Looking for durable blueish light flashlight!

I bought a 2nd generation Inova X1 back in 2006 (You know the one with the 5mm LED that WAS NOT a spotlight?) and it was pretty much the end all be all Flashlight for me. I used it for pretty much everything and it worked great. It was just bright enough for pretty much everything and the battery life was absolutely Stellar. Well, I lent it to someone last weekend and they "accidentally" cut it with a chainsaw. Needless to say; it no longer works! I took a look at the newer X1s and they seem kind of nice but... I don't know why but I don't care for the white light much, which is unfortunate for me because it seems every LED flashlight that isn't flimsy as hell uses a White LED these days.

I am looking for a similiar sized flashlight(though I can go with something a bit larger) That has the old 5mm blue/white LED colored light. I would like the flashlight to be resistant to shock/impact and water. Battery life is also a big deal since when I go hiking at night I don't like having to carry tons of extra batteries with me. With that being said, I also filled out the sticky form for more details! Any Suggestions are appreciated!



1) How would you prefer to purchase the light?
* Online


2) Budget: An easy question, but you may change your mind after answering the rest!
* Up to $200


3) Format:
* Flashlight


4) Flashlight-specific format/size:
* 4 to 8 inches long, up to 1 inch thick


5) Emitter/Light source:
* LED


6) Manufacturer:
* Mass produced, ready out of the box


7) What battery type do you want to use?
* Single or Double AAA/AA


8) How much genuine out the front (OTF) light do you want/need?
* 5 Lumens or higher


9) Throw vs. Flood: At what distance will you be most likely to use this light?
* 0 to 20 meters


10) Runtime: Not over-inflated manufacturer runtime claims, but usable brightness measured from first activation to 50% with new batteries (Measured on maximum output).
* Atleast 3 hours


11) Durability/Usage: Generally the old phrase "you get what you pay for" is very accurate for flashlights.
* Backpacking/Survival


12) Switch Type and location
* Doesn't matter much.


13) User Interface (UI) and mode selection. (any of the following)
* A simple on-off with only one output level is fine for me.
* I want 2 light levels. (Brighter/short runtime and Dimmer/long runtime.)


14)Material/Finish/Coating
* Anodized Aluminum – either type II or III (Hard Anodized) (Aluminum, specifically HA, is the most common material/finish for today's flashlights).
* Stainless steel (durable, but much heavier than aluminum)
* Titanium (durable and nearly as lightweight as aluminum, but can be moderately to significantly more expensive).

15) Special wants:
* 5mm blue/white LED
* No silly Optical Spotlight, A regular reflector would be appreciated!

Thank you for your time!~

Hi Nubcakes...welcome to CPF!? Wow only one post since 2009? We must think alike:thinking:

I have one of those Inova's somewhere in my garage sitting around not being used. I think its a silver bodied one that takes CR123 batts. Let me know if your interested i'll go dig it out.

Anyways, try looking at lights with HiCRI/Neutral LED instead of the cool white LED. A bit softer on the eyes, with better color rendering.

The 4Sevens brand lights might have the features your looking for as well as different light output levels that you can select or program. I have a few of their lights with the HiCRI or Neutral LED. Lots of options and accessories.

Or try to find a Surefire 6PL or G2L that has the older 80 Lumen P60L drop-in LED lamp assembly...to me it has a bluish-white tint.

Good Luck,
Lightsolo

Yea, I originally only registered to view attachments people had... I think!

Anyway, I looked at the 4Sevens lights and they seem abit pricey(er) than most flashlights I see, but if they work well then that's fine. All of them say "cool white LED" though :scowl:


The others you mentioned use that evil 123A battery. I never could understand what the LED Flashlight manufacturer's obsession with those batteries were. It's like they are too lazy to put a decent boost or flyback converter in their flashlights! Incase you can't tell I don't care for 123A batteries... At all. Even if they provide better performance they simply cant compare in price to a 36 pack of AAs for 8 bucks!

