Seems like a decent light. Problem is, in the single AA market there are a lot of pretty nice lights for $15-20.
Does it take 14500 or just AA?
I have about 5 AA lights now and the only one that really wows me is the EZ AA I got from Boaz. And the 'wow' factor on that one is its size. I use it as a keychain light. But then again it is twice as expensive, as is my other fav, the Jetbeam BC10.
The others sort of fall into the "nice light, keep in in the glove or tool box, it will work when you need it" category.
Noodles - It is perfectly balanced in the hand, not top heavy at all. Wall shots on the way when it gets dark in this part of the world. The timing in fitting for an Uglywall evening because I found my MCE and 2 XR-E drop-ins in the mail box today.
Nice review, as usual! Please include me for the draw as I have a homeless XP-G which I would like to try to put in this light.
BTW You caused some eye rolling at my home when I tried to explain for my better half why I had to buy a grey L2P. Obviously the term "to get foyed" is not yet common.
Here's my attempt at beam pattern shots for this light. Test conducted at the Uglywall outdoor laboratory 12 feet from the wall with 1/4 second shutter speed @ f2.8
Nice review, as usual Foy. It's a handsome light, but I already have one AA light and no interest in more. I find the 16340 form factor more useful, so please don't include me in the draw.
I wanted to thank you for a very entertaining and laughter-filled review. Your nice pics not-with-standing, it is your writing that made this one great. Thanks again.
There is a big difference between DX lights costing $15-20 and quality lights from iTP (or I assume XTAR). The first category are of much worse quality and may certainly not work when you need them (or when you receive them for that matter).
Yes, because iTP and XTAR lights are obviously expensive american lights at $20-$30...
Most cheap AA lights are certainly NOT of excellent quality, which is easily discovered if you read all the threads about them discussing how to get the "right batch" because the "bad batch" is total crap. It's just stupid to blow $15-$19 each on several cheap (not budget) lights to get a somewhat acceptable one instead of buying a quality light at $20-25, especially when the quality lights are hard anodized and IPX-8 (the cheap ones never are). Also you don't know if your cheap light may start flickering a few months from now.
The only cheap lights which have an acceptable minimum quality are Romisen lights (original ones that is, Manafont, DinoDirect and others are selling fakes), Tank007 (maybe) and some selected single mode lights like Sipik SK68 and Uniquefire AA-S1. The popular lights like Trustfire F20, Akoray AK-106, Ultrafire C3, Ultrafire C3 SS (there are at least four different models from different factories), Trustfire R5-A3 etc have lots of DOA lights, varying drivers, flickering problems, general bad batches, etc. They are just bad deals when an iTP A2 is $22 shipped (in general, there may be reasons to get other lights of course).
Funny that it's accepted on this site that expensiver P60 hosts are better than the DX cheapies but not for AA lights.
People who diss quality lights (yep, lights that dont vary greatly with every batch) with "there a cheap light of random quality on DX for $5 less" don't know the difference between plain cheap and budget.
You roll the dice every time you order many of the cheap AA lights, you may or may not get lucky. So if there are quality lights available for just a few dollars more then thats a great deal.
