Fenix L2D 6 Level High Performance Cree LED Flashlight (Black)
|
List Price: Category: Sports See more product details |
|---|
(Click here)
Description of Fenix L2D 6 Level High Performance Cree LED Flashlight (Black)
The Fenix L1D CE is digitally regulated and digitally controlled. It has two output modes which produce a total of six levels of output. These modes not only allow the user to select the best compromise between brightness and runtime for any given task, but they also help to aid in an emergency. The L1D CE does all this and still retains a very compact size. If you're looking for solid reliability, digitally-regulated brightness, and compact size, this Fenix is for you.Sports reviews of Fenix L2D 6 Level High Performance Cree LED Flashlight (Black)
Customer Review: As good as it gets in a small light
Sport shop rating: 5 Stars
I own several Cree based Fenix lights, all provide incredible performance by any standard that AAA and AA cell lights are judged.
Fenix CE lights I own are:
L0D CE - 1 AAA battery
L1D CE - 1 AA battery
L2D CE - 2 AA batteries
P1D CE - 1 CR123 (3 Volt)
These are all versatile and bright beyond anything in the past that used conventional incandescent bulbs. The first time someone who has only experience with conventional flashlights uses one of these new generation Cree LED lights, they are literally astonished at how powerful they are. The smallest light, the L0D (single AAA battery), on its bright setting is more powerful than a 2 D cell Maglight. The L1D on a AA outperforms a 3 cell easily and the L2D had more punch than a 6 cell. And all will run longer as well.
The L0D CE is a very tiny single AAA pocket light has more output than a 2 D cell incandescent and will probably be sufficient for most people as an EDC (Every Day Carry) flashlight. I carry one and it's all I need 99% of the time.
The L1D CE is a single AA pocket light with an output that leaves little to be desired. An excellent EDC by any standard.
The L2D CE (2 AA) will rarely leave a user wanting something more powerful. It's incredibly bright at its highest output while still having a dim (9 lumens) mode that can be used to light a menu in a restaurant without blinding the rest of the guests. I personally would have preferred the dim mode to be even more dim, probably around 5-6 lumens, but 9 is still OK, and at that level it will run for days.
Being just slightly longer than a 2 AA Mag, the L2D is not really a pocket light, but with the addition of a pocket clip on the tail end, it slips into and rides quite comfortably in a side pocket. I've carried it this way all day in a suit without being aware of it and it makes almost no bulge.
The L2D has 6 output levels (see specs) and their easy to select. I find some of the outputs that are common to all Fenix CE lights (strobe, SOS) to be mostly useless, but neither do they get in the way. At the highest output level (Turbo Mode), of 135 lumens, the L2D can nearly serve as a backup headlight for a car and it will maintain that level for over 2 hours!
The P1D CE uses a single CR123 (3 volt battery) and it's small enough to be a pocket light, although it is a bit fat and will make a fair sized lump. It essentially shares the same attributes as the L2D CE with regard to output. It has fewer output choices (2 vs 6 for the L2D CE) but still remains a very small, very powerful light.
I cycle a lot and I've used the L2D CE (also the P1D CE) as a headlight on my road bike. Even on a fast, heads down ride with speeds of 20-25 mph, it's very good on High Mode (90 lumens) and excellent on Turbo Mode (135 lumens), equaling the output of my conventional 13 watt halogen bike light that uses a 2 pound water bottle battery. And all that from a couple of AA batteries! Incredible!
A word about batteries:
These lights don't function at their best using common alkaline batteries. Alkalines have some trouble delivering the high current that these lights want if they're to perform at their best. Although some people might object to the higher cost of the top quality batteries, let's be frank about it; if your comfortable paying $40-$75 for a pocket light when you could grab a 2 AA light a WallMArt for a couple of bucks, then the cost of batteries isn't likely to be a much of an issue. What you want is performance, and that's what these lights give you. Feed them well and don't complain.
The L0D works best using a Lithium battery and you'll get quite a bit more run time from it as well.
The L1D and L2D use AA batteries. Alkaline batteries work reasonably well but for best performance use either high quality rechargeable NIMH batteries (2500MA) or disposable Lithium batteries. Both will give better brightness and runtime over common Alkaline batteries.
No one can go wrong with any of these lights and all of them represent nearly the "State of the Art" at this time in personal or pocket lights while still maintaining a reasonable cost.
AFH
Customer Review: Tiny light, huge output - All with AA batteries...
Sport shop rating: 5 Stars
Unbelievable! I received my L2D-RB100 a few days ago and am utterly amazed just how much light this 2AA flashlight can produce. I have no scientific light measurement equipment, but doing the backyard-eyeball test, this light looks as bright as my 6D cell Mag-lite. It looks like it's two or three times as bright as my 3D cell Mag-lite.
