What flashlight you have in hand before you get into CPF?

[Modernflame]

Not long ago, I was speaking with a man who does house inspections for a living. Curiously, I asked him what flashlight does he use? His response was... "ah usually whatever the home owner has, and the batteries are usually half dead."
When I suggested that he could get a good LED light with an 18650 rechargeable cell, and charger that he could top it off while in his car for about $40; his response was some thing along the lines of... " ! FORTY DOLLARS ? !!!

I guess we are still the outliers.

It amazes me that tradesmen will spend thousands of dollars on high end power tools, then hundreds more for fancy tool boxes, but when they need a flashlight, they have a $5 budget cap.

Or maybe I'm just an outlier.

 

[OEOE]

By the time I joined I'd been lurking for a while and greatly enjoying what I was learning from the group, but I had already been a flashaholic for years with a bunch of different maglights, a couple of which are still in use with suitable led replacement bulbs. My first breakthrough light was a pelican m6 with an incan bulb but a still a revelation after what I'd been used to. After that, my first led, a surefire 6px defender and from then on, it was all downhill. An olight m20x warrior, fenix pd35, acebeam EC50II etc. etc. 38 lights now and still going strong. Just ordered another emisar D4vn, this one in cyan with the XPl HI led. Just love those little guys!

 

[DavidRZ]

I had a Surefire E1 before I joined eons ago. Just staring to get back into it and picked up a Zebralight SC5.

 

[ven]

Yes +1 good to see you about poppy hope all well your side and family all well.

Sure is a trip down memory lane, from pretty much all cool whites in LED's to mainly neutrals now. Still managed to snatch up a nice sc62 6300k and a nice cool pure beam. Colours not washed out , so still enjoy a little bit of cool in the sea of neutral. As long as i have a few options, i am happy.

I had a Surefire E1 before I joined eons ago. Just staring to get back into it and picked up a Zebralight SC5.

Makes me ponder a little, how one of your lights pre CPF has become one of my latest lights. From 4000lm single 18650 lights, triples, quads n all kinds of crazy programmable UI's etc etc............to an old E1e

Granted its been tana'd with a singLED 219b 5000k, but i just love the classic surefire's.

In the last year or so i have grown a few surefires of years gone by. Most have a modern interior though to keep my tint/beam fussy eyes happy once darkness falls. But when the day starts, i can look over the classics which fall as easy in hand as they do on my eye. Much prefer them to the latest chinese lights anyway....................they just feel like a flashlight should, look like one as well.

 

[ven]

Thanks Grijon, it's good to see that you are still here too!

It's funny, that many people still consider $30 an extravagant price for a flashlight.

Not long ago, I was speaking with a man who does house inspections for a living. Curiously, I asked him what flashlight does he use? His response was... "ah usually whatever the home owner has, and the batteries are usually half dead."
When I suggested that he could get a good LED light with an 18650 rechargeable cell, and charger that he could top it off while in his car for about $40; his response was some thing along the lines of... " ! FORTY DOLLARS ? !!!

I guess we are still the outliers.

In the last 6m or so, i have had at least 3 comments on "torches" and "cost". Most recently " yeh but how much was that? i am not paying £20 for a torch!" I just laughed, thought funny, i mean £20 yet they wont hesitate on spending £20k on (without naming) unreliable junk cars. The cars that wont get you home.................

Many peoples idea of a good light is the 3rd aisle past the veg, grab a couple of those torches just next to the light bulbs for £2 ea. So good we will get 2 of them in case 1 fails within the 1st week. Then when they really need a light, its there balancing on the engine bay lighting up a super small spot of blue............angry blue. Struggling for an hour instead of a couple of mins, dropping tools far more expensive than the cheap light in the engine bay abyss.

Yep £20, forget that!

 

[ChrisGarrett]

Wonder what flashlight you guys used before you get into CPF, I have a Fenix LD12 and Wuben TO10R, welcome to post yours below!

My first LED light was a Fenix P1D that I bought new, from some guy on SnipersHide, around 2007. I remember how amazed I was when I first turned it on, coming off of MagLites. I think I paid $37 for it, but can't recall.

Still works, although I don't carry it these days.

Chris

 

[DavidRZ]

Makes me ponder a little, how one of your lights pre CPF has become one of my latest lights. From 4000lm single 18650 lights, triples, quads n all kinds of crazy programmable UI's etc etc............to an old E1e

Granted its been tana'd with a singLED 219b 5000k, but i just love the classic surefire's.

