You saw my Acebeam X80 review and were like... 25,000 lumens is just to durn bright, but
I do like the tasteful Christmas tree and Crime Scene Investigator color modes- and
also I wish it did a Red and Blue Strobe.
Well say hello to the Nitecore SRT9 with red, green, blue, U/V, strobe and white color modes.
You're like uh no infrared?
Well I guess I'll wait for the upgrade.
The SRT9 is made from aluminum, uses a Cree XHP 50 cool white main white light output
mode, and operates all those modes easily off a control ring.
The reflector is an orange peel textured, with the main LED in the center and the smaller
colored and U/V LEDs around the edge of the reflector.
It comes with the light, a holster, a lanyard, a manual, the damn box, and some rubber tailcap
replacement things, and all the colors of the rainbow.
The Output modes, starting with the luscious colors, my figures and Nitecores are on screen.
Let's do the colors firsts First is Toilet Mint Blue.
Then is Cash rules everything around me Green, C.R.E.A.M.
Then is adultry Red, then is U/V. Then is White mode, which can be dimmed from the lowest
setting all the way up to it's Highest- Which I measured to be between 2.1 lumens to a little
over 2200 lumens.
As always if you're looking for a low moonlight mode, Nitecore isn't the best at that.
Ok the UI.
It's easy and all on a control ring.
You have a hard power on and off on the tail where you put in the batteries, arranged in
the series configuration...
pop on the tailcap, which you have to press the two buttons down for.
It's kind of awkward, and you have to apply a moderate amount of pressure to get it to
lock.
Cool.
The good thing is you can feel for the clicks and smooth parts of the control ring and get
a feel of what mode you want before you turn it on.
I'll feel for the standby mode and turn on the light.
The power light blinks in standby, letting you know it's on.
Turning the control ring right gives you white light from lowest to high, there's a click
stop, and another click gets you tactical strobe and you can't turnb the ring further...
turning it left goes back through white light, then a click through standby, then a click
to U/V, a click to red, then green, then blue, then blue and red strobe, for who knows what,
then beacon strobe.
The colors U/V and strobes aren't dimmable.
Remember turn off the tailcap when not in use to keep the light from draining batteries.
And it is possible to turn on low white mode and turn back a hair to get it dimmer but
not much less than 2 lumens.
If you've ever owned the RRT-01 from Jetbeam, that one went extremely low, way lower than
this.
The control ring is smooth, and you can always get to easy to find special modes, by counting
the clicks when it's off.
The UI is great, I just wish the low end of the dimming gave you lower options.
It would be perfect then.
The runtimes.
I used Sanyo Panasonic 3500 mah 18650 GAs for this.
The SRT 9 does not use low voltage protection- Who knows why it doesn't...
it gives you plenty of warning though by entering an erratic strobe when the batteries are near
drained.
Only button tops work in this light, please use protected cells only.
Ok first Turbo I used unprotected cells for this test, because I guess I didn't know.
And didn't reset the clock.
In the first 3 minutes there's a 12 % drop And by 7 minutes in brightness stabilizes
and we're had about a 46% drop in brightness overall.
Which is somewhere north of 1100 lumens.
SAs the first hour passes we're at a 51% drop overall, then comes 2 hours which is 54%.
After about 2 hours the brightness starts dropping hard.� It continues to run and
somwhere in the mid three hour range it starts the low voltage erratic voltage blink.�
Ending voltage when I checked it t about 8 hours with the cvrazy blinking faintly happening
was about 2.2 vots per battery.� Not good.� You should recycle your batteries at this
point.� Using protected cells keeps this from happening.
For this test I set my light to somewhere in the 500 lumen range.
I used protected Sanyo GAs this time.
In the first hour it looks like it gains output, but i think my light sensor cord is moving
ever so slightly.
So let's say it holds its brightness constantly.
I have said before this wasn't scientific.
It stops moving around 1 hours and just holds it's brightness for about 5 and a half hours
before dropping in brightness.
And the batteries low voltage protection kick in at about 6 hours and 37 minutes.
Now the beamshots.
Here are the lights I'l be comparing the SRT9 to.
Some pocketable some holsterable, did Ijust make up a word - but between 1000 and 2200
lumens.
First the SRT9.
It's not an ultra throwy light, it has a decent amount of spill and spot.
It's a cool white tint, I wish it was Neutral but I wish a lot of things.
Then is the O-O-Olight R50 seeker.
It's cool and has a USB rechargeable feature.
I don't use this light a lot because it doesn't have a decent low mode.
Back to the SRT9.
Both this and the R50 use the same basic cree emitter.
That's why I included them.
Duh.
Then the Nitecore MH20GT.
Not as bright but way more pocket friendly, and throwier.
It's a good general purpose small light.
Every light in this seen here has been reviewed by me.
The SRT9 for a minute, which I detected no visible pwn on any modes.
before going to the Zebralight SC600 mk III.
This is one of my main EDC light because of it's size, excellent low modes, and maximum
1000 lumenish brightness in case I need it.
Also a nicer tint.
Then the SRT 9 before going to a less bright but further traveling beam the Astrolux SS.
Great tint, great light, a bit heavy but a nice amount of throw.
A bit nicer for longer range stuff.
Ok let's wrap it up.
And by wrap it up I mean Ill talk about color modes for the next 5 minutes.
Now there's literature on what the color modes are useful for online, and none are useful
to me.
Maybe U/V to see if murder or sex has happened at various locations.
Sometimes that usefulness is dependent on how bright or dim the colored modes are.
If you're a person who uses color modes, a filter might be a good option to retrofit
a light with just white modes.
None of the color modes are very dim, but all are bright enough for short range outdoor
and indoor stuff.
The U/V is the type that you see a little light from but illuminates stuff with U/V
reflective capabilities.
I like the Nichia U/V on the Acebeam X80 more because it seems a bit more intense on the
U/V illumination.
The construction on this light is pretty good, I have no idea why Nitecore just doesn't put
Low Voltage Protection in all of their lights- when most other companies do.
Low voltage protection in theory keeps the light from draining batteries lower 2.5 volts.
The control ring is a great way to operate a light with this many modes- it's smooth
and not jiggly.
If you need them.
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This light was provided by Gear Best for review- check the description for more details.
Thanks for watching.