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Review: Night-Ops Gladius prototype
Review: Night-Ops Gadius prototype.
A buzz has been flying around the internet of late, that buzz is concerning a new torch / flashlight manufacturer and in particular, thier debut torch.
The manufacturer, Night-Ops, is a sub division of the much respected tactical gear manufacturer, BlackHawk industries. Thier debut baby has been released under the name of "The Gladius High Intensity LED Illumination Tool (it's a bit of a mouthfull, so we'll just call it "Gladius" for short).
History of the Gladius:
The Gladius is the result of a partnership between Ken Good of Strategos International and Mike Noell of Blackhawk Industries.
Before starting Strategos, Mr. Good helped create the Surefire Institute force-on-force training academy where he taught the tactical employment of a tactical white light or weapon-mounted light for gunfighting in low-light conditions (nightfighting) or in complete darkness. Before that, Good co-owned and operated a force-on-force training school called Combative Concepts, Inc, which also offered courses in low-light gunfighting. Basically, Good's been teaching low-light close quarters battle (CQB) tactics and techniques to military Special Operations (SPECOPS) and law enforcement SWAT/SRT operators for quite some time, now. This tactical and law enforcement background has clearly shone through in the development of the Gladius, but more of that later.
The Gladius - specs:
Designed with Military as well as Law enforcement customers in mind.
Output: Specifications forthcoming (est. 90+ Lumens at Full Power - .8 Lumen at lowest Dim Setting).
Bezel & Tailcap Diameter: 33mm.
Body Diameter: 25mm (for weapons mounted applications).
Length: (Bezel to Tailcap) 155mm.
Weight: (w/o batteries) 6.63 oz or 188 grams.
Finish: Hard Liquid Ceramic Coating.
Colours: Black, OD Green, Coyote Tan and Sniper Grey
Reflector: 27mm high polish parabolic type reflector.
Optics: UCL Glass- 3mm thick, with an Anti-Reflective coating.
LED: Luxeon III High Dome/Lambertian, 3 Watt.
Batteries: Lithium 123A (x2).
Runtime: 72 minutes on highest, 400+ hours on lowest.
MSRP: UK= £199UKP, CONUS= $249.99USD.
The Review:
Before going into the review propper, I'd just like to take a second to thank Edgar Brothers, the UK distributor for the Gladius, for sending us this prototype.
First Impressions:
The first thing that struck me about the Gladius, what the size of the torch. I dont know why, but I expected it to be a bit smaller. It's quite a handfull, definitely not one for your jeans pocket. It's just over six inches long and weighs about 150 grams with batteries, a solid lump of a torch, no mistake.
Within a few minutes, I was playing with the various modes, it's very intuative - I just jumped straight in and found no instructions necessary to access most of the featuires. I love this. My big bugbear with the ARC4, was that you needed a PhD to understand all the modalities, not to mention an instruction sequence and half an hour to get what you want. No such pain with the Gladius, it's all obvious and stupidly easy to get to. Top marks Night-Ops. I shouldn't be surprised really, it's come from a good stable with a big emphasis on real world tactical application. The Arc by comparison, was an engineers torch.
This emphasis on tactical application becomes more and more apparent as you play with the torch. One thing I noticed, was there seemed to be some "slop" in the tailswitch. There was some vertical play in the switch, which initially irritated me.
I had thought at first, that this was "less than good" design, but it dawned on me that there was a reason for it. Not only are the modes easy to understand and intuative, but they are incredibly easy to get to by the big rotating tailcap. The torch falls into your hand very easily and with the tailcap pointing to the sky. If you were in a darkened room with just one hand free, bad guys all around, you'd want to be able to get the mode you need quickly and confidently - there is no room for error in this situation. The play in the tailcap is actually part of a rather clever construction which facilitates this. First, consider this picture to illustrate what you are doing...
You need to feel by "touch" alone, where the stops are, sometimes with thick tactical gloves on and reduced tactility. The slight play in the tailcap, allows you to get that feedback through your fingers. I dont know if this really is by design, or just a happy accident, but it serves the purpose.
The switch rotates through three major positions, plus one further rotation for lockout. I cant take the switch apart for obvious reasons, but you can feel that there is some sort of cam and spring system inside the switch. On the major positions, the switch has slight rotational play, then as you turn, the switch gets tight - seemingly as though you are riding over a cam, then it goes loose again as you come to the next position. All this gives a huge amount of "blind" feedback through your fingers. You can easily locate exactly the mode you want, in a fraction of a second and with your eyes shut. It's very, very well thought through. Even the "star" locks the torch into your gloved hand, for easy one hand operation. The military and law enforcement are going to love this. On a downside, this play does result in a slight rattle if you shake the torch. I dont know if there is a better way of building the tailcap to eliminate this, but having played with it, there is no way I would swap out the tactile functionality in the interests of eliminating the slight rattle.
