D10 at the Lake

SomeoneSomewhere

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Jan 8, 2008
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14
Thought I would toss this out there since I've had my D10 since the first shipment batch, and I'm super happy with my purchase.
This is my first "quality" flashlight I've bought; I started buying a few after the huge power outage in Oklahoma and I was without lights for a few days. We had nothing but the enormous(ly weak) incandescent flashlights flashaholics scoff at. Not even up to the quality of a maglite. It was after spending a few nights in winter darkness that I realized the usefulness of a good flashlight buy I bought my first few without the benefit of CPF and ended up with some random and not very useful purchases. I started out with some Pelican flashlights and while searching for reviews on the different models found flashlightreviews.com which led me here.

I preordered the D10 after reading the massive number of posts anticipating it and got one in the first wave shipped. I was super impressed of course because I'm not used to that nice a white beam coming from an LED or a single AA battery and I've had fun playing with it but the useful became clear later.

I went with my brother and some other people to Lake Eufala and knowing we will be camping out in front of his in-laws trailer I knew it would be useful to have a couple of flashlights so I took an E01 and the D10. We decided to drive across the lake 20 minutes to watch the fireworks shoot off which of course leaves us on the water in the dark. My brother tried to put up the beacon light but it's broken- despite working the week before.

Aha! I brought my flashlights on board because I had a twinkling they might be needed while we are out in the dark. I used the E01 so we could look at the pole and see what's wrong; a metal contact is missing so its not making a connection and lighting up. What about just using E01 attached to the pole somehow?

My brother explains that we need the light shining out in all directions, not in just a beam. But wait! I read CPF and know a chapstick cap fits the E01. A girl on the boat has some so we stick that on there and tie it to the pole with some shoelaces from her boyfriends shoes. Now have a nice pink light. I still have the D10 for doing some miscellaneous unmentionables on board and as we're about to leave my brother doubts the E01 is bright enough so I ramp the D10 to max brightness.

"Wow that's bright!" Everyone exclaims. So now we exchange the E01 for my D10, after I ramp it down a bit for better runtime, with a tissue puffed over the tip secured with a hair scrunchie. And wouldn't you know it works as bright as everyone else's functional beacons and we're able to drive back to our dock. Incidentally on the way back we saw several boats rocking in dangerously close wake because they had no lights on and were nearly hit.

"Thank God we brought [SomeoneSomewhere], or we would have had to sleep over there and wait for morning to leave." My brother begins when he relates the story, "He's like friggin' MacGyver."

So that's the tale of how useful it was for me to carry a flashlight. Through the whole weekend it (and the E01) had spent time in boardshorts soaking in lake water, in my pocket diving into the water, and helped light up a clearing while we set up a tent.

Just thought I would share another story of how useful it is to have a light and how tough and usable I found the D10 to be this weekend. And I still haven't even had to change the cheap Duracell battery I threw in when I got it in the mail two weeks ago!
 
Good job!

Glad you're enjoying the D10... I'll be ordering one soon along with an EX10!
 
Oh lol, I misreaded the topic and thought that it said "D10 in the lake", so all the time while I was reading your story I was waiting for the part where you dip your D10 in to the bottom of the lake..but it didnt come :oops:

But it was a nice story, glad to hear that your lights have been useful :twothumbs
 
Good story! I hope no one asked you "what do you carry around those for?" as so many people do when a CPF'er comes to the rescue. Good work imrpovising a diffuser. Now I think you should get a good headlamp as well because they are super handy for hands free work.
 
...My brother tried to put up the beacon light but it's broken- despite working the week before...
I think you are referring to the "anchor light" or the stern light, the white light at the "back" of the boat.

Well done!
 
Nice story.

I'm glad you were able to get people safely back to shore.

It's great to be prepared.
 
Great story!!

I love my D10. It's not a shelf queen to be admired.

Sadly, yesterday as I was getting out of the car, I dropped my beloved D10. Now the perfect head has a tiny scratch on it!!

*sniff*sniff*

Oh well, it's going to be used and abused so that's the first scratch!! It works fine even after the drop, unlike my earlier Coast LED Lenser which went dead after a drop.

Oh well, ordering a second one as soon as Fenix-Store has them in stock again!!!
 
SomeoneSomewhere:
I envy you little bit because here in center(ish) of Finland is no "quality darkness" in mid summer months.
Now I may cause palpitations to some hardcore flashaholics but I have to confess that there was several weeks time that I didn't carry any light whatsoever.. :sweat:

Ps. That D10 + E01 is my new EDC setup too since I ordered E01 from Fenix-Store yesterday. Hope that shipping is fast as usual.
 
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