Review: Crelant 7G5 from intl-outdoor [pics heavy, outdoor beamshots updated!]

Jeansy, you made a good decision. This light not only has greater built quality in every aspect, that the STL clones. It has also much deeper reflector and it's driven harder. It also lets you to use 2x18500 in short version.

amraspalantir, you are OK to use 2x18500 imr. They won't fry the light, since it has step down converter. Just be careful about over-discharge of the cells, because this light probably hasn't any over-discharge protection and I presume your 18500 imrs are not protected.

Oh... and while talking about robust construction, I think Catapult is more heavy duty than BD-4. It's heavier and made from alloy, that is ~60% stronger.

Also ordered. Looking forward to this when it arrives :)

Well I definately am going to get one. I found a like new Catpult V3 off ebay for $100 shipped. I had to take it for that price.

STL "clones" that aren't really clones, but Olight M3X inspired lights, can also use 2 x 18500.

I know they're based on M31/M3X ...But they're so heavy inspired, even in internal design, that for me, they are clones. Good ones, but clones. Pity, that they couldn't clone non-PWM circuit.

Although, I didn't know about extension and ability to run on 18500. If not that horrible PWM, I'd probably buy one :)

Yeah, better driver would be nice... ~1.4A tailcap current ain't enough :D

Well, sure it would be nice to have better PWM too, but hey it's thrower, so I don't use low. I wouldn't mind it being 1-mode either.

From the guys who have ordered, does intl-outdoors send a shipping notification…?
EDIT: So i received my shipping notification just now, although it says status as “Delivered” and not shipped :confused:

Mine is exactly the same, I assume they mean dispatched rather than delivered, at least I hope so...

You made me $78 poorer...

Can somebody do the beamshots for the above two?

I think it's quite reasonable price, taking into account competition prices, overall output and throw :)

And yesterday, I made runtime test with 2x17500 AW cells, that I use in my Fenix TA30. The cells are 2 years old (maybe little more) and are rated 1100mAh. The runtime on high was 00h:31m.

The current draw is very high, so voltage sag is also high. The protection circuit kicks in, when there's still some juice left. I put these depleted cells in TA30 and it ran additional 10 minutes on high. So in short version, a good pair of 18500 would rock .

The Catapult V3 is listed as 390g and BD-4 is 410g so that's a hair heavier. But that's 7075 goodness (I read that there are even some variations in this alloy) so yeah that's also a toughie. But i guess in reality they are all very close and there are more impt things to consider. :)

http://www.thrunite.com/en/ProductView.aspx?id=49

http://www.mybalder.com/product/html/?51.html

The STL-V2 can run with the Dereelight DBS/CL1H bodies, and my Ultrafire U80. So you can even use 2 x 18350. The BIO/powerwholesale IMRs are good. So it would be a X9 kinda length thrower.

Selfbuilt made a weight measurements for all Catapults:

Catapult V3 XM-L: Weight: 434.8g, Length: 254mm, Width (bezel) 58.0mm, Width (tailcap) 35.1mm.
Catapult V2 XM-L: Weight: 438.2g, Length: 255mm, Width (bezel) 58.1mm, Width (tailcap) 35.0mm.
Catapult V2 SST-50: Weight: 446.4g, Length: 254mm, Width (bezel) 58.0mm, Width (tailcap) 35.0mm.
Catapult V1 SST-50: Weight: 410.5g, Length: 250mm, Width (bezel) 59.0mm, Width (tailcap) 34.4mm.

All flashlights with extender tubes, but without batteries.

If Thrunite have problems with posting true ANSI rating for their lights, maybe they also don't know, how to use scales.

I hope, all you guys who ordered 7G5, will post your impressions (and measurements, if possible), when you get it.

