LR40R A.K.A. Freedom Blaster!!!
Ambassador Jonathan K.
The LR40R is everything I hoped it would be and so so much more!! My reasoning for purchasing the light was to light up large open spaces for exploration and photography inside Ellison’s Cave (which contains the largest unobstructed vertical pit in the lower 48 states at 586′). The cave is so large and immense that what most people consider “bright” lights still won’t illuminate the massive pitch-black voids. I enjoy taking quality photographs, and without good lighting, photography is very difficult if not completely impossible. Low light can result in blurry photographs, dark photos, and just take much longer than needed to try and get the perfect shot. Well not anymore!!! The LR40R fixed all those issues! It doubles as a fantastic caving light allowing us to easily see new areas of the cave’s interior. The cave trips can last 20+ hours so time and weight savings is very important. Having a light that prevents me from carrying additional photography equipment and having to set it up is great!
This light has an 11,000 lumen floodlight!! Which is literally like “turning the lights on” inside the cave. Without any source of outside light other than what we haul inside, this was a nice feeling. To illustrate the performance of this light, this post’s main picture shows us rappelling down the 125′ Warm-Up Pit, which is roughly 150′ to the ceiling and 80′ x100′ at the base. The LR40R lights it perfectly to where we can see the entirety of the pit and take some cool photos while rappelling adjacent to the underground waterfall. The light also has a 1,000 lumen spotlight, and to be honest I was not expecting much in the performance department. I thought of it as an awkward 3rd wheel that wouldn’t perform as well or shine as far as my 3,000 lumen spotlight. Man it sure surprised me!! While it may only be 1/3 of the brightness of my other one, the beam pattern is very tight, allowing the light to shine extremely far and light up whatever I point it at! The lock-out function is great at preventing the light from turning on while inside the caving bag (which can be dangerous if it runs the battery down or just plain annoying to see your bag lighting up/strobing and have to dig through it mid-rappel/crawl and turn your light off). It’s durability did not disappoint as this past trip had some of the most crawling/squeezing we’ve done to date inside Ellison’s. Absolutely every piece of my body and my gear was drug through clay, banged on rocks, and just plain beat up lol.
We have a past tradition for when we get a new extremely bright Fenix flashlight for our caving trips – give it a nickname. The LR40R is now known as the Freedom Blaster! It is the most recent addition to my Fenix Lighting arsenal, and behind the headlamp I wear on my helmet as my primary light source, the Freedom Blaster is my new favorite light! It will be going with me on all future trips!
