Old School Round Two

[L.E.D.]

LED's certainly have come a LONG way. What was the first ever -STOCK- LED flashlight you had?? No, sticking a red led into a Minimag back in the 80's does not count, as that is not stock.

My first ever stock was the Brinkmann Long Life 2AA, I got it immediately when they first showed up at Wal Mart, and I remember how amazed I was, still almost remember it like yesterday... Ah, those were the good old days (for me at least, lol).

 

[Garand]

Mine was some sort of 3AAA Walmart special. It has an amazing run time but a bic lighter put out more light.

 

[angelofwar]

LED's certainly have come a LONG way. What was the first ever -STOCK- LED flashlight you had?? No, sticking a red led into a Minimag back in the 80's does not count, as that is not stock.

My first ever stock was the Brinkmann Long Life 2AA, I got it immediately when they first showed up at Wal Mart, and I remember how amazed I was, still almost remember it like yesterday... Ah, those were the good old days (for me at least, lol).

That was mine as well...but I wasn't a Flashaholic then, and had no idea what an LED was...but my first "I'm buying an LED" purchase was the Inova X-5 back in '03...and it's still alive and kicking

 

[Big_Ed]

For me, the first was a black Pal Light I bought in the mid to late 1990's. I still have it. The LED seems to have turned more and more blue since then. But I don't use it anymore anyway. I won't get rid of it though, because it was my first LED after all.

 

[kramer5150]

I got this for $25... yuk. I was never really happy with its performance, but I didn't know any better. It has NO usable throw beyond ~10 feet once the cells deplete past their first ~25 minutes

 

[regulator]

My first "flashlight" was the first Infinity and a PAL light (same era - late 90's). This was before the ARC AAA even existed. I still have my first run ARC AAA.

 

[PlayboyJoeShmoe]

I think it was an original ARC AAA. Either that or an original CMG Infinity Ultra.

I can't think of any LED light prior to the ARC.

 

[Cydonia]

My first experience with white LED... and first LED flashlight... was the venerable Inova X5. I ended up with 2 of em'. Sold em this year though... regret it already. Sentimental *sniff* *sniff* baawaaahaha :mecry:

 

[lukevsdarth]

My first ones were blue and green leds keychain lights i bought for about a buck each. These were back in 2000. I bought quite a few to sell never sold them gave them away instead at parties. I still have a few blue body and green body weak lights. Prior to that was probably a RED keychain i could buy at either Walmart or Target man i thought those were bright it looked like a UFO.
Oh wait I got a nice one It took two AA batteries made by Brinkmann. It was called Long Life Led a single led pretty weak with a convex plastic lens. I think i gave it to my dad ill try to find it. Dont forget the yellow or blue lamp style keychain red led found in the Asian shops.


Fred

 

[Sgt. LED]

Original CMG Infinity with green Led, and I still use it for bathroom trips. 9 years man, my first one was a very good one it turns out!

 

[LED_Thrift]

PAL Survival I got from GlowBug.com. Just think, I knew after buying just one LED flashlight that strobe mode was a PITA unless it was "out of the way".

 

[woodrow]

I was a proud Surefire Incan guy! My first led was an Inova X5. I bought it, but knew that incans would forever rule over leds. Boy how times change in a few years.

Still have my X5 though. Pitty keeps me from turning it on too often. Although it will run on batteries so dead that they will not even power my other led lights. Thats still pretty cool!

 

[Grateful Ned]

I had some single-LED Brinkmann also. Still laying around here somewhere I think. Big 'ol head on the thing.

 

[greenLED]

An ArcAAA (every flashaholic had to have one back when), then an Inova X5-HA (to drain the batts used in my Peli M6), and later a couple of Arc LS's: an LSL-P (which I still use in stock form), and an LSH-S (which is mint in baggie).

:thinking: Or maybe it was the X5-HA first and then the ArcAAA. It was definitely the LS that dragged me into this madness for good.

 

[skalomax]

I got this for $25... yuk. I was never really happy with its performance, but I didn't know any better. It has NO usable throw beyond ~10 feet once the cells deplete past their first ~25 minutes

LOL, I have the exact same one.
I bought it a little over a year ago at a BIG5.

 

[kramer5150]

LOL, I have the exact same one.
I bought it a little over a year ago at a BIG5.

LOL me too!! A horrid light at best. The guitar forums I frequent have a name for products like this... Polished Turds. Products blinged out... all these glorious features, revolutionary styling, and groundbreaking design. Only to fall flat, and in this case... be outdone by a stock mag solitare.

LOL

 

[paulr]

I'm thinking, my first stock led lights were probably a pair of Photon II's that ran me close to 20 bucks each at the time. I must have gotten them in the late 1990's. One with a white led (an old Nichia model) with 2x2016 (shortly after they switched from 1x2032) and one with a green led and 1x2032. The white one replaced a flaky M*g Solitaire on my keys and was out of service for a long time because the led leads had gotten compressed so the light was stuck on and killed its batteries. I eventually opened it up and saw all I had to do was bend the leads outward a little to fix this. I had somehow been worried that disassembling the light would be complicated but it wasn't.

I still have both lights but have upgraded the white one to a more modern led (Nichia CS, I think) that is around 4x brighter than the original one. I've also swapped the batteries a couple times. The green one is still going strong on its original battery with occasional use over the years.

 

[Snow]

My first three LED lights, in order:

1. Photon II
2. ARC AAA
3. Princeton Tec Attitude

 

[greenLED]

Darned, paulr... now that you mention the Photon, I might've owned one of those even before the ArcAAA. I distinctly remember getting one at REI, but I ended up returning it because it was back when the Photons would turn on in your pocket and be dead every time you needed them.

 

[L.E.D.]

Pretty cool stuff so far. I guess I should provide the link for my original Old School thread, some VERY interesting stuff there, especially the last one currently there about a retired CH-47 pilot and an IR LED'ed minimag + night vision goggles! http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=105288