Jean-Luc Descarte
Enlightened
Maglites. Practically all of the ones I've had had a defect or bad design decision behind them. They may be fine when you get them off-the-shelf, but if you live not in the US and have to import them and pay out the butt for it... Hurts double because until that point I was a big fan thanks to my uncle, who has had an incan 2D for pretty much 40 years!
- Silver 3D came DOA - trashed
- Silver 2AA Minimag worked for about a week, then just freaking died - tried to open it up many times with no success, then trashed
- Black 2AAA Minimag had absolutely no regulation, burned excessively bright for like 2 minutes and dropped quickly to 'unusably dim' - ditched it in the drawers of the counter at work, whoever wanted it could nab it, "bye have a great time" from me
- Black 3D had atrocious blue-purple tint and the usual hideous reflector woes, plus three alkaleak D cells actually costs way more than it should over here - gave it to my uncle when he had a tiny plot of land out in the boonies
- camo 2AA Minimag had bad violet tint, painfully visible PWM, and the ultra-stiff tailcap spring dented my Eneloops! My brother has it as a house light now, no big loss if alkaleaks kill it
Thank god I had the sense to buy the Fenix E01 instead of the Solitaire, or I'd have wasted even more dosh. After this, I got a Thrunite and finally learned to be selective about my brands.
Faaaaaar behind in second place was a Convoy S2 I got in like 2015, back in the dark ages of 3/5 firmware with ON-time memory. I had a C8 that I could live with having that driver, but the S2, an EDC light that I did and do use mostly in short flashes, the next-mode memory and off-flash when the mode got memorized got on my nerves right quick. Left it in the "flashlight stuff" bucket until I tried Biscotti on another Convoy (an M1) and just fell in love. One driver swap later and that S2 is still one of my fav lights today, old XM-L2 emitter and all.
- Silver 3D came DOA - trashed
- Silver 2AA Minimag worked for about a week, then just freaking died - tried to open it up many times with no success, then trashed
- Black 2AAA Minimag had absolutely no regulation, burned excessively bright for like 2 minutes and dropped quickly to 'unusably dim' - ditched it in the drawers of the counter at work, whoever wanted it could nab it, "bye have a great time" from me
- Black 3D had atrocious blue-purple tint and the usual hideous reflector woes, plus three alkaleak D cells actually costs way more than it should over here - gave it to my uncle when he had a tiny plot of land out in the boonies
- camo 2AA Minimag had bad violet tint, painfully visible PWM, and the ultra-stiff tailcap spring dented my Eneloops! My brother has it as a house light now, no big loss if alkaleaks kill it
Thank god I had the sense to buy the Fenix E01 instead of the Solitaire, or I'd have wasted even more dosh. After this, I got a Thrunite and finally learned to be selective about my brands.
Faaaaaar behind in second place was a Convoy S2 I got in like 2015, back in the dark ages of 3/5 firmware with ON-time memory. I had a C8 that I could live with having that driver, but the S2, an EDC light that I did and do use mostly in short flashes, the next-mode memory and off-flash when the mode got memorized got on my nerves right quick. Left it in the "flashlight stuff" bucket until I tried Biscotti on another Convoy (an M1) and just fell in love. One driver swap later and that S2 is still one of my fav lights today, old XM-L2 emitter and all.