The Quark Mini 123 from 4Sevens is not a “tactical light.” In a market glutted with insanely bright combat lights that are far too big to fit comfortably in a pocket, the Mini 123 is without doubt a utility light. It is a mere .8 inches in diameter and only 2.3 inches long. The weight is negligible. The aluminum shaft holds a single CR123A battery and the circuitry to control it.
There are any number of reasons you might want a utility light. If you’ve ever realized your “tactical” light was just too bright for the situation (don’t use that SureFire combat light to look at your watch in a movie theater unless you want to blind yourself and those in the rows nearest you), you will appreciate the Mini 123’s “low” mode. This is the default mode (as it should be). Twisting the head of the light switches it on and produces 3 lumens of light.
If you quickly twist the light off and on again in succession, you will switch through three brightness modes (low, at 3; medium, at 40 lumens, and high at an impressive 189 lumens) and then several “special” modes. The strobes are a seizure-inducing fast blink (strobe), a timed SOS pattern, a steady blink (beacon high) , and a two beats on, one beat off blink (becon low). The exact cycle of beam patterns is…
low, medium, high; low, medium, high; strobe; SOS, beacon high, beacon low
I had a little trouble selecting the mode until I realized I had misread the instructions and missed the repeat of the three basic beam modes in that cycle. Once I knew that, operation of the light proved very easy. I received two sample lights, one in “neutral LED” and one in “warm LED.” The warm appears much more yellow — closer to an incandescent beam — and the neutral looks cooler and bluer on camera (while appearing pure white to my eye).
Fit and finish of the lights, as well as the professional packaging, are excellent, as has been the case with every 4Sevens light I have ever examined. The handy little light offers good traction (although the knurling isn’t as aggressive as I would like) and boasts a tiny lanyard mount. A gray lanyard is provided, and my samples came with batteries, too.
Total burn time is listed in the product literature as 1.2 hours on the high setting and 6.25 days on the low. Given the storage life of CR 123A cells and this fairly impressive total run time, I tend toward this model over one of 4Seven’s comparable AA torches.
4Sevens offers a Mini CR2 model that is almost indistinguishable from the Mini 123. It is slightly shorter, at 2 inches even, powered by a single CR2 battery (it ships with 2 of them). High output is 180 lumens and low is 3. The operational modes, and the sequence for accessing them, are identical to the Mini 123 models. Total runtime at high output is listed as 40 minutes, versus a 3.8 day burn time on the low setting.
The older I get, the more I value (and use) a utility light over a combat light. The Mini 123 (not to mention the CR2) is a superb choice to fit this role. It’s small, handy, offers brighter light for greater need, and on its brightest setting is amazingly powerful (for such a tiny torch).
I know this has been up on the internet for over three years, but the quark minis are still great lights , and people still buy them, so I figure the correct information should be provided. Your description of the two beacon modes is incorrect. You write:
“a steady blink (beacon high) , and a two beats on, one beat off blink (be[a]con low)., when in reality, you need to be a bit more patient. The beacon high mode is identified by six steady blinks; then it goes into the high beacon mode which is a high lumen blink every ten seconds or so. The low beacon mode is next and is first identified by the two beats on, one beat off for five times followed by one steady blink; then the low beacon mode comes on which is one lower intensity blink every ten seconds or so.
All the best,
Doug