Princeton Tec Genesis

[paul johnson]

So, since I've recently re-discovered the joys of handhelds, I decided to give the PT Genesis flashlight a whirl.

The PT Apex is my favorite high powered headlamp, so, i was hoping to similarly love the PT Genesis flashlight. Oh, the dissapointment. It's not so much that it is a bad flashlight, but rather that it's just not as good as some of its competitors.

2xCR123A power source drives the 3W LED. This is NOT a lot of stored energy compared to the 4xAA batts, like that used in the PT Apex 3W headlamp. Off the top of my head, it's just a bit less than 50% at the "in series" 6VDC supply voltage employed in each application.

It's quite bright at 47lumens, with a very bright center spot which is larger than some other handhelds (but not quite as a bright). It has a decently sized spillbeam area surrounding the bright spot and this area, while noticeably dimmer, is still bright enough to be useful.

Batt. life is rather poor, IMO. This is mainly b/c there is only one level of light output – FULL BLAST. So, after 2.5-3.0 hrs, the light is noticeably dimmer, but still pretty bright (prob. about as bright as a PT Eos on HIGH). At 3.5hrs it's still bright enough to walk a non-demanding trail by. By 5hrs though, it's only bright enough for task/proximity lighting. It's output is regulated, however – for about the first 2.0-2.5hrs.

It comes with three different interchangeable rings, but i only use the one with the clip. Speaking of the the clip, it's positioned the wrong way to make it useful as a hatbrim clip. However, to test it, i turned the clip around – easy enough to do. However, it's positioned too far back to make it an effective hat brim clip – too bad. Still, even if the clip was positioned more towards the front of the flashlight, the Genesis weighs ~5.5oz (w/batts) and so is a little heavy to be clipped to a capbrim.

The packaging looks very nice. The switch ergonomics are just a little wanting. It requires just a bit too much force to actuate the tactically positioned tail-end/butt-cap ON-OFF switch. Of course, this prevents the flashlight from being accidentally switched on. The one-hand operation of the switch is very nice, also.

If burn time isn't important to you, then a 4 rating is probably more in line with this nice package and it's performance.

However, it's somewhat disappointing burn time, IMO, causes me to give the Genesis a 3.

Well, like the meaning of its name, Genesis (i.e., from the Greek translation of the Hebrew word, for "beginning(s)"), hopefully, this is just the beginning and not the ending for this flashlight. With a little improvement it could be a solid 4+.

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