Stanley 95-004 - MaxLife2™ Titanium Finish Mini Tripod Flashlight REVIEW

[Raukodur]

First photos and impressions of the flashlight, just received it!

First of all, specs of the website:

Bright-white 1.25 Watt LED light
Spot-to-flood light focusing capability
Innovative tripod design offers hands-free convenience
Weather-resistant anodized aluminum space frame construction tripod legs
Perfect for a project or emergency situation
Multi-position head focuses light precisely where it's needed
Low-power indicator light flashes so you're never caught in the dark
Impact-resistant design...durable, graphite ABS composite head and shatter-resistant polycarbonate lens
Simple 3-position switch lets you choose Low, High or Off
Runs on 3 AAA batteries (not included) -- must run on minimum of 3 batteries

Now for my first impressions:
1) Apart from the legs (which are small in the minitripod and made of aluminium) the rest is plastic. I suppose this may be a weight issue, since this is quite big for a 3 AA flashlight, and all metal may have considerably increased the weight. But I would have still preferred it. Even though, the plastic not cheap, and the flashlight feels quite chunky in the hand, and doesn’t creak, or feel like its going to break. But if you were to drop it on hard groud, I dont know how well the plastic would hold up.
2) The tripod works quite well, you press the button, and the 3 legs jut out, you close the legs manually and they all click into place easily for it to be a hand held flashlight.
3) The batteries are easy to put in and replace, you take off the caps of the legs and replace them, quite easily, not too fiddly.
4) There is a small lever which allows you to focus the beam to a spot or make it more 'floodlight'. The spotlight is quite good, very focused, the floodlight mode I wish was more 'floodlighty' but I suppose its better than nothing, and since I haven’t used it yet I can't tell about how well it works.
5) By pressing the button once the torch is on low mode, pressing it twice puts it on high mode and then again, and the torch switches off. Right now it is daytime and so I can see a small difference between the two modes, at night time I may see a greater difference.
6) The titling head works quite well, you can angle it from anywhere to vertically upwards to slightly below 90 degrees, so quite a wide range. There is no locking mechanism to keep the head in one place but there is enough friction to stop the head from moving on its own. I hope it won’t get looser with time. Also, the head can be tilted when the legs are closed and you are holding the flashlight in your hand, which i am sure can come in useful in some circumstances.
7) and finally, lumens. All I can say is that it seems brighter than my luxeon 3 watt LED torch, and it too bright to look at. So I am very pleased since I had thought it would be weaker.

As I use the torch I will try and post further impressions and findings, if anyone has any questions please feel free to ask.

All in all I am quite pleased, the torch is chunky and quite large, but I love the tripod design, it adds a very special touch to the torch which makes it unique.

Forgot to mention dimensions:
- 18cm long
- 5cm wide legs
- 6cm wide head


A piec eof info I obtained from a website where there was a review of one of the older larger models of the tipod flashlights what that is incorporates a technology which allows it to use the batteries to give out a constant amount of life until the batteries empty. I.e. the light doesnt get dimmer as the batteries lose power. I have no idea if this is the case, I hope it is, and I suppose I will find out when the batteries I have put in it start running out. However this would be quite nifty, since the dimming light on my luxeon star 3 watt LED torch used to annoy me quite a lot, you'd want to show it off to someone but have to use the excuse, "oh, normally its quite a lot brither, the batteries must be weak at the moment." But again, dont know if this is the case with the minitripod I have.

And last but not least, my wife has seen it and decided I need to buy her the keyring version because it will be so very cute. Great.

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[Grant Lamontagne]

Wow, that's a pretty radical departure from my Mini Tripod!

I can't wait to see how it works for you after the sun goes down!

Def

[Raukodur]

Im not sure how to show the brightness of the light, anyone have any suggestions? I took some photos of the light beam on my wall in the dark, this was at medium mode, in the focussed and floodlight mode.

[Raukodur]

This is the floodlight mode at range of 2 feet. So a clear difference can be seen in light intensity, but as you move further I am sure the floodlight mode is more useful for covering a larger area.

[Raukodur]

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[J-sews]

And last but not least, my wife has seen it and decided I need to buy her the keyring version because it will be so very cute. Great.

Ah-hah, the secret to any successful product is that it be cute enough to gain the wife's acceptance! 

[Raukodur]

I was thinking about where I could get a case that would fit the stanley tripod and I happened to spot my wife's pencil case, a furry foreverfriends case, which has a waterproof lining, and is actually nicely padded. Rather fortunately it is also a perfect fit.

So I bought another one of ebay for ~£3.00

Here's a pic of the flashlight and the 'case'

[J-sews]

Awww, isn't that just the cutest thing?! And so warm and cuddly looking too.....



(Nice case Raukodur! I like how you are always able to look at ordinary items and see how they can be used to fit your purpose, even if that isn't what they were originally designed for!)