Need some guidance in choosing a flashlight...

[DWTheWhiteness]

Hello all. In the past couple of months, I have gone through many cheap (and a few expensive) flashlights trying to find one that can do everything I want, but to no avail. Perhaps this is asking for a bit much from one flashlight, but I'll let you all be the judge of that. The features I want are as follows:

• Handheld (not the huge club-like ones)
• LED probably, because of the durability and bulb life, but I'm open to suggestions
• Adjustable brightness settings. At least one dim and one really bright, and more in between wouldn't hurt
• On that note, a light that is able to get pretty dang bright. I don't need to permanently blind anyone, but brightness that makes searching in pitch black feasible would be nice
• Adjustable zoom/focus. What I mean by this is a light that can either cover a wide area in one setting, or be brought in to tight focus on a spot with another setting. I have insofar been unable to find a single light that has both multiple zoom/focus and brightness settings
• It would be ideal if this light also had multiple color settings (green, red, and/or blue). This would probably be the last feature I'd be worried about, simply b/c I'm sure that this is pretty hard to find
• Cost isn't really an issue. If it could be had for under 75, that would be ideal. But I am willing to compromise to find my perfect light!

If anyone has any specific lights they can suggest, or even a specific brand to guide me in the right direction that I could check out, that would be great. I've been looking online for a while, and I've found that it's very difficult to search for flashlights "by feature" as it were. I've checked out some Fenix lights that seem really nice, but none of them seem to be able to zoom/focus, and I don't need their strobe ability at all.

Any suggestions are welcome. Thanks in advance!

 

[R@ndom]

Surefire A2 aviator. Meets all your requirements.

 

[Zeruel]

[*]Adjustable zoom/focus. What I mean by this is a light that can either cover a wide area in one setting, or be brought in to tight focus on a spot with another setting. I have insofar been unable to find a single light that has both multiple zoom/focus and brightness settings


[*]It would be ideal if this light also had multiple color settings (green, red, and/or blue). This would probably be the last feature I'd be worried about, simply b/c I'm sure that this is pretty hard to find

Pick one of these 2 features, no lights that has both AFAIK. :thinking:
If it's adjustable focus, there's Fenix E20 and Led Lenser P5 (amongst a number of their other models).

If it's multiple color settings, then it's Surefire A2 or A2L. Streamlight Sidewinder has this feature too, but the output is very weak. (New Sidewinder coming up with C4, so maybe you could wait and see).

 

[yellow]

zoom more or less kicks anything out but Led Lenser,
but that feature is useless!
a good small to medium flood beam - like most any of the better led lights - is perfect.
Want throw --> thrower


reference for small, powerful, multistage flashlight buying:
1. what brightness on max do You want?
2. what runtime?
3. what cells?
determines: size of light (= number of cells)
determines: chemisty + charging equipment

imho:
- charging equipment + cells for AA already present: 2*AA light
- no Ni-Mh equipment: 1*18650 Li-Ion light

 

[R@ndom]

Zoom = flood and throw = A2.

 

[hyperloop]

• Adjustable brightness settings. At least one dim and one really bright, and more in between wouldn't hurt. Jetbeam Jet I Pro v3.0
• On that note, a light that is able to get pretty dang bright. I don't need to permanently blind anyone, but brightness that makes searching in pitch black feasible would be nice as above
• Adjustable zoom/focus. What I mean by this is a light that can either cover a wide area in one setting, or be brought in to tight focus on a spot with another setting. I have insofar been unable to find a single light that has both multiple zoom/focus and brightness settings as far as i know only Maglites and LED Lensers (P5 and P6) have adjustable focus
• It would be ideal if this light also had multiple color settings (green, red, and/or blue). This would probably be the last feature I'd be worried about, simply b/c I'm sure that this is pretty hard to find
• Cost isn't really an issue. If it could be had for under 75, that would be ideal. But I am willing to compromise to find my perfect light! Jetbeam and LED Lenser

 

[325addict]

I think the only one that comes close is the Led Lenser P7. It is fairly bright and has numerous brightness settings AND has an adjustable focus.

It is powered by 3X AAA batteries, which is a little uncommon, but... according to one of my colleagues, who has one, this is no problem regarding battery life.


Timmo.