Hi Folks! New & Scared..what's gonna happen to my wallet!!

[Rforce1]

Hi There, Just wanted to introduce myself, and say Hello to all of you fine folks on the Forum. Awesome Forum, but as the Title indicates....I'm a little worried how my new find (being this Forum), is going to affect the pocket book!! I've already ordered all the stuff to modify the 2-C Maglite, and am currently waiting for that killer deal for a Streamlite TL-3 to come up on Ebay. In the meantime, I'm going to start out slowly, and pick up a "cheapie" light to satiate my new found hunger. So out of these 3 choices, let me know which you would pick (BESIDES ALL OF THEM!!!): 1) Dorcy Spyder, 2) Brinkmann Maxfire, 3) Pelican M6. Thanks.

 

[GeorgePaul]

Pelican M6 for sure.

 

[SkinlessMonkey]

Welcome to CPF. The only light you listed that I own is the Dorcy Spyder. I think it's pretty much the same as any other 2 cell xenon light. The only difference I can see between it and other similar lights I've owned would have to be the rubber grip.

 

[AndyTiedye]

CPF will take that extra weight off your wallet in no time,
especially if you click here.

 

[TORCH_BOY]

Welcome

Definately the Pelican M6

 

[shadowbuds]

Welcome! From my own experience I can tell you that you should research any light you purchase. My mistake was buying multiple chinese lights because of the lumen output alone. Was I dissapointed when I felt most of them! Look around and gather info and you'll be thanking yourself later.
​

 

[jumpstat]

Hi there and welcome to CPF.

I'd pick the Pelican M6. Never had one but handled one recently, nice to hold and grip.

 

[Strauss]

Another vote for the Pelican M6. Welcome to CPF

 

[DoubleDutch]

So out of these 3 choices, let me know which you would pick (BESIDES ALL OF THEM

!!!): 1) Dorcy Spyder, 2) Brinkmann Maxfire, 3) Pelican M6. Thanks.

I don´t own either of these. But I´m sure you´ll order at least one of those within the next few days. You post bears all the signs of heavy affliction, so there really isn´t any help for you now

.

Welcome to CPF, and start looking out for that bottom of your wallet!

Kees

 

[cbdudley]

There is an incandescent TL-3 for sale in the Buy/Sell/Trade area right now. Good luck!

 

[LEDninja]

Welcome to CPF.

Don't let the RA RA RA of other members promoting their favorite flashlight get to you. There are 20,000+ CPF members. You don't need 20,000 flashlights.

Remember you only have
2 hands
1 forehead
1 mouth
1(or more) keychain

In addition you may have
1 kitchen top drawer
1 (or more) car glove boxes
1 workshop

Any spouses/children/parents/grandparents etc. need their own EDC

You don't need any more lights than that. Otherwise you just accumulate expensive shelf queens.

You already have a Mag 2C with parts comming to make it brighter - 1 hand.
You are selecting between 4 other lights for your other hand - choose wisely, that should be your 2nd and last hand torch for a while.

I suggest you look next at your EDC -a keychain/pocket torch. The only useful light is the one you have with you. I doubt you will be near your Mag or other big torch when the next power outage hits. You need the little light to get to the big lights.
Then a torch for your car(s).

Then you can look at specialty torches
headlamp to leave your hands free
floody light for the workshop

I would not bother buying a light for the kitchen drawer. You will accumulate more hand torches than you have hands for and the extras can go in there.

 

[speederino]

After you get that TL-3, you will need the rechargeable option - head over to AW's Li-ion sales thread in the dealer's corner and get a pair of 17500 li-ions and a charger. After that, Litho123 has a thread going in the group buys forum - he has his custom Carley H1499 bulb available right now, which will juice up that TL-3.

See how this works? It's fun and wallet-draining! Turn and run before you buy anything else!

 

[lskov]

Welcome!
Go for Pelican M6 It`s a superb light!!

 

[fnmag]

Rforce1, welcome to CPF. Don't worry, be happy. Use the search function to seek out lights that interest you and go to flashlightforums for real good information. Cheers.

 

[COMMANDR]

Welcome to CPF Rforce1.

Another vote for the Pelican M6, and about your wallet, this place can put a serious dent in it if you don't watch it. Have fun and enjoy the ride.

