Super Bright – feels awesome, September 28, 2012

I have a Redline 5557 and love that light. It’s incredibly bright to begin with at 220 lumens with almost the exact same features. Adjustable zoom, strobe, SOS and brightness level control. So when I saw the more advanced 5620, I was like OH MAN I GOT TO HAVE IT. I wouldn’t say that I am a flashlight snob or anything, but I do have a lot of flash lights from various companies, but this is by far the coolest and brightest light I have ever owned.

It looks great in black. Holding it, it feels like it was made for some elite military squad. It has what they call a self defense face on it and while it is in your hand, it does feel like it could double as a weapon, or that it could break glass if you were trapped in a sinking car or whatever situation you might find yourself in. At 100{660353129f8d892044c993645a1c75194301fec6786a7f617c15adde0b0011e9} brightness, shining on a wall about 5 feet away, staring at the light and looking away will give you those little bright spots in your eyes like you were looking at the sun, so I don’t think I want to look directly into the lens of the light 🙂

As for the optional carabiner, what can you say about that? It’s a freebie and not very useful except maybe a keychain or something. But hey, when you look at the combo price compared to buying the light by itself and they are the same price… might as well get it.

So to sum it all up… this light is megafreakingfantastic. It feels awesome in your hands. So if you want a bright ass flashlight that makes you feel like you are in some wicked military squad fighting aliens, communists or snakes, then this is the light for you.

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Comparison of two Redline models, December 18, 2012

By 

C. G. King (Horse Country, VA USA) –

  

  

  

I purchased my initial Redline light because of the distance lighted, but then bought this one. Here are the advantages of each. First let me say both are terrific considering the cost and power. I wanted a way to illuminate the open land behind my house and on impulse picked up the 5581 at my local hardware store because its ad claimed it would throw a beam 125 yards. It does. I wasn’t even looking for the other features, but then got to comparing lights with a neighbor and realized I’d fallen into a great little flashlight. Had I known what I was looking for I could have gotten that one here for less.

One thing to know about these extra bright long distance beams; they reflect off whatever they hit first so if there is brush or trees in your line of sight, you will see those illuminated but not beyond. If you have a clear long distance path both lights give a good view of objects over 100 yards away. This one has 310 lumens to the 220 on the 5581 and looks somewhat brighter close up, but I didn’t notice a real difference at a long distance.

The 5581 is a good looking little light in silver with good heft, an aggressive top collar, more functionality than I expected and it does indeed throw a beam to my back pasture fence when you turn the collar to focus the beam, plus it lights up a good sized area when in diffused mode. It fits in a pocket easily. My neighbor was particularly impressed that it did the SOS automatically since he is an outdoorsman and recognized the value. I like the ability to check out things at a great distance, plus illuminate a book close at hand with a lower light setting. I quickly got the hang of cycling through the different functions to the one I wanted, but also appreciated that I could just use the strongest light every time I turned the thing on if I wanted too, by waiting five seconds before clicking it on again. Clicking it on and off more rapidly allows cycling through the functions.

I didn’t understand at first about the aggressive collar and wondered why it actually seemed rather sharp at the edges, but it could come in handy if needed. The magnetic base also didn’t register with me at first, but sure would be useful for changing a tire or for car emergencies. The magnet is strong enough to hold the light sticking straight out on a refrigerator without budging.

The more I thought about uses for the light, the more I wanted to keep it in the car so I looked for another and settled on this model, the 5620, which I really love. It has all the functionality of the slightly smaller 5581, plus some very useful enhancements. It is longer by about ½”, bigger around and a bit heavier, so that’s an issue if you intend to carry it hiking, but it is more convenient for me to carry because I like the included the wrist strap (has a belt clip too but wouldn’t fit over a thick belt–seems better suited for pocket or waistband).

The 5620 has a lot of movable parts where the 5581 only screws the beam from diffused to focused. Of course you can unscrew the ends of both lights to change the well thought out battery pack (3 AAA batteries come in the flashlights to begin with and the 5620 comes with three more in the box) or to remove the lens, but otherwise the 5581 has only the function button on the base where the 5620 has two other movable collars. One thin one near the top can be swiveled down to hide the red ring that lights up when the lights are on, which makes you harder to find in the dark and the other near the base serves to set the function you want so you don’t have to cycle through them all by clicking the button multiple times. It also keeps the light from rolling if placed on a flat surface and because this ring protrudes it allows me to easily grip the light between my index and middle fingers and click the button on or off with my thumb. While this can be done with the smaller 5581, it’s awkward and mostly I need two hands to turn it off and on or grip the light with my whole hand and use my index finger to click the button (the button on the 5581 is harder to push than on the 5620).

Bottom line, the smaller, less complex and less expensive 5581 seems just as powerful to me, has a longer battery life and all the same functions, while the 5620 is easier to use. Being able to set the functions on the 5620 via the ring, easily turn it on/off one-handed, hide the red ring and carry it via a strap are the tie breakers.

Re the LED Clip light: This is a cool little gadget. Set in the sturdy carabeaner is the small round blue light. Because the included batteries last so long (10,000 hours, which is well over a year) my plan is to attach it to my keys and leave it on when the keys are not in use so I can easily find them again. The blue light is unusual enough to draw attention to itself. The Smith & Wesson logo is good looking. This is a nice little freebie.

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