Which flashlight will meet my 2 needs?

I was hoping to find one flashlight under $100 that can do 2 things: 1) provide a light source when I walk my dogs in the early morning hours (still dark at this time) around our rural neighborhood, and 2) offer a good throw and flood when I need to find my dog on our wooded 5 acre lot (he has seizures and sometimes becomes disoriented while outside; twice I've had to search for him in the woods with a crappy mag lite). Will one flashlight suffice or do I need two?

Welcome to CPF, aholobin.

There's a thread that might help you, about safety lights to attach to a dog's collar. The link is here.

You probably need a second light for yourself, though.

Stick with the Maglite but buy a LED dropin
The Malkoff Mag dropin is the best you can buy .... $55 plus shipping

The drop in is a very good idea, but the mag lite is pretty heavy to carry around during our walk. Maybe I'll get the drop in for our existing mag lite and use that for when he goes out at night. Sounds like I need another light for our walks?

Fenix TK11

for about ten bucks more you could get a fenix pd30 and keep it in your pocket....I love mine.....blows away a maglite and much smaller than if you were to mod your current mag.

Eagletac T20C2 currently has the highest output of the single LED lights and would be my recommendation. You can find some useful comparison pictures and beamshots of the light here.

Maybe have 2 flashlights. If you're gonna mod your maglite you might as well just buy a Lowe's Taskforce 2c and then buy any small led AA light. You'll easily keep it under $100.

qwertyydude said:

Maybe have 2 flashlights. If you're gonna mod your maglite you might as well just buy a Lowe's Taskforce 2c and then buy any small led AA light. You'll easily keep it under $100.

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A modded maglite can be focused or defocused to act as either a flood light or a spot light. The Taskfoce 2C can throw, but what AA has meaningful flood past a couple of meters?

--flatline

aholobin said:

I was hoping to find one flashlight under $100 that can do 2 things: 1) provide a light source when I walk my dogs in the early morning hours (still dark at this time) around our rural neighborhood, and 2) offer a good throw and flood when I need to find my dog on our wooded 5 acre lot (he has seizures and sometimes becomes disoriented while outside; twice I've had to search for him in the woods with a crappy mag lite). Will one flashlight suffice or do I need two?

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Check out this one.

ITP-e50.

I just bought it to spot coyotes when I let my dog out.

Also, it's fully adjustable from 6-230 lumens so you can turn it down for normal walking. I bought the rechargeable battery kit as well so you won't have to spend extra on buying more batteries.

they light is under 45 bucks, and out the door with the charger, 4 batteries, and the light your under $80 bucks.

it comes with a nice case, extra o-rings, and extra clicky switch cover

very small and easy to carry.

When you turn it all the way up, IT THROWS while still having good spill, especially for a $40 light.

check out the thread here

https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/239692

If you want simplicity go with fenix TK11. If you want some real power go with a jetbeam M1X, it will illuminate everything in the woods, but its a little bit more money. Do not upgrade your mag unless you are most comfortable with it.

You might wanna think about your battery requirements first before exploring any further options.
Then there are things like user interface to consider. They tend to get pretty tricky on lights that are loved by CPFers.

bernie

I like DM51's idea of a locating light for your dog and as for a light for yourself, picking up a used Marketplace or Ebay Surefire E1B might work well because it has a nice long running low and laser beam like throw for distance spotting. Up close the beam is a little tight but as the throw increases, the beam widens nicely.

Although I don't own one as of yet, I believe that the Malkoff drop-ins would make a nice choice as well but I don't think that they are multilevel capable unless I am mistaken. You may want to take a look at the RA Twisties and or Clickys as well, once again, I have no personal experience, other than pouring over numerous reviews and beamshots here on CPF, but they are highly regarded and presumably would fit the bill for function and price, twisties are on sale at Battery Station and there are many different models of clickys available.

There are so many quality lights out there, you should have no problem finding one to do both jobs for your stated price and under, the problem is deciding.:shrug:

Hope this helps.

Who knew there were so many factors to consider before choosing a flashlight? Thank you for all of the feedback!

While I like the Jetbeam MX1, it's out of my price range, and I see how you can get hooked on these things (they're very cool). The three that appeal to me the most are the Fenix PD30, EagleTrac T20C2 and the ITp-e50 (funny you should mention coyotes, as we also have a couple in the area and I'm always on the lookout when the dogs go out). Will one of these provide a larger (wider) and brighter throw than the other? (I think I've got the definition down - this is the total diameter of light around the very center, right?) They seem to be similar in size and price except for the ITp, which, of course, is a bit less.

To clear up a couple things.

Throw refers to how far the "beam" of light will travel. It is the smaller hot spot in the center of the light. Think of it as a lightsaber or a laser beam.

Spill is the extra light around the throw beam, also referred to as flood.

I think we need to back up a bit and the other repliers are getting ahead of themselves. As you've seen the choices are endless. All the lights that have been suggested are monsters when compared against a maglite.

However, for a person just stepping into the "non-maglite" world, you need to be aware of battery choices. This should be your very first consideration.

Lithium (CR123A) Non-rechargable - must be OK with using a non-recharable disposable battery and you must be comfortable with ordering online (they are actually quite cheap online, however in stores they are hard to find and expensive).

Li-Ion (RCR123) Rechargable - must be comfortable with charging these batteries (you MUST read up on this first). Can be a bit pricey for the initial cost. For example if you get a light with 2 x RCR123 then you'll have to buy 4 of them (2 in the light, 2 for back up) at a cost of $5 - $8 ea. Then you'll need a charger. Really, you should get the PILA charger and this will be another $50.

