Streamlight Scorpion - Never too late to learn something new

[Monocrom]

The SL Scorpion! By far my favorite flashlight of the day. I thought these were the greatest lights ever, and bought a bunch over several years for myself and to give away. I still have a few Scorpions, but they're not used anymore.

I still have mine too. First saw it in the flesh, early 1990s.... Saw it in a black plastic display box in the window of a Tourist shop next to the Ed Sullivan theater where they filmed The Late Show with David Letterman. It looked impressive. Didn't buy that one. But soon afterwards got my own Incandescent SL Scorpion. (No presentation box though.)

It looked so nice, I'm sure someone bought it. Maybe a tourist. I hope it gave them many years of service.

 

[Poppy]

The only streamlight I bought was a Streamlight stylus 2 AAA penlight.
I very much disliked that they would not let us know which LED they used.

 

[bridgman]

The last time I had free time to experiment with flashlights I used to do impromptu "basement clearing" exercises to get an understanding of how different beam shapes affected usability. I have an unusually shaped house so the basement offered an interesting mix of a long central area and rooms arranged around a ~150 degree circle after coming down the stairs.

I believe my Scorpion was one of the early LED versions, but I don't think I ever found anything that did a better job in the exercise. That was what gave me the first clue that beam shape needed to vary with bulb output, ie that once your narrow bright spot was sufficiently bright it made more sense to use additional light to brighten the spill area or make the spot wider rather than making an ever-brighter spot.

It's still a regularly used light, even 15 years later. Probably the only "blue LED" light I'm still using for anything besides long range.