self-defense begins even before a conflict starts. When self-defense is most effective, you do not have to pull the trigger, swing a bat, throw a fist or stab a guy. Self-defense can be thought of in tiers, where your actions are dependent on the level of threat. Guy walking down the street wearing a hoodie and baggy jeans? A low tier. Someone just broke into your house? A pretty high tier.

The lowest tier of self-defense, but nonetheless the most important, is awareness. You should always be assessing your threat level. Look and listen. Be aware of your gut instinct. Keep your ears open and your eyes moving. Assess the threat and do your best to avoid it. If you’ve walked into a confrontation, then your most vital part of self-defense has failed.

Walking around with earbuds and the music cranked up takes away from your awareness. Sunglasses help with your awareness, because potential attackers cannot see that you are visually assessing them.

A lot of manufacturers of tactical flashlights like to spread the opinion that a tactical flashlight can aid in self-defense. “Blind your attacker and scare them off! Big scary crenellations to take on the deadliest of foes!” And so on. Do not believe this kind of marketing for one second. There’s a reason the serious tactical flashlights are shown paired with firearms.

However, high-output flashlights have their place too. A bright light can aid in your awareness and shows that you are not simply another sheep. A sweep of a light across shadows can instantly tell you if someone’s hiding there. But be careful not to get too fixated on the idea that the flashlight will reveal all potential dangers. An attacker can still get the drop on you, if you aren’t paying attention.

Going further than that, if you are serious about self-defense it is important to do training and drills. All of the best gear in the world means nothing if you cannot use it when you actually need it. Are you mentally prepared to fight, and perhaps kill another human being? Are you capable of drawing and deploying your weapon of choice under stress? If you are truly prepared, you should be able to say yes, without qualifiers. Not, “if I had to.”

I have been working on this for awhile now and the new Guide to High-End Lights is nearly done.

Reintroduced with a new, clearer format, the new Guide is more legible, more accessible for older computers, and easier to refer to.

Also new is a simple commenting system so that I can get direct user feedback from you guys.

There are now also ads, but please do not click them for my benefit. Click them only if you are interested in the sponsors said ads.

The SureFire Saint is a phenomenal headlamp. It is SureFire’s first foray into the headlamp market, and it does not disappoint.

The SureFire Saint is extremely well-designed, every facet elaborately engineered and carefully thought-out, to create one of the finest examples of SureFire’s dominance in high-end illumination tools. Over the decades, the SureFire brand has come to be universally recognized as a guarantee of excellence, reliability, and high quality, and the Saint comes from this proud lineage.

In this review, I have tested the full-size SureFire Saint. The Saint Minimus is another configuration that comes without the battery pack, using a single CR123A and is much lighter and more compact. I did not test the SureFire Saint extensively in Minimus mode, but much of this review still applies.

The SureFire Saint is a serious headlamp. It is constructed out of hard anodized aluminum and Surefire’s proprietary fiberglass-reinforced nylon polymer with the result of a headlamp that feels as tough and indestructible as SureFire’s other lights. SureFire rates the output at 100 lumens for 6.5 hours, 10 lumens for 48 hours, and 1 lumen for a whopping 144 hours when using the battery pack with 3 CR123A’s. Runtime is considerably shorter when using a single CR123A but it remains as bright.

One interesting note is that in Minimus mode, the Saint can be used upside-down equally well for a left-handed user, but as the full-sized Saint it cannot be used upside-down due to the battery pack.

After properly adjusting the straps, when you put it on, one of the first things you notice is just how comfortable it is. Despite the added weight of the battery pack, the headlamp sits comfortably balanced on your head, with the third strap helping to redistribute the weight. Soft neoprene strips cover the backsides of the battery pack and the lamp, and a small cutout in the back of the battery pack means it doesn’t press against the pointy bone at the back of your skull. The straps use flat metal adjustment loops, which SureFire advertises as being more comfortable than the standard plastic adjustment loop. I am not convinced that it is more comfortable (although I could not feel it against my head), but if nothing else it is a nice touch that should be a stronger, more durable and more reliable alternative to the standard plastic, which is prone to becoming brittle and cracking, especially in cold weather. It would suck pretty hard to have to hold up a headlamp when its main purpose is hands-free illumination.

