Maxpedition Falcon-II - Long and Pic Heavy!

great review Russell... very thorough and well thought out man.. nice job..:thumbup:

i like the Izula on the shoulder strap, i'm going to have give that a shot with mine..:)
 
Fonly said:
Rksoon, I hate to ask, but is there any way you can take Beam shots of the G2?
Its LED right?
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Sure! I can try and get it up tonight or by the end of the weekend. And sorry I didn't specify, but yes, it is the LED version.

mtnfolk mike said:
great review Russell... very thorough and well thought out man.. nice job..:thumbup:

i like the Izula on the shoulder strap, i'm going to have give that a shot with mine..:)
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Thanks Mike :) Yeah, you should give it a shot; I am a big fan of having a small fixed blade there, especially since I don't really enjoy having anything heavier than a necklace around my neck. I want to give wearing a small blade around my neck another shot though, either with the Izula or the W&SS necker.
 
rksoon said:
And sorry, yes, it is the LED version.
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No! thats a good thing.:D:thumbup:

I've been looking at the G2 as well, I just was wondering about beam patterns. Surefire supposedly has an upper hand when it comes to beam patterns that seem to suit me.
 
Fonly said:
No! thats a good thing.:D:thumbup:

I've been looking at the G2 as well, I just was wondering about beam patterns. Surefire supposedly has an upper hand when it comes to beam patterns that seem to suit me.
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My mistake in wording above, fixed it :) The beam pattern looks terrific to me, but it's the first non-maglite flashlight in that output range I've owned, so I don't have much basis for comparison. I'm waiting on the L2D for that. It has a decent throw, though, and a nice spill.

ETA: I got it primarily as an emergency bedside flashlight for it's simple user interface, long battery shelf life, illumination, and reputation. I think I will take the L2D hiking though as it seems to suit that purpose better.
 
I relate to you on the whole color scheme changing thing. I got my black Multi Purpose Bag a month before they released the orange/foliage version. Pissed. :D All of my other bags from them will probably be the foliage/coyote color scheme, as I'm rather addicted to it.

At SHOT they had some cool prototypes on display, including an orange/foliage fatboy versipack as well as one in blue. They were also doing some foliage/black combos.
 
Haha, right I saw recently that they added a khaki-foliage option for the falcon. It looks good on the fatboy, and I'd imagine it'd be pretty nice on the Falcon. If I knew that was available I might have gone with that one instead of plain khaki. I'm guessing the coyote/foliage is different right? I'm intrigued by the black/foliage, sounds like it might be nice. Do you have any pics? I can't seem to find any pics right now of the new color schemes aside from the khaki/foliage and orange/foliage. I was a little surprised when I first got the bag because it wasn't what I expected, but I think it's grown on me; it's not a big deal :)
 
Nice job of reviewing a nice pack!

I bought one last fall and quickly fell in love with it. It is very well-suited for loading as you mentioned, with enough separate pockets/compartments for carrying all the regular stuff, plus "mission-specific" stuff. :)

It's the only pack I have that will hold a decent amount of gear when you need it, but will slim way down when you don't.

I've been very impressed with the quality of all the Maxpedition Gear I have purchased so far.

Stay sharp,
desmobob
 
rksoon said:
My mistake in wording above, fixed it :) The beam pattern looks terrific to me, but it's the first non-maglite flashlight in that output range I've owned, so I don't have much basis for comparison. I'm waiting on the L2D for that. It has a decent throw, though, and a nice spill.

ETA: I got it primarily as an emergency bedside flashlight for it's simple user interface, long battery shelf life, illumination, and reputation. I think I will take the L2D hiking though as it seems to suit that purpose better.
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Haha, no problem.:thumbup:

Yeah, the reason im so intrigued is im looking for a ned EDC light, as of now the E2DL has been the one Im looking into, but the G2 has also caught my eye. I remember somewhere hearing about a conversion kit that boosts output of the G2 from 80lumens to 350! But it had a 20 minute runtime,it would still be neat to see however.:D
 
rksoon said:
Haha, right I saw recently that they added a khaki-foliage option for the falcon. It looks good on the fatboy, and I'd imagine it'd be pretty nice on the Falcon. If I knew that was available I might have gone with that one instead of plain khaki. I'm guessing the coyote/foliage is different right? I'm intrigued by the black/foliage, sounds like it might be nice. Do you have any pics? I can't seem to find any pics right now of the new color schemes aside from the khaki/foliage and orange/foliage. I was a little surprised when I first got the bag because it wasn't what I expected, but I think it's grown on me; it's not a big deal :)
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The coyote is just the color of the trim on the foliage. The black/foliage had larger patches of solid black. I'm not sure I liked it, but it was interesting. The coyote/foliage was excellent though. Sorry, no pics. They were strict about no cameras at the show.
 
desmobob- Thanks! I decided to use the mini-rollypoly after all because of the info you gave me :thumbup:

Fonly- I think the G2L is a great EDC light, the nitrolon body makes is really light yet durable too. I've heard good things about the E2DL as well :thumbup: I'll try to get pics up later; I have a mini and a 4D LED maglite I can throw in for comparison.

