Camping

Ok, here's my situation. I need a flashlight for camping in very dark dense forests. Essentially what I want, is the brightest possible light for 30$ or less. I've been looking everywhere for the right kind of light and to be honest I'm completely confused. What's the difference between watts and lumens, and how do they pertain to how bright the light will actually be?

I've been told Maglite is the best "tried and true" but I refuse to believe that, considering they seem to be slow on the pickup of LEDs and even more advanced batteries like lithium. I want a light that's not going to be orange in tint, and will have a decent runtime of least 2 hours. I would want something rechargable but I think that will probably run me more than 30$.

Anyhow, any advice on this matter will be greatly appreciate.

P.S. Sorry if this has been asked a million times over.

Sams Club has the Element K2's for $28, and you get 2 in the pack plus batteries. Might be a good place to start for you. These are good quality lights at a very good price.

Roger

Keep in mind that a super bright flashlight will kill your night vision when camping in the dark. May want to invest in a red lense or filter.

Get a Arc AAA for $29.99

It is a very well made light and is brighter than a minimag with nice spill for night hikes. It is very small and uses one AAA battery with over 5 hours runtime.

For $30 it is a great introduction to well made flashlights.


www.arcflashlight.com

Hi Shock
Welcome to CPF.
I'm with metlarules - As an old camper from wayback I'd suggest a 2 mode light with a low output for most of your use so you preserve your night vision. This will also give you extended run time. You can save the "blinding light" for exceptional circumstances. I'm sure there are lots of ok lights in the price range you want at DealExtreme or Kaidomain but someone else will have to recomend which ones since I don't own any of them.

I'd start with stating what you would prefer in the light.

Batteries?
Beampattern?
Multimode?
Size?
Output?

Watts and lumen can be two completely different thing, especially when comparing LEDs. A current gen LED(Cree XR-E, Seoup P4 and P7, Luxeon Rebel and TFFC K2) are twice or more efficient than the last gen LEDs, so a last gen LED driven at 1 watt will have at most half the output of a current gen LED driven at 1 watt.

Also many of the watt rating is the max recommended input for the LED. Weather the LED is actually driven that hard is a different story. Many eBay sellers also claim "15w" "7w" and so on, all lies.

Will you be using AA rechargeable batteries if you use AA batteries?

If you're willing to bump the price up a bit to around $45, the Fenix L2T V2.0 should work pretty well. 8% off coupon at Fenix Store is "CPF8".

:welcome:

:twothumbsThey also have the red filter for the L2Tv2.0.https://www.fenix-store.com/product_info.php?cPath=27_38&products_id=338

Cree task force $29.99 "the 60x brighter version" with white board, 2 c batteries 2hr regulated run time "will not drop in brightness" then it will run for another 4 hr. slowly going dimmer. Unless you have personally used a 6D Maglite with xenon bulb you will not have seen a brighter flashlight though the 6D is about the same brightness.
P.S. Lumens is total light out put of the bulb, while watts is normally the maximum power consumed by the bulb/bulbs "doesn't really tell you how bright it is."
:welcome:

metlarules said:

Keep in mind that a super bright flashlight will kill your night vision when camping in the dark. May want to invest in a red lense or filter.

Click to expand...

I agree with metlarules, having a very bright flashlight in the dark, specially in a dense, dark forest will mess up your night vision and your ability to distinguish landsacapes. Plus it might annoy some of yuor fellow campers. You'll be surprised how bright a mini mag LED in a dark moonless night. I use either an Arc aaa or a Fenix E01 for navigating around a campsite or hiking in the dark, when I need brighter light I have the trusty mini Mag LED. But I do have a really bright flashlight with me whenever I go camping and hiking, but it doesn't get used that much. I only use it for emergencies, signaling, and searching.

I suggest you stick with AA batteries, very easy to find and you can inter use with your other gadgets.

A aa minimag led with accessory pack which includes the red filter can be had for $30 if not a little more. Enough light around camp with the filter to navigate and if you take the filter off you will be surprise at how bright it is in a dark forest.

The Element K2s from Sam's Club were going to be my definite choice, however I don't have a Sam's Club membership. lol This information has been great guys, I really appreciate it, and think I've found a better sense of direction.