Also of note is that the SureFire logo is everywhere on this headlamp when in the full-size Saint mode, making you a walking billboard for SureFire. If you are a die-hard SureFire fan like me, then you will love this, otherwise it may be a minor annoyance.

SureFire chose to use a straight cable instead of a coiled one on the Saint to minimize tangles and for better durability. The cable housing appears to be quite thick and tough, which should eliminate issues of kinks or poor connection due to wire degradation. SureFire has a complicated “cable management system” to accommodate different head sizes and helmet setups that works very well, although it seems like overkill. I initially had concerns that the cable would get snagged on something or that the snaps would be irritating on my head but in the dozen or so hours I have been testing the Saint I have encountered neither issues.

Unlike the competition, the Saint uses a knob to control the light, much like the volume knob on a stereo. Turn the knob clockwise, and the output raises. If you keep turning until it stops, you have 100 lumens. Turn the knob counter-clockwise, and the light output dims. Somewhere in the middle of turning the knob you can feel a light detent, which SureFire has wisely placed at a comfortable level for general use, about 10 lumens. All the way counter-clockwise is another detent, signifying that the light is completely off. The knob has a very good, high quality feel to it, extremely smooth with a firm action, as expected from SureFire. It has machined grooves that assist with grip and can be comfortably used with gloves.

This user interface (UI) is extremely intuitive and superior by far to anything competitors use, as most competitors use one button, at most two, to control the output and the user must cycle through several unwanted light output levels to get where they want.

One option that would be nice to have is a turbo mode, activated by a momentary button, as some Petzl headlamps have. However, in practice I have not found it necessary, as it is easy enough to spin the dial to quickly check something out. Another nice option to have would be to have a lower low output level, as 1 lumen is still too bright for reading with night-adapted vision.

The Saint can also be tilted vertically 180º, which allows the user to aim the light however he wants, as well as turning the lens of the headlamp into its holder to protect the lens from scratching in storage, which is some kind of optically clear plastic.

Speaking of the lens, many early adopters of the Saint complained of strange artifacts in the beam such as rings and a distinct image of the LED die. In my personal sample of one, and my brief usage of a friend’s Minimus, there are no rings and only extremely minor artifacts that are completely invisible in normal usage. I could only discern the faint artifacts when using the Saint on a white wall, which suggests that any lens issues have been solved in the current production models.

In any case, the Saint creates a beautiful rectangular flood, softly tapering off on the sides, providing excellent lighting within my field of view. Unfortunately some headlamps have tight beams instead of soft floods, which cause tunnel vision that can be disorienting or hard to navigate by.

For those of you who wear glasses, you will be happy to note that I wore glasses during most of my testing and did not get the backscatter that some popular headlamps have where the light reflects off the glasses lenses and into your eyes.

The Saint battery pack is also very elegantly designed. There are two flip locks that ensure the battery pack is secured, but are also easy enough to manipulate with gloves. SureFire realized that their target market for the headlamp may choose to bring the headlamp on adventures where CR123A’s can be hard to find, and so made this the first SureFire designed to use AA batteries (prototypes aside). The battery pack is fully sealed against water intrusion and is rated submersible by SureFire.

Additionally, for users who wish to shed some extra weight, the battery pack is completely removable, unscrewing from the lamp and unclipping from the headstraps. Owners of the SureFire Saint get a battery cap that fits a single CR123A and essentially converts the Saint into the Minimus.

Cleverly, the SureFire Saint will happily take one, two or three CR123A’s in parallel in its battery pack. It will run at full power with only one CR123A and will run for a suitably long time – 1.5 hours on high and 50 hours on low. On three CR123A’s, with its runtime of 6.5 hours on high and 144 hours on low, the Saint truly excels when long runtimes are a prime concern, especially when working in a dirty or wet environment where you don’t want to have to change batteries. CR123A’s are excellent when power density (high runtime or high output), cold weather performance, or low weight are important factors.

