Inova x5 flashlight, equivalent or improvement

[z_moorerad]

I lost my Inova x5 led pocket flashlight after 5 years of use, I have a charger for the rcr123 batteries and 2 batteries left. I really liked everything about my Inova flashlight, including the twist on/off and the momentary end cap switch. It was really bright for its size. Due to vision problems, I use the light alot. Amazon has the them for $25 ( I had paid product wizard over $40). Someone showed me a light about the same size but was much brighter than my already bright Inova x5, but I do not know what it was.



Any suggestions?

 

[mbw_151]

Lots of lights are more efficient these days, brighter or run longer, but the Inova X5 is a very "floody" light, not a common beam pattern. If this is an important to you, your search will be constrained. The alternative is to buy a light with more of a "spot" beam pattern and add a diffuser to the front of the light to spread out the beam. Inova makes the T1 which is the same length as the X5 and a little larger diameter. This light uses 2 x 123 cells and has a 120 lumen high and 16 lumen low. Slap a Surefire F04 diffuser on the front and you've got about the same performance as an older X5 on low with 3-4x the runtime or 3-4x the output with close to the runtime of the X5. There are lots of other options, but the best way I know to make the floody beam is the Surefire F04 which fits a 1" diameter front bezel. I personally use an F04 on HDS, Surefire, and Inova lights. The F04 allows up close work with a very bright light.

 

[Lee1959]

I find that even after all these years my X5 is still one of my handiest and most used lights, there is one by each side of our bed, my wife has white and I have red. They have such a good balance of runtime, output, size, and durablityand at the price they are, hard to beat. I personally still think they are one of the top emergency lights out there. I am happy enough with mine they are not going anywhere soon, and if I had to buy replacements, I would still by the X5, older technoligy yes, but in this case it just isnt going out of style.

 

[DM51]

Moving to LED Flashlights...