Coast brand, Model FL74 2-PK. Costco Item 1600068. Made in China of course.
405 lumens per the label. Pack of 2 on sale currently for $20 instead of the usual $28. Got it today.
Inexpensive and I am quite impressed. It is much brighter in real life than my (older) Petzl Tikka XP2 rated at 80 lumens, and I am especially pleased with the quality of the beam focus control. Unlike several others I have used, the focus control actually works great on this one. It's a true lens not just the reflector moving in or out. In wide mode, the beam is beautifully uniform and quite broad, and in full focus it is a tight bright dot with a faint halo. (In between it's a bit more uneven with some circular banding). This does come at the price of a protruding lens although it is by no means objectionably big or heavy for me.
Makes me wonder how I did not notice how faint my earlier lamp is (relatively speaking) and why I waited this long to get a better one. (Or are we getting spoiled? Remember those AAA Maglites...? sheesh....) Has 3 brightness levels plus a red (great) and a green (why?) LED. The red LED is surprisingly bright too and quite focused (about the same as the tightest white). I would have preferred wider for the red, it's a bit too bright and narrow for space lighting. The green one is a bit wider than the red but does not matter, I can't see that I will use it. No power control on the red and green LEDs. Up to 17 hrs run time at the lower level reportedly and 2.5 hrs at max level. No strobe mode from what I can tell. Band is just the one horizontal around your noggin, no over the top strap here. Batteries in the light housing itself (3 AAA).
At first glance, the build does not appear to be unusually brick-solid and I don't know if it would survive being fully submerged. It is rated IPX4 though. The analogy I'd use for this crowd is that it does not appear to be Landcruiser over-the-top sturdy, more like Camry solid, say, so a bit lighter duty, but it's still darn good for $10 each IMO. Also possibly it may get old to have to flip through 3 levels every time you turn it on and off, no memory setting that I can see so far.
More feedback after some use.
added: comes with 2 sets of clips so it can be used on top of a hardhat. Have not tried how effective that is. Also, the light is hinged and can be tilted 3 different ways. Would have been better to have an infinitely adjustable one but not too bad.
You can see pics on the Costco website, and googling them of course. The FL75 on the Coast website looks similar IIRC.
added: one other minor issue: the switches are buried under a silicone cover for water resistance presumably and are not always falling right under your fingers when you want to operate them. It does take me a bit of fumbling still to find them without looking. But maybe a matter of getting used to them.
but darn, that thing is bright...
405 lumens per the label. Pack of 2 on sale currently for $20 instead of the usual $28. Got it today.
Inexpensive and I am quite impressed. It is much brighter in real life than my (older) Petzl Tikka XP2 rated at 80 lumens, and I am especially pleased with the quality of the beam focus control. Unlike several others I have used, the focus control actually works great on this one. It's a true lens not just the reflector moving in or out. In wide mode, the beam is beautifully uniform and quite broad, and in full focus it is a tight bright dot with a faint halo. (In between it's a bit more uneven with some circular banding). This does come at the price of a protruding lens although it is by no means objectionably big or heavy for me.
Makes me wonder how I did not notice how faint my earlier lamp is (relatively speaking) and why I waited this long to get a better one. (Or are we getting spoiled? Remember those AAA Maglites...? sheesh....) Has 3 brightness levels plus a red (great) and a green (why?) LED. The red LED is surprisingly bright too and quite focused (about the same as the tightest white). I would have preferred wider for the red, it's a bit too bright and narrow for space lighting. The green one is a bit wider than the red but does not matter, I can't see that I will use it. No power control on the red and green LEDs. Up to 17 hrs run time at the lower level reportedly and 2.5 hrs at max level. No strobe mode from what I can tell. Band is just the one horizontal around your noggin, no over the top strap here. Batteries in the light housing itself (3 AAA).
At first glance, the build does not appear to be unusually brick-solid and I don't know if it would survive being fully submerged. It is rated IPX4 though. The analogy I'd use for this crowd is that it does not appear to be Landcruiser over-the-top sturdy, more like Camry solid, say, so a bit lighter duty, but it's still darn good for $10 each IMO. Also possibly it may get old to have to flip through 3 levels every time you turn it on and off, no memory setting that I can see so far.
More feedback after some use.
added: comes with 2 sets of clips so it can be used on top of a hardhat. Have not tried how effective that is. Also, the light is hinged and can be tilted 3 different ways. Would have been better to have an infinitely adjustable one but not too bad.
You can see pics on the Costco website, and googling them of course. The FL75 on the Coast website looks similar IIRC.
added: one other minor issue: the switches are buried under a silicone cover for water resistance presumably and are not always falling right under your fingers when you want to operate them. It does take me a bit of fumbling still to find them without looking. But maybe a matter of getting used to them.
but darn, that thing is bright...
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