Quark AA flashlight

[thelefthand]

I have half a dozen or so flash lights that I have used over the years for various uses. Most of them are similar to the Streamlight Scorpion, and most of them I bought several years ago. One of these lights was a Pelcan brand light that we had in my wife's Bonneville. We totaled the car on a deer coming back from my folks place on Easter. I tried useing the Pelacan to inspect the damage, and it was pretty much useless. The batteries (CR123) must have been getting weak. I've looked at some of the nicer high end Every Day Carry lights for a few years now, but I've never been satisfied with them. They always put out such a small area of very bright light. I did some research and found a company called 4 Sevens, and found that their Quark line of lights were highly recommended. So I broke down and bought one that runs off of a single AA battery. These lights can run off of a single battery, or off of 2 AA batteries depending on which body style you get. I got the single AA size, and ordered a spare body that uses 2 AA batteries. I also ordered a AA size rechargable Lithium Ion battery (14500) to use with the smaller body. I have to say that I really like it! At it's lowest setting it only puts out very little light, so much so that I don't think it even effects your night vision. Just enough to see where you are stepping. Above that, it puts out just about as much light as a regular old flash light. At the 3rd level, it puts out about 20 lum of light, which is enough to see fairly well. At the 4th level it's putting out about 85 Lum, which is about the same as most tactical lights. At it's highest setting, it's putting out about 180 lum, which is almost as much as my Ultra Stinger. This light does not "throw" a beam several hundred yards, but rather it is a little move of a flood light. With the light at eye level, pointed down, the beam spot is about 10", and it transitions somewhat smoothly into the "spill". Over all, I like the light and lot and I'm very pleased with the purchase. So much so, that I'll be taking this light with it's bigger body installed to Haiti with me this summer. I will leave it with the missionary along with some good Energizer Lithium AA batteries, and have a replacement waiting for me when I get home.

[Rifleman]

Nice post Mark, Funny but I have been getting into flashlights more and more myself lately. Last one I bought was a Surefire Vampire light for one of my tactical rifles. It goes back and forth from white light to IR which will be handy if I can ever afford the NV I have my eye one. Also one of my friends just came back from Costa Rica and he took a Surefire that had a strobe effect. He claims it is a good non lethal defensive tool and I have been interested in getting one of those as well. So do you have a link to this Quark?

[thelefthand]

Hey Dwight. Here's the Link.

www.4sevens.com/index.php?cPath=297_305

If you're headed out to Don's any time soon and you'd like to see the light, let me know. My biggest worry was the fact that I couldn't put my hands on the light and see what kind of beam it puts out before I bought it. I'm glad I took the plunge though.

I bought my Protected AW14500 cell from the market place at Candlepower forum for $9

www.cpfmarketplace.com/mp/showthread.php?252650-AW-Li-Ion-amp-IMR-Batteries-Sales-Thread-*USA*-amp-international.-***Part-2***

I also bought a Thunder B6AC hobby charger from hobbypartz.com for $50. There are a lot of cheaper chargers out there, but the more research I did, the more leery I became of them. The nice thing about the hobby charger is that it's very flexible. It will charge Lith Ion cells, Lith Poly cells, NiMH cells, as well as the old lead acid batteries. I can set the charging current and voltages as I see fit. I also bought a 17670 cell for my Scorpion light, and having a charger that is flexible will actually save me from having to buy a charger to fit that as well. The Scorpion uses a 6V bulb, and I need to buy a bulb for a Strion instead (3.7V) to match up with the new power cell.

For a Weapons light, you might want to look at their "turbo" model. I haven't handled it, but apparently the reflector is a little deeper and it really throws the beam a long ways. The set up that I'm using is about the brightest they have available, but the beam shape is wide. With my 14500 cell it runs exactly like the model that runs on a single CR123 cell. In fact the output and capacity of the 14500 cell is pretty much identical to that of the CR123 batteries, but it's packaged into a cell the size of a AA battery. So if my cell is dead, I can grab any old battery and the light will work just fine. My output will be lower because I'll be using a 1.5V battery instead of a 3.7V power cell, but even with a single AA Alkaline battery it will still put out 109 lumens for over an hour, and over twice that with a good lithium primary battery like an Energizer Ultimate. I'm going to get a couple of bodies for 2 AA batteries and keep some of the Energizers on hand for back up, but for an EDC light I REALLY like the AA body with the 14500 cell. It lights up a room very well, and I've used it at work to look up into the shadows of a robot with those big mercury lights blinding me from the ceiling, and it does great.

[Rifleman]

What? Are you an engineer or something? Batteries are meant to be thrown in land fills, anybody knows that.

[thelefthand]

The decision to go with rechargeables is based entirely on $$. I never have cared much about land fills. The decision to go with the Lithium Ion cell was based on light output. I just think it's cool that my little 3" long light can put out over 200 Lumins of light On my old Scorpion/TL-2/TL-3 lights I was going through about $60 worth of CR-123 batteries a year. I bought an Ultra Stinger rechargeable light off E-bay to use when we let the dogs out at night, and that cut it back to about $40 a year. I have about $70 wrapped up in my cell and charger, but I don't mind. It will pay for itself, it puts out a HECK of a lot more light, and since this light easily fits in my pocket I carry it daily and thus use it a LOT more. If I bought a Quark 123 light, I'd probably be back to spending $60 a year on batteries again. Now I use it for FREE It also makes it a LOT less painful to let someone "play" with it for a while. So what if they use have the cell up. I'll pull the charger out while I'm working on something at work, and let it recharge.

[Rifleman]

Your always thinkin Mark, glad your around to keep me straight. BTW wait till you see my 2 newest " little rattle battle guns

[thelefthand]

2? I saw the AR10, what's the other one?

[Rifleman]

Little Brother in 223