Sunday 1 April 2012

Unboxing Torch Review: NiteCore D10SP

There are lots of really cool torches available, and most of them run on CR-123A wonder batteries. Making them very bright but less than ideal for Bug-Out or just travel.

They're called 'wonder batteries' because while in the back of beyond you'll be wondering how long it'll take to have some shipped to you in a one horse town where no one sells wonder batteries before you can use your 'super torch' to see in the dark. An activity I'd class as mission critical. Reliability and Availability the watchwords of outdoor equipment. Whatever it is, it must work when you need it to, and the stuff it eats must be available everywhere.

The  NiteCore D10SP runs on 'AA' which while not having the output of wonder batteries win out by being the most commonly available battery on earth, and a lot cheaper too.

Let the Unboxing commence:
One of the clever things in the design is the contact-less switching (Smart PD System) where instead of the contact switches found in most electronic products Nitecore are using magnets to make the connection; meaning there can never be a spark between the switches parts (reassuring while looking for gas leaks) and with no moving part to fail reliability should be excellent.

Once the light is switched on, pressing and holding the tail button cycles through three brightness settings: 130 lumens [1 hour], 35 lumens [6 hours] and 2 lumens [100 hours]. If you double click the tail cap it also has a very neat strobe function which would be very clearly visible, and run for a very long time in a survival situation.

Features:
Takes One AA battery - yep the ones you can buy everywhere that power the rest of your kit!
Military grade aluminium with a Mil-Spec Type III Hard Anodized finish
Resistance to impact by dropping according to US MIL-STD-810F
Waterproof to IPX-8 standard
Broad-voltage fully-regulated circuit - Li-ion compatible
Textured orange peel reflector [smoothes out the beam]
Impact-resistant optical lens with a dual-coating
Length = 89mm
Diameter = 19mm
Weight = 40 grams
As you might hope it comes with a lanyard

I got the black one but it's available in camo if you're the kind of person who likes to lose things.

More soon
SBW