Charter Member Leatherman LED LENSER F1 Giveaway followup.

[Chako]

The Leatherman LED LENSER F1 came in yesterday. I was very excited to open the package and see what this little beautiful flashlight can do. The flashlight not only does 400 lumens, it does this using a single CR123 power source. That is very impressive performance. I can attest that this little flashlight is very bright.

The flashlight comes with a small cleaning cloth, a small razor style cleaning brush, a spare battery, and an interchangeable front piece. The F1 comes with a flashy chromed front bezel. There was a blacked out tactical bezel included. I quickly changed the front as I liked the look of the tactical over the shinny.  There is also a lanyard that is included, along with instructions. Overall, lots of nice extras for a flashlight.



The button is very tactile. Just in case people don't know where to press, there is a cute little bull's-eye on the button done in red. Black and red is a very nice colour combination.



At the working end, you get a nice solid lens. To exchange the tips, one only needs to unscrew the front bezel. remove the lens assembly and place it into the other bezel and re-install. This photo shows the tactical bezel with its 4 protrusions for defense or glass breaking.



There is one idiot sticker on the flashlight. A caution symbol telling the user which end the powerful beam comes out of. I guess if they didn't plaster one of these on there, they could get sued...I suppose. Happily, this looks like will come off easily if you have a mind to do it.



The LENS LENSER F1 gets hot very quick. Those build in radiator ribs are not there for decorations. I can feel the flashlight heating up with short usage. I can only imagine the radiating head after leaving the F1 on for an hour. There is a faint etched symbol warning of the heat. Unlike the idiot sticker, this one is permanently on there...and that is a good thing. You could burn yourself if you don't hold the F1 the right way.



To compare size, I pulled a few Leatherman flashlights. From top to bottom, a Leatherman Monarch 400, Leatherman Monarch 300, Leatherman LED LENSER P3, Leatherman LED LENSER F1.



Pros:
- Build quality is very high.
- 400 lumens on one battery.
- Interchangeable front bezels. You have the choice of flashy or tactical.
- Button is tactile and a pleasure to press. It has good feedback.
- Accessories kit is very nice. Included brush is a bit over the top...but a very nice addition.
- Anti roll feature, and the flashlight can be stood up due to the flat bottom. Well engineered pocket clip can be used either front or back depending on where you install it. Nice thing, it helps keep a finger or two off of that hot body if using for any length of time.

Cons:
- Function access. This to me is the biggest issue...to me at least. To access the various features, you have to press the button several times. You press the button once to turn on the flashlight at full power. This is good. However, if you want a lower beam, you have to press the button twice. If you want it to strobe, you have to press that button 3 times...all of these button presses must be done within a second. Nothing unusual with this. However, the instructions use the word "touch", as in, touch the button twice while the flashlight is off. Now, I still don't have this down path as I quite often just simply turn the flashlight on/off trying to access the low beam feature. I think it is just getting used to how to do this. The trick here, I want to turn the flashlight on and then access the features. It is all a bit counterintuitive for me.
- Heat. This little powerful flashlight heats up quick. Holding the flashlight midway...you can still feel the heat. Moving the hand upwards towards the end, it get darn hot right quick.

Overall, a nice compact and powerful flashlight. I like it very much.

http://www.ledlenser.com/flashlight/pocket-size/f1

[detron]

nice review!  makes me want one!   

[Chako]

This is a very nice flashlight. It beats out all the other Leatherman flashlights I have.

[JAfromMn]

I carry a led lenser m1 for my work light everyday.

I might have to give a F1 a try as my off work light after reading that excellent review.

Thanks  Chako I'm glad you like it and did such a good review of it.
 

[stressmaster5000]

Great! 

[Chako]

This one is a keeper. 

[enki_ck]

Thanks for the nice writeup and great pics.

Which reminds me. I have to go draw the winner of the second Charter members giveaway.

[jerseydevil]

Great write up on an excellent light.    I also won one of these this month in a giveaway.  Usually I get by at work with just my Fenix E01 on my keys, but the F1 has seen a fair bit of time at the store in the past few weeks.  It's really making me rethink my normal carry light routine.  A bit strange since it's certainly not the only compact CR123 light I have, but it's seen more pocket time already than any of the others have!

[AimlessWanderer]

Apologies for being late on this, but I was another lucky winner of one of these lights in the Reviews Competition - thanks again to all involved  To be honest the light has been sat to one side waiting for me to get the time to play with it properly .... which was last night 

This feels a very well built light, and feels very comfortable and reassuring in hand. For those of you who may not already be aware, 400 lumens is SMURFING BRIGHT!!!  I really like the way the clip is reversible, and that a spare battery is included. Adding an alternative bezel was a very nice touch too  I must admit that the lens cleaning cloth and brush was in my mind a little ...
 

The biggest problem I have with this light is that it is quite easy to turn it on accidentally (even if only momentary), and there is no means of locking out the button by slackening either the head or tail. Because of this I will not be pocket carrying it, as I don't fancy getting a hot pocket or burnt leg (as Chako mentioned earlier, these heat up quick), nor do I fancy reversing the clip and getting 400 lumens inadvertently firing up towards my face

To be honest, I'm not exactly sure who these are aimed at. One hard click gives you 400 lumens - BAM!!! Bye bye night vision for the next three weeks, for anyone in a half mile radius  The second mode is the "low" 60 lumens, which would I'm sure be a better "first option" for the majority of users, but this is accessed VIA the first mode with a soft click then hard click. In other words you get 400 lumens and then the 60 lumens. No way of turning on low without getting a retinal beating first. Finally the defensive strobe is available with a (thankfully) awkward 2 soft clicks and one hard click from the off position.

This is a mightily impressive torch, but one I can't risk pocket carrying or see a reason for using other than outdoors as a real light thrower for distance work  This would I'm sure be a fantastic light for the right application .... but I'm not really sure what that application is  Now I'll have to look at knocking up a sheath kit for the great outdoors, probably pairing it with a Silva Ninox head torch (my fave head lamp) ..... although TBH putting together a kit like this is something I've been wanting to do for a while anyway 

[microbe]

some nice info on the F1 here. I picked one up when they came out in spring, and I am very happy with it so far. I will add a few things from my experience that I did not see mentioned above. The type 3 anodizing is great, it shows very little wear even after months of heavy pocket abuse. It is IPX-8 rated, no need to worry for using it in pouring wet conditions. Size is great for EDC usage, but for longer light needs, better take another light, as the F1 runtime is not the greatest. Also, it is not advised to use rechargeables, which is a bit of a downer to me.

[Gareth]

cheers for all the feedback gents.