Re: Beta QR Pass-Around
Review Time!
I do apologize to Got Lumens and The0 (next on the list), it feels like forever since I received these lights to test. I took the nickel torch with me on a 100+ mile bike camping journey in Colorado a couple weeks ago, from Glenwood Springs to Steamboat Springs. Unfortunately, UPS has delayed my shipping both getting there (yay, same shirt/ pants for 5 days), and coming back. In my hurry to get the bicycle packed back up and on its way home, I left the Prometheus Beta QR in the backpack that is in the box. Was supposed to arrive two days ago, hopefully it will be here today.
First, I am a happy owner of a Beta QR, had it for a little over a year, so I was looking forward to seeing what/ if there are any differences.
Well, physically, nothing to speak of. If I put my calipers on them, I might find a couple thousandths difference, but they pretty much look identical. That certainly speaks to the manufacturing tolerances. The threading is quite nice, feels just fine to me. I did try one of the other reviewers' suggestions, and turned the head down to where I could apply a bit of pressure to activate the light. Cool, but in a pocket/ keyring, I doubt it would stay at that setting.
"old" and new. The new design has a touch of green glowy stuff around the emitter, for a locator. I wish mine had that, it's a nice feature. Notice the slight difference in the reflectors, the newer one has a finer texture detail.
On the machining, I feel the QR is a bit too tight. This is probably a personal thing, but you can certainly say that this torch will never accidentally fall off of your keyring.
The single AAA battery lasted well more than what I asked for it in over a week of use. Yes, it takes a long time for the charger to fill them up, but it is much easier on the cells that way, and they will last longer than fast charging.
Modes, I used the nickel one the most, because I had it with me almost constantly for two weeks. It has the two modes, and was very useful. A reminder here for those who may not think about "useful lumens". Most of the time, we play (er, quantitatively study) with our torches in daylight/ artificial light. With our eyes adjusted to daytime, it's sometimes difficult to appreciate just how little lumens we actually need in the dark, with dark adjusted lights. I attended a pistol training class, and brought my boss v5 head fed by two 18350's, which was way beyond overkill (but stupidly fun). There was a dude there with a 15 lumen Innova, which some of us initially smirked at. Later on in the class, we were all standing around in complete darkness, and instructor had him shine his torch on the targets, out at about 30 feed. It was plenty of light to our dark-adjusted lights. An interesting experiment, certainly.
So these Beta torches (nickel is two mode: 15/60 and brass three mode: 1/15/80 lumens), are very useful.
Here we are assembling our bikes. My friend has a take-down frame, makes it easy to transport.
Out in the field, this was a great camping torch. Plus, I really enjoyed the warmish tint. For everyday usage, I prefer the tint to be around 4,000 kelvin.
A side note, I purchased this tent second hand, it's a Big Agnes Fish Hook 1-person. under 3.5 pounds, which is important when bicycling, and really a wonderful tent. Incidentally, they are made in Steamboat Springs, so I got to chat with the manufacturer. Cool stuff!
So there you have it. A finely machined American torch. Can't really ask any more for those looking at a small form factor torch. Small enough to be your secondary in an everyday carry (two is one), but extremely well made. Big torches, small torches, I heart them all!