Gary

 

[pactchncn]

You will be looking at the bottom of your wallet a lot, this place is addictive and VERY expensive! Welcome to CPF!

 

[Badbeams3]

Forget all those ideas...get a Cree based light...listen only to me.

The Pelican M6 would be my choice of the three too.

Welcome!

 

[MacTech]

Welcome to the forums, hide your wallet RUN!, run away *NOW* before it's too late, it's too late for *US*, just save yourself!

hmm, reccomendations for a newbie, let me cut right to the chase;

Headlamp; Princeton Tec EOS, 3 power levels and a flashing mode, Luxeon 1 LED, powered by 3 AAA cells

Keychain light; either a Photon Freedom Max, a Arc AAA, or Fenix E0, you want a dim, long runner here that takes up almost no room

Pocket-Rocket; one of the Fenix P1 series (P1, P1D, P1D-CE), a light just barely larger than the CR123a cell that powers it, but it puts out an incredible amount of light for it's size

EDC; SureFire A2 Aviator, yes it's a $200 flashlight, but it's also a very versatile light, regulated incandescent beam (75ish lumens) with reasonably good throw, a nice floody 3 LED beam (3 lumens), reasonably small, pocketable size (about the size of a MiniMag AA incan), the best part about the A2 is that it'll fill your needs for flashlights for a while, after i purchased my A2, i haven't purchased any more flashlights, i think the A2 cured my flashaholism, or at least put it into serious remission....

Throwmonster; Mag Instrument MagCharger, 175+ lumens of fury *stock*, easily upgradeable with a simple bulb swap (Welch Allyn 1160), rechargable, and focusable (even though focusing is basically a gimmick, all my Mags stay focused out to a tight spot), only downside is an interminably long recharge time (16 hours) to get one hour of runtime.....

that should be all you *need* to get, heck you could trim it down to the A2 and the keychain light and you'd be good, problem is that this place sucks you in, and you start accumulating lights that you rationalize to yourself that you "need", when you already have enough lights already, soon you're rationalizing every purchase to the Better Half, and having lights delivered to work to hide the addiction, and yes, it *is* an addiction, an incurable one at that, there'll always be a "better" light that you'll "need".....

right now, i'm trying to avoid the siren call of the Fenix L2D-CE, thankfully, my A2 is helping me stay strong, but...resistance....fading.....must....try....Cree....emitter.....

Save yourself, it's too late for me, get a couple good lights, then clear your browser cookies and delete the CPF bookmarks, forget you were ever here, run, run while you still can.....

 

[BentHeadTX]

CPF Wisdom

"A thin wallet allows more space in pocket for flashlights"

 

[LEDcandle]

My mistake was buying multiple chinese lights because of the lumen output alone. Was I dissapointed when I felt most of them!
​

Rforce1, if you want to save your wallet, then selective Chinese lights are the way to go. They aren't all as bad as they're made out to be.

Check out with all the Golston 7w owners; most of them are happy campers. that was in the days of the Luxeon LED.

Now the Cree and Seoul LED have been introduced (roughly double brightness or double runtime of the luxeon), and there are still "golston-type" chinese lights out there that have these new LEDs and some even have 2-stage output etc.. the quality and output is definitely worth its price. It may not compare to a Surefire, but for a budget light it is definitely worth it.

I'm not sure if I'm helping you or harming you by giving you these links, but here are great places to look for budget lights :-

http://www.dealextreme.com
http://www.kaidomain.com
http://qualitychinagoods.com

If you want a nice good light and are willing to dish out $100-200 or so, you can probably check out Surefire's new L1 or maybe one of their incandescent models.

Another option might be high-end Chinese lights in the $30-90 range including offerings from Lumapower, Fenix, Jetbeam, Liteflux, Rexlight etc... do a search on these and you'll find a lot to catch up with. These brands produce very high quality lights that I would dare say are not too far off from Surefire's in terms of fit and finish (give and take some poor batches for some of the brands; Surefire has occasional quality issues as well).

But these are almost all LED based lights and a lot of them are AA or AAA lights, save for a few CR123a lights and some 18650 lithium-ion based lights. See what kind of battery setup you wanna go with before deciding on the light.

The Pelican M6 is a good light in itself; quality is good and output is also better than the average flashlight. It's just that things are improving now and it might be wiser to buy a newer model flashlight with a Cree or Seoul LED as some have recommended.