Wolf Eyes Pilot Whale torch

[TallNHairyDave]

Firstly an apology for the lack of photos / video in this first post, but I figured that people would want immediate "first impressions" followed by a detailed review. (That and watching the Madness special on BBC4 this evening has taken up most of the time when I could have been reviewing!)

Anyways.

Here are my first impressions of the Wolf Eyes "Pilot Whale" torch. Fullsome review + video to follow.

PROS:

• Nice packaging.
• Batteries and charger included. Nice
• Surprisingly compact torch, but beefy and very well put together.
• Deep "Orange Peel" reflector
• Nice finish overall
• Quality lanyard, although the clip to attach it to the torch seems a bit flimsy.
• Permanently attached lanyard ring a la some Surefire torches.
• Battery magazine also acts as charging crade
• SOS, Strobe & beacon modes are not activate until you've cycled through high-medium-low-high-medium-low. (Once activated, they replace high-medium-low until you turn the torch off for >=5 seconds). They are FULL power, and damn, the strobe is NASTY to your eyes!!! - It's painful and you HAVE to flinch and look away. Probably good if someone jumped out at you while out walking the dog with this torch in hand.
• Turns on straight into high.
• Batteries were supplied fully charged.

CONS:

• Flipping heck! How do you unscrew the tailcap???? (it's a VERY VERY tight fit with the o-ring seal, despite being copiously lubed). I ended up with very sore hands opening it to get at the battery magazine!
• A fourth brightness level would have been nice - extra low of e.g. 5 lumens. "Low" is still pretty bright at 20 lumens.
• Cannot tailstand for room lighting use.
• Did I mention I ended up with sore hands just from opening and closing it to install the batteries?

UPDATE: A good spot of lubrication using Molykote 111 on the tailcap threads and o-ring has solved the pain-inducing tightness of the tailcap. The torch was supplied with the threads well lubed, but almost no lube on the o-ring at all.

1000 lumens OTF on full? DOn't know as I don't have test kit. But it IS damn bright on full - from memory I'd say it's brighter than the Fenix TK40. I'll get some beamshots down the street like I did for the TK40 review (from the same spot and direction) so can compare side-by-side.

FULL REVIEW + PICS & VIDEO COMING SOON!

[ShortNCuddlyAm]

And I can confirm he did hold it against his hand whilst it was on full power for a while, and there were no burns

[TallNHairyDave]

And I can confirm he did hold it against his hand whilst it was on full power for a while, and there were no burns

Oh bah! You've let the cat out of the bag. I was saving that for the video!

[screaming skull]

Oh bah! You've let the cat out of the bag. I was saving that for the video!

Am glad that you didn't roast yourself there's nothing worse than that burnt pork smell in the house

[j3bnl]

Nice one Dave, look forward to some pics when you get around to it.

[john wings]

Looking forward to your report,pics and vid Dave;your last one had me buying the tk40 which turned out to be over specified;im finding 90 lumens with good spill adequate for night time duties.(fenix L2P)
i am upgrading to a fenix Ld20 though;at 180 lumens with two AA batteries is light and bright.

[tx101]

IT BURNS, IT BURNS, IT BURNS ...... does it ?

Cant wait to see the full review

[mojofilter]

Pics man, we need pics!

[TallNHairyDave]

The first video is just uploading to YouTube at the moment.... I'll post it here when it's live.

[TallNHairyDave]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0LJqB8icnU

[tx101]

Looks good Dave.

I like the battery magazine, saves faffing around pullling batteries out
to recharge them.
Thought you where going to give yourself a hernia
trying to unscrew the tailcap


Look forward to seeing the beamshots

[screaming skull]

Cheers Dave
looking forward to beamshots

[ArkAngel]

Nice review that, good idea on the video too!

Couple of questions spring to mind from that.

Do you have shovel like hands or 'normal' as i am surprised by how compact that is?

When you do beamshots do you have the Ultrafire group buy 1000lumen, i would appreciate some comparison beamshots.

This torch interests me greatly, but not if there is no significant improvement over the ultrafire.

Cheers

[TKC]

Thanks for the video. I very much enjoyed watching that.

[TallNHairyDave]

Thanks everyone for the nice feedback on the vid and review so far

Looks good Dave.

I like the battery magazine, saves faffing around pullling batteries out
to recharge them.
Thought you where going to give yourself a hernia
trying to unscrew the tailcap


Look forward to seeing the beamshots

Yeah, the battery magazine as charging cradle is a nice touch. And to make getting the batteries out easy if you want to remove them, they've put semi-circular cutouts in the edge of the battery magazine at the bottom so you can get a fingernail on the batteries.

So did I mate! Couldn't believe how tight that tailcap was - thought I was going to have to find the oil-filter strap wrench thing!

Took some photos last night as urban beamshots down the same street as I did with the TK40 review, but they didn't come out so great. Might post them anyway.

Nice review that, good idea on the video too!

Couple of questions spring to mind from that.

Do you have shovel like hands or 'normal' as i am surprised by how compact that is?

When you do beamshots do you have the Ultrafire group buy 1000lumen, i would appreciate some comparison beamshots.

This torch interests me greatly, but not if there is no significant improvement over the ultrafire.

Cheers

Thanks mate.

I was surprised at how compact the torch is too. I guess the fact that they put the batteries in a side-by-side magazine helped - made it chunky rather than long and thin.

My hands are in proportion to the rest of me (I'm 6'7" tall) so I suppose they're fairly big. But to make things easier for you to judge, here's a pic:


Don't know if I've still got photos of the beamshots of the Ultrafire GB torch. I sold mine some time ago, so can't take any to do as comparisons.

From memory comparing the two, the Wolf Eyes seems to be a bit brighter and certainly lights up a larger "hot spot" on the apartment block if I shine it the other way down my street.

It's also brighter than the TK40 comparing the two from memory. Unfortunately the beamshots I took of the TK40 were taken with my old camera at f2 and my canon G10 only goes down to f2.8 so the two sets of photos can't really work as a fair comparison.