The brightest light I can think of for under $30 is Sam's Club's Power on Board H.I.D. spotlight on auction now. They are going for about $15+ $10 shipping +tax. Realistically, you won't want to lug one around hiking. Decent l.e.d. lights to look into buying:
K2 Sam's Elements (at Sam's Club- under $30 for 2)-150 lumens
Leatherman Monarch (Costco- under $30)- 130+ lumens
Xtar Cree P4 18650 light (Lighthound.com- $25+ cost of 18650 batteries, charger,shipping, and tax)- 140 lumens
2AA and 3AA 3 watt l.e.d. Maglights ($24-$27)

I would also suggest a dimmer light to retain night vision and as a backup.
Fenix E01 (at Lighthound.com-$12.50)-10 lumens, 11 hours, on 1AAA alkaline battery

Honestly for camping and such you want a light that can work as a headlamp. If you're going to be in dense vegetation you don't need to worry about throw so you want a floody type beam pattern. Add in the convenience of a AA battery, multimode... there is only one choice. Get a Zebralight. Check out the headlamp forums for more info. Although it is marketed as a headlamp look into it, it doesn't need to be used as a headlamp. The only drawback is a P4 version is $39, but imho it is probably just what you need. (The slightly newer Q5 version is more expensive and harder to get so just stick with the P4.)

It also depends on the kind of camping you do.
If you go backpacking or do alot of night hikes you'll get more use from a headlamp.
If your car camping or just sitting around the camp site a flashlight become more handy assuming you already have a lantern lighting up your immediate camping area. Remember,it doesn't take 300 lumens to get a beer out of the icechest.:twothumbs

My most used camp light is the gerber sonic. It must be the smallest, dimmest light around. Anything else seems like an annoyance. It's always good to bring along a really bright light to outshine your fellow campers, but it's rarely needed in a true camping situation. I always bring a flashlight with an optic because they appear brigher due to the increased throw; I can light up trees that are far away. Joy!

What do you do at night when you are camping? Read? Pee? Set up your tent? Any of those tasks require only the minimum of light.

Are you hunting at night?

Romisen RC-G2 for throw - US$11.30 (DealExtreme)
Fenix E01 as a camp light - US$15.00 (FenixStore)
Fauxton with Nichia LED (2pack) as backup - US$ 3.69 (DealExtreme)

All bases covered for a total of: US$29.99

Just came back from a weekend of camping myself and it was a very dense area and yes very dark as well. Being a flashaholic I had a host of serious lights ranging from the low output Ultra-G to a screaming 13v Wolf-Eyes Raider with Lumens factory lamp....and many in between lights.

Without a doubt my most used light of the weekend was the 18 dollar Rayovac headlamp. It has 3 outputs with one being a 1 watt Lux then a red and then a blue LED. Diffuser is built in and can be alternated between flood and throw on all beams. Single AA power source is nice and small and the output was perfect.

I tried to use all of my lights while camping but kept reaching for the headlamp for collecting wood, setting up the tent, cooking... well you get my point it came in very useful. The link below is from Rayovac however there are some decent reviews on CPF if you look.

Sorry forgot the link....

http://www.rayovac.com/flashlight/se1whlt-b.shtml

Ubi said:

Romisen RC-G2 for throw - US$11.30 (DealExtreme)
Fenix E01 as a camp light - US$15.00 (FenixStore)
Fauxton with Nichia LED (2pack) as backup - US$ 3.69 (DealExtreme)

All bases covered for a total of: US$29.99

Click to expand...

^i was about to say almost the same thing! also consider the Romisen RC-N3 in place of the RC-G2, for its extra runtime.

+1 on the headlamp for camping! I have a Zebralight H50 and I would never go camping without it, now that I've gone camping with it. In fact, if I could only take one light with me camping, it would be my ZL. I think you'll find that most of the time, less light is better when camping, but since the ZL has 3 levels, you can have blinding flood if you need it too. If you have a limited budget, buy a Zebralight - you won't regret it.

If you want a handheld light too, I second the suggestion to get a light with optics that doesn't have much spillbeam. That way, when you turn on the high-beam, the light will be projected further away from you and not damage your night vision as much, whereas a light with a lot of spill will illuminate both near and far and constrict your pupils, making it harder to see things far away.