Balder: Norse God "shining one, white one, a god"
UPDATE: Martin from Balder has informed me that these are now being sold with a new and improved clip!
The folks over at Balder were nice enough to send me a BD-1 to evaluate and after playing with it for a few days, I'd like to share some initial impressions... I'm usually late to the reviews because I refuse to give a light my stamp of approval until it's really proven itself in hard use. That being said, I really do plan on doing a review of this light (and the Skilhunt Defier X3 that I'm still using daily, waiting for it to break on me - and many others) after I finalize my stand, camera tripod, target, and photography training.
First - the packaging... It came nicely secured in a familiar orange-ish yellow taped up box. Inside of it, I found a two- piece rectangular plastic carton type box which contained an adequate and understandable English instruction sheet, two spare o-rings, and a black bezel ring for those who don't like the crenelated stainless ring that comes installed on the light. Minimal but effective... no sheath or lanyard - but those are usually replaced anyway.
The light looks good... The black on silver color scheme and machining really work. Unscrewing the tailcap, I immediately noticed the quality, beefy, anodized threading. The anodizing on my sample is even and perfect. The tailcap is a forward clicky with a nice feeling, and due to the anodized threading, also serves a lockout function. The PCB is covered by some sort of isolating ring with a brass positive contact disc. The light breaks down easily at all levels, allowing easy modding. The silvery metal part between the black reflector and body tube ends is actually the pill/light engine. Considering that it's exposed, I would imagine this would contribute highly to cooling. The emitter, a XP-G R5 is hidden behind a black insulator disc. A quick peek underneath shows a very professional looking soldering job. The emitter on my sample is perfectly centered. Threads all around are beefy, smooth, and lubricated. Every separable piece has its own nitrile rubber o-ring. The reflector is a standard sort of orange peel affair. Nothing special looking... that is....
The LED:
Body tube:
Bottom of the pill:
Thick battery tube walls:
Dirty underside of the removable aluminum reflector:
Tailcap:
Tailcap disassembled:
Until you turn it on... With a Trustfire flame 14500, it seems just a tad brighter overall with a much tighter hotspot (to be expected since it's an XP-G) and much less spill than my Thrunite Neutron 1C (which I'm reading at an even 1A with an AW RCR). I haven't tested it with an alkaline yet, but the output is pretty impressive... I'm reading 1.4A at the tailcap with the 14500. The light ALWAYS comes on in high after you leave it off for a few seconds (no mode memory). This can be annoying, but at the same time, I can see it as being a tactical advantage. You don't want your light to come on in low or SOS when you're trying to illuminate a far off target. While not conducive to EDC carry, one could see why that might be practical in certain applications, such as law enforcment use. One thing that I really like is that the spacing between levels is quite nice and according to Balder, it's 100%, 30%, and 1%. Low is quite low, not exactly a moonlight mode, but more of a usable beam I would place at around 2-5 lumens. The beam is a pure cool white in all modes to my eyes with no purple, blue or green tint to be found.
Beamshot comparisons (all underexposed and shot from ~10 feet away):
Balder BD-1 on Trustfire flame 14500:
Lumens Factory E-Series 3-3.7V XP-G R5 head on Surefire E1 running Surefire CR123:
Maratac 9290 XR-E Q5 on Trustfire flame 14500:
Thrunite Neutron 1C on Surefire CR123:
Peak Logan Brass XP-G R5 on AW 123:
ITP EOS A3 Ti XP-E Q5 on Eneloop AAA:
DGQ Tiny II on Duracell alkaline AAA:
Sky Ray 818 3 x XM-L T6 on 2 x LiFePo4 18650s - May be underpowered, will take over with IMRs:
So far you can probably tell I'm digging the light... Well, here comes the stick in the mud. The clip, which is (was) reversible, broke in half, not while removing it, but while GENTLY testing it for springiness (within the first 5 minutes of owning it at that). I literally gave it a tiny little squeeze and half the retaining ring just broke off! After careful examination it appears as though the clip is made from sort kind of pot metal and poor quality pot metal at that! I gently twisted at the other side of the retaining ring and it peeled off like the skin of an orange! They definitely need to redesign the clip and make it from... da da da da... SPRING STEEL! Or titanium, or something! This clip seems to be made from recycled tin cans or something... A real disappointment because the rest of the light has really impressed me thus far, but that clip leaves me scratching my head thinking - if the clip is a toy, then what else on the light is a toy? It seems to be very well thought out and designed... but... that CLIP!!!
Time will tell whether or not the BD-1 will hold up... When I finalize this review with beamshots, runtimes, and pics, I'll also give it the "turn on, flip into the air and let it hit the wooden flooring a few times test" and see if anything breaks... This one will have to skip the 870 test as I don't have a mounting system small enough to hold it. I was hoping Balder would send one of their more weapons-mountable lights for me to review. Especially seeing as though I'm not really a AA light guy.
If you like tactical AA lights, this may be one to consider - if they fix the clip. I'll see if they want to send me any more lights to test after the review of the BD-1 is done.
Size comparisons:
Sooooooooo... Overall: Solid feeling, nice looking, excellent thermal design, professional construction, and plenty of output with a clip that may as well be made from PlayDoh...
Not the smallest AA light by any means, but not too big for your pocket... Balder, from what I can tell, please fix your clip and you'll have a real winner on your hands.
EDIT: Martin from Balder has notified me that they are in the process of making a new clip for the light out of superior materials. This is a good thing.
Shao