Were you always a flashaholic?

[b2eze]

Is this a trick question?
Does 5 pounds of flour make a big bisquit!
Does a cat have a climbing gear?
Was I always a flashaholic? Of course, silly! Why else would I be here?
Well, there is the build it yourself thing, and gauldawful bright lights give a lot better gradification then planting a garden! Quicker too! I used a 1 aa cell chrome dimestore keychain light to read under the covers, way back when... now my dimmest light is too bright to use to read under the covers! Maybe as I get older I'm more easily amazed......

 

[Tech a Billy]

Oh yea. I have very early memories, from about 8 or 10 years old, of a chromed Eveready penlight using those silver "nine lives" carbon-zinc AA's that I EDC'd to school. And I also remember my Dad's 6 volt lantern battery sealed beam light with the thumb screw terminals and red flashing light. That bad boy really had throw and runtime but weighed a ton. I thought it was so cool...but back in the early 60's there weren't many choices.

I was always fascinated by the ads in magazines for small "super bright" flashlights but soon realized that they were all just the same stuff in different packages. And that stayed the same from before WWII right up through the Mag light era with the only real improvements coming in the form of Alkaline batteries and rare gas filled bulbs. But during the last few years we are seeing such dramatic advancements in this technology that it truly is a great time to be a flashholic.

Like PlayboyJoe, I was "suping up" my flashlights and bicycle lights before it was called modding. I melted quite a few lenses and reflectors as I recall.

 

[PhotonWrangler]

I've always found bright light to be impressive, even as a child. Whenever I would pass a lighting display in a department store (the kind of display with lots and lots of lit up fixtures), I would just pause there for a moment and soak up the comforting rays.

When LEDs first came out in the early 70s, I was absolutely fascinated by those little glowing red lights. I was amazed that a lamp could be made without a filament or gas chamber and would draw a tiny amount of current compared to incandescents. I've been following LED developments closely ever since then, and now that white LED flashlights are becoming practical, I've started a modest collection of them.

I don't go for the really high-end Surefire stuff - I'm perfectly happy with Photon Microlight, Dorcy, Nuwai and River Rock. They just beat the pants off of the incandescents that I used to carry.

 

[alberto]

My father was an alcoholic and my mother abused me...... oh wait, that's somebody else's story not mine. Actually, if you have ever been in a high-rise building power outage during a fire emergency evacuation down stairwells without emergency lighting, you'll understand why I am a flashaholic.

 

[BatteryCharger]

I became a flashaholic the day I found myself 3 miles into a cave with no flashlight. It gets VERY dark inside a cave 3 miles from the opening! Many, many hours later I emerged bleeding from head to toe due to the fact that the cave was encased in sharp volcanic rock...

 

[Macaw]

I became a flashaholic the day I found myself 3 miles into a cave with no flashlight. It gets VERY dark inside a cave 3 miles from the opening! Many, many hours later I emerged bleeding from head to toe due to the fact that the cave was encased in sharp volcanic rock...

OMG!! That's got to be one of the best reasons I've ever read for becoming a flashaholic!:wow:
I went into a wild cave many moons ago. I was with a couple other guys and we had lots of lights and hard hats. I still managed to darn near break my neck walking into a stelagmite/tite (still get those confused). Also slipped on a slimy slope and tumbled down it in total darkness, not knowing where or how I would end up when I finally stopped.

I don't do caves any more!

 

[lightcacher]

Do you remember the scene from "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" where Richard Dreyfus was sitting in his utility truck and the huge alien spacecraft had just passed overhead? Remember the super bright beam of light the ship flashed down on the highway ahead and the sound it made? That one scene impressed me more than anything else in the movie, I guess that means I've always been a flashaholic........

 

[Zigzago]

In retrospect, I was a flashaholic since early childhood, but I didn't recognize it until a few years ago when I got into LED flashlights.

Before then, I never considered myself a collector of anything but I remember being delighted whenever I had an excuse to buy a new flashlight such as, "I need this for camping," or "I need this for my car," or "My old one broke."

I also remember the free Radio Shack flashlights. My favorite was a 4C lantern from the 1980's. The switch finally wore out.