As for variations in certain alloy, there are plenty. If you need more information about different alloys, check out the "Matweb".

http://www.matweb.com/search/MaterialGroupSearch.aspx?GroupID=180

Aluminium alloys are in Metals >Non-ferrous Metal section. According to maunfacturers, a good quality brands use "6061 T6" or "7075 T5" alloys. DX stuff is probably random... The cheapest stuff from DX use probably the cheapest alloys available (certainly not 6061 T6). I once hit the metal pipe with X2000 flashlight. The battery tube broke apart where the thread ends... And it wasn't even hard hit.

You break my heart coolperl, should have ordered the Catapult V3 to be part of the collection instead of the Balder BD-4. I probably browsed/cursorily came across through the info, but did not think about this in detail.

The BD-4 is sexier though. :D

Well, eventually you'll buy Catapult V3 too... It's only a matter of time. This stainless steel crenelated bezel of Cat is hard to resist. Check out my pics again...

Then, your collection will be more ... uhm...how to say it... "complete". A most sexy and most sturdy lights together. Like a well-matched couple ...lol.

Luckily i have no preference for SS bits, i don't hate it neither do i love it. heh...

Some measurements. All using the same set of battery (Sanyo 2600 unpro).

Ceiling bounce :

T40CS : 79 lux

7G5 : 79 lux

STL-V6 : 73 lux

Direct beam at 8.17m : (all raw figures direct from DX meter which under-reads, not corrected). I tend to get higher figures at 50m but this is what i can do now.

T40CS : 670 lux = 44.7k cd. Highest reading is found at the edges

7G5 : 741 lux = 49.5k cd Highest reading is at the centre

STL-V6 : 634 lux = 42.3k cd.

I tried to use ice to cool the 7G5 and STL-V6.

7G5 : 800 lux = 53.4k cd

STL-V6 : 670 lux = 44.4k cd.

Glass of 7G5 cuts 0.8%, very low. IIRC STL-V6 cuts about 4-5%, i posted before.

Thanks for posting the results. I'm a bit surprised by the same ceiling bounce result with T40CS, beeing driven harder, 7G5 should score more. Can you make current draw measurements at tailcap?

I'm impressed by the glass transmittance test. It seems to be UCL :)

With Sanyo 2600 cells, it is 1.66A for Crelant 7G5 and 1.40A for Sunwayman T40CS.

The crelant's driver and emitter portion gets hot pretty fast.

BTW, this light can do candle mode!

And my Solarforce Masterpiece Pro-1 scores 600 lux with 2 freshly charged 18350 IMRs. So it is lower throwing and it looks to be so in my house. However, aiming at longer range targets at 100m-400m, the Solarforce is brighter than the STL-V6. I guess it's a matter of focus.

I noticed that too. I think copper MCPCB and good thermal compound would warm up this part even quicker. Lots of juice is beeing converted to heat.

Yes, it can. I knew about it since seeing the photos on shenzen-wholesale. This is exactly the same desing as Catapult.

I think it's more a matter of measurements accuracy and mathematic assumptions. When taking measurements at some distance and calculating it back to 1m values, you're making an assumption that at "zero" distance (lets say the opening of reflector), the beam is focused to a mathematical point. This assumption leads to getting certain angle of beam. In reality, at "zero" distance, the beam is not focused to a point - it has already a width of reflector opening, so real angle of the beam is smaller (by a small margin, but still). You make calculations using this "wider angle" approach, which leads you to lower values than in real life. Increasing the measurements distance, decreases the error factor, because of mathematical distance to real distance ratio is closing to ~1. That's why, increasing the measurements distance, increases also the results. This is most important, when measuring throwers, where the beam angles are very small. An assumption that beam angle apex is on the reflector opening, creates an error factor. In reality, this apex, is behind the flashlight. So the farther away from flashlight you make your measurements, the lower is the error factor and more accurate and real-life result you'll get :).

The "results increse" issue niggled me lately, so I started to think about it from physics/mathematics point of view ...and these are my conclusions.

Of course, there are also other factors, that could mess with results. Like beam convergence for example ...but the conclusion is, the larger measurements distance you choose, the closer to real-life results you'll get. :)