Do you remember your first?

[fulee9999]

Because of a thread on a different forum I decided to measure the CRI on my phone, because someone said that "phone lights are high CRI" and I was like there is no way that's true. Well it's not, mine has a R8525 4500K LED, but that's not my current point.

So while I had the spectrometer out, I remembered I still have my first ever "serious" flashlight, an Olight S30R, which was - at the time at least - like magic to me, the power, the compactness, the machining, the different modes, I loved it. It was my bike light for a year, it has been through hell and back with me ( think scorching hot summer and snow storms ), and surprisingly enough, it only started to fail when it was back to house duty. So following the "well it's broken, can't break it anymore" logic I decided to do my first emitter swap on it. The LED I chose was an SST20 95CRI emitter, and much to my surprise now that I measured it, it's pretty freakin great in terms of color rendering. Sadly it's now more of a "it's there if someone wants to use it" light, but it still (kinda) works.

Here are a few pictures of the body, with the dents and bruises from use

And the user inflicted scrapes when I had the remove the driver

aaaand the completely busted bezel, because on every single forum people mentioned that this lights predecessor the S2 had a press fitted bezel, so I figured this one has one too. well no, this would've been a threaded one, but yeah.. it popped out eventually ( after which I noticed the threads )

The new LED sits nicely inside, but totally not centered, the beam is absolutely messed up ( think old Maglite beam pattern )

HOWEVER the color rendering now is stunning, this is the highest I ever measured!

I mean just look at those Ra,Rf,Rg,R9 values, it's gorgeous, and with an almost perfect 0 Duv, I'm just really lost for words.

( Also this little experiment showed me that TIR optics can and will in fact mess with CRI, the same exact LED behind the FocusWorks F2 frosted TIR optics only did R9080 )

 

[holygeez03]

My first "real light" after getting burned by junk was a Fenix 2xAA... then I got into Four Sevens AA/14500 lights when they were doing neutral emitters... then (and still) Zebralights.

 

[Pellidon]

I've been here a long time. The CMG Reactor was a 2xAA underpowered Luxeon emitter that ranged from cat pee green to almost whitish. Their single AA 5mm LED was eventually bought by Gerber.

 

[zespectre]

I've been here a long time. The CMG Reactor was a 2xAA underpowered Luxeon emitter that ranged from cat pee green to almost whitish. Their single AA 5mm LED was eventually bought by Gerber.

View attachment 31288

I still have the 2AA and 3AA versions of that light and one of them still works. The one that failed was a "nice" emerald green but I never replaced it.

 

[zespectre]

My first "Serious" light was a c.1990 Mag-Lite Mag-Charger. What a monster at the time, nothing compared. It saw several years of Law-enforcement use and then got retired to home use. Upgraded eventually to a better pack and an LED module setup, it's still in regular use as the "light on the wall by the back door of the house". Link to the old review I did.

 

[bykfixer]

After buying lights at Lowes and Home Depot and wondering what's the big deal with SureFire products I opted for a G2x Pro. It had a nice slight golden tint. The combination of throw and spill was an amazing thing to behold and only $55.

I wouldn't say it was my first "real" light since I grew up when a Kel-Lite changed the game from wack-a-palm lights to something pretty freaking reliable. Then along came the tiny little (by then standards) minimag.

 

[brachypelma44]

My first "real" flashlight was a 4 D-cell maglite in the mid-late 1980s. I don't know where it ended up, but it sure was nice to have at the time. Before that, I had some junky Radio Shack yellow and black plastic flashlight with a magnet on the side.

 

[Monocrom]

My first "Real" light is one I still have. Black SureFire C2 incandescent. (And yes, I did EDC it back in the day.)

 

[Stefano]

My first serious flashlight was the Fenix PD32 XP-G, 315 lumens looked impressive.

 

[:)>]

When I found Surefire's website and read their excellent marketing material, I found a law enforcement supply store that sold Surefire and I bought the 3P, 6P, and 9P all at the same time… 15 lumens, 65 lumens and 125 lumens respectively.

I couldn't wait for dark and when I hit the tail cap on the 6P I was blown away! Perfectly focused and super bright!

It was a good night!

 

[Olumin]

Aside from cheap plastic incans probably this

 

[kerneldrop]

Mine was a Fenix pd36r.
It quit working after a week.
It rolled off a night stand 27" high.
I do use the battery in other lights though, so not all is lost.

That event did two things for me: 1) made me buy USA made lights, and 2) made me realize tail switches are the right way

 

[Flynn's Arcade]

My first truly great light was a Tekna Lite 1. Single AA and used a 112 bulb, IIRC.
It was replaced years later by the larger and more powerful 2AA Mini-Mag and then that by SF 3P.

 

[fire-stick]

After burning through a few "32 led" triple AAA lights from ebay I got a streamlight strion. I remember precisely it was like 70 bucks. I thought I had went off the deep end.

 

[Ishango]

My first "real" light after incan Maglites was the first Fenix E20. Still a decent light 15 years later.

 

[Jean-Luc Descarte]

My first non-cheapo light was a Fenix E01. Angry purple tint, unbreakable, compact, all good things we remember it by.

First primary light was a Fenix E11, bought immediately after the E01. It worked but I hated the tight beam and the ultra-hard switch.

First primary light that I actually enjoyed was the Thrunite TN12, 2014 revision. I swear the "neutral white" XM-L2 I got in it was such a fluke in goodness that only a 3500K Nichia 519A could match; unfortunately almost exactly 1 year later it fell and something broke in the head – it would only turn on in moonlight mode.

 

[zespectre]

I never had the purple, I sure had a couple of the Emerald or "**** green" ones though.

 

[Jean-Luc Descarte]

Funny that, "**** green" is exactly the tint of the replacement TN12 I got after I mailed the broken one back. Shouldn't have asked for a cool white one...

 

[Stress_Test]

My first attempt at a serious LED light was a AA MiniMag, 1st generation, Lux III equipped. It had the infamous "sudden death" shutoff without any prior dimming (well maybe 2 seconds).

Frustration with that light led me to CPF, and resulted in my first good / serious LED flashlight, a Fenix L1D. This was the XR-E in a P4 bin if I'm remembering right. Sometime around 2008 I think.

Still have it, and it still works!

 

[bykfixer]

I remember when I had my first 2D Maglite LED light in the home depot parking lot lighting up reflective license plates from 50 yards... in the daytime.😱
I spent the rest of that afternoon seeing how far away I could light up road signs in daylight. If I recall correct it was 130 some blu-mens but my gosh that thing could light up objects way farther away then any flashlight I'd ever seen. The current version is a mere 213 lumens but has over 53,000 candela. So it's still one of my favorite flashlights for searching with.