Your Oldest LED Flashlight?

Fireclaw18

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I am guessing made and sold outside of the USA? WjV knows?


According to Wikipedia it could not be 1992. 93 is possible, according to one article.

Impressed with 93 or 94. Though I never got why anyone would be addicted to short runtime, non wearable lighting. Probably got 1 or 2 incan lights a year, tossed them in the trunk, never, ever worked when I needed them. I wish I had been an incanaholic: maybe I would have known about the lux 1 or hds sooner, like in 2000 or 2001. Really could have saved me money. . http://www.hdssystems.com/Products/Legacy/Action1/ActionLightAIOCV.php
I bought that white LED light in the USA in La Jolla near San Diego, California.

Before LED lights came out the incan lights I was most impressed with were Underwater Kinetics dive lights. I had several 2xAA and 2xAAA ones, plus a 4xAA and 4xC. The 4C light was very compact (the batteries were in 2x2 formation), and very bright. I still have it and it still works. It's not bright compared to modern LEDs, but still actually manages to throw quite far with its 100 CRI yellowish light.

Those dive lights were all MUCH brighter and more compact than comparable incan maglites.
 
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MX421

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From Tektite's site: "1998- First conventional style White LED flashlight, Trek® 2, patented"

and "1998- First White LED PR-base flashlight replacement bulb"

"1999- First Luxeon-based LED flashlight, Expedition® L"

http://www.tek-tite.com/about_us.php



Was Tektite the maker of the C. Crane LED light?


One of those tektite lights TrekPro) was my first LED light. Got them for a kayak "stern" light. Still have them and have been considering modding them to be brighter as they are incredibly waterproof. I think i got them around 2008.
 

degarb

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I bought that white LED light in the USA in La Jolla near San Diego, California.

have it and it still works. It's not bright compared to modern LEDs, but still actually manages to throw quite far with its 100 CRI yellowish light.

Those dive lights were all MUCH brighter and more compact than comparable incan maglites.

Yes, sell crap in the store, and wonder why people lose interest. Always sell the good stuff, alongside the crap, as a test case. But then, cpf would suffer.

The La Jolla dive light is the missing link. There seems to be a 1993 to 1998 gap in the archeological evidence for white led evolution. California is port from Asia, probably ethnically diverse. It would be interesting if a small run of these dive lights were intended for the USA and from where they came.

Looks like La Jolla is a great place to vacation. Tourist trap?
 
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degarb

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White Luxeon. They did not call it the Luxeon 1 until the Luxeon 3 was being released.

Almost forgot about the lux3. Late in 2007, I bought a Dorcy headlamp from Sears with a lux 3 emitter, resistor driven much higher than 1 watt. The tint was much better than any of my sickly blueish Lottery tinted lux 1s. At the time, I felt this lux 3 had a warm reddish undertone. But the eye white balances, so in comparison to today's tints, might look blue.

I probably threw it away, once I got my Browning Nitro rebel 100 in the 1st quarter of 2008. I hated the shallow Dorcy reflector, which could not muster enough lux, long enough, to make the lux3 light of any use to me. I probably converted it to 3aa and added a 3 watt pot dial. But only remember using on one job. Most likely, I attempted to convert it to a Seoul for better efficiency in early 2008. Yet, I still was unhappy with the columnar lux. And recall only one job use for that mod.

Whar sealed it for me was going back to Sears in 2014, and they were selling, in store, pretty much the same led generation flashlights and headlamps as they stocked in 2008. I vowed to never again buy my lights locally. Since the vow, I have only bought one 3 aaa xpg headlamp from Walmart. Since it lacks ar glass, good aluminum reflector, and heatsink, it pales (at same current to the led) next to the 2011 Fenix hp11. Oh, and one 20mm cc xpg s4 flashlight, which would thermally shut down every 1h45 minutes, which was thankfully stolen by either a customer or faithful employee.
 
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ssanasisredna

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Perhaps a LED history thread is in order?

We are probably just better off updating Wikipedia.

Somewhere in a bin in my house is a sample of what is essentially a Luxeon-1 white, old enough that the PCB it is on says Hewlett-Packard.
 

Tixx

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Of the ones I still have, the Photon Freedom Covert is still the most used and my currently oldest LED Flashlight.
 

thenikjones

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Surefire L2 Digital Luminox, or similar name. Not sure if ever seen another reference to it. The L2X is mentioned much more.

It is OK, nothing special, keep it in the car for emergencies.
 

PaladinNO

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I'm not sure if this counts, considering it's primary is a Xenon-bulb: Streamlight 2C Twin-Task 51010 xenon + UV LEDs from 2008.
Though I don't think it really took off for me until 2014, with the purchase of a Fenix PD35.

I mean, we've had some of those generic 3x AAA things, an Energizer 2 AA headlight and some other rubbish in the family, but none of those were mine.
There are two USB-driven LEDs from 2007, but those are not exactly after any EDC-standard.

...

Aha! Here is one that ticks all the boxes: Streamlight Polytac 88853 from 2010.
C4 LED - 130 Lumen, 2x CR123 / 1x 16650.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002P44SDY/?tag=cpf0b6-20
Mine are the older, single-mode, 130 Lumen version.

So, 2010 it is for me then.
 
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Lurveleven

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My oldest LED is a Fenix P1, bought in 2006. In 2010 I upgraded the emitter to a neutral white XP-G. Now eleven years old, the light still looks looks like a piece of bead-blasted jewelry, and thanks to the upgrade, delivers 200 lumens (count 'em !!!) of creamy white light for about three hours on a single CR123 primary.

It's a current-regulated, single-level light. As a testament to its continuing utility, on days when it mysteriously disappears from its cradle, I need look no further than my wife's purse.
 

degarb

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Surefire released their first LED products in November 2002, not as complete lights, but as the LED upgrade heads KL1, KL2 and KL3.

For LED flashlight history Henry from HDS has written som interesting documents (the newest from 2003 :) ):
http://www.hdssystems.com/Articles/PatentLEDFlashlight.pdf
http://www.hdssystems.com/Articles/ActionLightHistory.pdf
http://www.hdssystems.com/Content/Pioneer/

I didn't realize HDS were pioneers, until this thread. I love their articles. Certainly, worthy of more research into the current products. But a quick peak, doesn't bring up any head lamps.
 

Sean

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Good to see you posting here this_is_nascar.

My oldest led flashlight that I still have is an Arc AAA. I also still have a Surefire A2. I may have something older somewhere but I'm not sure. It's hard to keep track since I've sold so many things.
 
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