Here are a few observations (Skip to the end if you just want the bottom line summary):
- The L2D-RB100 seems as bright as my Mag-6D, however the Mag does a better job as a spot light (when focused to a tight beam). Both the Mags yellow-incandescent light and adjustable focus made it possible to easily light up and see depth and texture of the tops of trees that were many hundreds of feet away. With the L2D there is a bright center spot, however there is a ton of spill around the edges that seems to light up every dust/water molecule in the air and washes out your long distance view.
- On the flip side, because the L2D has a lot of spill, it is fantastic for lighting up a room or outside space that is relatively close. It has a bright center and smoothly spills out with no rings, dead spots, etc. With my Mag-lites if I de-focus the beam to get a broad light there is always a large dead-spot in the center.
- The L2D has a strobe mode. Some say it's good for self-defense but frankly I would much rather have my 6D Mag-lite if I ever found myself in that position. The L2D strobe is almost as disorienting to the user as the recipient and then what? Are you going to knock the guy out with your 5 ounce Fenix? I could see using the strobe in a signaling/rescue situation though.
- The fit and finish of the L2D is outstanding. The shape is rather odd with so many different diameters along the barrel, however it feels fine in my hand. The click switch in the end is very crisp and works well. I wish Fenix would have designed the controller to start in whatever mode I last used. As it's currently designed, when you turn it off, it reverts to the default settings.
- The light from the Rebel-100 LED looks yellow-green to me. Sounds awful but it's actually pretty good. I like it better than the blue-white that a lot of LED's produce.
- Dirty little secret, that I didn't discover until purchasing the L2D, is that the instructions say you shouldn't use the "turbo" mode (175 Lumens) for more than 10 minutes at a time or it may harm the battery/flashlight... So it seems that turbo mode is targeted for a quick look-see, using the strobe, or showing off how much light this tiny light can produce.
- I considered the Surefire 6P which I think looks nicer, and is domestically built, however I could not bring myself to buy a light that uses $2.00 batteries (CR123A) when I can get AA's for $.20 each.
Summary
It won't replace every flashlight I have, but it's easily the best all around flashlight that I own! With the exception of extreme spot-light use or baseball-bat emulation (self defense), the L2D covers all my hand held lighting needs. I can't comment on the long term Fenix reliability having owned it for only a week.
Pros: Uses cheap AA batteries. Amazing light output (175 Lumens). Very good for broad illumination (hiking-trails, indoor-use, etc.) Superb light pattern with no dead spots/rings. Multiple light output modes lets you choose battery life/brightness trade off for different situations. Excellent fit/finish.
Cons: Not as good for spot light use. Many modes (but no "remember-last") make for lots of clicking. Limited to 10 minute run time in turbo mode.
Customer Review: Great Flashlight! Worth $50? You decide...
Sport shop rating: 5 Stars
I got this flashlight as a birthday present from my brother who is really into flashlights. I've owned it over a year. It's been through a rough week white water rafting / camping trip and a year of college. Let me say... this thing is amazing. I've been on an old 2x AA maglite for a LONG time. On the lowest setting, this Fenix L2D outdoes the maglite 5x. The white/slightly purple light is also MUCH easier to read under, compared to yellow. Furthermore, the voltage regulating circuit in this thing is amazing. My maglite would be a bright yellow with new batteries & then slowly die and fade with time. With this Fenix, whatever mode you select you get the correct output (both new & old batteries). The stobe light feature is really nice too! I've used it for some dances, in a fake police car, & if you ever needed to signal if you're trapped in the woods or on the side of the road... this baby would give your hands and fingers a rest.
Now owning this baby for a year... I've obviously had some ups and downs. The downs are: it is really hard to tell when your batteries are going to die. I used this thing every night when I came into the dorm room for I would say a good 6 to 10 months. Anywhere from 2 minutes to over an hour a night. After that, it just didn't work. I tried some old rechargeable batteries. It worked for a little then died again. & when your batteries are low it is so hard to tell... the flashlight just flickers and goes in between all 6 modes (flashing, and low, and turbo, etc) at it's own will. I am disappointed I didn't understand the low battery situation earlier. Because this flashlight has been sitting on the shelf for the last month, until today when I did a diagnosis with my voltmeter.
The other downside (more of a water proof protective feature) is the endcap (eventhough it touches the batteries fairly early....) has to be screwed in all the way. When I say all the way, I mean 1/4 turn back and it's no good. It's not hard to screw in all the way. In fact the endcap screws in very nicely (it's almost like it's pre-lubed from the factory). The problem is this threw me off a little when I was trying to figure out what was wrong with all the flickering coming from the circuit trying to compensate for dead batteries.
