I must admit, that for a long time, I didn't wait with such anticipation for any flashlight...
It finally arrived. I guess I'm the first person outside Asia that owns this flashlight ...definitely the first person that shares some info and photos.
So lets start from the beginning. It comes in a blister. Accesories are very ascetic. Spare rubber boot and spare o-rings. That's all. No fancy cards, manuals, lanyards, etc. Just a few pieces of spare rubber and flashlight.
Crelant 7G5 didn't dissapointed in workmanship quality. It's very well made, no ano missing, no scratches. Overall, nothing to complain about. Surface is matte HAIII. All thrads are square cut and all, apart from threads that join LED/circuit with battery tube, are anodized allowing tailcap lock-out. Threads, as you'll see at the photos came generously lubed. Overall, I'm impressed The quality is just as I expected. On par with Fenix and Thrunite.
The flashlight has extender, that allows to run from 2x18650. Without it, you have a short monster, that can be fed by 2x18500. Nice move, frankly, I like the short version better. More "wow" factor due to smaller dimesions and the same potential.
Whatta heck I wrote earlier this part ...but it hasn't shown in the post. Ok I'll rewrite.. The circuit is not silent. It's not buzzing, but the sound is like whisper... or water flowing through the pipes. This is first time I hear that kind of noise from flashlight circuit. It's definitely not a high pitch whine from inductor, more like flowing water or wind in the trees ...or very silent jet engine (I'm not kidding). Interesting. Oh.. it's very silent only audible in a complete inaudible enviroment and flashlight close to ear so don't worry, it's totally undisturbing .
UI is unfortunatelly crappy. At least for me. Seeing bare threads, I was hoping for mode changing by twisting the head (just like in Olight M31 Triton or Fenix TK30). Modes are changed by tailcap and since it's using forward clicky, you have to select your desired mode prior to "click". Otherwise, you have to make full turn-on/turn-off cycle to change mode. Luckily, there are only three modes - low, high and strobo and the light has memory. So cycling through the modes will be reduced - since it's pure thrower and should work mainly on high mode. Pity, we're losing momentary function... Oh, well, you can't have all.
Yes, this light is pure thrower. It has wide, deep and smooth reflector. In fact, it's the biggest reflector, I've seen in a regular flashlight with XM-L LED. Of course, I had to compare it to my "modded" Catapult V2.
...And it won . The difference is not significant, but it's visible. The hotspot size is the same in both cases, but a little more intense in Crelant 7G5. I had no time (and I won't have in next days) to do a proper measurements, but I did a few quick tests, that can tell something about 7G5's potential.
The ceiling bounce is almost equal in both cases, with slight advanage to 7G5.
Cat V2 scored ~19.6 lux,
7G5 scored ~19.8 lux
Tailcap current draw looks following:
Cat V2 - 1.95A
7G5 - 1.90A
Yep folks... your conclusion is correct. The LED in 7G5 is driven at 3.5A (or very close) ....Not some wimpy 2.8A or 3.0A as seen from other well known manufacturers. And by the way, my Cat uses XM-L T6 from authorized CREE dealer, so the bin is certified. And the LED is sitting on a pure copper MCPCB with Arctic Silver 5 underneath. So it's tuned to the max.
Overall, from the first look, I'm impressed by this light. It's very well made, the workmanship is superb and the price is right. It can be fully disassembled, so it allows for future upgrades. The reflector is awesome. Deep as well and wide enough to turn XM-L into pure throwing machine.
When I have a time, probably next week, I'll do lux measurements and take some outdoor beamshots. This is all for now. Below some photos (sorry, not in order, I'm in hurry).
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Update 6th Nov.
OK, as promised, some outdoor beamshots. The camera settings were following:
t=3.2s
f=4.5
iso=200
wb=daylight
I made photos in two locations. I made also some crops from original files, for better see the illuminated target. Enjoy !
The photos above are little underexposed. In reality, the lights were brighter. Also, take into account, that BD-4, while the weakest in throw here, is a dedicated thrower with over 35K lux/1m. It has far more throw than other popular flashlights, that are considered to throw quite well (Fenix TK35, Jetbeam BC40). If anyone wants to do animated gif, feel free .