LedLenser LED lights line comes from the German company - Zweibrueder Optoelectronics. What makes them special is the looks and design. Very nice small keychain LEDs. For one, the whole production/distribution chain is quite complicated, and naming is no better either. AFAIK, Zweibrueder is a German company, that produces those LED flashlights in Germany and in China, and then those are distributes in US by several different companies, such as Puma Knives, Cabelas, Fry's electronics and so on. To make all that better the names vary too. Can be referred as LedLenser, Coast Cutlery/LedLenser, Fry's Electronics, Eddie Bauer. No idea how did Eddie end up in the list, but may be he was the one who designed it, at least judging by classy look could've been him :) Anyway, if you spend some time you'll be able to figure out that all of them refer to the same flashlights. I suggest you read this thread on CPF, which has the most comprehensive info on LedLensers I've ever seen.

General

 - Like I said V9s look very cool. V9 micro is slightly shorter version of V9, former being 2" long and later 2.75". Both use AG5 button batteries, 4 of them each. Some online sources say V9 micro uses 3, but that's incorrect, I got one, and it does use 4 button cell batteries.
    As for the usability. Major drawback would be the absence of the constant On mode. In other words to keep the light on you have to keep the button depressed. Other than that I have no complaints. As usual I carry 2 lights on my keychain, Photon III and one of the V9s, so it's not a big problem for me. V9 beam is more focused compared to Photon III, so I use them both. Obviously you can have only one, no need to carry both of them around, but if you like small, neat gadgets why not :) After all it's fun too. V9 is a better toy to play with when you have nothing to do.
    Apparently, at some point Coast cutlery had V9s in black body, but they were discontinued. Currently only brushed aluminum V9s are available. The finish is quite durable, but if you carry one of those on your keychain they will get scratched. If that's a concern to you might want to consider different carry option.
    One more detail, the LED is exposed, there's no lens or any sort of cover on it. I personally don't care about that, my photon isn't covered either, but if you intend to experiment with your V9, or use it as a diving flashlight remember that ;)

Beam

 - Both V9s I got are white LEDs. The beam is quite bright. If that helps, V9 produces a relatively focused beam (compared to Photon III), that is brighter than PIII in medium mode, but slightly less then PIII in max output mode. Still, it is not recommended to shine V9 into your or your friends eyes directly, some might consider this a practical joke, no big harm done ;) Seriously, V9 is enough to light small room well enough to see what's going on and find things, plus the white light won't affect the way you see colors. For my use that's all I need. Obviously I wouldn't mind it being lighter, but it's fine the way it is too. And for the stats lifetime expectancy of 4 fresh cells in V9 is 100hr of continuous run.

Last updated - 05/06/19