Recommend Best Ti (Titanium) AAA Flashlight

[this_is_nascar]

Been away for sometime and don't have the time to invest in spending hours researching. I'm looking for the best, currently on the market/available Ti flashlight in the 1xAAA format.

It must do the following:

- Tailstand.
- At least 2-modes (low/high).
- Allow for Energizer E2 Lithium usage.
- Fully regulated in each level.
- Be easily available for puchase, meaning currently being produced and orderable.

Thanks.

 

[swrdply400mrelay]

Titanium Innovations Illuminati

 

[Chrisdm]

That listing says it includes a pocket clip but i dont see one in the photo.. i dig the itp aaa titanium model at goinggear.com becuase it has a bonafide pocket clip.

 

[PoliceScannerMan]

Not Ti, but I would highly consider 4sevens preon revo in stainless steel. It rocks.

 

[mrlysle]

Titanium Innovations Illuminati

+1 on the Illumina Ti. Well built, bright, and it does have a clip. It's on mine now, right beside my Leatherman Charge Ti.

 

[jabe1]

Why Ti? You should seriously consider the 4sevens Preon Revo in SS.

 

[Deleted member 737]

Watching this thread with great interest considering I'm in the same boat...

 

[enomosiki]

+2 for Titanium Innovation IlluminaTi CA1. As far as I know, it's the only AAA light that uses XP-G S2. If you need even more light out of it and think you can manage the heat level well, you can feed it a 10440 and you'll be rocking out 250+ lumens out of something the size of your pinky.

That listing says it includes a pocket clip but i dont see one in the photo.. i dig the itp aaa titanium model at goinggear.com becuase it has a bonafide pocket clip.

It does. In fact, you can have it positioned either way to allow bezel-down pocket carry or clip it to a ballcap to use the light as a headlamp.

 

[srfreddy]

Illuminiti. or however its spelled.

 

[Starchaser]

+2 for Titanium Innovation IlluminaTi CA1. As far as I know, it's the only AAA light that uses XP-G S2.

Preon ReVO, Stainless Steel, XP-G S2

http://www.4sevens.com/product_info.php?cPath=297_332_412&products_id=2578

That would be my recommendation over the Titanium Innovation IlluminaTi, unless your set on getting titanium.

 

[Derek Dean]

I've spent the last few weeks checking out many of the current AAA offerings (although not necessarily with titanium bodies). There are a lot of great lights to be had, making a choice difficult.

First, I tend to agree that the Illumina Ti would fit all of your requirements with one qualification: It appears to be out of stock at the moment, so it can't exactly be ordered at this time (unless I missed something on the Battery Junction website). A call might let you know when a new batch is due in.

I think the Preon Revo is excellent as well, with the best regulation I've seen on all 3 levels with all 3 types of cells (L92, alkaline, and NiMh), however, it's not currently available in Ti, and while tail standing seems to be possible, that's one area that could be improved.

The ITP A3 titanium doesn't appear to allow easy tail standing either.

Hmmmmmm..........

Oh, here's one:
http://www.4sevens.com/product_info.php?cPath=297_332&products_id=2478

Is it the "best" light that fits your criteria?...... well, at this point it's the only light I know of that fits your criteria, however, I'm sure some other folks will chime in with good suggestions, as I'm sure there are others out there.

Happy hunting!

 

[Zeruel]

Univex AAA if it fits the budget.

 

[kaichu dento]

Univex AAA if it fits the budget.

Given the restrictions of the OP I'd have to see the Univex AAA as one of the main, if not only, contenders. Would like to also place a strong endorsement for the SS neutral tint Prevo as well.

Take away all restrictions and the Kuku LF2XTi is my still on me at all times and seeing lots of use again lately.

 

[HKJ]

There are not that many titanium AAA lights, many manufacturers uses stainless steel.

- Tailstand.
This excludes many lights, especially if you want a stable tail standing, one that can do it is the Preon.

- At least 2-modes (low/high).
Two or 3 modes are common.

- Allow for Energizer E2 Lithium usage.
Just about all AAA lights will handle this.

- Fully regulated in each level.
All lights using ITP electronic are unregulated (ITP A3, Illuminati, Preon).
Lights based on the ReVO electronic are regulated, but they are all stainless steel (ReVO and Klarus).
Fenix LD01 is also regulated, but again stainless steel.
Titaner is regulated and titanium, but is not good at tail standing.


I have compared some stainless steel and titanium lights here:

 

[beerwax]

please, may i ask, why is tailstanding important ?

 

[this_is_nascar]

Thanks for the feedback everyone.

 

[this_is_nascar]

please, may i ask, why is tailstanding important ?

For me, if an EDC can not tail-stand, it's useless. It needs to be able to stand and reflect off the ceiling to illuminate an area. Again, this is me. I don't want to get into the merits of tail-standing vs. not.

 

[mr.snakeman]

Take away all restrictions and the Kuku LF2XTi is my still on me at all times and seeing lots of use again lately.

Yup, mine (series 3) is always with me as well. IMHO one of the greatest AAA lights ever made. I have several but the one that I EDC is the Ti one.

