Review: Eagletac D25C Mini

Eagletac D25C Mini

Reviewer's Overall Rating:

★★★★★

Summary:

Battery:

CR123A or 16340

Switch: twisty
Modes: Low-Med-Turbo/High (5 hidden blinky modes)
LED Type: XP-G S2 bin, cool white
Lens: AR, sapphire coating glass
Tailstands: Yes, nicely
Price Paid: $36 'best offer'
From: lc-sports on Ebay
Date Ordered: 2011-09, 3 day delivery (US)

Pros:

  • Extremely bright pocket rocket
  • Great build quality
  • Excellent threads
  • Good UI, hidden blinky modes
  • tailstands
  • 69x20mm
  • 28.2 grams (.99 ounce)

Cons:

  • Doesn't want to take a protected cell
  • Won't clean my kitchen

Features / Value: ★★★★★

This is a very small, very lightweight torch without memory mode, starts on low - some consider this a plus, and I do like it in some lights. There are five blinky modes - strobe, flash (hi), SOS, beacon, flash (low)...all hidden so that when you find yourself on a deserted island with Gilligan, you can signal the rescue plane, and not have to deal with them on a daily basis.

Design / Build Quality: ★★★★★

This light has a simple, reliable twisty design. You have to cycle through the three main modes twice within a few seconds in order to access the blinky modes...I wish they all came this way. The stainless clip is quite strong. It is attached with two hex (Allen) screws, and has a nice lip which allows it to easily slide onto your pocket. The threads are the smoothest I've seen yet...twisting the head on and off is easily done with one hand. It's not loose, I'm not worried about it accidentally turning on in my pocket; on the other hand, it doesn't take a solid grip to actuate like my ITP EOS A1 SS. It tailstands perfectly. It has a nice SS bezel...with that and the clip, just enough bling to look awesome. The knurling on the light is on the finer side, but I find it to be grippy enough and not at all slick. It came perfectly clean out of the box, lightly lubed...the pictures show a somewhat dirty light, but its been in my pocket for a month or so.

Uniquefire AA-S1, D25C, ITP EOS A1

Battery Life: ★★★★

I haven't done runtime tests, but with a 16340 on high I wouldn't expect terribly long runtimes. The eagletac website lists the runtimes as 1/5/50 hours, which is probably fairly accurate. My only gripe about this light is the inability to take a protected cell - this is common on CR123a lights...maybe one day there will be a smaller 16340. I use a blue Ultrafire unprotected battery and it works just fine. They are very inexpensive, so if one goes bad you're not out much more than a cheap primary.

Light Output: ★★★★★

This is one bright little light! It has a Turbo mode, which runs at an extra 20% brightness for 90 seconds. It claims to put out 325 lumens in turbo, settling down to 275 lumens, with 209 OTF lumens. Low mode is listed at 5 lumens, which is comfortably low at night, just about right for reading in bed. The reflector is very light OP, and makes for a smooth beam with a noticeable hotspot that smoothly fades into spill. It's definitely more floody than throwy, but does have a nice mix that is user-friendly for EDC use. As expected, the light gets pretty warm on high fairly quickly, but for everyday use it shouldn't be a problem at all. Using a fully charged Ultrafire blue 16340, it pulls 1.8A on turbo, 1.45A on high, and .05A on low. I believe the lumen claims are fairly accurate, though I have no ability to measure output.

Here is the UF2100 XM-L on high, looking for Sasquatch:

And here is the Eagletac on turbo:

While the UF2100 is brighter, as expected, the D25C can hold its own...the pics don't do it justice.

UF2100:

Eagletac:

Molded holster:

Summary: ★★★★★

For $36, you get a very well-designed, well-built 2.7" flashlight with plenty of features. It comes in a nice box with a full instruction manual, a primary CR123a, an excellent Mil-Spec paracord lanyard, an outstanding quality rigid nylon holster with retention ring, and spare O-rings. It's small and light enough that you hardly notice it's in your pocket...I'd highly recommend the D25C to anyone.

__________________

Budget Light Forum ...where Frugal meets with Flashlight!

Top

Thanks for the great review !

How many AMps does your UF 2100 pull on a fully charged battery?

This will give us an idea how bright the Eagletac

I just tried the UF2100, and it's pulling about 3.3A...it was slightly higher but quickly settled down to 3.3. This is my first review, let me know if I'm missing anything else...thanks.

Does it pull 1.45A on high no matter what battery you use?

And 1.85 on Turbo?

I ended up with similar results using an Ultrafire grey protected, 1.82 on turbo, and 1.7 using a Trustfire grey protected...both freshly charged.

Looks like a nitecore EX-10 ... I like it . :)

thinkerYou got me thinking that this is something that I would like to own. Thanks for the review.

Nice! I soytnly thank you for this great review.

Frontpage'd and Sticky'd.

soytnly Looks like it's going Direct Drive. I have the UF2100 3 mode(now 5 Mode) and a modded 1 Mode XPG 16340 light. The UF2100 runs between 3.5A -2.8A depending on battery, and the Modded light runs at 1.9Amps.

So it's similar to yours, I will post some pics to compare with yours.

What is the distance to your house and what are your camera setting?

The distance to the house is about 15m, and the settings were 1/6 second at f4, 800 ISO...but oddly enough, the house shot with the Eagletac was 1/10 second, f4@800 - so it would be a little brighter with the same settings. Not sure how that slipped in there! (that's what she said)

I just got the d25c2 from the same seller on ebay. paid $40 and comes with the same extras.

its got 4 regular modes l m h turbo and 5 hidden blink modes. I like it!

Glad you like it, I think it's a great buy.

Based on the pictures in the first post, this sure looks like a counterfeit light.

Spelled EagleTac as "EagTac" on the light and holster, that is not correct; anybody else notice this?

The real deal is only $39.90 from the USA authorized site.

That's how it shows on the website as well as another review I just found:

http://flashlightnews.net/forum/index.php?topic=2667.0

They are both real, not fakes.

http://light-reviews.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=1190

http://light-reviews.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=1187

I bought the JetBeam BC10 compared to the Eagletac D25c it seems brighter but only has 2 modes and RCR123 is not recommended. I wish It could have the Low off the eagletac and high of the Jetbeam and all the mode of the Eagletac.

See the reviews

http://light-reviews.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=1187

http://light-reviews.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=1000

How does it compare in price?