 

[Taylorf]

I have always liked gadgets, which have led me on to flashlights. I really started liking them at around 12 and at about 13 i bought my first Surefire (8ax). I had to save up for that one for like a year. I am only 16 right now and i see many more flashlights in my furure:rock: . Now i have my Surefire 8ax, Orb Raw, Thor 10 million, Thor 15 million, and a Streamlight Stinger.

 

[bexteck]

Since I was in elementary school, I was always the one with the newest and coolest flashlight. Of course the most expensive thing I could afford in those days was a $20 multifunction light from radio shack which had a Krypton throw light in the front, florescent tube on the bottom and red and amber flashing lights on the top. When I got to high school, I began working in the theater and soon rose to the position of head lighting technician. This meant that I got to play with 30,000+ watts of stage lights. In my freshmen year of college, I found the CPF and entered into a world of premium lighting devices. Now after a year and about $1k, I have a nice collection of lights ranging from the little Peak Matterhorn AAA to the very large and bright X990. Now I am a flashaholic for life.

 

[78CJ5]

No.
Not until I started looking for anLED replacement for my Solitaire and discovered CPF in my search.

This is about the same story as my own. I found this site while looking for a handheld spotlight for my boat... Now I'm hooked.

 

[LEDMaster2003]

For me, yes I liked FL's ever since I was at least 4.

 

[Nubo]

I still managed to darn near break my neck walking into a stelagmite/tite (still get those confused).

StalagMITEs are the ones that start on the floor and reach up towards the ceiling. One day they MIGHT make it....

My first fashlight recollection was being 5 and having surgery. My dad asked what he could get me to cheer me up and I mentioned a big-ol' flashlight I'd seen in the hardware store. It was a shiny silvery 5D-cell light. EverReady, I think. It even had a separate button for momentary light, morse-code and all that fancy stuff. Pretty huge light for a 5-year-old but that's what I wanted. At 5-cells a pop it wasn't "refilled" very often. And batteries didn't last all that long -- these were the days of the 9-lives zinc batteries. Maybe why I lean more towards run-time

 

[tsask]

over 10 years ago I carried a 4 D mag I called it excalibur, a great tool for work and also a valuable "prop" it made an impression on folks that saw it. also letting people I was serious about what I was looking at. having spent so much time out at night in darkness in vehicle or walking around unfamiliar places, I felt the need for accepting the need for light rather than fighting the darkness. as a kid I was always disappointed in flashlight bulbs and run time. that MAG i carried was great. I then learned about LEDS.............regulation constant brightness, Now I cant stop this passion , now like some of those stories posted here, I find myself hooking up lighting contraptions like a kid. last week I bought my first BOOST PUCKs from lumileds! wow a new world!!!!! more light, more power, more soothing brightness amidst the darkness. I admit it wasnt until the LED that I started ALWAYS having a light on me (almost always, although my Under Water kinetics are waterproof). now I bask in the warm soothing glow of LEDS whenever I can. Sounds like I'm some sort of alien addicted on 532 mm wavelegnth light!! heh heh heh
"life begins at 532 mm"

 

[chesterqw]

i was and still am. when i was young, i played with my father's light that he had since he was like 30ish. (he is 50 now) it was a plastic 4d light with a prbase bulb. they used it to hunt for bats then then i saw glow in dark. which i was going to dig in, i wanted something that glows more!!!!(until today)

then i go into laser pointer. bought 4 to 5 of those keychain ones. then one day i was searching for a better one and poof CPF.

i see the light after then....but money isn't much in my pocket. i got a pelican supersabre lite,a tec 40, a red luxIII modded china light with flupic, 1 photon clone with orange led, one 5 led and laser pointer inova-ish light, aa minimag and many many pr base bulb which i destroyed in finding the best bulb"mixture" for lights. my lasers are all lost somewhere in my house...

 

[photo2000a]

i sure was always facanited w/lights it was sorta flashlights and batteries that got me started into engineering i just had to know how it wored n stuff

even as a kid far back as even kindergarden, i never whent anyplace w/o my bat utility belt flashlights tools etc ohh and tricorder <sigh>



back then as a kid, i had the silly but cute thing going for me <shrugs>

now that i am old i just look silly w/it on