Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Every LED light at every angle and well designed too., November 17, 2007
I've posted some pictures up above so you can see some of the well designed features Streamlight put into this milspec lamp. Milspec 810F requires that any "removable" body part be somehow attached so it can not become lost (i.e. battery door) - in this light it is tied to the light's interior with a steel cable to prevent it from falling. There are no markings that need a light to be seen or may wear off on how to insert the + and - ends of the batteries, but there are stampings in the case molding with a "+" in the center that indicate where the positive battery ends should go on each battery. This is a great feature if you must change two batteries in the dark by feel.
As for the LEDs, you are not likely to ever accidentally change colors because you must pull the color ring out of its detent and rotate it at least 90 degrees. Each position selects one of 4 LED colors. The pushbutton on the side has multiple functions. Double click it and it will flash the selected LED about 2x/ sec. Click once to turn it on or off. Hold it in and it walks you through the 4 brightness levels always starting at the most dim level and walking up to the brightest, then back down to the dim level. The intensity stays at the selected level as you rotate the color selector.
The package is waterproof, adjustable to almost any angle, and features gaskets on the battery compartment and lens over the LEDs. All the screws are driven into brass machine screw inserts for long life. If you want to reconfigure the clip, it can be unscrewed and moved to the opposite side of the case. There is also a lanyard hole, however a lanyard is not included to tie the lamp to your jacket and prevent loss.
I think you will appreciate the quality built into this LED lamp - current draw is from 80 mA on the red LED to 250 mA on the white LED at max brightness. Depending on color you should see 12-36 hours of runtime. If using the flash, double that because the light is only on 50% of the time, so it will run 24-72 hours flashing.
See the detailed photos for more details on how it is constructed. Everything about the light says durable - if that is what you want in an LED light, you'll find it here.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Streamlight Sidewinder LED light, April 2, 2008
Excellent and bad. The overall quality is excellent, and it's bright as well. The adjustable brightness levels are great for saving the batteries during an emergency. It uses two alkaline AA batteries so it is inexpensive to use. To change the colors you have to pull out the switch and turn it in quarter turn intervals. Now the bad...this switch knob is held in by a spring from hell. I could not pull it with gloves on, and had to take my gloves off. My wife could not pull it at all. I took a Dremel tool and ground off most of the detent tabs, now it turns easy like it should (in my opinion). Overall a good product. With a brick of 40 COSTCO AA batteries you can shine your way through a major extended power outage or emergency. Now if I cold just get it away from my children. They like the different colors. At least they won't be able to break it. It's tough!
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Versatile, but not too bright., January 2, 2009
This light is being given to soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is a nice tool, very versatile, but it does lack brightness. Out of the 4 lights it has, the brightest is the white LED, rated at .5 watts. For a military light, you would expect it to be a brighter tactical level light.
Pros:
*VERY versatile. Has white, red, blue, and green (on civilian model) or IR (on military model) LEDs. Each LED has low, medium, and high mode, as well as "strobe" mode (more like "FLASHING" mode, because it flashes too slow.
*Runs on AA batteries, inexpensive, easy to find.
*This is a LED than can actually run on AA LITHIUM batteries without damaging the LED circuits. Lithium batteries are more powerful and last longer, but are also more expensive.
*White LED offers decent light in dark conditions.
*Red LED good for reading maps or documents in the dark without disturbing night vision.
*Blue LED is bright, and does not harm night vision too much.
*IR light cannot be seen by the enemy unless they have night vision equipment.
*Green LED is very bright, can be disorienting at night, but is perfect for hunters because deer cannot see green light, so they will not be spooked.
*Feels like it is made of plastic, but it is very tough, and impact resistant.
*Runs for 7 hours on white LED high mode, or over 100 hours on the other colors on low mode.
*The head rotates 185 degrees.
*Has pocket clip, allowing light to be used like angle head flashlight clipped to a molle vest, or can clip to your hat turning it to a headlamp. Soldiers can also buy an attachment module to place it on their helmet.
*It IS a Streamlight, so you will get a nice warranty package.
Cons:
*Not really a tactical level light, especially when used by soldiers. It is more like a personal light for up-close activity and for reading maps.
*The colored LEDs project uneven light, leaving "dark spots" like those seen on a maglite.
*The clip should be a little tighter, because the flashlight tends to fall off sometimes.
*Only available in OD green and Coyote Tan. Black would be nice too.
Overall the pro's outweigh the cons, but like I said, this is more like a personal light, or a secondary/backup light. If you are planning on taking this to Iraq, you're going to need a more powerful light.
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