I have two of the CREE MC-E lights (yes, cheap Chinese stuff but they've been pretty good for us so far, knock-on-wood...). These are used as our primary lights for occasional night dives in clear, tropical waters.
I was looking for a couple of small but bright lights to serve as backups for these, and for occasional daytime use tucked into a BCD pocket.
Even though I'm a little wary of all the Chinese lights, they are so bright compared to "legacy" lights it's hard to resist. I ordered two of the TR-J1 lights a few days ago from "Tmart" (a place I had ever heard of but came up when Googling the lights). I picked them because we're leaving for Hawaii in just over a week, and I didn't want to wait for either the Chinese postal system or futz around with ebay sales. Although "Tmart" had some negative reviews (who doesn't?) they claimed to have the lights in stock in the US and would ship them from there, so I went for it. At 45 bucks a piece, ordered with am American Express card (and since they're intended as back-up lights), I figured it was fairly low risk - if they didn't arrive in time, or if they just failed immediately, I'd let Amex deal with them. My expectations were fairly low.
I ordered online just before midnight on 8/27, they shipped from New Jersey the next day (I paid for USPS Priority Mail, a few bucks extra over the basic shipping). The lights arrived in the USPS mail today (Seattle), on 8/31 - quite good, considering coast-to-coast and all.
My expectations have been exceeded - that's an understatement. First impression is these look great.
Packaging is no big deal, well-padded foam in a heavy cardboard box. Minimal printed documentation (color), plus warrantee card, in English and Chinese.
The lights look good overall. They're compact, and should fit nicely in a BCD pocket - although I'm really going to want to remove the stupid "assault crown" (more on that below). The fit & finish are fine, looks and feels quite solid, not cheap. There's a lanyard through a hole in the base of the handle; I'll probably put a split stainless ring on that.
A single o-ring on the twist-off end where you insert the (single) 18650 battery.
The switch isn't exactly perfect - just like the switch on my CREE MC-E light, it's a ring that rotates, I assume with a magnetic internal switch. While the switch rings on my CREE lights rotate very smoothly and very easily (probably a little too easily), the switch is a little stiff on these. It's not difficult to turn, but it does take a little more effort than I would like/expect. Not a big deal, it works. There's no tactile feedback on the switch settings, you rotate it and watch to see what the light does, and the position where the change takes place may not exactly correspond to the switch setting as labeled (same as with my CREE lights - I assume this is just how the rotary magnetic switches work).
The settings are labeled as "Off", (lightning-bolt symbol, for strobe) - "Low" - "Mid" - "Hig" (yes, "Hig", not "High" - I guess they were saving money on the ink by eliminating that trailing "h" character).
The lights are very bright - surprisingly so. It's still daylight here and the only dark room I have available to try them in is small, but...wow, these are nearly as bright as my CREE MCE lights (the only thing I have available to compare them to). The CREE MCE is alleged to be about 1000 lumens. Yes, I know that lumen claims are often (usually) wildly exaggerated (especially in ebay listings for Chinese lights). But whatever the numbers really are, these lights are undeniably very bright. I'm pleasantly impressed.
The beam has a fairly well defined spot and some wider spill. I can only test in a small room so it's hard to tell what the beam will look like at a distance (or underwater) but I think it'll be a nice compromise. The wide beam is an odd, truncated squarish shape, due to the funky tines on the "assault crown" which throw an obvious shadow. Light will certainly throw a wider beam once I get that silly thing off it.
Bottom line: I haven't had it in the water yet, so we'll see if it immediately floods or otherwise fails, but it looks great initially to me, and it's a lot brighter than I had expected. I probably wouldn't trust my life to it as my only light in a cave or other critical environment, but as a backup or even a primary light for the usually clear tropical waters I dive recreationally, it looks like one heckuva nice little light, and if it holds up to some use, an incredible deal. I'm very glad I ordered 2 of them for me and the Mrs. I'll report back on how it has held up after diving with it for a week in Kauai.
Now, can I safely remove that dumb "assault crown" without breaking anything? If you know, I'd love to hear.
---------- Post Merged at 04:31 PM ---------- Previous Post was at 04:09 PM ----------
OK, so the "assault crown" simply unscrews and is easily removed. Duh. It definitely does throw a wider beam with that off. In fact, I think the light is brighter overall without that. Looks better, feels better, fits better without it. Cool.
I assume that the crown serves no structural purpose - that is, it doesn't have any affect on holding in the front lens, sealing it against water pressure, etc. - right? Its only functions that I can tell would be 1) to make it look silly; 2) make it harder to stow (longer and with sharp edges perfect for tearing your BCD); and 3) useful for stabbing yourself or other divers.
Did I miss any good reason to keep that stupid crown on the light?
