As you may gather from my previous posts, I put a lot of stock in my barber's expertise as well as his opinions. That's why, when he recently sent me a Coleman Extra Bright (90 lumens) LED flashlight, I realized it must be something special.
Its black aluminum body is solid & feels substantial in my hand. It has an O-ring to keep water out of the battery compartment, and its Cree LED should never need to be replaced.
It runs on 3 AAA batteries with an advertised 9.5 hr. run time. I haven't checked out whether that's accurate, but if it's anywhere close, I think that's incredible, given its brightness.
Speaking of brightness, of course I had to make a comparison with my 4Sevens Quark AA2. The comparison was not easy.
Although the Coleman's hot spot is brighter, the Quark's hot spot is about twice the diameter (and therefore four times the area). Both lights have about the same diameter spill. Neither light has any dark spots or shadow rings.
Although I'm impressed by its brightness and quality of manufacture, the Coleman has a couple of features that would keep me from making it my primary go-to light.
First, its on button has no momentary on feature. You have to click it all the way down to turn it on, which -- with my stubby thumbs -- makes it unhandy to carry for blinding an attacker. Strangely enough, once it's on, the button has a momentary off feature.
Second, it has only one brightness. This makes it unsuitable for those situations where you don't want your light to attract undue attention.
That said, the Coleman will make a great utility light for my car or around the house & yard. And, if your prepping budget is such that you can't afford a Surefire or 4Sevens, then the price tag of around $20 makes this light a good choice until you can upgrade.
You can find the Coleman Extra Bright LED flashlight at Wal-Mart, or for a tad more, you can get the ultra bright (140 lumens) version from Amazon. (CLICK HERE)
Its black aluminum body is solid & feels substantial in my hand. It has an O-ring to keep water out of the battery compartment, and its Cree LED should never need to be replaced.
It runs on 3 AAA batteries with an advertised 9.5 hr. run time. I haven't checked out whether that's accurate, but if it's anywhere close, I think that's incredible, given its brightness.
Speaking of brightness, of course I had to make a comparison with my 4Sevens Quark AA2. The comparison was not easy.
Although the Coleman's hot spot is brighter, the Quark's hot spot is about twice the diameter (and therefore four times the area). Both lights have about the same diameter spill. Neither light has any dark spots or shadow rings.
Although I'm impressed by its brightness and quality of manufacture, the Coleman has a couple of features that would keep me from making it my primary go-to light.
First, its on button has no momentary on feature. You have to click it all the way down to turn it on, which -- with my stubby thumbs -- makes it unhandy to carry for blinding an attacker. Strangely enough, once it's on, the button has a momentary off feature.
Second, it has only one brightness. This makes it unsuitable for those situations where you don't want your light to attract undue attention.
That said, the Coleman will make a great utility light for my car or around the house & yard. And, if your prepping budget is such that you can't afford a Surefire or 4Sevens, then the price tag of around $20 makes this light a good choice until you can upgrade.
You can find the Coleman Extra Bright LED flashlight at Wal-Mart, or for a tad more, you can get the ultra bright (140 lumens) version from Amazon. (CLICK HERE)
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