From warm incan thru angry blue and cool white to neutral, a Flashaholic journey

mbw_151

Enlightened
Joined
Feb 28, 2008
Messages
536
Location
Oregon
My first quality flashlights were MiniMags. These served admirably for a long time but consumed lots of alkaline batteries and bulbs. Sometimes the bulbs died at inconvenient times and places but there was a spare in the tail. You could change it if you weren't wet, cold and in the dark. Then I discoverd CPF, bought a Surefire 6P, and a whole new world was exposed. It had throw and lumens but the bulbs still burnt out and the batteries were a bit more expensive than alkalines. Just about this time the first wave of LED technology hit.

The runtime and reliability were tempting. I bought 3x5mm conversions for the Mags which turned out to be "angry blue", useful but not nice. The next wave hit and I bought an inexpensive dropin for the 6P. Very bright with lots of throw and OK runtime but ice cold color. I bought some Fenix and Zebra lights. Still pretty cool in tint but steadily improving. The Rebel 80 L1Tv2 was particularly nice. Then the next wave hit, neutral and warm LEDs. I bought HDS, Surefire/Malkoffs, Quarks and Zebras. I tried the warms but found the neutrals appealed to me the most. Meanwhile the unused flashlights box was getting pretty full. Off to CPFMP.

I've still have a few Surefire and MiniMag incan bulbs, just for history. I have one "angry blue", my Photon Freedoms. Some day someone will make a quality, neutral coin cell light.... I have a few cool white lights; MiniMags now with Luxeon 1 upgrades, Leatherman Serac S2 AAA, and Photon Proton. The MiniMags have too much history and are great kid's toys and loaners. I haven't focused on finding alternatives in neutral for the MiniMags or the Seracs. The Proton is for variable output red, I never use the white. The rest of my lights are neutral; Quark, Zebra, HDS, and Surefire/Malkoff.

So what's left? Thankfully there are ever increasing lumens to chase. I'm a sucker for an improved UI. I've only dabbled in mods. I don't have any customs or titanium lights yet. There remains lots of headroom for refinement. How's your journey?
 
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ev13wt

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Jan 2, 2009
Messages
164
I am waiting for more/better high CRI LEDs.

Best I have experienced are Metal-Halide lamps, but they are HID.

This is their spectrum: Pretty much "full" / real daylight.

vg7upu.jpg


LED is getting there! I am waiting.


Source: http://www.lamptech.co.uk/Spec Sheets/Wotan HQIR250.htm
SPD%20HQI-NDL.jpg
 

Cataract

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Apr 24, 2009
Messages
4,095
Location
Montreal
I used not to care much about tint, mostly because I had been a while without a flashlight when I jumped on the LED band wagon. Then I discovered neutral and got neutrals instead of cool whenever possible. Warms didn't really appeal to me much until I discovered high CRI. I'm now jumping in all the high CRI special orders I can find and foregoing a lot of lights I would otherwise have bought, waiting for the day they come out in high CRI. I'm totally converted to high CRI practical sized lights, but I'll do with neutral when the light fits my needs. I still buy some cool lights only because of the sheer insane output and/or throw like the TK70, but that's definitely a light I wish I never NEED for real.
 

tolkaze

Enlightened
Joined
Aug 26, 2009
Messages
569
Location
Muswellbrook
I started with incan, but due to Australia never experiencing the decent incan revolution, I thought that a Mag4D was the best that you could get, and nothing could possibly be brighter. LED for me was off the radar, since the only thing you could possibly get was a single 5mm LED underdriven in a dodgy reflector. Even today, most lights you can pick up are multiple arrays of 5mm LED's. So of course, to satisfy my want for brighter, I went high powered, imported of course. My first light though, since I was spending a stupid amount of money, was a Malkoff M60 with an MD2 body. I also picked up a Malkoff Mag dropin, since I assumed this would be better than the M60.

I never really experienced angry blue, I had a lot of dodgy XR-E lights, if you don't heat sink them, they go bad... I decided colour was more important. I went down the warm route for a bit, reverted to incan, then back to neutrals, then to High CRI. I also appreciated the better beam characteristics, so I ended up with a nice colour, and a nice beam. Then I got an appreciation for low lows. Of course, now I have a dim, warm, nice looking beam pattern. I almost ended up where I started.

I have some nice High powered neutrals now, and have a few HCRI lights, but for the show off lights, I still like overdriven, overdangerous cool white boomsticks
 
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