Today I’m going to be looking at the Ledlenser P7.2 torch, with a special view to assessing its suitability as a camping torch.
Overview
The Ledlenser P7.2 is a great all round torch, I bought mine about 3 years ago and it has never let me down. It’s light, compact and bright enough for most situations that one would find on a campsite, in addition to this it has a decent battery life so as not to leave you stranded in the dark.
There is a newer version available, the Ledlenser P7, that is brighter and not that much more expensive.
Specification
- Advanced Focus System – spot to flood
- One handed speed focus
- Aircraft grade aluminium casing
- LED Configuration – 1 x High Power LED
- Operating modes:
- Low: 40 lumens; 50 hours run-time; 100 m beam range.
- Power: 250 lumens; 4 hours run-time; 220 m beam range.
- Boost: 320 lumens; 2 hours run-time; 260 m beam range.
- Note: The boost mode is obtained by pushing and holding-in the tail cap switch.
- Splashproof to IPX4
- Dynamic switch
- Up to 50 hours battery life
- Dimensions: 130mm x 37mm
- Weight: 175g
- Power Supply: 4 x AAA alkaline batteries
Key Features
The P7.2 Torch has a CREE LED light chip which, when combined with the patented Advanced Focus System (AFS), delivers an excellent level of lighting performance, that uniquely combines lens and reflector to deliver a wide superior homogenous flood beam for close-up visibility, together with a sharply focused spot beam for long distance visibility – resulting in one of the world’s best focusing systems for LED torches.
It has a max 320 lumen output on the boost mode and 250 lumen on the high mode – this level of brightness combined with the excellent optics make it a great camping torch and should be sufficient for most campers’ needs.
The P7.2 also incorporates Speed Focus, which allows single-handed focusing from flood to spot beam.
The torch also has a large switch which is easy to use with gloves on as well as a matt black anti-slip finish to ensure you always have a firm grip.
Modes
Half-pressing and holding the switch in allows for 320 lumen turbo (boost) output – this allows for short/tactical use, but means that you can’t permanently run the light at 320 lumen.
Continuing with a full-press click engages the 250 lumen high mode, another click engages the 40 lumen low mode whilst one more switches it off. You have to cycle through the modes as there is no memory.
There aren’t any other modes that many other torches have, such as firefly, strobe, SOS, red light – but to be honest, I find it makes the torch simpler and straight forward… quite simply, its a torch that provides high quality light.
If you’re looking for a device that has a lot of other technical features, then you’re probably best off looking elsewhere.
Optics
The focusing system is really good and offers that important switch between a high-powered spot, and a nice wide beam.
On the spotlight, I’ve lit up small rocks 200m away without a problem and the wide beam is great for navigating campsites (with all their hazards and randomly placed guylines) at night and still offers a really bright light.
The wide beam is very uniform and gives a very even illumination of objects.
The zoom end of the beam gives an almost circular bright hotspot with no spill beam, producing an impressive pencil beam of light that is very useable.
Runtime
Although the manufacturer’s specification indicates 4 hours run-time on high mode… in reality I’ve, actually, found this to be more like 90 mins.
Having said this, the fact that the P7.2 uses 4 AAA batteries means spares should be readily available and are fairly cheap.
Is the Ledlenser P7.2 the Torch for you?
Pros:
- Lightweight
- Compact
- Bright
- Great optics
- Simple to use
- Easy to switch on in the dark and with gloves on
Cons
- Not as bright as other torches out there
- Limited number of modes
- Shorter run-time than advertised
- Not waterproof – only splashproof (IPX4)
- Can be accidentally switched on if the power button becomes depressed while in a bag/pocket (however this can be avoided by keeping it in the pouch that comes with it)
The Ledlenser P7.2 torch is a great torch for anyone who likes the outdoors.
The great thing about it is that its light, compact and bright – key qualities that you would need on a campsite.
It will suit experienced and inexperienced campers alike.
All in all a great camping torch!
Available at
I hope you’ve found this review helpful.
If you have any questions or comments, then please leave them below and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.
Mohammad
Great review of the Ledlenser P7.2. – I love camping! I have a caravan and when we go to holiday parks, I am so impressed with the equipment you can get these days for tents and campers. My family enjoy camping so I will be sure to pass this review onto them.
Thanks for the comment! I love camping too and yes, there’s so many gadgets out there to make it that little bit more fun…