C. Crane Company "Pak-Lite" Mini LED Flashlight
Field Report by André Corterier

Personal Biographical Information:

Name: André Corterier
Gender: M
Age: 32
Height: 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
Weight: 78 kg (172 lb)
Email: andreDOTcorterierATfreenetDOTde
Home: Bonn, Germany
DATE: 2004-10-04

Backpacking Background:

I began backpacking in my late teens using Europe’s "InterRail"-System – weight hardly mattered, as we were on trains a lot. I usually traveled through southern Europe during summer, for about three weeks at a time, moving from campsites (often without tent) to youth hostels etc. I recently rediscovered backpacking and have started out slowly – single-day 15 mile (24 km) jaunts by myself or even shorter hikes (pushing a stroller uphill through the woods). I am getting started on longer hikes, as a lightweight packer. My gear is either old or really new – nothing in between.

ITEM: Pak-Lite LED Light
Year of manufacture: 2004
Manufacturer: C. Crane Company
URL: http://www.ccrane.com/
MSRP: 29.95 $ US for Pak-Lite with lithium battery
MSRP: 22.95 $ US for Pak-Lite with alkaline battery

Weight Comparisons - scale accurate to 5 g (.2 oz)
Pak-Lite listed weight: 42 g (1.5 oz)
Pak-Lite measured weight: 40 g (1.4 oz)

The Pak-Lite is a 9V lithium battery with a (really) small plastic case attached to one end, which features a switch and two LEDs sticking out of it. Pictures can be seen at the manufacturer's website (link above), a more detailed description is in my Initial Report.

I have been using this LED light a lot in the last two months. This is due mostly to its very small size and weight. I've kept it in my pants pocket for the entire period, whether hiking, going to work or what have you. It's never been bothersome that way and meant that I had a light with me always. It also meant that I got to show it off to a good number of people - it's that kind of a gimmick.

Field Use:
I have gotten a good bit of field use out of this light. While used in a variety of locations, temperatures were uniformly mild (15 to 25 C - 60 to 75 F), humidity low. I have yet to use it (outside) while it rains.

Reading at night:
The first time I used the Pak-Lite for this purpose was when camping in my tent. I first set the light on its "low" setting so as not to wake up my three-year old daughter. I felt the light output to be just adequate for this purpose. I was sitting cross-legged, hunched over my book while holding the light in my hand. However, in order to have enough light on the page to read by without feeling like I was endangering my eyesight, I was holding the light pretty close to the page. This in turn reduced the area which was fully lit to a part of the page, causing me to move the light back and forth across the page, which became annoying after a while. So I switched to the bright setting after awhile. In this setting, the light output was easily bright enough. However, holding it up high enough for it to light the entire open side of my paperback book became annoying after a while, too. Using the elasticized headband that came with it again caused glare in my glasses, as mentioned in my Initial Report. So I was not very happy with the light in this function.
This changed entirely with the arrival of my hammock. I now have a Hennessy Explorer Deluxe A-Sym, which features a sliding mesh pocket on the integral ridge cord. I found that I could switch the Pak-Lite on (high setting) and put it into the mesh pocket at an angle so that it lit the area in which I was holding my book. Due to its angular form and the fact that the LEDs on the front stick out a little, the Pak-Lite did not slide back into the horizontal, was easily adjustable and stayed the way I set it up. This made for very enjoyable reading. The fact that the LEDs warm only slightly to the touch even after they've been on "bright" for a while combined with the phenomenal battery life they should get out of the 9V lithium block, makes it the perfect reading light in my book.

Hiking at Night:
I've done some hiking at night and found that the Pak-Lite (on its "bright" setting) put out enough light for me to go through familiar (outdoor, off-trail) territory or to follow a moderately well-maintained trail. Finding the place at night where the trail left the road (on the other side of a ditch along the road) was rather problematic, however. It required some slow walking along the shoulder, with the light shining directly on it. It was in this kind of a situation that the Pak-Lite's limit in relation to more powerful flashlights was driven home. We were looking for a sandy place next to a river which the trail followed, in the woods, the night after we had first seen the spot. The river was maybe 20 m (65 ft) off to the side and 5 m (16 ft) lower than the trail. This meant that I could not see it in the woods at night, with or without the Pak-Lite. This would have meant having to spend some time searching for the place, though I knew it was nearby. Instead, one of my buddies held up a ridiculously powerful little handheld flashlight (which, he tells me, gets about 30 minutes out of a set of batteries), and lit up the night (Fiat Lux!*): Oh, there it is. That was the one point on that hike where everybody (including I) envied him his light - most other times, everybody envied my Pak-Lite.

Setting up / Breaking Camp:
I've had to do both in the darkness already (and expect to have to do it all the time for the LTR). While I leave the Pak-Lite on its "low"setting to rummage for things in my pack, I do everything else (like hanging my hammock or setting up my - well, still BGT's - stove) with the Pak-Lite on "bright". For the things I do with it which require both hands, I've found holding it in my mouth not nearly as much a bother as I would have expected. This may have something to do with its compact size and negligible weight. Anyway, it never seemed worth the time to finagle it into the elastic headband. Plus, and this is an aspect the usefulness of which I hadn't expected, it isn't round. This means it won't roll off an incline. I have had a notoriously hard time finding perfectly level surfaces outdoors, and of those I found none were situated so that a flashlight put on it would have lit anything I had any interest in seeing. I found this to be much easier with the Pak-Lite. Not only will it not roll off inclined surfaces, its size and weight (or lack of both) are such that I found once that I could stick it into the inside angle of a forking branch to light up the place where we were setting up camp. Again, however, I would have wished for a somewhat brighter light in this setup.

Durability:
No problems so far. The switch works like new. The battery has a few scratches (from keys kept in the same pocket, I assume). Once it occurred to me that the extending LEDs might not survive a harsh encounter with keys, I've switched the Pak-Lite to the pocket in which I keep my cell phone (for indoor days). Based on my experience so far, I do not foresee any issues concerning durability.

Side Notes:
Having this light with me all the time has proven useful in a number of unrelated situations, as well. Having to help my daughter in an unlit restroom once was *much* simplified because I could switch on the Pak-Lite, sit it on the ground upright, and thus have the place somewhat lit with my hands still free. Taking a quick look down a pipe or up the chimney when working around the house was also simplified by not having to go get a light first.

(Preliminary) Summary:
The light is an excellent package for adequate light in most situations without having to worry about recharging, so small and light that I can (and do) carry it everywhere without noticing it. If I were to start on a through-hike of anything at this point, this is the light I would take even if I wasn't testing it. The (non-round) shape is also beneficial. Excellent to read by (in my hammock).

Suggestions for Improvement:
Well, as has probably become obvious so far, my only wish for improvement is in the maximum light output available from this gadget. I could use a light which puts out a little less than the Pak-Lite's "bright" setting on low, and with a significantly higher output on "high". Maybe putting three (better yet, four) LEDs on the Pak-Lite instead of two (Pak-Lite Turbo?) would do it. I believe, based on my experience with another LED light, which has a brightness output just between the two modes of the Pak-Lite, that the higher drain on the battery would be compensated by more time spent with the light in "low" mode. This is because I feel that I often need more light than the Pak-Lite provides on "low", though not quite as much as it provides on "high". I therefore believe I would be using such a light on "low" quite a bit, while I currently use the Pak-Lite on "low" only because I've resolved to test both settings. I'm using it on "high" about 90% of the time. I feel that while this would make the Pak-Lite more expensive, it might increase its usefulness considerably at effectively no additional size or weight.


*(Lat.: "Let there be light!")