Layman’s Flashlight Reviews

NeoFab Legion II

The Legion II by semi-custom manufacturer Neofab, has truly stepped up the output race to the next level. No longer can incandescent lamps claim absolute superiority. If this monster doesn’t best them, it does at least give them a run for their money.

Neofab Legion II

Meat and Potatoes

Neofab has taken the extensive R&D that went into producing the Spartanian II and used it to very great effect in it’s big brother the Legion II. There is no doubt you can see the family resemblance, however when it comes to specifics, nearly every aspect of the Spartanian II has been improved upon dramatically. Where the S2 rattled and shook, now the L2 feels solid and smooth. I thought the S2 was quite a decent light for what it is, however I feel the Legion II to be in another category all together.

Where output is concerned, I do not believe I have met this lights equal. The Legion II is capable of putting so incredibly much light down range that everything else I have reviewed pales in comparison. While the fact that it is utilizing a 4-die Cree MC-E LED proves that this is not magic, it still is none the less impressive. Best of all, this torch is equipped with extremely adequate heat sinking to better accommodate even extended runtimes at such a high level. Neofab has also included amazing regulation to the point where you are guaranteed that every time you fire up the L2, you will be receiving exactly the same brightness. No matter the battery state, full or nearly empty, regulation is perfectly ruler flat, with no discernible decrease in light from beginning to end.

The Legion II has been equipped with 5 levels of brightness to better suit your output needs. There are times that you actually can quite safely scale back from the searing 700+ lumen level and still provide ample illumination for the tasks at hand. Boasting well over 90% electrical efficiency in the exquisitely crafted driver circuitry, even moderate reductions in brightness will net excellent gains in runtime. While this light does not have a genuine “Low” mode capable of preserving night-adapted vision, I do not see that as a weakness in the current form factor. The approximately 100 lumen lowest setting still increases runtime to over 20 hours, barely sipping energy from the three Lithium-ion cells.

Outstanding output aside, the control ring switch carried over from the Spartanian II is still the crowning achievement of the Legion II. Gone are the rattles and shakes, and especially the propensity for gritty buildup that the S2 had. Instead of bronze bearings, the L2 has been improved to utilize advanced Teflon bearings riding on brass runners to maintain proper tolerances after anodizing. The finished product is extremely smooth and feels very durable.

Constructive Criticism

Mass quantity of output is not lacking in any stretch of the imagination with this light, however one area that I still see room for improvement is beam quality. Originally I started testing this light with the smooth reflector installed and it was starkly apparent then that the reflector shape gives a very pronounced dark spot in the center of the beam. This is due to the use of a multi-die emitter and the inherent difficulties they entail. Once I replaced it with the textured reflector I found myself far more pleased with the beam pattern, however a dark shadow did remain in the center of the beam at any distance at all. This is one of my personal biggest pet peeves. I am willing to sacrifice quite a few things in favor of a flawless beam of light. After all, that’s what a flashlight is all about, right? The light is useful the way it is, but I feel the Legion II might have been better off with a mass market optic or possibly just pursuing an open flood beam instead to better balance the beam pattern across the board.

During my time with the L2, I took the opportunity to swap the reflectors back and forth a few times to better get a feel for both types of beams. In so doing I was able to notice a possible shortcoming in this lights design. While the ability to remove the bezel is far easier than it was on the S2, and the shock absorption o-rings that surround the heavy duty UCL lens are very adequately thick, I did notice that they had a tendency to displace when I was tightening down the bezel. I am not sure how they could have been better retained, but as they are some careful consideration was required when swapping out parts. In the grand scheme of things, this is not a major issue, since most users will decide early on which reflector they will choose and not switch again. I feel it is worth mentioning though.

Although the action and feel of the proprietary ring switch has drastically improved over the previous versions, the overall User Interface has remained unchanged. This UI has many good points, such as direct access to two user defined levels and the ability to rapidly change level up or down when constantly on. Also, the fewer number of levels in the L2 is definitely a benefit, allowing traversing the entire range to occur much more rapidly. There are, however, some slight drawbacks to this current setup. Whenever you want to switch the light to constant on, it requires holding the switch for 1.5-6 seconds before the light will “lock” on. At the same time this limits the usable momentary on function to a maximum 6 seconds before requiring you to hold the switch to turn it off. I do know however that slight adjustments to the UI are being considered by the manufacturer and these specific issues may well be addressed and corrected shortly.

Neofab Legion II

Conclusions

If you are looking for an every day carry light, capable of the full range of illumination, I suggest you look elsewhere. However, if you are interested in a specialized monster torch of exceeding caliber, and are willing to reach for a larger light to achieve it, the Legion II may just fill the ticket for you. Neofab has definitely upped the ante here with this amazingly high output light.