Since the Saint uses CR123A’s in parallel, it is should be considered unsafe to use any kind of lithium-ion rechargeable technology in this light. SureFire’s official stance on using RCR123′s in this product is “don’t do it.”

However, as mentioned earlier, the SureFire Saint will happily run on two AA batteries, and unsurprisingly uses them in serial to match the voltage of the CR123A’s. I tested the Saint on Eneloop LSD NiMH batteries and could not discern a difference in output as compared to running on CR123A’s. The Saint’s ability to use AA batteries opens up the possibility to use an inexpensive rechargeable solution, as NiMH technology is relatively inexpensive, readily available, and considered extremely safe. I strongly recommend using genuine Sanyo Eneloop batteries when choosing NiMH rechargeables, for their excellent performance and other reasons I will not get into here. (CandlePowerForums is a great resource for battery information.)

The Saint will try its very best to not leave you in the dark. When the power runs low, it will dim down gradually until the batteries can no longer sustain any kind of LED output. However, if the batteries are very low, the Saint may not be able to fire up again after being turned off. In that situation, it is best to actually just leave the Saint on rather than turning it on and off to preserve battery life.

Overall, the SureFire Saint, either the full Saint or the Minimus is a real winner. It is expensive, but every bit worth SureFire’s asking price (at the time of this review, $185 or $139, respectively) if you need a headlamp, especially if you enjoy owning the best of the best.

Highly recommended without reservation.

The MagLite XL100 is MagLite’s newest entry into LED flashlights, and is certainly an impressive one. Wider but shorter than a regular Mini MagLite, the MagLite XL100 boasts an impressive 83 lumens as measured per the new ANSI FL1 standard. Runtime is listed at 5 hours, 15 minutes on high, but it is reasonable to assume that the light output will be significantly dimmer as the batteries are run down.

MagLite is one of the largest manufacturers of flashlights so the retail release of the XL100 is big news. For a long time, MagLite has sat on the side lines watching other smaller, newer manufacturers eat their lunch, and with the XL100 they hope to regain some of that lost market.

The XL100 is typical of MagLite build quality, with rubber gaskets for water resistance and made out of aluminum. The coating is type 2 anodize, which looks nice when new but will not last long in daily usage. The lens and reflector assembly are plastic, just like every other MagLite. My only concern with a plastic lens is that plastic is easily scratched and on the XL100 is not user-replaceable. The red tailcap button is some kind of silicone rubber and seems like it will last a long time. It offers good tactile feedback.

It feels pretty much exactly like a giant MagLite Solitaire and seems like it could handle the daily rigors of abuse that tools generally see. However, it seems flimsy compared to many of its competitors, which you could argue are overbuilt, as the competition have thicker walls and seem far tougher.

The XL100 can be focused by twisting the bezel, but any focus setting aside from the default with the bezel screwed all the way down is ugly with artifacts and rings. Additionally, there is a good bit of thread play on the bezel when it is not screwed down all the way but probably nothing to be concerned about as far as functionality or robustness. The smooth deep reflector used by MagLite, is, as usual, king of the throw, out throwing nearly all the flashlights I own that are similarly sized. In its price and size range there is nothing that can throw better.

The XL100 uses a special battery carrier designed by MagLite to take 3 AAA batteries, and is far more robust than you see in cheaply designed overseas counterparts.

The big feature of the MagLite XL100 is that it offers five different modes and uses an accelerometer, much like those used in the Nintendo Wii remotes, to select them. This is an interesting user interface (UI) innovation that is exclusive to MagLite and has a bit of a learning curve.