So screw the endcap in all the way & keep a good pair of extra batteries (like you always should for any flashlight) & you'll be good to go. This thing may not be the brightest thing on earth (especially compared to some of my brothers $500+ flashlights); but for the size, convince of AA or other rechargeable batteries, the power-output, & the great battery life.... this flashlight simply can not, really can not be beat for the price!
I am honestly so happy with it, I'm probably going to order another one so I can mount 1 on each side of my mountain bike handle bars (instead of 1 in the middle) or scooter or motorcycle for night riding. You can never have enough lights, lol. Ppl buying this flashlight probably understand... especially in a power outage. Best of luck to whatever you decide to get.
Customer Review: Blinded by the light!
Sport shop rating: 5 Stars
This is simply an unbelievable light! It uses just 2 AA batteries (alkaline work fine and are inexpensive, but rechargeable NiMH best, especially the Eneloop LSD, which give you great shelf life for intermittant use and have a better energy delivery than alkalines), and is essentially the size of a MagLite 2AA, but that's where the similarities end (well, they are both black, too!).
I've used MagLites for years; they're the "standard" for a daily use (e.g. non-military/police/special use) light. But, the bulbs burn out and they're really only bright with brand new batteries. Their light constantly and quickly dims. LED's, on the other hand, can last 50K hours (what this one is rated); that's 5.7 YEARS of continuous light, 24/7/365! They're tremendously more energy efficient, giving many more hours of light given the same driving batteries. They can also be "regulated" as this one is, to put out a pretty steady amount of light until the very end of the battery's life. What's not to like? Well, until recently, they're really not "projecting" or distance lights, which is what I prefer and need. They put their light out over a fairly short distance. Not any more!
I have a 6 D cell MagLite (huge, and weighs a ton), and recently had the opportunity to compare the light given out by that device with this virtually pocket sized little beauty - remember, it uses only 2 AA cells. Staggering! I was able to see as clearly, at distance, with this light! The light is also very "pure" and the beam is extremely uniform, with a bright center and a uniform spillover around the center beam. The end of the incandescent may be near!
The only minor quibble was the holster. Very nicely made, solid appearing, but doesn't readily hook onto a belt by itself. I found that one of my old MagLite 2AA holsters works just fine due to the size similarities of the 2 lites, and works better for my needs.
You won't regret this purchase. I've been shopping for quite a while for a newer LED light, doing lots of comparisons and waiting for this light to come along. Very nearly went for a 123 cell light, but I'm a bit concerned over some of the reports of cell explosions (search the web, you'll see a lot written about this). There's lots of very interesting discussion about this apparently rather rare problem, acknowledged by battery retailers, and after reading the debates, I decided to stay with the tried and true (not to mention much cheaper and widely available) alkaline and/or NiMH AA's. If I need new batteries in a pinch, I can get them anywhere, cheaply (single use 123 cells at a local store are as much as $5-6 each!). This Cree LED apparently gives a little more performance with a 123, but for the reasons above I decided to forego the small performance edge to go with this product, and am COMPLETELY happy with the purchase!
Customer Review: Bright, long battery life, and takes no gup from nobody
Sport shop rating: 5 Stars
I bought this last year and it's served me very well as a replacement to the industry-standard MiniMag. As a professional lighting technician, I'm constantly stuck in the dark, making a good flashlight incredibly important. A few weeks ago, I helped load-out a concert that had been set up on a swampy garden site in the middle of the night. Our Lull forklift had no lights on it, so guiding it up and down a narrow path between a pond and a sharp hill was a challenge. On its brightest intensity, this guy cut right up the path, outperforming and outlasting even the big hand-lamp the operator was trying to use.
The weight and size are great. It's light enough to tack on your belt and forget about it, or bite on for a hand's free lighting experience without straining your jaw too much. Being about MiniMag size, it fits in a variety of tool pouches meant to carry multi-tools and flashlights. It's put up with a rough time on my belt with surprisingly few scratches and no dents at all.
I found no real use for the lanyard and the strobe modes are pretty annoying. I'm sure SOS could come in handy if I was out camping, but when you're looking for plain illumination, it can get in the way. The high power strobe is even more useless. I find I don't tend to use the two medium intensities much, either. If low isn't bright enough, the 135 lumen turbo mode will do the trick.
The AA cell power source is great. I've had lights that used N-cells, which are a pain to find in a hurry. I've been using NiMH rechargeable AAs for a while with decent success. In time, I find that gunk builds up on the contacts, causing the light to flicker, and unwittingly switch modes. But some rubbing alcohol or even scratching at it with a fingernail cleans them up.
It's pricier now than it was when I bought it. I suspect FenixLight discontinued it in favor of the version 2. If that's anything like this, it's well worth the extra money if you rely on a flashlight at work.