There's nothing really new in the lighting aspect of the MPLS; it's just an LED on a gooseneck. Princeton Tec makes its money in the attachment system. Regular headlamps get in the way when wearing a helmet, helmet-mounted lights only work when the helmet is on your head, and an angle-head flashlight clipped to your chest is never really pointed where you need it. So, in one accessory-laden swoop, the MPLS tackles all those field-admin lighting issues.
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Princeton Tec came up with a simple, tool-free way to move the light from helmet to vest that allows you to solidly mount and aim the light effectively and easily in both locations. It comes with three mounting plates, one that clips to PALS webbing, taking up only one square of PALS grid, and two for the helmet. One helmet mount attaches to the lip of a helmet, while the other works with the MSA ACH-ARC helmet rails. Princeton Tec mentions a magnetic mount on their website, but we haven't seen it. Mounted weight is about 1.5 ounces; this includes the light with a helmet and PALS mount.
Securing the ARC helmet mount took mere seconds using only a flat blade screwdriver. The PALS mount just snapped into place. We found moving the light between head and chest was easy barehanded or while wearing gloves. The light body pops free of the mount when rotated 45 degrees. Installation in the other mount is just the reverse. Once used to the motion, snapping it between locations was quickly accomplished by feel.
In use, the light never broke free of its mount, and the gooseneck dutifully stayed pointed where it was needed. It has two light levels accessed by pushing the lone operating button once or twice. Its lower light level was useful for reading at arm's length, while the brighter level was adequate for navigating in the dark or finding something hidden in the dark corner of a vehicle. The red version wasn't available at press time, and the IR version didn't do anything with our thermal NVGs, so we only used the white light version. Otherwise, there are also blue and green LEDs, and the bodies come in tan, OD and black.
The white light runs on a couple of watch batteries. Usually we'd pass on anything that takes an odd-ball battery, but the 2016-sized batteries aren't that tough to find. We saw them for sale in the PX at Camp Leatherneck, for example. Heck, they are small and cheap enough that you could leave four spare sets at the bottom of a MOLLE pouch until needed. Battery changes are thankfully easy; no tools necessary. We went a month without killing a set of batteries, so figure Princeton Tec's 36-hour estimate a decent measure of battery life.
The only negative aspect we found with the light, aside from the somewhat obscure battery, is the switch. The same thing that makes its operation so simple also makes accidental activation just as easy. In practice, the button was stiff enough to prevent this while worn. But this wasn't the case when stowed with other gear in a duffelbag. Best to store it without batteries so you're not greeted be a dead light when you pull it out. But, before you suggest a deactivation timer to mitigate this issue, we consider having a light shut itself off after a given period of time an unacceptable solution to an avoidable problem.
The IR version shares the same problem as nearly every other IR light out there; you only know when it's on if you're wearing NVGs (or you can see the faint glow of the IR LED when looking right into it). So, be prepared to suffer a dead battery ever once in a while, or just store it without a battery.
The MPLS can be found for $30, it's made in the U.S., and when you look at the intuitive operation, immense flexibility and small footprint, it becomes hard not to recommend buying one.
More info from princetontec.com.
