Review: Nitecore EDC29 flashlight

This review is not one I set out to do but the Nitecore EDC29 is too good to ignore. It’s one hell of a flashlight in a tiny package.

This high-tech gadget fits easily in a hand or pocket but will light up a scene with an outsized amount of white LED light — up to 6500 Lumens worth!

Nitecore EDC29 flashlight review — The Nitecore EDC29 is a pocket-sized flashlight with a tough aluminium body and grippy surfaces

I’ll keep this fairly brief, because you can read the list of features and specs on the Nitecore website, but it’s well worth discussing how useful this light is.

By pairing a couple of UHi 20 LED units, Nitecore has packed tons of lighting potential into the small, rectangular, aluminium body, and then tapped it with well-considered electronics.

There are two buttons on the back: the on/off control and a custom button.

The former does the obvious as well as stepping progressively through four brightness settings of 15, 100, 400 and 1200 Lumens. Or in other words, from a very modest glow for close-up use that doesn’t completely wreck your night vision to a good, strong light that will illuminate your campsite.

The custom button activates a 6500 Lumen strobe or either of two permanent beams, one a spotlight, the other a floodlight.

The spot or search beam is 3000 Lumens and claimed good for 400m, but in the real world my eyes couldn’t detect anything that far away. In the bush, 100-200m is more realistic unless you’re using an optic. (Manufacturers’ claims are probably fine in ideal lab conditions but you can never expect as much in the field.)

The floodlight is a monster 6500 Lumen light show that Nitecore calls Lumin Shield (yes, with an “i”). It uses the spotlight and adds additional light to significantly widen the illuminated area.

Both these lights are so powerful that you can use them for only a few seconds each before the EDC29 shuts them off again, but it gives you enough time to have a good, hard look into the night while they last.

They do run extremely hot. You wouldn’t want them activating accidentally in a bag or pocket, for example, but Nitecore fitted a lockout switch so you can ensure that doesn’t happen.

The built-in battery should give you up to about two hours of reasonably intensive use on the higher settings, and as much as two or three days on the lowest.

The EDC29 has a small LED screen which displays a range of information such as output, battery, the runtime remaining on each power level and so on. It’ll also help you alter the default power level on activation, all without actually turning on the light.

The EDC29 is strongly built and rated to IP54 levels of ingress protection which will cover general outdoor use.