Some of you may recall I whined (bitched
) a bit a while back upon receiving the Nitecore SRT7. I stand by those criticisms.
That said, today I received the SRT3 and SRT5. Order was placed late Friday with Illumination Supply, and it shipped monday. Not only was the order processed quickly, but both Craig and Calvin were online to chat. Friday evening. After 5pm.
Kind of wish other companies had half of the same quality of service. The phenomenal service is no surprise, and nothing new so I'll talk about the flashlights a bit.
Clearly Nitecore put more time and thought into these lights.
Here's a list of the improvements;
-Dead travel space, where you twist the magnetic ring but nothing happens, is nearly -gone, to the point of insignificance.
-Addition of SOS, which replaces the Green LED/option.
-Improvement of the strobe - on the original SRT7, the strobe is so fast that it's actually not that disorienting.
-Significantly lower low mode. Especially on the SRT3.
-Instead of having an "OFF" mode within the magnetic ring detents, you have a moonlight mode.
-The Red/Blue strobe is somewhat improved in speed to more closely resemble emergency lights.
In terms of overall quality, the lights are excellent. The one area where the SRT7 excels is inside the reflector. I do see some very minor imperfections on both, but more so on the SRT3.
Some improvements I would love to see;
-To have the output pushed to 900 lumens+ and drop down when heat or battery charge become a problem.
-A spacer for the SRT3 when the 14500/AA adapter is in place. (The walls of the spacer are more narrow so the AA doesn't rattle around, and is adequate, but why not include a $0.01 piece of plastic?)
-Reduction in size. The SRT3 especially, is a somewhat big light, with the AA/14500 extension.
-Even lower lows.
Overall though, I think if one or two years ago I got one of these flashlights, I might not have developed the flashaholic bug because they are that good. I'm now somewhat torn on which 18650 light will continued to be my EDC in the future. The SRT5 or the Zebralight SC600II.