Proof of personal flashaholism

[MKatzpp]

Its a fine line knowing you're a flashaholic vs being completely obsessed. most of you probably know when you've gone from being a flashaholic to being ridiculously obsessed due to something that changed in your flashlight thought process or everyday flashlight habits. maybe instead of carrying ONE flashlight you edc like 5 of them. or you do some insane mod that makes a 5 lumen keychain light into like 8,475,500 lumen spotlight that blinds someone 8 football fields away. mine came while on vacation the 2wks ago.

i was visiting family in upstate NY and while at an amusement park (a fairly lame on called seabreeze) i went from normal flashaholic to obsessed retard. i was riding a roller coaster that went through a tunnel and while i was enjoying the ride i definitely was wishing i had any number of extremely bright lights to completely illuminate the tunnel. certainly not for any good reason, merely to make an otherwise dark place MUCH brighter.

thanks for listening, i will be seeking therapy very soon.

 

[greenLED]

...i will be seeking therapy very soon.

So, which light are you buying now?

:devil:

 

[BB]

Naw--that is not bad... Bad is when you have more video of the inside of the dark rides in Disney Land using "Night Shot" than of your kids in the park...

-Bill

 

[Trashman]

Naw--that is not bad... Bad is when you have more video of the inside of the dark rides in Disney Land using "Night Shot" than of your kids in the park...

-Bill

...or when the photo holder inside your wallet has pictures of your lights and not your kids...


(...just following suit, not actually true, in my case)

 

[mossyoak]

when you give a co worker and strider and mcg27lt as collateral for her iphone for the afternoon and have to show her on CPF and USN the value of the light and knife and she goes "your f'ing crazy for spending so much", hate to say it but i cant watch "the office" on my light or knife.

 

[Draz]

funny stuff mate. I go outside to urinate at night just so I can flash my new L4 around

 

[Burgess]

I don't have a problem.


I'm as sane as the rest of you people.



Oh, wait, that isn't much of an endorsement . . . .




-

 

[Kentuckian]

I just got interested in all of this a few weeks ago and already have a list of lights that's going to take me a year (or more) to buy all of them and not totally screw up my budget! I was at Wal-Mart the other night and did not have any money budgeted for any toys this week so I dug all the change out of my pocket and bought a $3.50 Ozark Trail 6V light. IT's pretty much a disposable light but I couldn't just leave with nothing! When I got home I spent an hour adjusting the bulb depth in the reflector to get the beam as good as possible.:shakehead

Believe it or not it now has nearly a 200' beam now! I've spent a couple hours trying figure out how to use the lens, reflector and body to mod up a good 50-60 lumen flood type house light that would be rechargeable. Cheesy I know but it will be my first mod ( I gotta figure out how to put together a 6V rech battery pack).

 

[Flying Turtle]

I think the fact that here I am in the wee hours of the night reading CPF to be some proof of the problem. Also, today I couldn't resist a "Tree Stand Finder Light" from a clearance shelf at ****'s Sporting Goods. I have no need for one, but it was only $1.90 after 75% discount. It has eight LEDs and a remote control, but it didn't work. Serves me right. :shakehead

Geoff

 

[KingGlamis]

My wife has always thought I was flashlight crazy, but since finding this site it has expanded ten-fold. I now spend hours per day researching flashlight-related topics and products. And I'm outside every night comparing the throw and flood of various lights. She doesn't get it. I try to tell her it's a fun hobby with a practical purpose, but still she doesn't get it. Luckily I have a great wife that puts up with me, but she still teases me about my "obsession" daily.

 

[Kentuckian]

Ahh! You can get it working! Just find a body big enough, wire it to a 650 cold cranking amp auto battery and there you go! Now you have a big ugly and heavy light that doesn't work! Sorry I'm in a goofy mood from lack of sleep for the last 53 hours.

