I am looking to buy a high-performance flashlight. I was thinking of getting one of those C. Crane lights, particularly the Trek, from TAD. Does anyone have any experience with these lights? How do they compare to other high performance lights, like SureFire and Pelican?
How are the C. Crane flashlights?
- Thread starter komondor
- Start date
I take it you are talking about the LED lights. They are MUCH dimmer then Surefire lights and the quality is close. They are good flashlights, and pretty bright for LED lights. The problem I have with them is the twist on head. Every time you turn the light on and off it scores a little bit on the PCD board on the flashlights head. Over time it eats it's way though the board and doesn't make good contact. You can fix it by adding a bit of solider back on.
Bronco
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I'm on my second Trek 7, and while I generally agree that they are well made flashlights, I do share some of Brock's long term usability concerns.
I've found that it's fairly easy to screw the head down too tightly when turning on the flashlight (especially if you lend the flashlight to someone who's not quite as gadget oriented as we are). This can, at a minimum, result in the bottom of the lowest C-cell battery becoming dented by the electrical contact. I shudder to think what damage to the circuit board might result over time.
I've also had major problems with the flashlight intermittently coming on even when the head is well backed off of the normal "on" position. This is now occurring even in my second Trek 7 which has only ever been used by me and has never had the head screwed down too tightly (my first suspicion as to the cause). It's really quite annoying as any movement of the flashlight with the head pointing upward results in constant on and off flashing of the light. Brock, have you experienced this problem and/or heard of any potential fixes?
All-in-all though, the flashlight puts out a good deal of light for an extreme amount of time, and does so in a relatively compact package.
I've found that it's fairly easy to screw the head down too tightly when turning on the flashlight (especially if you lend the flashlight to someone who's not quite as gadget oriented as we are). This can, at a minimum, result in the bottom of the lowest C-cell battery becoming dented by the electrical contact. I shudder to think what damage to the circuit board might result over time.
I've also had major problems with the flashlight intermittently coming on even when the head is well backed off of the normal "on" position. This is now occurring even in my second Trek 7 which has only ever been used by me and has never had the head screwed down too tightly (my first suspicion as to the cause). It's really quite annoying as any movement of the flashlight with the head pointing upward results in constant on and off flashing of the light. Brock, have you experienced this problem and/or heard of any potential fixes?
All-in-all though, the flashlight puts out a good deal of light for an extreme amount of time, and does so in a relatively compact package.
Bronco, you know now that you mention it, the light does flicker when the light is facing up. I bet this is due to the circuit board moving down and making contact with the batteries. I should say it is a nice light overall. I am just pointing out the problems with it. At the same time I would probably suggest the Ledda for the 3 AA sized light though.