The torch is very heftily constructed, machined out of high grade Aluminium, but not quite as beefy as the military versions of the Surefires (M2 Centurion etc). This is a prototype model and there was a little note in the box that said the finish was not the final finish. So I cant comment on the actual finish of the torch. It looked nice in black and there were certainly a few dinks and scratches where the bare Aluminium showed through, but that is meaningless as it's little more than a temporary coat of paint.
I'll update the review when I get my hands on a production model. The finish is set to be a smooth liquid ceramic finish, which is supposed to be harder and more resilient than HAIII.
The machining is very good though, giving the overall impression of a well built torch. Again, this is a prototype, so finish is something that could change, but I think the prototype will probably reflect the finished article in this respect. Obviously, I'm not going to take the torch apart further than the warranty allows, which is simply removing the tailcap assembly. Removing the head of the torch voids the warranty, the business end is not supposed to be user servicable.
On removing the switch you start to get an idea of whats going on inside. There is a sleave of some sort, sitting inside the battery compartment, which extends down the length of the tube. Visible at the other end is a PCB. That's about as far as I can comment on what is inside the thing. It's interesting to note, that the rubber O-ring is actually inside the mouth of the battery tube, while the outside of the tube is sealed with some kind of grease, to give the torch a claimed water proof depth of 50 metres.
The switch assembly is extremely nicely finished. It looks to be a sealed unit except for a just visible screw (in the pic below, you can just see it at the 11 O'Clock position). The battery spring is gold plated for enhanced conductivity. I'm not sure how much difference this makes in real life, but it's a nice touch of professionalism and it's been done on high end hi-fi's for years if that's anything to go by.
There is no splint ring for a lanyard attachmemnt, but one of the limbs of the "star" has a hole machined into it, presumably for a lanyard. Of note, there is no pocket clip.
On to the business end, the head. The reflector is not of the orange peel type we are acustomed to seeing with SureFire torches. The orange peel style reflectors do smooth out all the irregularities in the beam and give a very smooth effect, but some argue, it costs in terms of light output. It's very difficult to get a perfect beam with a polished reflector. If I were to be picky (which of course, I will be) some shapes and small irregularities are noted in the hotspot of the Gladius, but it's minimal and the general beam quality is consistent with a very high end torch.
If you hold the torch just at the right angle, you can also notice a bluish tint in the optics. This is an anti-reflective coating, which combined with the heat resistant, 3mm UCL glass, is supposed to let 99% of the light through it. It's another nice touch, looks pretty too. It may contribute to the blue-white of the output, but I cant confirm that.
I've done my best to evaluate the build quality of the Gladius, but with this being a prototype and not having the final surface finish, it's difficult. Compared to SureFire, I would say the machining is a little less fancy, and a little less fussy, but still of superlative quality. Aesthetically speaking, if a Surefire is an Aston Martin, then the Gladius is a Corvette, but a 'Vette with a brutal purpose about it.
Functionality:
At the heart of the Gladius is a Luxeon III High Dome/Lambertian, 3 Watt emmiter. In English, that means a 3watt Luxeon Star with enhanced tolerances. A tough little 3 watt luxeon. I'm not even going to attempt to untangle to complexities of the electronics, but I will say, this luxeon is the whitest I own. When I got my L4, that was the whitest, then I got the L6 and that was whiter, now the Gladius takes the crown. A very bright white, with the slightest hint of blue. It passes the Daz whiteness challenge. It's white - OK?
On full bright, it's certainly comparable to the SureFire L6, maybe not quite as bright. I dont own a light meter, so cant give an accurate figure - I'm just going of my naked eye impressions and I may be wrong. That super-shiny reflector does a superb job of tightly focusing the beam into a sharp column of light - but it does have a corona and quite a large one, bigger than an L4 in fact. Quite how Gladius have achieved this, I dont know, but the effect is an ultra bright spot, with a dim, but wide corona. Did I mention that the military and law enforcement are going to love this torch? The tactical applications are obvious.
The following pics were shot at about 8 feet from a wall. They were taken with a Panasonic FZ20 with a Leica lens and the colour rendition is very good to life.
Gladius:
Surefire L4
Surefire L6
Note the bright blue-whiteness, tight spot and broad spill of the Gladius.
