Expeditionstar

I'd like to thank the fine people at Tektite for sending me the Expedition Star for review purposes. The Tektite products are very high quality and should be on your shopping list if you or someone you know is looking for an LED flashlight. Before we get into the review let's take a minute and check out the specifications of the Expedition Star

Specifications

Case material	ABS plastic (test unit is blue)
Bulb	Luxeon Star LED
Batteries	Three C cells, supplied.
Power regulation	Yes
Reflector type	None
Switch type	Twist on/off
Beam type	Spot
Water resistance	Water proof to 1000 feet!
Lens type	Lexan
Special features	Luxeon Star LED with narrow beam optics Strap loops Lanyard with cushioned wrist strap Rated waterproof to 1000 feet Extremely durable
Output at 12"	1498 LUX
Output at 36"	167 LUX
Advertised battery life	15+ hours at full power and another 50 hours at a reduced output.
Weight, no batteries	5.4 oz
Weight with batteries	12.8 oz
Length (twisted off, including lug for wrist strap)	8.0"
Width (measured across base of bezel with rubber guard on)	2.25"
Warranty	Lifetime
Note! LUX readings are taken with a fairly accurate, but inexpensive handheld meter and are only for comparison purposes to other lights reviewed here and should not be taken as gospel or compared with manufacturer specs. Light intensity readings can be misleading and of dubious value when comparing different types of lights, i.e., LED vs. incandescent or flood vs. spot, so don't place too much emphasis on it.

Several months ago I tested the C.Crane Expedition 600 flashlight, a product manufactured by Tektite. I liked the light so much that it's now the light I keep around for emergency use or for campsite chores. It's also the one I recommend to anyone who asks me what light to use for similar uses. It's extremely durable, absolutely waterproof and gets so much life out of the batteries that you can leave it on all night for days on a single set of batteries. The 600 does not however, produce a huge amount of light and the light it does produce is a flood, not a spot beam. Now these aren't really drawbacks for it's intended usage (in fact it makes it better), which to my mind is an emergency light, i.e. lighting a room up for extended periods when the power is out, or as a work light if a vehicle breaks down, or maybe as a light for an outdoors person who's in an area where there is no power and no way to get replacement batteries, such as a boat or a mountain retreat. For these purposes the 600 is a close to the perfect flashlight as I've seen. But many people want more light output and a spot beam in a similar flashlight, and now they can have it.

Here comes the Expedition Star, a new light from Tektite that in all outward appearances is identical to the 600, but with one major change, instead of 6 small white LED's, it has one large Luxeon Star LED. The Luxeon Star can produce as much light as 12 regular 5 mm LED's, and with the optics Tektite uses can produce a tight spot beam. The body of the flashlight is made from extremely durable ABS plastic. When you first see the Expedition Star you may think, "Oh, another cheap plastic flashlight". You know the kind, if you drop it on concrete from waist level it splits open and the batteries go flying. But the Expedition flashlights are about as fragile as a Mack truck. Go ahead, beat the devil out of it, it just won't break. During the test of the 600 I repeatedly tossed it up into my garage rafters and let it drop to the concrete floor. Not only did it not break, there was no damage besides some tiny scuff marks. Being ABS plastic you folks living in wet or salty climates won't have to worry about it rusting or corroding. Speaking of wet climates, all the Expedition lights are O ring sealed and are water proof to some absurd depth, in the case of the Expedition Star it's 1000 feet! The entire bezel is clear Lexan, which is a very sturdy material and there's a removable rubber cover for extra protection and to prevent the light from glaring back in your eyes through the clear bezel. The body is ribbed for a good grip, there are slots built on the body so you can strap it anywhere for hands free use. The wrist lanyard is sturdy and well padded and has one of those little pushbutton doohickeys that let you cinch it tight so it won't slip off.

Using the Expedition Star couldn't be simpler, once the batteries are installed you simply tighten the bezel to switch it on and loosen it to turn it off. Now some of you are going to say "But you said you hate twist on switches". Not true my friends, at least not on a survival/emergency type of light. For a light like this waterproofing, toughness and dependability are the prime considerations, and no switch I've seen (that will fit on a hand held flashlight) is good enough when extreme dependability is called for and one handed operation is not a serious concern.

The Star appears to use the exact same body and bezel that the 600 does, the only difference between the two lights seems to be the LED module. I traded the modules back and forth between the two lights with no problems. Curiously enough, the Star has double O rings compared to the single O ring on the 600. The extra groove is present on the 600, so if you're a deep sea diver or something and want to take your 600 below it's rated maximum depth of 160 feet you can upgrade it by adding the second O ring. For that matter you could also upgrade your 600 to the Luxeon Star simply by purchasing the LED module from Tektite.

The beam from the Expedition Star is very good but not perfect. It provides a very round, bright center hotspot that fades into a round outer ring that is quite bright too. At 15 feet the center hotspot is about a foot across and bright outer ring is over two feet wide. At 30 feet out the hotspot is about 4 feet across and the outer ring is nearly 10 feet. On a moonlit night the beam is usable to around 50 yards or so. On a really dark night the beam appears even brighter and is usable to a greater distance. Light output and beam size are very similar to other Luxeon Star lights I've tested, beam quality however is quite a bit different. The other Luxeon lights I've tested (Surefire KL1 and the ARC LSH) produce a beam that fades smoothly from center hotspot all the way out with no visible rings, shadows or other imperfections. This is not the case with the Expedition Star. After the center hotspot with it's bright outer ring (which are both nearly flawless), there's a fairly good sized darker area with some irregular bright and dark rings past that. The effect is very similar to a traditional incandescent flashlight, but to a lesser degree. This did not bother me at all, and if I hadn't had the other lights to compare it to I may not have even remarked on it, but in a comparison it's quite noticeable. This shouldn't stop anyone from buying the Expedition Star, but I'd be remiss in my duties as an impartial reviewer if I didn't make note of it.

What kind of battery life can you expect from a Luxeon Star LED driven by 3 C cells? Tektite claims 15+ hours at full intensity, dropping to a much dimmer output after that for another 50 hours. From this we can tell that the Expedition Star is power regulated, meaning that the circuitry maintains a constant power level to the LED even as the batteries are draining, once they can no longer support this power draw the circuitry steps down the draw, lowering the light output drastically, and then squeezes as many more hours as possible from the batteries at this lower output level before they totally fail. This is a little more than one third the battery life that the Expedition 600 achieved at full brightness, but considering that the Luxeon Star LED produces about as much light as 12 standard LED's it's a great trade off for those who like the Expedition lights but wants more light output in a spot beam. You just can't better than double the light without sacrificing battery life. In the 3 months I've used the Expedition 600 I've found the battery life claims pretty accurate and I expect the claims for the Star are just as close. Tektite has an interesting cost analysis of the Expedition Star on their site, it's based on a usage of 7 hours a week and compares it to an incandescent flashlight of the same size. If you're a heavy flashlight user it's a real eye opener how much money an LED light like the Expedition Star can save you over a few years.

It's Monsoon season here in the Arizona desert, which means monster thunderstorms about every other evening, high winds, torrential rains, thunder and lightning and the power outages that accompany them. In the 10 days that I've had the Expedition Star I've suffered 3 evening power outages, the last one had my power off for about 12 hours. The Expedition 600 and the Expedition Star have been absolutely fantastic to have around, just sit them on a table and leave them turned on and don't worry about the batteries running down before morning.