 

[coyote]

welcome back TIN!!! i've wondered where you disappeared too...

no one has mentioned the Mako. while not bright nor does it have a pretty beam, it's my hands-down winner. i love the 80 hour tested runtime on lithiums, fully regulated two-stages, gold contacts, super tough construction, and lack of PWM. i consider it the finest survival light ever and have four of them.

i've tried many many other 1xAAA out there and have dumped most of them as too fragile or finicky. and although the Illumina Ti was pretty nice overall, the threads on mine were horrible, requiring two hands to operate even after two days of attempting to smooth them up. Kuku's Ti LF2XT i found way too complicated and larger than many other choices (sorry mr.snakeman).

as for the "best" finished, high quality 1xAAA Ti, the Sapphire might just beat the Mako, but it doesn't tailstand and didn't have enough (any?) flood-spill for me.

problem with the mako is finding one as production was very limited.

(TIN: if you really desire one, i would let you talk me out of my minty back-up Mako. email me: coyote at otcwb.com)

Arc, Sapphire and Mako

"Mako Survival Flashlight - Made by Enrique (aka: CPF’er Endeavour)

The Mako (pronounced Mey-Co) is unlike any of my prior designs, but still is made with the same sort of quality and ruggedness, but which runs off a more commonly available battery type, and has a very, very long regulated runtime. In essence, this is my take on theSurvival/Backup light - a lightweight, durable item that you can rely on to be putting out light still after all other sources have long since expired. It is a small AAA based flashlight, 13mm in diameter and 68mm long. It will be made entirely of 6AL4V Titanium and then given a stonewashed finish, has the ability to tailstand, and will have a Duracell alkaline battery and a stainless steel split ring pre-installed.

I think has been able to create a light that is very small, yet capable, with some compelling features that haven’t before been seen in a light of this class and battery type (5mm LED and AAA), and to have it all fit in a nice, rugged casing that would stand the test of time, and for the project to ultimately be reasonably affordable.

The circuit I designed for the driver in this light was markedly difficult to make fit in the 8mm diameter working space available inside the head, and also markedly difficult to solder the parts on by hand – some of the parts are no greater in size than large grains of salt (and many of said tiny components have become lost and found themselves a home in my carpet!). More importantly, however, is the functionality the driver provides – with it you get two fully regulated brightness stages, with high mode set at 20mA and low mode set at 5mA. I believe this is a first in a flashlight of this class, and it provides a higher degree of versatility that I think will be appreciated by most of you.

I do want to be clear about what to expect with regards to the output of the Mako, though, and explain how it works a bit better. The Mako is not a bright light. It’s not a pocket rocket, and it’s not going to blow your socks off from that point of view. It was never designed as such, and there are other much more viable platforms to do that on. This is my take on the backup light; What it was designed to do was to provide light output for a very long time such that you would still have light coming out long after all other sources have since been depleted, and to create a beam that was nicely shaped and white, something which all other 5mm LED based lights I’ve come across have consistently failed at doing.

The runtimes for the Mako come in at 21 Hours on High Mode, and 60 Hours on Low Mode. These tests were done using brand new, store-bought Duracell alkalines, which is the cell that will be included with the light and what I suspect many of you will be using to run the light in general. This light would do well with a low self discharge cell like the Sanyo Eneloops, and will work fine with any properly manufactured rechargeable cell (That is to say, any rechargeable with a 1.5V nominal voltage intended to be used as a AAA replacement. Most cells in this size I’ve ever seen are made this way. DO NOT use a higher voltage cell in this light as you will destroy the driver and have the light turned into a paper weight).

Now, with regards to the brightness levels themselves. The Mako can be viewed as having two distinct levels, but you should think of them more as full power, and power save mode. High mode is providing a fair amount of light more than low mode, but it’s not as dramatic a difference as what some of you may be used to in my previous lights like the Aeon and Nautilus. Both of those lights have a 10:1 power ratio, whereas the Mako is roughly 4:1, and it’s simply not possible to have that high of a ratio on a light with a maximum current of 20mA. I would imagine the low mode will see the lion’s share of use from most of you, and high mode will be used in bursts where you need to illuminate something a bit further away.

The LED in this light is different from what most other folks use in their flashlights. Continuing in what seems to be a tradition for my lights, this one also uses a Cree LED, in the 5mm variety this time. I tested a large swath of LEDs from Nichia and didn’t like a single one of them, and was actually on the verge of dropping the project altogether because I was very disappointed in the performance of the parts – all of them had distinct blue hotspots with yellowish coronas and none of them could be considered white in my book, and I am not a voracious white wall hunter like many here. Looking for a new LED, I spoke with some folks at Cree and some of my suppliers, and got a few samples of their parts – I was pleasantly surprised at the performance of these compared to the Nichias, but these were still rather cool in tint, so I received a new batch of parts in another bin, and that’s what was settled on for the Mako. The tint on the parts is a fairly neutral white with nice beam coloration, the blue-yellow amalgamated beams that are hallmarks of most 5mm LED based lights are not present here. The light output on these parts is rated at 24,000 Millicandella (I do not have lumens numbers or otherwise). I am very pleased with what has been achieved with regards to the beam quality on this light compared to the alternatives.

Pricing on the light is $115 plus shipping."

 

[fisk-king]

IMHO for choices:

Muyshondt Mako: darn good *survival/emergency* flashlight, not bright mind you but plenty useful especially the 60deg.:D

Liteflux LF2xT: one of the most versatile lights (AAA) I ever had the pleasure to use, but so many functions that I need it the card with me(as oppose to the HDS which are memorized).



Never used the