The strobe is pure evil. I dont recommend you do this, but I stood in front of a mirror and shone the strobe at myself (OK, you know you are going to try it too). It really is impossible to get a visual lock on anything and it's far worse than a consant beam of light, of similar intensity. To date, I've used my brightest torch as my "bedside torch", that's a Surefire M2 with a P90 lamp, but the Gladius has taken that role now for definite. Let me give you an example of a tactical scenario that may help explain why.
Imagine you are a point man in a team of 3 cops doing a building clearout. The building is pitch black and you need to time your entry. It's a covert op and you dont want to give away your location untill the last second.
In the pitch black, you reach for your Gladius. You dont want to give away your position by lighting the place up like a firework, but you need to check the time. Because of the "star" on the Gladius, you can easily orientate it, blind and one handed. You rotate the tailcap 2 turns to the left (constant on mode), where you've set the Gladius to 5% output. You press the tailcap and you've a dim, but useable light. You check your time, 10 seconds to go..
Now here's the interesting bit. The gladius only changes modes, when the button is pressed, not when the tailcap is turned. So with the light switched on, at 5% brightness (or whatever you've chosen to set it at, it's 100% scaleable and user selectable), you can turn the tailcap to the center position (strobe) and hover your thumb over the button.
With your gladius at 5% and ready to go into strobe at the press of a button and your Glock in your right hand, you can start your sweep. You carefully move from room to room, when suddenly you happen accross "Charlie". You are both surprised, but you push the tailcap on your Gladius and "wham" the room explodes into a directional strobe of blinding light. Charlie is disorientated, confused and frightened. In that second, your team are on him and he's subdued without a shot being fired.
Now this control of the torch may sound complex, but let me assure you, it's stupidly simple. It is just so easy to operate, that using it in the above manner will be natural, for anyone in a position where such things happen.
Did I mention, the military and law enforcement are going to love this torch? It's impossible to explain the effect of the strobe on a static web page, but if you watch this video, you'll get the idea.
http://www.blackhawkvideo.com/videos...s/gladius.html
Now perhaps you see why I want this on my bedside table, ...and another in the glovebox of my car, ...oh and one in my rucksack, ...and another in my toolbox.
The torch runs on a pair of CR123A lithium batteries and probably will work with Pila rechargeables. It's also fully regulated. I did a test burn through a set of 123A's to check the functions and can confirm, they all work as advertised - at least. It took approximately an hour and a half for the torch to drop out of regulation. Think about this, with an (unregulated) L4, you get about 20 minutes of full brightness, then it does drop off steadily, being quite bright for about an hour and a half. With the Gladius, you get 100% brightness for the full burn. When the batteries start to run down, the gladius gives off two rapid blinks every 15 seconds. When this test sample started to blink (after 1.5 hours), I swapped out the batteries for fresh ones and could not tell a difference in brightness. You then get about 5 minutes in warning mode before the Gladius starts to drop out of regulation. Superb stuff.
There is some heat protection circutry built in too. This dims the light if it gets too hot - I figured 1.5 hours of constant burn would test this, but the torch didn't dim. I then read that it's ambient temperature dependant and I just think the cool British climate kept the torch at below critical temp. Excellent!
Overall:
This is a truly fantastic piece of kit, purely for the functionality. It's a totally no compromise piece of equipment, that's been designed for tactical applications, but lends itself to a huge variety of other uses. The user selctable output means that no matter what your scenario, you can program the torch to fit the bill. If you want super bright all the time, a tactical strobe, or 400 hours of light with the peace of mind of a tactical torch if you need it, it's all there. Whether it's search and destroy missions, scaring away bears in Alaska or for your bedside piece of mind, you get it all.
Fit and finish is difficult to assess because the sample was a prototype, but my feeling is it's slighly less polished and refined than comparable Surefire models, but the functionality far surpasses ANYTHING I've seen, read about or handled to date. The rattle in the tailcap is a mild irritation, but pales against the sheer scope of usefullness of this torch. The £200 MSRP for this is hellishly high - even for someone used to spending big money on torches, but I would/will pay it. I'd like to see it come in at around £140, which would put it on a par with what the Americans will be paying. But it's a foreign product and import duty, VAT, shipping and distribution costs all take thier toll.
Top marks Night-Ops, for a stunning debut.
Thanks again to the distributor, Edgar Brothers for the sample.
The Gladius will be available from Heinnie Haynes, in April-05.
Also see the BritishBlades promotional offer.
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Originally Posted by Roefisher
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