Anyway I'll definitely keep 4Sevens in mind. I was hoping the Inova one you had was the single AA one like the X1. My heart sank when you said it uses 123A batteries.



Thanks again though!


Edit: I was talking to my pops about this(He is an Electrical Engineer and I am studying to become one) and he was like; "Maybe you could design a retrofit mod for all of those Minimags I got?" That's when I remembered that when my pops worked at Bosch he got tons of free Mini Mag lights with the Bosch logo on them. After searching through my closet I managed to dig up 7 of them!


They all work and are in reasonably good condition. The battery life is pretty bad considering the light output though. They are all incandescent bulbs from the 1980s. Before I spend hours trying to design a proper boost converter and finding an appropriate LED, are there any retrofitting kits for these flashlights out there already?

Nubcakes,

There are led upgrades for the mini mags out there at your local hardware store or online for a reasonable price. The most common brands i've seen are from Teralux or Niteize for less than twenty dollars.

Sorry, i forgot that 4sevens is switching over to a new website called "foursevens"dot com. I just looked, they have neutral white Quark AA-2 tactical light is for sale. You can select the different LED options by scrolling over the miniture flashlight icons (if more than one) at the upper right corner on that particular page. Plus they have a discount code for CPF'ers :thumbsup:
Cheers,
Lightsolo

A Fenix EO1 may also be a good back up for you

Hmm, Yea that definitely looks like a nice one. I am a little skeptical about it's stated output though. They claim it puts out 13 lumens and gets like 21 hours of working time... Out of a single AAA? That sounds kind of bogus.

My old X1 put out about 7 Lumens and got around 25 hours of working time out of a single AA. Most AAAs have about 2/5 the amp/hours of most AAs.

Home depot offers the 1w niteize led upgrade for the minimag for about $8.

Hard to go wrong with it.

--flatline

I'll go check my local one out since It would definitely be cool to find some decent drop in upgrades for my minimags.

If you like blue-tinted lights, then you may really enjoy the E01 with its beautiful purple tint. And the E01 uses a very efficient circuit so those output/runtime figures are correct.

Since your budget is "up to $200", you may want to check out the titanium McGizmo Sapphire. There have been a few different 3mm/5mm emitters used in various versions, but the earlier runs had cooler tints (more towards blue).

I acknowledge that good quality products come at a price. However, I don't just throw money at anything. If I am paying more for something than it's competition I expect the pricey(er) product to have better peformance/features. I always leave an wide upper margin of expenses for products that I use heavily use or rely on. That X1 I used to have for example; That flashlight has guided me through the darkest forests throughout the night on the rocky mountains, survived being dropped in mud, water, or from high heights onto rocks. It has functioned in extreme heat and extreme cold. I payed 20 bucks for it initially but for what I got I would have payed up to 80 bucks.... More if it had a few of my grievances fixed.

EDIT: Archimedes, I am having trouble actually finding retailers for the McGizmo flashlights... Can you link me to an online store for them?

Nubcakes said:

....EDIT: Archimedes, I am having trouble actually finding retailers for the McGizmo flashlights... Can you link me to an online store for them?

Click to expand...

There isn't one ... McGizmo sells them here

He has his own subforum on CPF

Well for the hell of it(since they are cheap) I ordered some different types of Nite Ize retrofitting kits for minimag lights from Opticsplanet. I am a little worried about the order status though. The order status page says they shipped 1 less than I wanted of one type and the order is on hold... Does that mean it stays on hold till they get stock for it? Or maybe they shipped the order minus one quantity of that particular item????

I also ordered a E01!

I looked at McGizmo's stuff and it looks pretty nice but I am skeptical about dropping that much money into something when I know nothing about the manufacturer.

I got the retrofit kits for the minimags and they are pretty fun to play with and mess around with. They are fitting my needs mostly for the time being. Minimags are a tad larger than I like to carry so I am still anticipating the E01 Arrival

Speaking of the E01, why the hell is Amazon shipping it to me from China? Do these things have Import restrictions or some poop?