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Detailed
Information:
I would rate this light a "hit and a miss".
On some levels it really is an achiever. On others it's
a complete flop. What it will come down to is whether
or not you want to deal with the inconveniences in order
to have the fantastic output and beam projection afforded
by Pelican's innovative reflector design.
The body is polymer and is very tough. Its octagonal
shape gives good grip. The head is quite large but is
easily manipulated to turn the light on and off. Pelican's
special "umbrella vent" allows gas buildup
inside the light to escape while preventing the entry
of water when submersed. Large O-rings seal the light
and it has several hazardous location ratings.
On the outside of the body, near the rear, is a large
belt clip with a split ring and lanyard attached. This
gives many different options for attaching the light
to your gear. The clip, however, is so large and unwieldy
that it interferes with holding the light no matter
how you position it in your hand.
The bezel and reflector design is where all of the
innovation is on this light. The Luxeon Star LED sits
on a bar that spans the front of the reflector and points
backwards, toward the reflector. The reflector is one
piece and collects all of the light from the LED and
projects it forward in the form of a square beam (which
results from the fact that it is an exact reflection
of the square emitter in the LED element) which is very
tight. All of the light is concentrated into a relatively
small area allowing this LED light to illuminate targets
at a rather long distance. I was able to use it to illuminate
trees clearly at 100 feet.
Hidden inside the LED module is a voltage
regulator circuit which gives rather steady output over
the life of the batteries.
Turning the light on and off is achieved by twisting
the bezel. To change the batteries, remove the bezel
completely and drop out the battery tray that contains
the batteries. The battery tray is designed rather poorly
in my opinion. It contains all of the contacts for the
inside of the light but it doesn't retain the batteries
well at all. Be careful they don't fall out of the carrier
as you try to insert it into the light. Three C cells
are used to power the light and they are not included.
As a result of the substantial O-rings used and the
"umbrella vent" the light has a dive rating
of 500 feet.
What I Liked: Waterproof, Tough/impact resistant,
Regulated/long battery life, Bright, Innovative reflector
design, Great output.
What I Didn't Like: The clip is
the most annoying thing about this light. It is too
big and makes holding the light difficult - it should
have been designed more flush with the body. Sure it
clips onto your belt easy, just push it on; but then
try to get it off! There's no counter lever to push
to release the clip and the tab on the body forces you
to mess around with 2 hands to release the clip from
your belt. It won't accidentally fall off your belt,
but it won't come off on purpose either without a seriously
concentrated effort. Forget about quick access.
And what's up with the battery carrier?
Is forcing the user to fumble with the light part of
Pelican's design methodology? With the carrier you cannot
simply dump out your old batteries and drop in new ones.
Now you have an additional piece of equipment you have
to keep track of and if you drop/lose/break the carrier
you may have a flashlight in perfect condition that
won't work The carrier doesn't retain the batteries
well enough that you could carry another loaded carrier
with you for quick changeouts. If they wanted to make
the contacts easily removable for replacement or cleaning,
that could have been easily done without having a battery
carrier. Sure, correct battery polarity is ensured by
the design of the carrier, but it seems to be a poorly
executed idea.
Other Things I Noticed: Fingerprints
on the reflector. Very annoying. Also, the instructions
are incorrect about the operation of the light. For
some reason they state that you should twist the lens
assembly for on/of, and remove the lens and LED module
for battery replacement. WRONG! Twist the whole bezel
head for on/off and removal of the batteries. Leave
the lens assembly in place and the LED module will stay
inside the bezel where it can remain protected and clean.
Conclusions: Great output, very
innovative reflector design, executed fairly well, but
poor body design holds this light back making it inconvenient
to use and maintain. The clip and battery carrier have
to go. It seems that Pelican has tried to retain the
same or similar body for this light as they have used
for their other lights. With something as innovative
as the "recoil" reflector design they missed
an opportunity to make a truly unique and usable light
by not starting from scratch. To put it simply: Great
features, assembled into a somewhat poorly designed
package.
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