FortyTwoBlades- Right, I forgot about that. I'll keep an eye out for your new maxped stuff in coyote/foliage. :thumbup:
 
Fonly, Here are the G2L beam shots you requested (sorry, only P&S here). Second pics are at lower exposure. Looking at the pics this morning, I guess I should have took some at a higher exposure too; let me know if this works for ya. A 4D LED maglite and 2AA mini-maglite are provided for comparison, all flashlights were placed in the same position around 2m from the wall, and camera settings and location were identical between different flashlights. I didn't swap out batteries for new ones because I meant for these to be general pics showing just beam pattern, but the batteries in each light are pretty fresh with less than 15 minutes of use.

4D LED Maglite
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2.jpg


2AA LED Mini-Maglite
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Surefire G2 LED
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I was amazed by how much the Surefire blew the 4D LED maglite out of the water in regards to illumination. However, the runtime on 4D must be much longer than the Surefire's two CR123s (only what I'd think - I've never drained the 4D maglite yet). The beam pattern on the 4D is horrible, as you can see. I couldn't produce a nice uniform beam, and this was surprising considering the nice beam the 2AA mini produced.
I still love my 2AA LED mini-mag; the beam pattern is nice and uniform as you can see, and the light provides a good balance of spill and throw. It's a respectable light that would do everything one would need it to do in the woods. The G2L is just a beast of a light though, and I am very happy with it. For me, it crushes the mini-mag in every aspect except absolute cost (not value) and battery availability. Both spill and throw are amazing. You can tell from the pics that the spill is much better than even a 4D maglite, and judging from outside use it seems to throw light farther (only qualitative assessment, sorry). As you can see, the beam pattern is excellent. The weight difference between the two is negligible. Overall, in light of my limited experience, it is a fantastic flashlight! Let me know if you need me to take other pics Fonly. :thumbup:


And since we're on lights, I just wanted to throw in these pics of the Spotlit LED Carabiner Light from County Comm. They're excellent little things that allow you to quickly locate gear and people (and would make an excellent signal at night if swung around on a rope); I absolutely love em. They have a steady and blink mode, and the batteries are 2x2016 and easily replaceable. They're great for night walks/jogs on dark roads too. No idea of run time as one hasn't died on me yet.

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ETA: I'm hoping to get out on at least a short day hike tomorrow, will post part two of the review as soon as I can!
 
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Got mine today. Its alot smaller then I thought. Nice pack though. It will be great for summer overnighters. I can fit my woobie, and my bivy in the main compartment, food in the next one, and gear in the rest. Bottle holder attatched to the side. Very nice. Got a free hat from maxpedition in the box too!! I love foliage. Its a cool color.
 
Congrats Jake! :D It is relatively small isn't it? The guy on the maxped site makes it look huge. Did you attach your 10x4/12x5 bottle holder to the side? How do you like it there, is it too wobbly for you?
 
I love it there man, heres a trick, run the compression strap over the bottl holder to eliminate the wobble. :thumbup:

On the other side I have an M2 waistpack which is my camera pouch, and a cocoon pouch for cordage. All foliage, except I replaced all the zipper pulls on everything with bright orange paracord. :thumbup: Makes em stand out a bit since the foliage blends together so well.
 
Yeah, that's the only thing I could figure, it just annoys me because my bottle holder is black and the strap is khaki :o Go ahead, call me a girl!! :D With the mini-rolly poly i can still run the strap beneath it.

I think I'll leave the mini-rollypoly there for the time being, it's slimmer than the bottle holder. I might just slap my 10x4 back on later there if I miss it too much :thumbup:
 
Hey man, if the rolypoly hods a bottle/cup, then there is nothin wrong with that setup!!

Im a girl too with all my matching maxpedition man. My wife called it "man Coach" :D Except my pouches cost way less the her Coach accesories for her purses. ;)
 
That's the problem, the roly poly doesn't, I have to use the 10x4 in order to carry the cup too. I might switch back, we'll see.

Haha, more affordable indeed!
 
If it really bugs you, I bet you could trade it on the exchange for a Tan one. Someone out there may want black more then tan....
 
Nah, it doesn't bug me that much. It's just one of those nit-picky things that pops up when you're trying to perfect a system. I bought my pouches and bottle holder much earlier, so they all match. I never thought I'd get a pack, so I hadn't really planned on color coordination (and I didn't want the all black Falcon).
 
Hey rk, thanks for posting pics of the countycomm light. I was rather confused by the function of those when I first saw them but the pics really clear it up. Way more useful than they initially seemed!
 
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