AA NiMH Recharable - Really a great option for a "newbie" however again you have the initial cost. A pack of 4 AA Eneloops ($10) and a decent charger for $20. None of the lights suggested hear take AA's. But the nice thing about the rechargable AAs is that they can be used in other things you already probably own. If you decide on AA as your battery format of choice, then repost you exact question in a seperate thread but add that you are looking for a light that works on AA. Fenix TK20 is nice start but definately post first and do your research.

If I were in your position (you mentioned a bit of a budget). I would get an Eagletac T100C2 (~ $60) (instead of the TC20C2) and order some CR123A's online and be done with for around $70. If you love the light (and you will) then you can later add a PILA charger and switch to RCR123 cells so you can re-charge instead of buying new cells and throwing them away.

I believe flashlight connection carries the light sold w/ a lanyard (nice to have while walking the dog). You'll wonder how you ever lived without it. If you want a slimmer more "pedestrian loooking" flashlight then the PD30 but it's a couple dollars more and not quite as bright, but Fenix has one hell of a reputation for quality products.

crockett said:

Li-Ion (CR123A) Non-rechargable - must be OK with using a non-recharable disposable battery and you must be comfortable with ordering online (they are actually quite cheap online, however in stores they are hard to find and expensive).

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Non rechargeable batteries are just Lithium, not Lithium-Ion :thumbsup:

Also stick to quality brands such as Duracell & Surefire.

Also, spill and flood are two different things.
A floody beam, will quite simply have no hotspot and will be a "wall of light".
Where as spill is the surrounding light of a strong hotspot.

:thumbsup:

aholobin said:

Who knew there were so many factors to consider before choosing a flashlight? Thank you for all of the feedback!

While I like the Jetbeam MX1, it's out of my price range, and I see how you can get hooked on these things (they're very cool). The three that appeal to me the most are the Fenix PD30, EagleTrac T20C2 and the ITp-e50 (funny you should mention coyotes, as we also have a couple in the area and I'm always on the lookout when the dogs go out). Will one of these provide a larger (wider) and brighter throw than the other? (I think I've got the definition down - this is the total diameter of light around the very center, right?) They seem to be similar in size and price except for the ITp, which, of course, is a bit less.

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If you go for the ITP-e50.

These are the batteries and charger I bought. They have all the overcharge and other protection you need and work great with the light and you will also have a spare set.

the only thing you have to do is only use the batteries that come with the charger with that charger. But that's not to hard to figure out. You also get a car charger so you have that as well. They key chain light you get for free is pretty nice too.

I will see if I can get a photo of this light on coyote patrol. I am not sure how my camera will work.

Here are the batteries and charger kit I bought. This was recommended for this light by battery-junction so they work fine.

http://www.batteryjunction.com/4parc390reli.html

I liked the idea of the light, batteries and charger for under $80 bucks with shipping, which is almost what the other lights cost just by themselves.

As far as which one perform better, I bet those three are all close. The other dude is right though, we are way beyond a basic mag light performance. Some of the heavily modded ones may hang, but they are usually much bigger

aholobin said:

Who knew there were so many factors to consider before choosing a flashlight? Thank you for all of the feedback!

While I like the Jetbeam MX1, it's out of my price range, and I see how you can get hooked on these things (they're very cool). The three that appeal to me the most are the Fenix PD30, EagleTrac T20C2 and the ITp-e50 (funny you should mention coyotes, as we also have a couple in the area and I'm always on the lookout when the dogs go out). Will one of these provide a larger (wider) and brighter throw than the other? (I think I've got the definition down - this is the total diameter of light around the very center, right?) They seem to be similar in size and price except for the ITp, which, of course, is a bit less.

Click to expand...

You can find reviews of all the lights here:

Fenix P3D Q5 (precursor to the PD30 with very comparable stats)
Eagletac T20C2
ITP E-50


The measured stats for the hotspot and spill of each light are as follows:

Fenix P3D Q5 - 3920 lux, 127 lux (PD30 will have slightly better throw, but not by much)
Eagletac T20C2 - 15360 lux, 193 lux
ITP E-50 - 7880 lux, 160 lux


You can take the square root of peak lux measured to compare throw. Here it is no contest. The T20C2 throws approximately 40% further than the E-50 and 100% further than the PD30. It also has the brightest spill beam of the 3 lights. The PD30 may have slightly larger total width of beam since it has the smallest reflector, but it's a small difference. For activities such as searching for your lost dog, the T20C2 will have a noticeable advantage over these other choices. For just walking around, any of these 3 will do.

Okay, now it's down to two: the EagleTac T100C2 or the Itp-e50. I checked out the flashlight connection offer, seems like it includes a lot of stuff for the price. The lanyard is a good idea, especially for us clumsy folks . Disposable batteries don't bother me too much, what bothers me more is buying a charger that doesn't work, like the Radio Shack charger I bought today to charge my NiMH cordless phone AAA batteries. Any thoughts on which reflector is better (OP or SMO)? It looks like the ITp-e50 has a combination of both reflectors. I'd be interested to see a "coyote patrol" picture if it comes out!

I am really grateful for the help you all have offered. I have to say this is one of the most informative forums I've ever visited!

Any thoughts on which reflector is better (OP or SMO)?

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A true flashlight snob (I'm one) will chime in here an say the OP is technically better because it will give you a "smoother" beam with less rings. For this you will sacrafice a tiny bit of throw. The SMO will give you a bit more throw but the beam won't be as pretty.

However, you're buying this light to use outdoors and to spot a dog in the woods. You'll never notice how the difference in the beam between the two reflectors outdoors. Where you'll notice the difference is when you shine them at a white wall. Now you're asking "Who uses flashlights to light up walls?" Well, flashlight snobs of course to look at how pretty or unpretty the beams are.

What I'm saying...it's not that big of a deal either way. If the OP costs extra and you don't want to spend anymore, skip it. Otherwise go for it.