Steve J did a preview of this light over here

The light comes packaged in a blister pack with instructions and both AC/DC adaptors.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The light uses a pistol grip with trigger activation. You squeeze through the sequence of high, low, strobe, off. There is no mode memory.

Compared to pocket lights, this thing is huge. I’m used to pocket lights, so I don’t see myself carrying this beast often. That said, it allows for a rather large reflector that can really focus/collimate the limited (320 lumen) output into a long throwing beam. more on that later.

I really don’t care for this design element. The back of the light is covered by a threaded, clear plastic cover. In order to charge the light you have to remove the cover and a plug from the charge port. I suppose this is all done under the goal of keeping the light water resistant.

There’s what looks like a handle on top, yet it’s actually a stand. It allows the light to be propped up for hands free lighting.

Specification wise, I have nothing much to add to Steve’s post, so instead I’ll just offer some of my own impressions.
The good:

• Cheap
• Decent tint
• Beam optimized for throw
• Smaller than some other similar hand-held spotlights
• Rechargeable and includes AC and DC chargers
• Good brightness for price

The not-so-good:

• Cheap
• Large for the level of output
• Sealed – I doubt if the batteries can be replaced (I didn’t research that) and if so, it probably wouldn’t be cost effective
• In my humble opinion, a pain in the neck to charge.  You don’t want to lose the screw on cover or the plug

I’m not going to build a case for or against this light. It is what it is – an inexpensive, hand held rechargeable spot light.

I took a few beam shots to compare it to a few hand held flashlights.   In these photos are the Cyclops spotlight and a couple lights popular with flashlight enthusiasts – Zebralights.   Photos are taken from about 75 feet.

Here’s the Cyclops. The large reflector does a good job of collimating the beam into a very intense spot with very little spill. If I’m out searching this light will give a lot of reach/throw and could be very useful. Or let’s say you are out on a river late at night – whatever. You can think of many scenarios where such a beam will be useful.  I show it alongside a few handheld lights that each use a single 18650 battery.

Here’s a Zebralight offering, the SC63w. This light operates only with an 18650 battery and has around 900 lumen output. Retails for $85 ( Zebralight makes a 500 lumen little brother to this light called the SC32w that is $64 and runs off one 16340/CR123 cell)

Here’s Zebralight’s most recent offering – the SC600 MKIII HI. Zebralight designed this light to be more of a thrower, although it uses the same emitter as the SC63w. Also requires an 18650 battery. Retails for $95

So these lights are all more expensive and I show them only to give a point of reference.   They also require batteries and if you choose lights requiring rechargeable batteries, you’ll need a charger. The Cyclops comes with AC and DC chargers. I have no idea how long the batteries will last in the Cyclops – the last one I tested a couple of years ago is still working fine.

Although I don’t own this light, I do have a number of Fenix lights and consider them to be good quality and represent good value. THIS LIGHT is about $37 retail, uses common AA batteries, and has similar output. Its XP-E2 emitter should have a throwy beam, although I doubt it would have the throw that they Cyclops has.

Again, I show all these comparisons to: a) give you options and b) demonstrate that the Cyclops is probably a decent value if you need a long throwing beam and don’t want to have to buy batteries or chargers. Time will tell how long it will hold up – it is all plastic and I’d not recommend abusing it.

So I read all the comments in Steve’s post and know that many of you are dubious of the quality of the light, but for less than $40 it seems to be a decent value.