In the last year or so i have grown a few surefires of years gone by. Most have a modern interior though to keep my tint/beam fussy eyes happy once darkness falls. But when the day starts, i can look over the classics which fall as easy in hand as they do on my eye. Much prefer them to the latest chinese lights anyway....................they just feel like a flashlight should, look like one as well.

No doubt a great platform. I think your E1e is a bit nicer than mine was, or even could have been at the time.

 

[ven]

No doubt a great platform. I think your E1e is a bit nicer than mine was, or even could have been at the time.

Yes, i am pretty new to the E series, thanks to a mr fixer i have a very special E2e to keep an eye on it.

The incand beam is awesome, my E1e was dead so had not tried one before mr fixer sent me the E2. I have a tana singLED which is a 219b 5000k to swap around. One head is on its way back from tana with a tripLED 219b and h17f. I will probably set it to a single mode, maybe 150-300lm type of do it all output(keep it simple yet ample). So between the 2, i can swap around the heads.
If you still have it, maybe want to give it a bump up in output, tana makes some very nice options

 

[mikec49]

Fenix ld20, have many years of use with it. Various no name

 

[Darth_Cholo]

Surefire G2 Nitrolon LED. Still have it. Saw it at home depot or lowes I think of all places.

 

[Rifter]

AA incan minimag

 

[SkooterTrash]

I joined this forum today, after reading and researching lights for work this week. I've only had 3d incan Mags, and a handful of the cheapo Ozark Trail Wal-Mart specials. I ordered a new Ml300l 3d Mag, and my wife ordered a Fenix tk20r for my birthday. Not really sure what to expect because both of these will be brighter than anything I've ever used before.

 

[Jist]

[h=1][/h]Prometheus beta QRV2 copper
LED
1*AAA

 

[billbebob]

In my hand was a classic Fenix TK 20 and a couple of lights from Tektite. I still have the Fenix here at home.

 

[search_and_rescue]

Just prior to joining CPF I owned Surefire flashlights. The Surefire M3 Combatlight was bright enough for me to notice the continuation uphill of the Garapiito Canyon trail from the halfway point at the dry riverbed. The smaller two-cell lights I used before the M3-CB were not bright enough for me to discover it.

 

[eh4]

I had led micro lights from about when they started out as nothing more than a nicer body than heat shrink or electrical tape over a long leg 5mm diode and a watch battery, also had a Surefire E2E back when paying for two CR123 batteries for an hour + of 60 lumens of light, and for that matter when paying 10-15 cents a minute for wireless phone calls seemed like reasonable sacrifices;
I also had a red Infinity Ultra -which was just a great light, would run nearly a week on an alkaline AA, and often popped from off gassed pressure from the ruptured AA when I changed batteries. .
Those were my fancy upgrades, before that it was a Maglight 2AA backed up by a Bic lighter and a plumbers candle (two is one), and before that, a plastic imitation military right angle light that took 2 C batteries (2 D batteries?).
Before that it was the disposable, flat polygonal, typically yellow plastic lights with the slide switch on top;
they were truly "flash" lights... you'd keep them off and let the batteries recover, then turn them on for a min or a few seconds before they dimmed, look around, and turn them back off to let the batteries recover again.

 

[Darryl Staw]

My first flashlights were the old Ever-ready 6 volt lanterns with the sealed beam. I still have it but no battery. Then I went to Maglites from 5D down to 2AA Mini-Maglites. Now I have Fenix and Streamlight.

 

[Divisi0n8672]

I have had a Thrunite TN12 for a good 4 or 5 years and its still in my possession. Great little 18650 light, been through a lot!

 

[xcel730]

I had a few MagLites before CPF. I upgraded the AA MagLite to LED and clicky tailcap and I was hooked. My first "super expensive" flashlight afterwards (still before CPF) was the Inova T2. I think I paid about $50 for it. The rest is history.

 

[Modernflame]

...also had a Surefire E2E back when paying for two CR123 batteries for an hour + of 60 lumens of light, and for that matter when paying 10-15 cents a minute for wireless phone calls seemed like reasonable sacrifices;

I budgeted for it like it was my grocery bill. The batteries, of course, having priority over the mobile telephone.