+1, This was sort of my experience. Kicked around the occasional mini-maglite for years (especially for outside chores in AK winter), but the poor performance and lack of reliability (fragile/shortlifetime bulb and inconsistent head contacts) resulted in pretty much ho-hum emotions. Only when I ran into the substantial quality of SF LED's ~1.5 years ago did I finally get a sustaining interest.back in the day i did'nt think there were any other flashlights but m@glites. i never really was interested in them. i mean... a light is a light right?........ until i stumbled in here looking, some months gone by now, for information. about that same time i bought a g2 and was absolutely floored by it.
Would you believe I was a beta tester? No. As my uncle with ahlzheimers once said, "Who cares what year it is?". You caught me. I missed it by one lousy year. I said "about 1983". Give me a break. Half this board was not even born in 1983. Those young wipper snappers don't know how good they have it now. You might even be one of them. So, GET OFF MY LAWN!!!!