 

[GreySave]

<< ...or when the photo holder inside your wallet has pictures of your lights and not your kids...>>

Might as well fill the wallet with something. Flashaholics rarely have any money left in there.....:mecry:

 

[Flying Turtle]

To further affirm my flashaholism, I made a special trip to trade the non-working "Tree Stand Locator Light" mentioned a few posts back for another. This one is also non-working. Maybe I'm doing something wrong, but there were no instructions. I'm not taking this one back. Dissection seems to be in order.

Geoff

 

[Katdaddy]

or you do some insane mod that makes a 5 lumen keychain light into like 8,475,500 lumen spotlight that blinds someone 8 football fields away.

Please send additional info on this mod. I am very interested!!

 

[Monocrom]

I realized more than awhile ago that I have enough lights to last me at least 3 Lifetimes. But each fills a different need. Several lights in case of a Blackout. Several EDC options in case the ones I regularly carry aren't enough. You know, the usual.

 

[Paul_in_Maryland]

Photographers who are forever seeking to buy "just one more lens" are known as lensaholics. There's a well-known essay, "Overcoming Lens Addiction," that points out the paradox: The more lenses, the less each lens gets used...and the more stress in deciding which to use. Hmmm...sounds familiar.

We also find this syndrome among women who can never have too many pairs of shoes. (Remember Imelda Marcos?)

Me? I'm down to five lights: pocket, pouch, car, kitchen, and basement (my "blackout" light). Not counting the 60-cent LED lights that dangle from my keyring as givewaways.

The number of lights is one measure of one's flashaholism. Other measures can be just as revealing:

• How fast or frequently the number changes
• How fast your collection "turns over" by trading one light for another.
• the average value of each light
• your collection's total value or investment, including chargers, cells, and accessories
• how many lights you typically carry at one time
• the number of waking hours you have a light on your person divided by the number of waking hours you don't.

Someone should come up with a formula that accounts for all such measures, yielding a Flashaholism Index.

 

[Illum]

And I'm outside every night comparing the throw and flood of various lights.

I don't have a wife but the neighbors sometimes would ask why I raise what appears to be white rectangle signs every 3 feet diagonally across the lawn....and as predicted you usually have no idea what I'm talking about: throw, spill, intensity...

Photographers who are forever seeking to buy "just one more lens" are known as lensaholics.

lens are too expensive...what about us photographers that [almost] have a fetish for collecting filters?

 

[Echo63]

Photographers who are forever seeking to buy "just one more lens" are known as lensaholics. There's a well-known essay, "Overcoming Lens Addiction," that points out the paradox: The more lenses, the less each lens gets used...and the more stress in deciding which to use. Hmmm...sounds familiar.

each lens should have different uses
once i get my 300f2.8 and a ultra wide angle and some really fast primes i should be set.

do you have a link to this essay, i dont think i have read it

 

[Paul_in_Maryland]

do you have a link to this essay, i dont think i have read it

Sorry, I don't. And evidently the title is not "Overcoming Lens Addiction"; Google turns up nothing except this thread. It appeared, as I recall, on a megasite about third-party lenses. But I can't recall that site's name. I had thought it might be CameraQuest, the site maintained by classic-camera buff Stephen Gandy, but it's not.

Wait: It appaered here, on the Third Party Lenses Resource MegaSite. I'm still looking there, but you're welcome to beat me to it...

 

[sysadmn]

So, which light are you buying now?
:devil:

LOL

You know, I live near an amusement park. They accumulate an amazing collection of shoes, hats, purses, cell phones, and other detritus from the rides.
On most of the rides, they will not stop the line to allow workers to get dropped items - you stop back right before closing or fill out a form and have it mailed to you. (Ask me about "Tomb Raider", where Lara Croft stole my cell phone from a buttoned pants pocket...)
It occurs to me that if my addiction every compromises my ethics, I'd start reporting a lost flashlight every time I visit, and would someday hit the jackpot "Um, it was darkish gray or maybe black, about 6 inches long, and metal".