Manufacturer:- http://www.night-ops.com/
Manufacturers Recommended Price :- $269.99 From USA Dealers / £200 (From UK dealers) http://www.xe.com/ucc/
Size:-160mm long(6.23"), 31.75mm(1.25") Diameter
Weight (With Batteries):- 188g (6.63oz)
Battery Type / Qty :- 2off CR123 Lithium Cells
Battery Life :- 90Minutes at full power 400+ hours at lowest power setting (WOW)
LED Type :- 1off Luxeon III LED bin unknown but very white and bright
Rated Output:- 90 Lumens at Full Power 0.8 Lumens at Minimum Setting
Estimated LED Lifespan:- Over 100000 Hours
Colour :- White
Working Temperature :- Not Known
Lens Material :- 3mm UCL Glass with Anti Reflective Coating
Optics :- 17mm Reflector
Electronics:- uController driven with various modes of operation clever switching, temperature protection and low battery warning.
Body Material :- Aluminium alloy
Finish :- Liquid Ceramic Coating in Black also available in OD Green, Coyote Tan, and Sniper Gray
Seal Type :- 1off O-Ring
Depth Rating :- Waterproof static tested to 50M depth
Storage Temperature (Without Batteries) :--20 Deg C to 45 Deg C
Operating Temperature :- -40 Deg C to 48 Deg C
Manufacturers Guarantee:- Limited Lifetime

First of all I must give a big thank you to www.night-ops.com in conjunction with www.edgar-brothers.co.uk for making this review possible by allowing the pass round on the www.britishblades.com forum. Also to the kind members of the forum to bumping me to the beginning of the pass round list. I hope this review will give you something to read while you are waiting for the light.

Please note that all my comments in the following review relate to the Prototype Gladius that was provided as part of the pass round. I will make additional comments when I get my production model that I have ordered in the near future. I think the only difference will be the finish which is black anodising on the prototype, but will be the new ceramic finish on all production models.

This is a pretty unique (at the moment) light from a new tactical torch manufacturer that is determined to mix it up with the big boys in the field. First impressions are that it not only matches up to the competition but may very well exceed it in many unique ways. But more on that later, for now lets have a look at what you get.

The light is the normal cylinder torch type shape with a larger diameter head. The tailcap mounted operation switch has a flanged shoulder to stop the light sliding through your hands when you press the button. The tail switch also has another trick up it sleeve in the form of a rotating collar around the button. This is used to select the various operating modes.

Operating modes? It a torch not a PDA or a phone! Yes, but these operating modes are very specific in their function and directed at the primary use for this device. That use is for professional people that demand the best possible device to make their lives safer and their jobs easier. We will get to the fun stuff in a minute but lets carry on with the torch design.

The light source is a Lumileds Luxeon III LED which puts out 90 Lumens at the full power setting. This is protected behind a 3mm thick UCL glass lens which has a special anti reflective coating giving it over 99% light transmission. Which according to the advertising blurb is the highest in the industry! Nice to know. The lens is shock mounted with an o-ring which will help protect it from impact damage. Glass lenses resist scratching more than the plastic equivalents but it may shatter if it gets a big impact. I tend to baby my lights (typical collector) so am not too worried about breaking it. The LED is mounted in a reflector which is designed to offer a pre focused beam with a good hotspot excellent throw and a decent side spill of light. It does this job very well and we will see in the beam shots below how it stacks up against some other popular lights.

The main body of the light is machined out of aluminium alloy typical for lights of this type. It is light and durable and should stand up to the rough use it will probably get.

Note the finish comments don't apply to the Prototype.
The finish warrants a special mention as it is not the normal Type III hard anodising but instead something new. It is a Liquid ceramic (glass) that gives a far better colour consistency and finish than the the typical several shades of green that HA Type III gives. How does it hold up and is it any better? I don't know this yet as this is the first torch I have ever seen with it on. But time will tell and if it offers a greater range of colours for the customer then I am all for it! Plus it means I can have something else in a shiny black finish!

The tailcap is made in aluminium the same as the body but the rotating collar is made from what looks to be a form of high impact plastic. The flange is squared off and act as an anti roll device when the light is placed on a smooth surface. One of the holes is drilled for a lanyard ring. A good idea if you do a lot of running with this light.

The tailcap is unscrewed to allow you to insert the two CR123 cells that you need to power it. They are installed Positive end towards the LED end. I don’t know if the light is protected from putting the cells in the wrong way round but I do not want to try it!

Now for the fun bit.

Once the cells are loaded and the tailcap back in place we are ready to use the light. The outer collar can be rotated to four positions so lets go through them all.

From counter clockwise to clockwise they are as follows:-

4.) Lock out

3.) Constant On

2.) Strobe

1.) Momentary On

Momentary On

This is exactly what you would expect for a tactical torch. Press the button light goes on. Let go and the light goes off. It does this at full power. So you always have blinding bright white light to see with.

Strobe

In this mode the light will flash rapidly on and off. Press the switch to activate and again release it to stop. Strobe operation is useful in situations where you want to disorientate a potential attacker. It is more useful for law enforcement and military applications than for civilian use. But I suppose it would also double as a good way of attracting someone’s attention at night!

Constant On

In this mode. Pressing the tailcap and letting go will leave the light on. Pressing and releasing again will switch the light off. The light will come on under full power in the default (Out of the box) operating mode. This can be changed though, see the user adjustable modes section a bit later in this review.