To simply use the flashlight, just press the red button tailcap and the XL100 will light up. To turn it off, press the red button again. However, if you wish to access the five special modes available, a reasonably simple process is required

The five special modes available to the user are laser etched into the tailcap around the large red power button. To select one of the five modes, the user must hold the XL100 parallel to the ground, with the mode that they wish to select facing up. The red button needs to be pressed and held for 2 seconds, and then the desired mode will be selected. Note that the XL100 needs to be turned off first before selecting any of the five special modes.

Additionally, if the user presses and holds the button while simultaneously rotating the flashlight, variants of those modes are selected.

Dim: Rotating the flashlight will change the brightness of the light. The light is brightest at its initial position, and dims down as you turn it up to 90° in either direction. The light will memorize that level of output until you set it again, even after battery changes. MagLite does not specify how bright the lowest output setting is but I would venture a guess at 3 lumens, for which MagLite claims a runtime of 201 hours. The XL100 uses PWM for dimming and has barely noticeable PWM at maximum output. The PWM on lower modes is noticeable but not as annoying as on some other flashlights.

Strobe: Rotating the flashlight will change the strobe frequency from a very nauseating  ”tactical” strobe down to a locator beacon that blinks once every two seconds. The light will strobe at whatever output it is set to in “Dim” mode.

Nite Lite: This is probably the most interesting use of the MagLite XL100′s accelerometer. “Nite Lite” mode is essentially the XL100′s power saving mode. If you are using a flashlight for long periods of time but intermittently, Nite Lite is perfect. Whenever the XL100 is set down for more than 3 seconds, it will smoothly dim down to low mode, to conserve energy yet allowing you to locate the flashlight in the dark. As soon as you pick up the XL100, it will instantly light up again at max output, so you can use the light. Any motion will cause the XL100 to stay lit, so it will not dim down while you are actively using it.

Signal: Since the XL100 is not capable of momentary output for Morse code signalling like a typical flashlight, it is implemented in one of the modes. When the text on the tailcap for “Signal” is facing up, the light is off. Rotating the flashlight slightly in either direction causes it to turn on. This allows the user to signal by simply rotating his wrist slightly, which is easy to do and works surprisingly well. One caveat, however, is that the flashlight must be held parallel to the ground, so forget trying to signal into the sky.

SOS: This mode does exactly as it says, making the XL100 signal “SOS” in Morse code until it is turned off. By rotating the flashlight while holding the button, the user can change the brightness of the SOS beacon, allowing for more runtime when necessary.

Lockout: This feature is not marked on the tailcap and is also fairly obscure. Start by aiming the light upwards, press and hold the button, aim the light downwards, and then let go of the button. This locks out the light from accidental activation and cannot be disabled in any way except by repeating the procedure again. While it is clever, I fear that some users who activate the lockout may forget how to unlock the light and end up with a “broken” flashlight that does not light up.

So, the UI of the XL100 seems pretty clever. But how does the XL100 stand up to daily usage? Unfortunately, not so well. The XL100 works perfectly as a flashlight, in fact it offers better throw and comparable output in a nice compact package than other flashlights in its price range (Inova X2, Icon Rogue 2, 4sevens Quark MiNi 123) but the accelerometer-based user interface is rather annoying.

Many times when attempting to dim the light, I accidentally activated strobe and SOS, which are to the right and left of the dim function, respectively. The rubber button has a small protrusion on it to help the user know which way “up” is for the dim function, but I found myself often slightly off to the right or left of it, triggering an alternate function instead. The user must also wait for a moment after holding down the button before rotating the flashlight, or else the light will select a different mode as well. Also, there is no way to dim the light when it is already turned on, creating an additional step for users.

All of my concerns with the UI could be addressed with a simple firmware update, which would allow the user to press and hold the button with the XL100 already activated in any orientation and simply rotate to dim. This would be both intuitive and remove the problem of inadvertently activating other modes.

Overall, MagLite deserves much praise praise for taking a gamble on making a very cleverly conceived flashlight with many features, and one that is fairly competitive in the market to others in its price range ($40). However, they deserve loads of criticism for a poorly implemented user interface that could have been just as easily fixed with a few hours of focus group testing.

