anybody miss single modes of light?

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nmaynan

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Jul 13, 2006
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Most of my lights are Surefire, so I'll focus on them for simplicity.

Seems like the shift in lights is to LED now and almost all are dual-mode now. Yet, I find myself (for simplicity) wishing there was a single battery LED light about the size of the current L1 (any shorter and it's too hard to hold) regulated for a long flat runtime that gives off about 40 lumens that is activated by a clickie.

Surefire 1 battery lights tend to be really short. I like how the L1 has more length too it. I wish it had a clickie with one mode though.
 
IMO single mode is more practical in high incan flashlights. With leds, the useability rises with mulltiple modes.....
 
As much as I like multiple modes, a single level has been fine for me the past month ala E1L-R (reflector mod). I haven't carried my HDS in months now.
 
jumpstat said:
IMO single mode is more practical in high incan flashlights. With leds, the useability rises with mulltiple modes.....
Click to expand...
More specifically, incandescent is terribly inefficient and orange when dimmed to low output. LED keeps the same color and improves efficiency when dimmed.

I actually greatly prefer dual-mode, with a LOW low for small lights. For large lights, I like variable outut (logarithmic progression) with a SEPARATE control from brightness from the on/off switch.
 
Many of the cheaper 1 AA lights are single mode and some of them are of decent-good quality.

Maybe a 1AA light that you can keep on a level would work too. For example, the Fenix L1T V2.0. As long as you keep the head tight or loose, it will always be on high or low mode.
 
No, don't miss them at all. At this point it would have to be a very exceptional light for me to spend good money (more than $20) on any light without at least two levels.

Geoff
 
I'd like a 1 D cell regulated 1 watt led light. A nice fat little stubby,
like a tomato paste can with a tilt head and twist focus.
Its must sit on the table or clip to clothing or backpack straps.
 
I miss single mode lights, as most of mine are dual-mode (with the exception of SF Incan's.) Having multiple modes can come in handy, but sometimes it's difficult to explain to a non-flashaholic how the multi-mode system works.

Just my $0.02
 
I think 3 modes is the sweet spot for me. A nice low mode that can last for days, and great when i don't need, or want a lot of light. A medium that while pretty bright has a couple hours of runtime, for situations when low won't cut it, but I might need light for a few hours. And a turbo mode for those "mines brighter than yours" or "I wonder what's 100m that-a-way" moments. One mode just isn't versatile enough for me. :nana:


hmmm, one of my lights has 6 modes, another has one and the last has 2. that makes 9 and 9/3 is....... I'll have to buy a 7 mode light and see if my preffered # of mode's changes to 4.
 
Last edited:
I carry two or more lights and each is a different brightness so I don't actually need a multilevel light.
 
My two main EDC lights are a Fenix P3D and a Surefire G3. The G3 is blinding for close up observation of something, and so is the P3D on Turbo. The nice thing about the P3D is the multi-levels. I find myself using the different levels for different tasks on a daily basis. So yes, I find myself a big fan of multi-level lights, it just sucks that it doesn't work with incans.
 
I don't really miss single mode lights at all.

I've been using multi-mode lights for awhile now, and just recently tried EDCing a single-mode light, and I found it extremely frustrating, as there were many times when I needed a different level of output and didn't have it. I felt very limited.

I love the flexibility afforded by multi-mode lights! :)
 
No, I don't miss single-modes. I usually edc several multi-mode LED lights, including a Fenix P2D, P3D, HDS U60, Dereelight CL1H, etc. My SF E2L would get more use if it was a mult-mode, which is why I'm looking forward to the Titan Al, Optimus and Invictus. :cool:
 
With the new LED lights get brighter and brighter it's necessary now to have multi mode light, because one could be too bright for close up use.
 
I have plenty of lights that are single mode. I also have plenty that are multi mode.

I like multimode enough that I've even modded quite a few of my single mode lights to multi mode. Even my ARC LS has a low mode 75 ma (a lumen or two) for night or close up work.

All of my favorites are multi mode. It's just nice to know that the itty bitty light that I EDC can last for months on a single battery since I almost never need it's brightest output. When I need to see across the street, the turbo mode makes that possible.

No, I don't miss the single modes at all.

Daniel
 
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