Review: Nitecore P12GT from Banggood *Pic Heavy*

Yea, they definitely overstated their throw and cd. They’ve since fixed it on their website, listing it as 320m throw and 25700cd.

Could you also post some side by side comparison pics to one of the popular lights.

I’ll get some shots of it with the competition in the morning. Bedthirty now. :wink: lol

Thanks DB for the review and testing. Neat little light but red loctite, “only” 4 modes and a price of $79.95 (ouch!). I have no experience with nitecore lights, but what makes this light worth that price at only 959.1 lumens at 30 seconds. That is an interesting looking driver but, mod potential? That light would just seem out of place next to my Convoy’s. Maybe i’m just an old fudd. :nerd_face:

For military and police the ability to use 2 CR123 comes into play. We like the single 18650 of course.

Warranty, reliability of the name brand, for those using a light at work this is what makes it worth the money. For some that have a collection and are just playing, it might be difficult to warrant. All things are relevant, after all.

Your Convoy’s are nice, I have several myself, but this one is current regulated so it makes virtually the same output throughout the life of the cells. The Convoy’s can’t offer that, or the dual power supply capability, so this one comes into play in emergency scenario’s where you just can’t have the light falling as you use it. I do love my FET driven lights, but it’s good to have a couple that are current regulated for those extreme moments that life enjoys tossing our way. :wink:

Ah yes… that makes a lot of sense. Since i’m not using my lights in dangerous places or life or death situations, I never really thought about that. If I was a first responder and needed my light to work every time no matter what, your right, 79.99 is a steal, compared to Surefire and the like. :8)

Thanks for the review! I’ve been waiting patiently to see some tested numbers on this light (and other new Nitecore ’GT lights). I think most of us were incredulous when we saw those 360+ meter claims on a 1” tube light, and now we know. I figured this light would be in the same range as my Eagletac DX30LC2 and that seems to be the case, +10% or so. Still another solid offering by Nitecore and I’m glad they’ve taken steps to reduce the throw claims to a more realistic level.

Now if we could just get them to do something about all that glue…

Thanks for the review dale.

good review!

did you push the driver? (since you mentioned the sense resistors ;) )



and the price.... you know ;)

Nice and useful review, thanks. I have a P12 with XM-L2, perhaps it is time to swap the emitter to XP-L Hi (it will not have the new reflector with XP-L size hole though) and do things to those resistors :-)

I wasn’t sure what the driver would do with a sense resistor change, I’ve fried quite a few emitters by making changes to the buck drivers and didn’t want to do that here.
I couldn’t find out if the proprietary copper mcpcb was truly DTP, so I put a 16mm SinkPad in it with a V2 1A HI emitter. A few minutes ago, I re-flowed the emitter off their mcpcb and found out that it is indeed DTP. So that’s good to know. I need to add this info into the main post.

I stuck an R140 on top of the 2 R050’s (reducing total resistance from .025 to .021), it now makes 3.65A to the slightly less powerful emitter, for 1079.85 lumens out the front. A small bump, up from 3.02A to 3.65A, but I’m good with it. :wink:

Hi.
I have just received the above and,having the BLF A6 as well,I wonder why the A6 goes to 1600Lm,while the Nitecore only to 1000,thinking if it is possible to go up with this light.

Hi, everybody!

Have anyone measuring the real Peak Beam Intensity with luxmeter? :laughing:

I bought this special tail switch for the P12GT,from BG,as it is easier to activate,even with gloves.
http://www.banggood.com/Nitecore-NTC1-LED-Flashlight-Tail-Switch-Cap-For-P12-MH25-p-937280.html .

I measured 22.75Kcd at 5M. (I know, I said 3M in the original post, not sure what I was thinking there… I always do 5M from the exact same location)

So the extrapolated 298.33M doesn’t quite match the stated measurements. This could easily be due to the fact that I used a 4.2V 18650 and they most likely tested with a pair of CR123 at 6V.

Thanks for posting such comprehensive review
Not found any good review than your on the web.
I was looking for head disassembly
Since medium and high stop working on my p12gt after its 1st drop on the floor.

Dale thanks for the great review.

I have a friend who bought this light twice. The first one “went missing” at work. It was either misplaced or some one decided that they needed it more than he did. I started a thread here a while back to see if there was anything else that was better these days. It turned out that there wasn’t so he bought another.

I have owned several and they have given me terrific service. The HC-90 is my current go to headlamp for outdoor activities. It can be had for less if you contact M4D M4X.

Bob

I use an HC-50 headlamp, modified for more lumens in the highest level. Really like the build of it, and the style.

Hi dale
If mid and high modes not working which part to replace ?

Khan, has your light been disassembled? If not I’d sure recommend using the warranty.

The driver is pretty complex, much of the components buried under a red rubbery glue. So I am not clear on what does what in this one. (as If I am that smart anyway! lol)

Double check the yellow component on the battery side of the driver, it’s a Tantalum capacitor and those are pretty well known for failing. If you see a dark spot on it, or a dark end, it’s probably blown. (Also if you can smell the inside of the head, like when you take the battery tube off and you can see the driver give it a whiff and see if you can smell fried electronics… it’s a very distinctive and unpleasant smell. This would be a positive indicator a part failed.)

Nitecore lights are not exactly budget oriented, use the warranty if at all possible. :wink: