Flashaholism... where does it originate for you?

For me , I always disliked dark corners, probably because my imagination was too vivid...
I've always hated darkness because of that.

Now, there are numerous ways to avoid this problem.

Since then, I have evolved to using a light because it was "convenient".

What started you on your road to flashaholism?

Please post your "reasons".

Simple love of the marriage between "practical" and "functionally beautiful" with a bit of "wow cool!" and "this is fun!" thrown in.

Hence: custom audio, custom lights, custom bikes, custom etc...

Also hence academic, teaching and working careers in engineering design. Can't seem to escape it!



A.

I was hooked on flashlights in the Scouts. Camping and flashlights go hand-in-hand. Then there was the dream of being a police officer or in the military...Oh well. At least I can have the cool lights!

ME: Hi, I'm Steve and I'm a flashaholic.
GROUP: Hi Steve!

I think the fact that I've always loved gadgets combined with the following explains my addiction.

Back in my early twenties, before I went back to college, I was working in a factory that made particle board. There was this piece of equipment used to dry wood chips that was a cylinder about 50 feet long, 10 feet wide laying on it's side with 3 foot blow pipes to bring the chips in and out as it turned. A piece of chain (as it turned out) had gotten into the dryer and was banging around constantly. That night we had to shut the factory down for maintenance and I was asked to go into the dryer and retrieve whatever it was that was banging around.

I didn't have sense enough to ask someone to go with me so all alone with a P.O.S. plastic flashlight I opened an access door, crawled through the blow pipe, dropped into the dryer and started picking my way through the baffles that stuck out into the dryer. About midway I found the offending piece of junk, bent down to pick it up and bumped the flashlight on a baffle. So now I'm inside this thing in total, and I mean total, darkness.

I had in my head the not totally unreasonable idea that if I waited there long enough that somebody just might turn this thing on again which would be a very, very bad thing as my chance of survival would be somewhere on the order of 0.000%. So I had to feel my way out and it wasn't just a whole lot of fun. Ever since I've tried to make sure that the flashlight in my hand was a really good one.

When I was a kid I would take EVERY flashlight that I could find and take it in the tub with me to see how long they would last . My first light that I bought was a streamlight AA minimag knock off, I sure loved that light... Thank god now I have an M2 and M3, these last a loooong time at the bottom of the tub

My addtion to SF began when I was on the Bladeforums and saw a lot of cool gears along
with an awesome looking light, it was an M2 and
I've become a flasaholic ever since. I have to admit that so far I have never really needed a flashlight to put to serious use. I simply love them and want them.

My first light was a cheap $1 flashlight that my parents got for me for Halloween. It had the cool signaling button, and it was just plastic, but I liked it.

My second light was a 90-degree head thing that I got for camping (we went every month in the scouts). It wasn't a quality light, but it had the signal button, and I could attach it to my belt so I could walk with both hands free (it's still in the garage somewhere). {Side note: I think that my addiction to knives started when my Dad gave me his old scout knife.}

I think the flashaholism really started when I was around 13 or 14 though. I got an AA Brinkman for Christmas. I didn't ask for it, I just got it. I played with that light so much that night that I shattered the bulb putting the head on a little crooked and I had to use the spare. You could focus the beam and get really good throw (much more than my previous 2 lights anyway). I was amazed at the way the beam pierced the darkness. I still have that one too, although the reflector is all cracked from being my in-the-car light for the past 15 years. I've recently replaced it with an E2e.

Ever since I got the brinkman I've gravitated toward flashlights in stores but never really done anything about it until I found this forum. Now I've spent more on flashlights in the past few months than I have in the previous 30 years or so. [intense sarcasm alert] Thanks a lot!

Allen

Mine began with learning Morse code in Boy Scouts. At night, during various "covert" operations, we would use flashlights to signal each other. My favorite flashlight back then was a GITS-122 90 degree 2D with a pocket clip in plastic. I still have and use this light.

Tom

Mine started when I got ahold of my first blue LED. This led me to the LED Museum - where I saw the first glimpses of LED flashlights, and the ancestors of the Luxeon! Craig's reviews convinced me to buy a TurtleLight for myself, Infinity's for friends for christmas, and an Arc-AAA for myself a month later. I found CPF - then in March 2002, I got my first Luxeon's! It was all downhill after that.

-Darin

I've always liked good lights--but my definition of good was recently upgraded after visiting Craig's site and then joining CPF.

There MAY be a plateau of flashaholism. Having 3 9Ps, a Vector "banana," an E2e, an Arc sLS, several Arc AAAs, assorted UKE and Streamlight products, I'm at the point where the WOW factor of NEW is not worth the money to me...but I still keep my eyes open.

But I really think the advent of LEDs and what can be done with them got me to being a flashaholic, but then I realized that while LEDs are great, incandescents still have their place.

Well, now, the one thing that can cure me of flashaholism is tape recorders! Once in a while, you can get great deals on professional tape recorders! I've been very lucky lately.

http://www.richardhess.com/tape/

Cheers,

Richard

I started back when I was in grade school. We had a summer camp that year for kids with Hemophilia, and I bought my first flashlight with my measly allowance: a minim$g...

Bought some more as time went by. But the one thing I can point to that exploded my interest in flashlights is Craig's site. If you have even an inkling for gizmos and flashlights, and you happen to stumble onto his site, you're "gone"...

I have had a bunch of lights since going into the Corps in 86, nothing noteworthy though. I distinctly remember looking at a Mag 4d back in the early 90's and not being able to justify spending $20 for a light. I ended up getting it for myself at Christmas and thinking I was crazy for spending that kind of money on a light. One day last fall while stumbling around the internet I came upon the ARC LS. I was amazed there was a light so small and bright, then I saw the price and started to laugh. I showed my buddies and we all laughed. I told my wife and she laughed. The next day there I was gazing at it again and to my expense I saw the link for CPF. I could have ignored the link and stayed in the dim man's bliss thinking I was the big dog with my (4) Makita 14.4's but I didn't. Well, 5 months and many $$$ worth of lights later here I am a poorer but wiser man. I admit I have been a flashaholic since 1986 but didn't fully come out of the closet until last fall. Hi, my name is DieselDave...

This thread discussed this sibject in great detail:

WHY FLASHAHOLICS? COMPARE YOUR HISTORY WITH YOUR BROTHER CPF'ers

Brightnorm

Blame the LED Museum. I checked in at that site every 6 months or so after it first made Slashdot a few years ago. I was always planning on modding a light but never got around to it. (I'm a gadget freak and a DIYer)

I saw a link to CPF from the LED Museum and it was all over.

i think i've always liked flashlights.

i remember when i was a little dude (6,7?) my dad got a 3d *ag for christmas. i was awed by the power. i could see the beam hit the low clouds and slice the air like a laser.

in my church youth group, when ever we would go on a trip, i would always go buy a brand new *ag aa. (this is partially because i lost one every time )(then i discovered lanyards! )

several years ago, i was reading througha lifestyle catalog and i saw a lightwave 4 led flashlight "brightest in the world!" wow, i thought, brightest in the world, "bulbs" never die, batteries last nearly forever! i got the light for christmas, but while i liked the smoothish bluish beam, i wasn't thrilled at the output.

several months later, another youth group trip...another lost flashlight instead of a $11 *ag though, it was a $40 light that made everyone else jealous.

i began searching the internet and found the nightbuster 8x. great light, until the leds died "two different lights, both died"

i was looking this time into building my own lights, searching on google. i came acrossed websites full of crazy people, brocks, seans, craigs. i thought "wow, these people are crazy!!! i love them!" i then found candlepowerforums, and have been here ever since, not once regretting all the money i have spent on the hobby/obsesession/need.

I don't know where it started but you may have read of the wonder of getting my flashlight repaired at age 5 or so in Mr. Fradette's Ray-O-Vac Cabinet.

But it really started to take off maybe in spring 2002. I bought a Dorcy 4-AA LED light at Wal-Mart. I wanted to learn more and found this site. Still it stayed mostly dormant until just after Christmas I bought a Brinkmann Legend-LX. Well, when I turned it on in the car and was able to shine it on objects 20 feet away in full daylight, something connected.

I started reading CPF almost daily. I bought a 2-AA Mag and a Mag Solitaire, just because I've never owned a Mag before and people were always talking about mods for them.

Now I've got my first Arc AAA on order from Texas Tactical.

Then I keep discovering other lights that somehow fill a gap in my existance.

I own some tools that I'll probably use once every 15 years, so why not a couple (dozen) flashlights -- just in case...

I've had flashlights all my life but the first time I remember actually being impressed by them is when Brinkmann and Maglite came out with the *big 4/5/6 D-cell* *black* *machined* *aircraft aluminum* lights (about what year was that?).

Now here was a light that looked like it meant business and was not made of sissy tin, plastic, or rubber. Not only an impressive light, but big enough to provide a little self-defense utility as well. I carried a 5D or 6D in my car for years.

This was also the first time I experienced flashlight-envy and practiced one-upsmanship (sp?) with flashlights -- mine is brighter than yours, mine is more expensive than yours, mine is bigger than yours.

Now as I get older and everything is shrinking, I'm more impressed with my Arc AAA and Infinity AA Ultra. As for self-defense, I guess I could poke someone's eye out with my light, or choke them with the lanyard. And mine is smaller than yours.

I couldn't see the centerfolds under the covers....

I knew lights WAY before the web...

Even back then I was looking for more...

Two Rayovac 3D M*g Knock-offs screwed together to make a 6D...

2 cell bulbs in 3 cell lights...

Only problem was the pinnacle for me was M*gl!te.

Go forward to the early 90's. I get a job as a vending machine tech. The M!n!m*g I carry on my belt right now (albeit now with Ram, Madmax, Boro lense, and safety wire holding the holster together!) was with me then. I just didn't know how feeble it was.

Fast forward to now: Since joing this forum, TEC40, Attitude, Impact, SL Stinger HP, SL 2AA Pro Poly, UK 4AA As2, Pelican Stealthlite 4AA, ARC AAA, Infinity Ultra, Lightwave 2100, the aforementioned Madmax.

Still WANT E2, G2, SL 3C 10LED, SL 4AA 7LED, something 5w Luxeon and others I haven't identified yet....

For me it was an extension of my modding hobby. Everything I own, I tend to modify/customise, firstly to suit my personal needs and also in case it was ever lost/stolen the item would be of little value to anyone else.

The flashaholism bit became of me when I purchased a Mag 2D simply because it was on special (50% off). I was disappointed with the output, and wanting to make it brighter I stumbled into here and haven't looked back. Since then, I've been able to justify over $AU220 spent on a rechargeable light (TL) which doesn't even have the applicable household charger for this country!