Night of enlightenment

[Skybird]

Saturday I received my new flashlight.

Gotcha, eh?

It replaced my old one ( a mini maglite) that after almost 20 years of reliable duty finally broke. Earlier this year I also had to replace the lights for my bike which also broke, and I decided for an Ixon IQ lamp that in it's category (integrated normal AA-accu-batteries) currently is probably the brightest you can get, using a modern, very bright LED and indirect reflector. that thing is bright, really, so I was warned that the days of dimmed dark, blue-violet-coloured LEDs already had come to an end.

I decided for a Fenix P3D Q5, and although having heared only good things about it I was not prepared for the wall of light it created. It is a bit shorter than the mini maglite, is run by two CR123 lithium batteries (maybe the only minor complaint some could have with it, but I have not), is a solid, precise construction reminding me of the manufacturing standards of maglite, and in maxiumum mode throws an incredible 215 lumens, reaching out for 100 m, and more (depending on what you consider to be as a still acceptable light). It gives you four different output levels, SOS strobe, and tactical strobe to assist in taking out the bad guys. Red filter and red and white diffusors are available.

This little cutie is top, it really is, and the ammount of brightness it is capable to create, is almost unbelievable. So small and tiny in size, but such a giant in shine! If you plan to buy a flashlight in the near future and want a rocksolid allround-solution with a mounted photon cannon to shoot down any UFOs, put this one on top of your idea list, and if you are old-fashioned and do not know what to think of LED lamps instead of those torches still using traditional light bulbs, rest assured: LEDs that are up to date are leaving lightbulbs behind by a couple of lightyears.
Usually I would not consider to post about a new gadget I bought for my household, but this one took me too much by surprise as if I could let the opportunity to report passing by.

I decided for the P3D over the L2D (using more popular AA batteries) because in these torches the CR123 batteries seem to have a more optimal/positive discharging characteristic then the AA-batteries the L-series is using, also the L-series does not acchieve so high lumens than the P3D. Nevertheless the lamps are both regulated, that means they do not become darker with batteries discharging, but at the end of their lifetime die in a relatively fast ammount of time. To cope with that, the lamp switches into the next lower operation mode, giving you one additional hour, or more. endurance is 68 hours at 12 lumen, 13 hours at 53 lumen (already very bright), 4.8 hours at 120 lumen (most times you will not need more), and 1.8 hours at 215 lumens (madness). You also have SOS strobe and tactical strobe, as said.

earlier models of the P3D used other LEDs with maximums of 180 or 160 lumens. Make sure you do not get one of these when buying.

The first video illustrates the brightness differences in close quarters, close range. the second is German language, but the pictures illustrate the details of the construction and speak for themselves. Keep in mind that cameras heavily distort the brightness levels by electronically adapting to the sunburst this torch is able to create - when I first activated the lamp it was in daylight, and the beam was directed against the white wall - i looked at it unfortunately when going to turbo mode - it took some minutes before I could see without dark shades in my viewing field again. In reality, the turbo mode is far brighter than what you see in the videos.

http://video.aol.com/video-detail/fe...light/60175859

http://www.odoo.tv/Fenix-P3D-Premium-Q5.250.0.html

And in this forum, German, you get a nice, well-done series of photographies comparing various lamps when lightening the same motive, a cave entry in forest at night. Every photo has the lamps name at the top, so you can refer to this even if not speaking German. the lamp I talk of there is called "Fenix P3D Premium Q5", which is the official Fenix name for the configuration I use.

http://forum.outdoorseiten.net/showt...t=21121&page=2

Does it compare to the maglite? No, in no way. You would not even see the maglite's poor lightspot beside that salvo the Fenix is firing at objects. I compared it on Sunday to the huge maglite of my father (Krypton configuration, not the LED module), in the dark cellar of his building - and again, the maglite was the loser of the comparison. Subjectively felt I would say the Fenix was at least twice as bright, if not three times.

If one can believe the internet forums, the P3D currently is the by far brightest torch in it's size segment, and brighter than many torches of bigger construction size and using multiple LEDs. Can you get brighter light in the night? Yes, sure. But not with such a small gadet, and that low price - when considering what you get, it is a steal. and it beats torches that are bigger, and costs multiple times as much.
Maybe we do not have lightswords yet, but we get closer to them for sure!