Cautiously recommended. A good flashlight that may be frustrating at times to use.

The big news for Novatac this year is that they are working on moving into the consumer retail market, instead of simply focusing on high-speed operators and the tactical market.

To that end, they are introducing four models designed to appeal to the general public. All of these new imported models feature type II anodizing instead of the type III hard anodize used on their  USA-made lights and aluminum instead of stainless steel bezels, but are otherwise functionally the same, with nice pocket clips. The best part about these models is that they are astonishingly inexpensive, for a very good build quality and very nicely designed lights. I won’t reveal how much I paid at the show for one as it was a special deal but let’s say all of the models should retail for well under $100.

The Storm is a single-cell CR123A light  with 120 lumens set as its primary mode and alternates of 30 and 0.3 lumens. Strobe is a click away, just press and hold the button when the light is already on and it will strobe until you let go. You get 120 lumens for 30 minutes and the rest for considerably longer. It is designed to be an ideal personal defense flashlight.

The Wichita is a more general utility-oriented flashlight, with its primary output set to 60 lumens for 90 minutes of runtime, a turbo mode of 120 lumens, and alternate outputs of 10 and 0.3 lumens. There is no strobe on this model.

For the budget-minded tactical operator or for home defense, the Special Ops has the same settings as the Storm, except it uses two CR123A cells for increased runtime. The primary of 120 lumens gets 70 minutes of runtime and the secondary of 3o lumens gets 9 hours of runtime.

And last but not least, for those who prefer to use AA batteries, the Classic uses two AA batteries for a primary mode of 120 lumens for 30 minutes and a secondary of 30 lumens for 4 hours. It will run for an astonishingly long 240 hours on the lowest setting of 0.3 lumens.

During my time working at SHOT Show, I took a quick look at the SureFire booth. Being a huge fan of SureFire (I own well over a dozen), I had to see what they had in store for us this year.

One of the big two are the M3LT, which is an impressive upgrade over the venerable M3T Millenium CombatLight. The M3T is one of SureFire’s flagship lights, with a 2.5″ turbohead, 3 CR123A cell body, a CombatGrip grip ring and ultra-rugged reliability. First of all, SureFire replaced the incandescent bulb with a Cree MC-E LED, and changed the reflector to an incredible total internal reflection (TIR) optic. The end result is a beam that looks much like the original M3T, but a heck of lot brighter. It is roughly the same size although a bit longer, and SureFire did a great job on the styling. The M3LT looks gorgeous. It will put out 400 lumens for 1.7 hours and 70 lumens for 8.5 hours, which is very impressive.

It uses a two-stage switch similar to that of the A2, L1 and LX2, which is quite possibly the best tactical-style switch in existence. For those who are not familiar with the SureFire two-stage switch, you can press the button lightly for low mode, and press it harder for high mode. Similarly you can twist the tailcap a little bit to have constant low mode, and twist it further for constant high. It is a very intuitive switch to use.

The other big announcement is the UB3T Invictus. The UB3T Invictus is very similar to the M3LT, except that it uses a U2-style output selector ring right behind the bezel, which allows you to select between eight different light output levels between two and 400 lumens, an “off” lockout, SOS and strobe. It also features the two-stage switch, with a light press for the user-set output level and a hard press for the full 400 lumens. There is also a green-yellow-red battery indicator, another cool feature. It’ll run for 75 hours on the lowest, two lumen mode.

Curiously enough, the M3LT and UB3T appear to say “MELT” and “LEET” (as in elite) on the sides of the lights.

Of course it wouldn’t be SureFire if they didn’t have a couple dozen other new toys to show, and they certainly delivered this year.

One of the new models they were showing this year is the AZ2, which is essentially the A2L (a hybrid light of one high-powered LED for throw surrounded by several low-output LEDs for flood) in the shape and size of a Z2, a CombatGrip light designed for use in conjunction with pistols. This features the two-stage tailcap, allowing for a soft press for a low flood and a hard press for a high-output main beam.

