Hitchcraft – FenixLD20

I liked my Fenix L1D so much that I got a 2AA light from Fenix to serve as my backup light for out in the bush.

First the Fenix LD-20 itself. Approximately 15 cm (6") long by 2.15 cm (0.75") in diameter, and the weight without batteries is 56 grams (2.0 oz), and with batteries it’s 115 grams (4.0 oz). Powered by 2 common and easy to acquire AA batteries (Alkaline, NiMH or Lithium), it utilizes a Premium (Q5) Cree 7090 XR-E LED which has a life of 50,000 hours. The LD20 is made of T6 aircraft grade aluminum with a durable Type III hard anodized finish. It’s waterproof to IPX-8 Standards (the IP stands for Ingress Protection and means it can be immersed to 1.5 meters for 30 minutes. Can you use it as a dive light? Probably not. Can you use it in the rain and will it withstand a dunking in a creek? Yes.) The reflector is textured and the glass is toughened ultra clear glass lens with anti-reflective  coating. The beam is a crisp tight spot, with no shadows or dark spots. 

The LD20 gives the user the choice of six output modes, which allows the user to select the best compromise between brightness and runtime for a given task. It’s turned on via a clickable tail cap, and the tail end can be turned so that it locks out - ie it can’t be accidentally turned on. Turning the bezel as tight as it will go, and clicking the tail cap gives you turbo mode (180 lumens {which runs for 2 hrs}) and then lightly tapping the tail cap again gives you strobe mode. The strobe is as blindingly bright as the turbo mode, and makes a really effective self defence tool. Loosening the bezel slightly gives you general mode (9 lumens {which runs for 71 hrs, and is fine for most general use}), tapping the tail cap a second time gives you 47 lumens (which runs for 13 hrs), tapping it a third time gives you 94 lumens (which runs for 5 hrs), and tapping it again gives you SOS mode. Keep the light off for over 2 seconds, the light will turn completely off, and the regulative circuit will be restored. It’s digitally regulated, meaning that the the power drawn from the battery remains at a constant the whole time. No slowly waning light over a very long time. Bright, even light for say an hour, and then it dies. You are given a warning ahead of that point when it flashes on and off several times.

I can still remember how excited I was about the AA MagLite I bought almost 20 years ago. And they’re still selling the same flashlight. I mean, if it was great twenty years ago, why bother changing? Fenix is a company that believes in innovation and this (and all their other products) reflect that.

The only draw back to it is that it has a ring inside the tail cap that comes loose just from the vibrations of walking, and prevents the light from coming on. Now that I know this though, I just open the tail cap every few days and tighten the ring back up. The ring has two dimple in it and any small point will suffice – a ball point pen, a paper clip, the tooth pick from my Swiss Army Knife, etc. – can be put in to one of the dimples and turned to tighten. Really, a tiny inconvenience for an other wise superb light.

But of course, it needed to be jazzed up with a fob. I decided to use some Type 1 paracord, rather than the usual 550 paracord. Much thinner, it allowed me to easily do three Solomon Bars. Do one Solomon Bar and it’s referred to as a Cobra Knot, do it a second time and it’s referred to as a King Cobra Knot. So what to call it if it’s done a third time? I decided to call it a Boa Knot, and I propose that if it’s done a fourth time it be called a Ananconda Knot and a fifth time it be called a Python Knot.