Spartanian II

When I first heard of the Spartanian II (S2) project, I was immediately intrigued.  It is not often that I see such a radical departure from the status quo into untested territory.  I was interested to see if such a change could produce any results that were as useful as what the market has already accepted as norm.

Neofab Spartanian II

Meat and Potatoes

To initial appearances, the S2 shows only minor design differences to many other single cell lights available currently.  There are no overwhelming features to this light that dramatically set it apart from anything else at first glance.  It’s interesting narrow waist shape does evict some attention, but nothing earth shattering.  It is merely a well executed body with good machining and excellent knurling.

Body Design

Where the revolution does occur however is in the Spartanian II’s unique “jog-dial” type switching mechanism.  This new technology allows the user to access all of the light’s many functions with a single hand (sometimes a single finger) without ever changing grip on the light.

What I have noticed, is that the ring switch for the S2 seems to be best suited for an underhanded, “Below the waist” type hold.  This, by a strange twist of coincidence, happens to be the same position that the hand naturally falls to when standing or walking.  Most side switched lights fall into this category as well, but where a side switch falls short is when you find yourself having to rotate the light in your hand searching for the switch that seems to have wandered away while you were not paying attention.  The S2 does not succumb to this due to the fact that the switch encompasses the entire circumference of the light.

In practical use, the S2 ring switch does take a little getting used to before true comfort can be had with it due to it’s dissimilarity to anything you have used previously.  Once the initial learning phase has been passed however, it becomes quite a joy to carry on a regular basis.

The S2 seems to condone a very relaxed usage, conjuring images of ambling walks through the woods at night.  Nevertheless, this light is a powerful tool rather than just a plaything.  At full power of 700mA the S2 puts out a considerable amount of light.  This definitely compares to other Cree Q5 lights I have used.  At the same time however, the PWM based .4mA low mode is so minute that to night adapted vision, it even makes the low modes of the Nitecore EX10 and especially the Fenix P2D appear almost painfully bright to by comparison.  Even though the S2 uses a still noticeable pwm frequency, I find that it does not affect actual use at all.

Constructive Criticism

During the course of this lights development, the designers have run into several roadblocks to the finish of the light.  They have been very forthcoming with their shortfalls and have made outstanding offers to correct the issues in a satisfactory manner for their customers.  The light I am reviewing is one of the first run lights as well and as such I am not counting terribly important the inconsistencies that appear as chips in the anodizing and the rattle of the ring.  I suspect that these are the very problems that are already under consideration for correction in the subsequent releases of this light.

Initial finish flaws

The S2 has another interesting feature that right from the start it was offered with your choice of two different reflectors.  One for a flood light and one for a long throw spot light.  The truly interesting fact is that the second reflector of your choice was even included in the original purchase price allowing everyone the opportunity to experiment with both beam patterns to find the one that best suits them.

The word I find best describes both these reflectors, however, is “almost”.  Both of these options, though exceedingly adept at their purpose, show some pretty heavy duty beam artifacts.  I somewhat expected a few rings from the throw optimized reflector since it is a smooth polish, and it did not disappoint.  It has incredibly tight focus allowing for excellent long distance spotting, but up close, the rings can be somewhat distracting.  The unique two-stage flood based reflector however does have a light texturing to the surface so I suppose I expected more of it.  This reflector does a fantastic job adding an enormous corona to the center spot of the beam illuminating a very wide area at once and making the lower modes of the S2 extremely useful.  The problem is that at distances around 3′ or greater it develops a huge dark ring between the spot and corona giving the beam a distinct “Eye of Sauron” appearance.  I would personally like to see these reflector designs polished just a little more to obtain fewer artifacts in the beams.  The flood beam especially could be one of the most useful beams I have ever seen if only that ring could be removed.

Another feature that I would like to see would be easier removal of the window retaining ring allowing tool-less reflector exchanging.  This could most easily be accomplished by careful design of the stainless steel bezel that has been proposed as a possible future option for this light.  This bezel could be manufacturered to facilitate much simpler swapping of reflectors quite easily, and I hope that will be the case.

Conclusions

This light does require 3.6V Li-ion rechargeable batteries so it may possibly turn away some potential newer users who haven’t yet delved into that somewhat specialized environment.  Also, the initial learning curve for the completely unique user interface is slightly intimidating to novice users, though I do believe that is short lived.  In spite of these slight hiccups, I do believe this light is a fantastic powerful tool that proves itself very useful in a variety of situations.

The Spartanian II is proof that extremely unique conceptual design can actually come to fruition in a truly useful product.  By innovating on such a profound level, the S2 has raised the bar for other manufacturers as well.  The result may not be a be all, end all, but it does represent a very positive movement in inventive thinking.

Neofab Spartanian II