Another new model is the V2L Vampire, which has white LED light and an infrared illuminator. SureFire made it difficult to accidentally switch with an ingenious design — one must pull on the selector ring and twist, then release and it locks into place, changing output modes. This is a really cool light for very specialized needs.

Some of you may remember that SureFire introduced an update to their popular C-series of lights (6PL, G2L, Z2L, C2L, G3L, etc) last year and the year before with the P60 LED module. This year, the P60 LED module is gone, replaced by a non-removable light engine built into the bezel. This allows for better heatsinking of the LED and consequently, higher light output — SureFire rates these updated lights at an excellent 120 lumens for 2 hours for the two-cell versions and 3.3 hours for the three-cell versions.

To really emphasize their new LED module design, SureFire also introduced a new C-series light, the Stratum. The Stratum is a two-celled light and offers three output levels with a similar clicky-based interface to the E2DL or E1B. It has SureFire’s cool new “melted” styling and offers 150, 50, and 5 lumens for 1, 5 and 60 hours respectively.

The LX1, an updated version of the popular L1 LumaMax was also present at the show this year, with the same styling as the LX2 and only slightly bigger than the E1B. It uses the two-stage tailcap. I think this one will be a big hit. A high output of 110 lumens for 1.5 hours and a low of 10 lumens for 15 hours.

SureFire added strobe as an option on several models, ranging from the M3LT-S, to the AZ2-S to the Z2L-S.  The way you trigger strobe is brilliant, just tap the tailcap button three times in quick succession and hold on the last time. You don’t have to count, just tap it a few times quickly and then hold. As long as you hold, it will strobe, and the second you let go, it stops. This does not seem to interfere at all with regular use of the light, so kudos.

And of course, the biggest surprise this year was that SureFire introduced an AA battery-based light! The E2L-AA, essentially a lengthened E2L to accommodate two AA cells. Apparently SureFire decided that the demand for an AA battery-powered SureFire was big enough and that technology was sufficiently advanced to make it happen. SureFire claims 80 lumens on high and 3 lumens on low. This was one of the big talking points this year, as nobody expected it!

I have to apologize. I originally intended to liveblog from the show but it turned out that the 4sevens booth was constantly so busy that I didn’t have time to. Now that I am back home I will reveal news from SHOT.

4sevens

At SHOT Show, 4sevens unveiled the Maelstrom lights. These are a larger, high power lineup designed to complement the Quarks. I am allowed to discuss four different models, the G500, M500, S1200, and S1800.

The M500  is designed with a 1-inch diameter body, for compatibility with standard rifle mounts. It is aimed at the tactical market and offers a selection of 4 outputs with a twist of the head. The UI has not been finalized yet, so I can’t comment on it. It has a relatively wide hotspot with a maximum output of 500 lumens which is afforded by its Cree MC-E LED. Runtime on max is expected to be around 2 hours.

The G500 actually did not make it to the show, but it was intended to be. It is the same externally as the M500 but it uses a Cree XP-G LED. Same 500 lumens, but with a much tighter hotspot. This one is designed for some extreme throw, and in testing it threw a visible spot 21 stories down from a hotel balcony to a (well-lit) parking lot. I’m told that it’s coming out in February.

The S1200 is perhaps the crown jewel of the lights presented at the 4sevens booth, with a 1200 lumen output in a tiny package. It’s about half the size of a Maglite 2D, or about 1.5x as thick and as tall as a Surefire 6P. It is rechargeable and extremely floody due to the large die and small reflector. This makes a real wall of light! Runtime is planned to be an hour. It’s expected to be out in Q2 or Q3 this year. I’m looking forward to this one the most. By the way, the hi-res catalog photos of this one is wrong, it is much shorter and smaller than the pictures show.

The S1800 is the largest in the Maelstrom lineup and it puts out 1800 lumens using the Luminus Devices SST-90. It runs on 6 CR123 for about an hour. There is a rechargeable 18650 option being considered, and it will likely have a couple output levels. It should be out in March.

Link to Maelstrom catalog image