This is the
Fenix RC05, it’s a small flashlight designed to be carried every day. I’ve owned
this light since 06/05/2017 and it has served me well. I carried this light
daily and it got used daily. The MSRP on this light is $55 and the street price
is typically around that mark.
Before
we dive into the specs I’ll go over pros and cons of this light.
Pros: It’s small (Tube of chap
stick sized), it’s bright, it has magnetic charging as well as a magnetic tail
cap, it’s waterproof, the pocket clip is reversable and it’s also usable as a
hat clip.
Cons: the magnetic charge port
attracts lots of small metal particles, the user interface isn’t the best for
simple use.
Now for the technical
specifications, the length is 3.7”, diameter is .7” and it weighs 1.3 oz
without the battery.
It has 4 brightness settings
across 5 modes, Low is 5 lumens with a 40 hour runtime, Medium is 50 Lumens
with a 6 hour runtime, High is 150 Lumens with a 2 Hr runtime, and Turbo is 300
lumens with a 55 minute run time, and the Strobe feature is the same brightness
as turbo. One thing to note Is after 5 minutes of runtime on Turbo the light
will automatically (For purposes of heat) switch to High mode.
It uses a single 14500 Rechargeable
battery, and, in a pinch, you can use a AA battery but you will lose the
feature or recharging as well as Turbo mode.
The spill beam angle is 76
degrees and the spot beam angle is 15 degrees, so it’s a fairly narrow beam but
it gives good distance for a small light, the advertised beam distance on Turbo
is 295 ft which is quite impressive, although I didn’t measure it I believe
this is an accurate claim from Fenix.
As for the user interface that I
mentioned in the cons list, this light is operated entirely by a single side
switch, with a long press (about 1 second) you turn the light on or off, once
the light is on you tap the switch to switch brightness levels, with a 2 second
long press you activate strobe, and when the light is off you activate the
lockout mode with a double click of the switch, to deactivate the lockout you
double click the switch again. It’s not a very bad system, in my opinion, but
everyone who used the light would either give it back to me on, loosen the head
to turn it off, or ask how to turn it off.
The
other thing that I mentioned in the cons list was the magnetic charge port collects
metal particles quickly and easily, it’s not that big of a deal but I made it a
habit to run my thumb over the charge dock to make sure there wasn’t excess
material before I would put it on charge, the only times that I really had to
clean it was after projects that included grinding or rolling around on the
shop floor.
After
approximately 2 years and 6 months of owning the light and using it daily I
started to see the first signs of failure a few weeks ago, when I turn on the
light I have an intermittent issue of the light turning off once the switch is
released, I believe it is the switch failing so I have contacted Fenix about
repairing it, Fenix does have a 5 year warranty and I expect this will be covered,
whether it is or is not I will update this post in the near future. With all
that said the switch failure gave me a reason to switch lights so I have purchased
an Olight and will write a review in the future on that light, the Fenix will
no longer be carried every day but will likely remain in my collection or given
to a family member. Also, you may notice in the photos that the Aluminum body has
taken some damage over the years, it has held up very well as I haven’t treated
it gently, it has been used as a hammer more than a few times as well as gone
skittering across concrete several times.
Overall I believe this is a great light for a light or intermediate duty user, if you're an intermediate user make sure you charge it nightly but it will perform very well for almost all everyday tasks, if you need a light for your job this shouldn’t be your primary light, you will be frustrated by the short runtime if you use it for multiple 20-30 minute intervals throughout the day.
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