Niteye TF-25

     I just received my first light from Niteye.  This is an OEM manufacturer for other well established flashlight companies, such as Jetbeam.  Now they have come out with their own line of flashlights.  This particular model uses 1x18650 rechargeable lithium battery or 2xCR123 lithium batteries.  This light provides about 1 hour at the highest setting of 500 lumens and 50 hours at the lowest setting which is approximately 1 lumen.  It has a large head which accommodates a wide a deep smooth reflector which provides it with good flood and quite decent throw.  The light uses the latest XM-L U2 led which is from Cree and is capable of producing a ton of light from a small package.

     I received the light in a nice box which held the light in a foam packing.  The light comes with a nice open style holster where only the head is covered allowing access to the switch.  It also comes with a lanyard ring, nice quality lanyard, rubber grip ring, spare o-rings and a spare rubber tailcap.  Quality of this light in terms of machining, fit of parts and anodising is excellent to outstanding.  I own many other lights from other manufacturers such as Fenix, Nitecore, Sunwayman and I have to say that this is the nicest I've seen to date.  I paid around $80CAD from eBay and the light is on par or better than a Surefire for half the price of their higher end lights.

     The reason I purchased this light apart from trying a new light from a new brand, was the manner in which it is controlled.  Like lights from Sunwayman and other manufacturers this light uses a magnetic rotary ring to switch between the levels.  If you turn it clockwise or to the right the light will ramp up.  For every little increment there is a ball detent that you can feel, so you have more precise control over the levels, as well as keeping the ring from moving inadvertently.  If you turn it counter clockwise, or to the left past the lowest level it will switch off, and if you turn it one more notch to the left it will go into strobe.  It is quite easy to engage the ring with one hand and each position is easily detected.  The tailcap also will turn the light on/off and will allow momentary activation with a light press.

     All in all this is a high quality tool that I will take pleasure in using and I intend to collect more of these fine lights in the future.  I have enroute Niteye's EYE30 which uses 3xXM-L's and the EYE40 which uses, you guessed it, 4xXM-L's.  I will update this blog with a full review of my impressions of these lights.