TG - did you acquire this light recently from the website? I like this light, but I'm trying to find some info on the actual purchasing process from the site.
You will love this NASA penlight
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xevious
Flashlight Enthusiast
Barbolight Apollo -- product details page -- click on "ADD TO CART."
Price is 105 EUR, which translates to roughly $119 in USD (Feb 2019). Shipping is extra... so, probably close to $130 USD.
I'm really curious to know if any astronauts (retired or current) have bought this light. And... did Javier send one to actor Tom Hanks?
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thermal guy
Flashaholic
For the light you get IMO that's a steal. I'm going to order another one and keep that somewhere nice and safe. Think I'll have HOGO make me a nice sheath with a spot to carry a couple of extra cells and start carrying this thing.I know I sound like a broken record but I am totally thrilled at the usefulness of this light.cant seem to put it down.
Thanks for the info guys!
LightObsession
Flashlight Enthusiast
- Joined
- Nov 12, 2004
- Messages
- 1,385
Thanks for the review Thermal Guy.
I do like the beam tint and shape in your pictures.
I do like the beam tint and shape in your pictures.
Dave D
Flashlight Enthusiast
It's a 2XAA but it's not huge. Slightly longer then a G2 but so skinny it's not bad in the pocket.its like 5 1/2 inches long
Heh, I also put a G2 in my comparison photo, actually a G2x but I don't think it matters much. Oh well, its a good comparison. I also included a Convoy S2+, kind of a popular 18650 tube light, and the classic 2AA Maglite. As you can see the Apollo light manages to be quite a bit shorter than the 2AA Maglite, which is expected since there's no springs or focusing mechanism. If you can carry a Maglite you can definitely carry the Apollo.
I concur with Thermal Guy's thoughts about the usefulness of this light. It really does strike a nice balance between up-close and area lighting. I wouldn't say I love it for tight quarters, its a lot of light, but its not useless by any stretch. I do, however, still really miss a true low mode on it. It is completely useless when trying to poke around the bedroom at night without waking my sleeping wife. Way too much light for that. So like I said, it could never be my one-n-only light, but it does find some uses around the house and I enjoy it every time I take it out. I have zero regrets about buying it.
Thank you both for going to the trouble, the size looks more like I was expecting, in the thermal guy's original photo the perspective was making it look 9P sized. :twothumbs
xevious
Flashlight Enthusiast
I wonder... would QTC work in this light?
emarkd
Flashlight Enthusiast
Thought of that already, it doesn't. The light has a driver in it, even though it's single mode. Putting a square of qtc material over the positive pad makes it unhappy. It starts flickering and carrying on like crazy until you tighten it down enough to overcome the qtc and fully power the driver, which by that point it's at full normal output. Some of those flickers are quite a bit dimmer as you'd expect, but unless you're trying to accomplish moonlight strobe it's quite useless. Unfortunately.
Now with some work I'm sure the driver could be bypassed or removed so it becomes a true qtc light but I've never felt inclined to try that.
thermal guy
Flashaholic
Wonder if you could run it off a a single AA and a dummy cell? But I like the output how it is actually.
emarkd
Flashlight Enthusiast
Haven't tried that one, but my guess is that the driver struggles with the low voltage, just like it does with the qtc in place. I could be wrong though..
xevious
Flashlight Enthusiast
Thanks for that. I was thinking maybe the driver might have some resilience in that regard, but it sounds like it's rather basic. Yeah, I wouldn't modify anything at all. That would ruin the value considerably!
thermal guy
Flashaholic
Looking at The exploded diagram it looks like it must be a very basic driver built for very reliable service. If I'm looking at it right it's very small.
tab665
Flashlight Enthusiast
I think a custom maker could take this design to the next level... I got mine from kickstarter... I appreciate that it's a replica but if it was simply "inspired" by the original it would be a much better light. first, it's too bright. second, it's not the flood optic as the first proto. third, make the head one piece and make the batteries tail loadable and make it a clickie and include a p pocket clip. fourth, beef up the walls. the battery tube is rather thin in my opinion. and lastly, make it a AA light instead of 2xAA. all that said, I love the basic and retro look. I love the warm tint, and I love the run time.
thermal guy
Flashaholic
Boy idk. To me the length is perfect for holding on to. A single AA Would be WAY head heavy. Kinda like that now. It is bright but I find the beam so floody that it works. And a clicky would just be one more thing that can go wrong.your ideas arnt bad and they make sense. Just not on a light like this. It's a one mode work horse. Imo
thermal guy
Flashaholic
So I did an informal runtime test with this light just to see what it would do. Please keep in mind that I have no light meter and am going off what I'm seeing
With 2 eneloop AA. 1900 mah I got full output for 2 1/2 hours then another 2 1/2 hours at reduced output all the way down to 1-2 lumens. Ended the test with led still glowing.
2XAA DURACELL RUNTEST
With alkaline batteries this thing rocks! I got 2 1/2 hours full output then it dropped to 50 percent and stayed there for 2 hours before it started its long taper down. At 10 hours it was still putting out 1-2 lumens but with the wide beam on it it was still very useful. At that point I passed out and it was stone dead when I woke.cool thing about alkaline batteries is that when I turned it off and back on they had "recharged" enough to give me another 15 minutes or so of light 5 lumens or so.
It definitely is a battery vampire. Draining the batteries to .500 ..800.
I also did a test with energizer lithium 91's they were much brighter and looked very good at 4 1/2 hours but I fell asleep and light was completely dead when I woke up at 10 hour mark 😡 so no real data there. my bad
With 2 eneloop AA. 1900 mah I got full output for 2 1/2 hours then another 2 1/2 hours at reduced output all the way down to 1-2 lumens. Ended the test with led still glowing.
2XAA DURACELL RUNTEST
With alkaline batteries this thing rocks! I got 2 1/2 hours full output then it dropped to 50 percent and stayed there for 2 hours before it started its long taper down. At 10 hours it was still putting out 1-2 lumens but with the wide beam on it it was still very useful. At that point I passed out and it was stone dead when I woke.cool thing about alkaline batteries is that when I turned it off and back on they had "recharged" enough to give me another 15 minutes or so of light 5 lumens or so.
It definitely is a battery vampire. Draining the batteries to .500 ..800.
I also did a test with energizer lithium 91's they were much brighter and looked very good at 4 1/2 hours but I fell asleep and light was completely dead when I woke up at 10 hour mark 😡 so no real data there. my bad
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thermal guy
Flashaholic
I tried some Duracell 2500 precharged that I had and they
Ran 3 hours kicked down to About 80percent.then stayed on that level till 5 hour mark.at that point it took a nose dive down to about 20 lumens. It made it to 6 hours with 1-2 lumens before I ended test.
I'm definitely going to be running eneloop pro in this when they come in.
You don't get that long taper like you do with Alkalines but you get almost full output for 5 hours
Ran 3 hours kicked down to About 80percent.then stayed on that level till 5 hour mark.at that point it took a nose dive down to about 20 lumens. It made it to 6 hours with 1-2 lumens before I ended test.
I'm definitely going to be running eneloop pro in this when they come in.
You don't get that long taper like you do with Alkalines but you get almost full output for 5 hours
Dave D
Flashlight Enthusiast
105 Euros.
thermal guy
Flashaholic
I'm not a collector but thought this looked cool figured I'd just put it on the shelf and not touch it but when I started using it I couldn't stop. It is so handy and the beam! It really is like a work of art. Beautiful tint and so floody it's just the perfect light to work with. I love it.
