Review Of Nitecore MH27

I received the Nitecore MH27 from BangGood for the review.

These are the offical specs:

The MH27 comes in a cardboard box, with the pic of the light and the specs on it.

The label on the bottom with XP-L Hi indication

Inside the box there’s the MH27, its nice holster, spare o-rings, clip, spare Micro USB cover, micro USB cable, lanyard, manual.

Finally here, the MH27.

The U shaped tailcap, it’s wide and allows tailsand and easy access to the switch.

On the body of the light there is some knurling that helps the grip.

At the head of the light there are 2 electronic switches. They can easily be found, since they protrude from the surface and the rubber cover adds some grip.

On the other side of the head, the micro USB port for recharging the 18650.

The Anti roll ring, allows cigar grip and it’s threated. It screws on th body of the light, and once in place it doesn’t move at all.

If you remove it, the threaded part of the light will remain exposed.


Thick o-ring and anodized threads, allowing lockout.

Inside the tailcap: a hard and golden spring.

At the positive pole of the head there’s Nitecore’s patented polarity inversion protection system, that allows the use of the light on guns without issues. This system makes the MH27 work only with button top 18650.

The body that screws on the head of the light: good thickness, and a lot of space for the battery (in the picture there’s a Keeppower 3200 mAh protected cell).

There are 3 points where you can attach a lanyard: 2 at the tailcap and one at the cigar grip ring.

The satin finish crown at the head, glass with AR treatment.

Now, the distinctive part of the MH27: inside the smooth reflector there is a XP-L hi, and 3 5 mm leds (one blue, one red and one green).



The holster: big metal d-ring, wide velcro surface. It leaves the tailcap exposed.

UI:
The switch at the tailcap is mechanic, and allows momentary on. Its only purpose is to turn on and off the light. To change the output you have to use the 2 switches at the head.

There are 2 modes: constant light and blinking modes. To switch between the modes, when the light is on keep pressed both the - and + switches at the head.

Constant light mode:
When in constant light mode, use the 2 switches to move between the 7 output: blue light, green light, red light, ultralow, mid, hi, and turbo. You can move both foreward and backward using the - and + switches.
If you keep pressed the - switch, you will go to red light level, if you keep pressed the + switch, you will go into the turbo level.
The light has memory.
Blinking mode:
When you switch from constant mode to blinking mode, you will get strobo level. With - and + switch you can go through the 8 levels: blue strobe, red strobe, red and blue strobe, STROBE (XP-L Hi), beacon and SOS.
Keep pressed the - switch and you’ll get the blue/red strobe, keepp pressed the + switch and you’ll get SOS.
The light has memory for all blinking levels exept SOS and beacon. if you turn the light off and back on while you are on these levels, the MH27 will turn on in constant light mode, at the alst level used.

Don’t rememver how you left the MH27? Keep pressed the - switch and turn the light on: you’ll get the red level, keep pressed the + seitch and turn the light on: you’ll get the turbo level.

Charge & indication
Keep pressed both - and + switches while you turn the light on, and a blue led under the switches will blink, giving you the read of the voltage (only for 18650 and CR123 cells: 3,9 volt = 3 flashes, pause, 9 flashes).
The charge works only with 18650. Once inserted the micro USB cable and turned the light on, the led under the head switches will blink and the charge starts. When the charge is done, the blue led will stay on.
If you forgot to turn the light on when in charge, or the MH27 encounters a problem in the charging process, the blue led will blink fast.

Level spacing:
test done with protected 18650 Keeppower 3200mAh.

Runtime test:
test dobne with protected 18650 Keeppower 3200mAh.


Looking at the turbos plot: there’s a system that regulates the output given the temperature. I’d like a more regulated output.

*About the coloured Leds:
*According to nitecore, the 3 coloured leds are driven at the same current, and given their output they are not as efficient as the XP-L hi. According to nitecore specs, the 55 lumens XP-L Hi led has the same runtime of the 3 coloured output, while the most efficient of these has a 19 lumen output.
I had trouble measuring the output of coloured leds, because the human eye has a different sensitivity for the different wavelengths, and the same is for the luxmeters. They are calibrated to have a sensitivity curve that resemble the one of the human eye. It would be interesting trying with a photoradiometric probe, that measures the light in a specific wavelengths interval.

Beamshot.
The 3 coloured leds (rotating each time the light so that the light illuminates the grass), and ultralow XP-L Hi. The beam of the coloured leds is floody and gives you few meters of sight. If you use them for close task illumination, there will be a lot of rings and other imperfections in the beam.



Turbo level, 30 meters.

Turbo level, 130 metri.

The XP-L Hi in the rather compact head of the MH27 gives a good throw. The MH27 can keep up with bigger lights with XM-L2 emitter, such as the Eagletac S200C2.

As you can see, the 3 leds in the reflector will give a black ring in the XP-L Hi beam.
To me, that’s a good compromise: putting the 3 leds outside the surface of the reflector will reduce the size of the reflector, giving less throw.

You can check the light and some of the data in this video

Conclusions
The light is well built as usual for Nitecore. It seems that the integrated recharging system has become a standard for Nitecore. Luckily, Nitecore sticks to micro USB standard, so you don’t have to keep with you a proprietary cable.
I used the MH27 under heavy rain, and I have no complain with waterproof.
The MH27 is a rather compact light, expecially given the size of the head, but the XP-L Hi will produce a beam that can give a good line of sight.
The UI is simple: direct access to low and turbo modes, it’s possible to increase or decrease the brightness. There are a lot of blinking modes, 7, but you won’t activate them unless you want to. I’m not a big fan of coloured leds, but there are people who has special needs, from tactical to hunting uses (it’s generally accepted that red lights helps preserving scotopic vision, and animals are not much sensitive to green light). Giving these special needs, I think people will forgive the black ring in the beam. I don’t think it’s a killer deal either.
In the use I found really good the feedback of the 2 electronic switches, and the one at the tailcap.
When you have to increase the light, you can do it without wasting time passing through low outputs, when you have to decrease the light, you can do it without getting blinded by higher outputs.
I found a bit annoying to have to turn the light on with the switch at the tailcap and then move my hand at the head of the light, to change levels, but this is the drawback of having the chance to use a remote switch for mounting the light on a gun.

Other than a different regulation at turbo mode, I’d rather have another level between the 250 and 1000 lumens levels.

Thanks: AntoLed for provinding luxmeter and camera, P.P. for the beamshot location.

Thanks for reading.

Great review! Thanks.

Nice review, thanks.
You mean you can put it on red or green mode and also choose which level of power, like
red low or red medium or red hi power??
Reason I ask, I’ve been considering this one, vs the MH20