EMPOWERTORCH
04-22-2003, 01:31 PM
As advertised in the Torchaholic get-togethers I trundled off on the Super Dream to Wales, equipped with several torches and my humble Bivvy tent!No other CPF members were spotted, which was a shame!By the time I fought my way thru un-filterable gridlock in the Midlands I arrived at the site in absolute darkness! There was light from a few bulbs festooning a nearby building, but nothing to light my pitching space. Elektrolumens modded mag to the rescue!!!I hung the EL 5 watt cyan torch by its grip'n'clip (a useful torch accessory by Nite Ise), from a nearby tree and pitched the Bivvy in the intense pool of light, and soon had it up as it would have gone up in daylight. A second torch was pressed into action to illuminate the interior of the tent, one of my modded 2 cell Benrosses. This enabled me to set up the interior items.The EL torch was even more impressive in Wales than in Derbyshire, and allowed me to observe a nocturnal landscape with ease! It is great to carry something in your hand which really floodlights the environment. Nant Gwynnant is located in a valley surrounded by mountains and therefore there is little sky light reaching much of the area, really showing the effectiveness of the Elektrolumens to the full!The torch really made a mockery of fellow campers' un-modded maglights, sorry to say for Mr Maglica the weedy filament beams were not in the same league! What I like most about the Luxeon bam is not only its long throw but the smoothness and useable width of the beam, which made this torch the most pleasant to use, not only out of the torches I took, but in all the torches I've ever owned!The Welsh Mountain Rescue teams ought to be issued with some of these torches, that bright wide beam could save lives!In addition to the EL modded mag, I had a number of other torches:A BT2 in Cyan, which gave acceptable performance despite having old batteries.A BT2 in Orange (longbeam 8 deg LEDs)Oranges & Lemons (equipped with a headband)Rubberlux Mk IIThe BT2 orange was the torch of choice to do the john trips (the john is about 1/2 mile away from my pitch!). The narrowness of its beam is like that of a filamemnt bulbed torch, and distant objects coulld be picked out.The Rubberlux was one of my earlier mods using Toshiba green LED's, but was surprisingly effective as a low level night vision torch.O&L was generally used for close-up tasks such as reading, cooking, doing the dishes, etc.*******But, the ELEKTROLIUMENS was the star of the show. If there are any readers yet to be convinced by this amazing leap forward in torch technology check out ELEKTROLUMENS web site! Its a must have if you're a serious torchaholic anbd a seriously useful tool even if you're not a torchaholic!Matt.