Posts
The
amount of tactical and EDC flashlight in the market since the LED
revolution boomed can be overwhelming at times. Eventually you find a
good LED light and stick with it. I believe this to be a healthy
approach since Cree announces a “new” LED every five minutes and its
impossible to keep up. Its also true that most times a 2% or 5% improved
efficiency isn’t worth the investment of a new light.
Having said that, every once in a while you have to step back and take a look so as to see if there’s something worth upgrading to. If you have a nice pocket Fenix or 4Sevens that puts 100-200 lumens out the front, you might want to continue reading.
I always keep an eye on what’s out there and recently I considered it worth buying a new LED light. Out of several interesting options, some of which I will review soon, the Eagletac model D25C seems to be a flashlight that offers several improvements.
LUMENS: Right away the claimed 397 lumen out put, or 277 lumens out the front, gets your attention. The guys over at candlepowerforums have tested it and it is in fact one of the brightest single Cr123A flashlights available when using RCR123 rechargable batteries. With Primaries, the lumen output does drop some, but you gain further runtime.
CONSTRUCTION: The flashlight is very well made. While made in China and certainly not a premium product costing several hundred dollars, the construction has nice touches of quality like a stainless steel bezel with a dark titanium finish. The pocket clip, also stainless, is finished the same way. It both looks nice and reflects less than stainless, with a pale mate appearance. The hardened lens has an antireflective coating. The threads do need a bit of silicone grease and some use until it smoothens up, but within minutes the twist head works like butter, yet firmly.
RCR123: One of the things that bothered me about some of the LEDs that I have was that the manufacturers didn’t allow the use of rechargeable RCR123 in their LEDS. This can get expensive and its less practical than just recharging your batteries every few weeks. Rechargables are also needed so as to get the maximum lumen output in today’s LEDs. Having said that, RCR123 do have shorter runtime. Even if brigthter than Primaries, 20 minutes is a realistic runtime on High output mode for RCR123. Primaries, while not as bright, do last longer and close to the manufacturer specs. Given that you can recharge them often I dont have much of a problem with this. I simply use RCRs on regular basis and carry Primaries as spares in the backpack.
MODES: The D25C works with two groups of modes, one with the head tightened, the head loosened. With the head fully tightened you click it on and it goes into turbo mode, providing the maximum output for 90 seconds, then dropping 20% to prevent overheating. If you click again it goes into strobe mode. This setup is clearly oriented for tactical use, a turbo mode followed with a strobe that may be used against a bad guy. Given how bright it is, it does disorient and blind you, so be careful about looking into the reflector when changing modes. The head loosened mode has low, medium, high, strobe and SOS among others. You can activate a moonlight mode which makes the low mode even lower. Some people find it useful to have a moonlight mode, both to save battery and to move around at night without bright lights bothering people.
WARRANTY: Eagletac offers a 120 month warranty on their products related to craftmanship and material defects. This of course excludes any issues due to negligent or intentional damage. Still, a 10 year warranty is pretty nice to have and not very common.
All in all, I like this light and it will become my new everyday pocket carry light. Time will tell if these first impressions are still true a few months down the road.
Eagletac D25C Clicky 397 Lumens CREE XM-L U2 LED Pocket Light – Clicky Switch Model
If you’re needing a new LED light yourself, one of these might be
what you need. Remember to get some rechargables and a charger to save
on batteries.
COMBO: Tenergy RCR123A Li-ion charger + 2 pcs RCR123A 3.0V 900mAh Rechargeable Li-Ion Protected Batteries
FerFAL
Having said that, every once in a while you have to step back and take a look so as to see if there’s something worth upgrading to. If you have a nice pocket Fenix or 4Sevens that puts 100-200 lumens out the front, you might want to continue reading.
I always keep an eye on what’s out there and recently I considered it worth buying a new LED light. Out of several interesting options, some of which I will review soon, the Eagletac model D25C seems to be a flashlight that offers several improvements.
Eagtac D25C Clicky
LUMENS: Right away the claimed 397 lumen out put, or 277 lumens out the front, gets your attention. The guys over at candlepowerforums have tested it and it is in fact one of the brightest single Cr123A flashlights available when using RCR123 rechargable batteries. With Primaries, the lumen output does drop some, but you gain further runtime.
CONSTRUCTION: The flashlight is very well made. While made in China and certainly not a premium product costing several hundred dollars, the construction has nice touches of quality like a stainless steel bezel with a dark titanium finish. The pocket clip, also stainless, is finished the same way. It both looks nice and reflects less than stainless, with a pale mate appearance. The hardened lens has an antireflective coating. The threads do need a bit of silicone grease and some use until it smoothens up, but within minutes the twist head works like butter, yet firmly.
RCR123: One of the things that bothered me about some of the LEDs that I have was that the manufacturers didn’t allow the use of rechargeable RCR123 in their LEDS. This can get expensive and its less practical than just recharging your batteries every few weeks. Rechargables are also needed so as to get the maximum lumen output in today’s LEDs. Having said that, RCR123 do have shorter runtime. Even if brigthter than Primaries, 20 minutes is a realistic runtime on High output mode for RCR123. Primaries, while not as bright, do last longer and close to the manufacturer specs. Given that you can recharge them often I dont have much of a problem with this. I simply use RCRs on regular basis and carry Primaries as spares in the backpack.
MODES: The D25C works with two groups of modes, one with the head tightened, the head loosened. With the head fully tightened you click it on and it goes into turbo mode, providing the maximum output for 90 seconds, then dropping 20% to prevent overheating. If you click again it goes into strobe mode. This setup is clearly oriented for tactical use, a turbo mode followed with a strobe that may be used against a bad guy. Given how bright it is, it does disorient and blind you, so be careful about looking into the reflector when changing modes. The head loosened mode has low, medium, high, strobe and SOS among others. You can activate a moonlight mode which makes the low mode even lower. Some people find it useful to have a moonlight mode, both to save battery and to move around at night without bright lights bothering people.
WARRANTY: Eagletac offers a 120 month warranty on their products related to craftmanship and material defects. This of course excludes any issues due to negligent or intentional damage. Still, a 10 year warranty is pretty nice to have and not very common.
All in all, I like this light and it will become my new everyday pocket carry light. Time will tell if these first impressions are still true a few months down the road.
Eagletac D25C Clicky 397 Lumens CREE XM-L U2 LED Pocket Light – Clicky Switch Model
COMBO: Tenergy RCR123A Li-ion charger + 2 pcs RCR123A 3.0V 900mAh Rechargeable Li-Ion Protected Batteries
FerFAL
1 comment:
You were more correct than the Mayans.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2012-12-21/looting-breaks-out-argentina
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