greenlight
Flashlight Enthusiast
What is the best flashlight for an usher? You need a cheap and reliable light that is easy to use but also doesn't irritate your customers too much. A twist mode light is great, or a light with a tactical push-button, but multi mode lights and especially reverse clickies are to be avoided. A single AA or AAA cell light is ideal for keeping things simple.
In a dark theater you don't need any more than 10 lumens. You don't want to distract people who have paid good money to enjoy their show. This is why a focused light that uses an aspherical or collimating lens is so useful: you can easily direct your customers to their table with your beam of light.
The best light for an usher is probably the original inova X1. It has a very focused beam and the head is coated black anti-reflective to make the window area as unobtrusive as possible. The tactical tailcap was never very useful, but the twist mode was fine and the entire end piece could be used to activate a momentary flash.
Successive versions of the inova X1 using different types of reflectors and LED's never matched the usefulness of the original version.
Another good light is the LED Lenser BMW pocket light. It is similar to the inova X1 but is smaller (AAA). It has a momentary push button but no twist mode.
The Gerber firecracker was also a good light for an usher. It sells as a twist mode flashlight, but the tailcap will allow you to activate the light when you press it. It's a little bit brighter than the inova X1, and it also has a lot of light output at the window area due to the light reflecting off of a white plastic spacer behind the window, something that isn't ideal for working in a dark theater:
(The light is off and this is my photo of my GID mod).
A lot of lights are not good for an usher. The coin cell lights are cheap, but they are too floody and they irritate more people than they help. Especially the blue LED's. Cheap multi LED lights are also to be avoided, as are lights that are too bright for theater use. 3AAA lights a poor selection due to the need to keep multiple batteries.
I'm always looking for a good replacement light that has some of these qualities. Which is your favorite?
In a dark theater you don't need any more than 10 lumens. You don't want to distract people who have paid good money to enjoy their show. This is why a focused light that uses an aspherical or collimating lens is so useful: you can easily direct your customers to their table with your beam of light.
The best light for an usher is probably the original inova X1. It has a very focused beam and the head is coated black anti-reflective to make the window area as unobtrusive as possible. The tactical tailcap was never very useful, but the twist mode was fine and the entire end piece could be used to activate a momentary flash.
Successive versions of the inova X1 using different types of reflectors and LED's never matched the usefulness of the original version.
Another good light is the LED Lenser BMW pocket light. It is similar to the inova X1 but is smaller (AAA). It has a momentary push button but no twist mode.
The Gerber firecracker was also a good light for an usher. It sells as a twist mode flashlight, but the tailcap will allow you to activate the light when you press it. It's a little bit brighter than the inova X1, and it also has a lot of light output at the window area due to the light reflecting off of a white plastic spacer behind the window, something that isn't ideal for working in a dark theater:
(The light is off and this is my photo of my GID mod).
A lot of lights are not good for an usher. The coin cell lights are cheap, but they are too floody and they irritate more people than they help. Especially the blue LED's. Cheap multi LED lights are also to be avoided, as are lights that are too bright for theater use. 3AAA lights a poor selection due to the need to keep multiple batteries.
I'm always looking for a good replacement light that has some of these qualities. Which is your favorite?
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