This mode also has another useful feature. Dimming. The user can hold down the button and the light will ramp down in brightness in about 1.5 seconds. You can ramp it back up by pressing and holding again. Very similar to a lot of house light dimmers and easy to use. If you switch the light off it will come back on at full brightness. Unless you go for one of the use definable Modes. See next section.

Lightmeter readings

I have taken some readings with my LM631 Lightmeter. This gives a non calibrated reading and helps me compare the output with other torches that I own. It is not intended as a de facto power output reference. I will leave this to the manufacturers. Before this test I measured each cell voltage at around 3.25V. This indicates brand new cells.

All readings are taken at 1m distance and are in Lux.

Full Power - 2420 Lux @ 1m
Low Power - 14.50 Lux @ 1m

User Modes

After the Night-Ops Gladius was announced, several threads were placed in various forums on the net. The Candle Power Forums, which probably has the largest group of flashlight minded individuals in the world, asked for a number of different features that would be cool to have on such a light. Night-Ops much to my surprise and their credit actually listened to their customers! Well done for that.

So what did they ask for? Well the main request was for the constant on mode to be adjustable so that it does not always come on at full power. Many users prefer their light to come on at low power first. So that it does not blind your dark-adapted vision with bright light. Good for things like map reading and finding you way around a dark room without waking the whole house.

In addition to the low level start they have also added a third mode where the light remembers the level that it was last switched off at. So we really can keep everybody happy now. Aren’t Micro Controllers wonderful things? :)

So to sum up the user modes are :-

• Constant on always starts at full power. (Factory Default)
• Constant on always starts at low power.
• Constant on starts at the last level used.

So how do we set the light into one of these user modes? Good question.

In the constant on position. Press and hold to switch the light on and keep the button held down for about 10 seconds until the light flashes twice. Then repeat the procedure. At this point it will have stepped on to the next user mode. To select the next mode repeat the sequence. Simple and easy!

What is this light like to use? Well it feels comfortable in the hand with a good solid grip. Even with out knurling the surface is not slippery. The reverse grip is good with the tailcap flange making for easy pushbutton operation.

I love the thought that has gone into the modes, operation and customisation of this torch. The manufacturer really has tried to produce a product that is well suited to the task at hand yet is flexible enough to be applied to many other tasks. From room clearing for law enforcement and military types. To looking for your cat or reading at night for the more average user among us. All the bases really are covered.

I think this is a good time to mention the tailcap switching. The Gladius uses a unique and patented system for turning the light on and off and for changing the operating modes. It claims to be contact less. This being the case I will presume that it uses a magnetic switching mechanism to trigger reed switch's or similar magnetic sensors located in the body of the light. I don't want to dismantle the light as that would void the warrantee, so a good guess is all I can make. The switch also seals against the body and is completely waterproof. This is through both an internal and external O-ring. The special design allow the switch to operate underwater up to 50m deep. Impressive. Also this will probably allow this light to be sold to scary people dressed in black. Be nice to think so anyway.

I believe that the light also consumes a tiny amount of power when switched off. This is because the Micro Controller electronics are always powered up ready to go. Just waiting for the signals from the mode and power switch contacts. This will still allow the torch to function normally if not used for a long time (Probably about 3 years) but would not give the 10 year shelf life of other lithium powered lights. Not that people would buy a Gladius as a backup to leave in the car for 5 years! There are far cheaper devices to do that with.

Not to worry about the batteries as the Gladius has another excellent feature built in. A low battery warning. This will flash the light when the batteries get to a low level allowing you to reduce the power level or change the cells.

I look forward to future developments with interest and am sure they will succeed with their endeavours to become one of the worlds best flashlight manufacturers.

Update 16-April-2005

Thanks to a kind www.britishblades.com forum Member CM Burns. The Gladius is now being tested with rechargeable PILA cells.

Also as a very very lucky individual I was fortunate enough to receive my production Gladius that I had purchased. This is one of only 8 torches currently in the U. K. so I am very grateful to all those concerned for getting my shiny (matt black) new toy to me. For all those people still waiting please enjoy the new photos at the bottom of this section. I must comment on how impressed I was with the packaging. No cheap cardboard box with this flashlight! But a beautiful plastic box with foam inserts to hold the light two CR123 cells and nice lanyard and the operating instructions. I wish more companies would spend this much attention to detail.

PILA testing

The Gladius will run will the lower nominal voltage (4.1V) PILA 168s 1400mAh Lithium Ion Cells but there are a few things you need to be aware of. First of all because the PILA voltage is lower, the Gladius thinks that the batteries are flat even though they are not and will give a double strobe every 15 seconds. Some people will probably find this annoying. Perhaps in the future a software change could detect the voltage of batteries when inserted and adjust accordingly.

The light output is exactly the same as with normal CR123 cells due to the light electronic regulation. I did a runtime test and go the following results.

PILA 168s runtime at full power constant on 1 Hour 30 Minutes measuring 2400 Lux @ 1M
Please note that the Gladius automatically reduces its output slightly from 2400 Lux to 2200 Lux in my measurements after a few minutes. This help considerably with the runtime. Switching it off then on again restores the full output.

The second test I did was to set the output of the Gladius to 1000 Lux @ 1M and see how long it would last. I recorded a very impressive 5 Hours 30 Minutes. This shows how the LED becomes much more efficient at lower outputs. A good thing to remember if you don't actually need full power all of the time.

This really is a great light. I am Really looking forward to future Night-Ops products with manic glee.

Manufacturer:- www.night-ops.com

UK Distributor :- www.edgar-brothers.co.uk

UK Sales :- www.heinnie.com

More info this and other lights here

www.candlepowerforums.com

www.britishblades.com