Budget Vs High end lights

[Armed_Forces]

I've never in my life seen a Mexican driving a Hummer, they can't see over the steering wheel! I call BS. :laughing:




j/k!!

 

[jblackwood]

My Deree lights are made in China. I've read various accounts of people having replacements sent out to them and shipping theirs back to the factories. And that's discounting the reputable stateside retailers like Flashcrazy (Dereelight) and 4sevens (every other brand, practically!). Personally, I've received excellent service from 4sevens.

If you have to ask, you will never understand. Today, I received a new tailcap for the Surefire L1, because the rubber finally wore through after carrying it almost daily for three years. The tailcap was FREE. Normally, tailcaps start at about forty dollars on up. Who do I call if my made in China light breaks? Of course there is an exception for the Fenix lights.

The clip on my new L1 broke last week and they are sending me another clip, for free.

The nylon sheath for my Leatherman Charge TTi became frayed badly after a few weeks. I contacted Leatherman and they informed me there was no warranty on the sheath. I will not do business with Leatherman again, but I will certainly plop down a few hundred dollars for a new SF light.

For the kid and wife to use at home, a four dollar, 3 led flashlight that runs on two D batteries. They will never go outside to investigate anything and if the power goes out, which it doesn't, then they have plenty of light. For me I like my small collection of lights, even though some of them are considered high end lights. I consider anything over 100 dollars high end.

 

[Jarl]

if this seems off topic it is not.... you can use a better product and pay less. when you look and see what the trades are using you will see that some of their equipement is a fashion or a click thing but hardcore equipemant just plain works and has to work day in and day out. if it costs less is a bonus but the key is it has to work when needed... every time.

This is so true. I'm a mountain biker, and enjoy night riding. I could spend upwards of $350 on a hope vision 4, or I could spend $40 on an MTE P7 from DX with a better beam pattern, no danger of destroying the battery pack and mod-ability.

Yeah, guess which one I'll get.

Sometimes you can pay less and get more. Not often, but sometimes an absolute gem will come up :)

 

[Chronos]

Hey Ya'll


I have a question that I've spent some time searching threads for, and I haven't found any thing that really answers the question. What makes a $300 flashlight so much better than a $70 flashlight? ... Thanks for letting me open this can of worms.:crackup:

$230

Now, who is buried in Grant's tomb???

:ironic:

:nana:

:welcome:

 

[detwolfsdad]

Hey ya'll
Thanks for all the input. weeding out some of the obvious silliness, I agree to a point that you get what you pay for. I am a construction superintendent, I own top end Power tool ie., Porter Cable, DeWalt, Milwaukee, etc., and they stay locked up in my shop at home!!! on the site everyone uses Ryobi! Drop, steal, break, or lose my Ryobi, Ill run to the depot and get another one. Btw the next edc on the list to buy is a Fenix ld 20 :devil:

 

[sims2k]

I keep the Fenix lights with me and loan out the maglites...plain and simple. Fenix and SF I use for myself...Maglites for everyone else to use or break...

 

[pee10755]

I never really was concerned about high performance lights until I started police work. If it had enough light output to navigate whatever task I was attempting and it worked most of the time I was happy.

When I first joined my agency in 1996 they gave me a used Mag 3D as my patrol flashlight. The light would flicker at times and you had to bang the head to make it work. It was a pain, but I had a gun so the light was not really that important... or so I thought. About six months into the job I was searching a two story crack house for a felony suspect. The light started to go out. I had to bang it on the wall to get it to work. Not very good when you are trying to sneak up and find a hiding felony suspect. The light failed and I had to back out in the total dark and wait for someone with a spare light so I could reenter the structure. That was an eye openner. Without light in a pitch black room all of the other tools are not that useful. You can't defend yourself or make force decisions when you are blind. Within a few weeks I had the surefire 8X rechargable with a spare battery. I got the best performing light I could find at the time.

A short time later I was in a foot chase at night and tripped over a small wire garden fence that I did not see. The surefire 8x went flying into a wood pile. I had to stop the chase becasue I was not going follow someone behind dark houses with no light. Within a few weeks I had the surefire 9N. I kept the 8X on my belt as the back up light and used the 9N. Priced didn't matter only performance.

Over the years I have upgraded my gear as technology has increased performance. My point is that whatever your task; walking the dog, camping, hiking, checking to see what went bump or chasing felons pick the best performing most reliable gear you can find. Life is unpredictable and not being able to see when the worst is happening is a bad feeling. This usually means toward the expensive side, but not always. That is where CPF is so unique. It is a community of sharing that allows you make informed choices and get the best gear for your task by using shared knowledge.

The benchmarks that I look for when evaluating new lights are beam shape, total output, reliability and run time; not price.

 

[sol-leks]

Why choose? Its nice to have some cheap lights and some fancy ones.