Seeking my veresion of the "perfect flashlight"

[coastalcruiser]

After holding off for many years I have jumped ship from Krypton/Xenon to LED. After purchasing 20 or so LED flashlights, just to see what the manufacturers are doing these days, I find that although these lights are awesome, the perfect flashlight I seek is still an elusive target. Here is my checklist:

1) Handheld
2) really bright (run time is secondary)
3) Switch on side (not back or twist top)
4) switch is momentary (most of the lights I've seen are reverse momentary only)
5) Can take re-chargable batteries
6) Beam can be focused wide to narrow

Have you seen this flashlight?

 

[Tempest UK]

Sounds very much like a Maglite/modded Mag

Regards,
Tempest

 

[Marduke]

Easy, MagLite with an appropriate LED dropin and MOP reflector (to clean up wide focus)

ie.
Mag brand
TerraLux
Malkoff

 

[Cydonia]

Definitely sounds like a modified Maglite.

 

[Joshatdot]

+1 for MAG, either 2D or 2C with TerraLUX or Malkoff Dropin

 

[Gunner12]

:welcome:

Just wondering but what lights do you have now?

A Modded maglite seems to be what you are looking for though I find multimode much more useful then focusable(The holes and rings of a defocused reflector light annoy me)

How big would you want it?

 

[coastalcruiser]

:welcome:

Just wondering but what lights do you have now?

A Modded maglite seems to be what you are looking for though I find multimode much more useful then focusable(The holes and rings of a defocused reflector light annoy me)

How big would you want it?

I am compiling a list of them now, and in fact they are still coming in. Perhaps it would be worth posting when complete. I can tell you that the closest I have come so far is the Underwater Kinetics UK 4AA eLED. Everything except beam focus. I have covted the Xenon version of this flashlight ever since I saw how much brighter it was than my Mini Mag. One of the most likeable features of this series is the form factor used for housing 4 AA batteries. Ver efficient.

Thanx to all others who posted the mag light suggestion. When I said hand held I should have perhaps specified small, like fit in your pocket. I am looking for a unit smaller than C size batteries. That leaves the mini mag, but it has the twist switch - I assume there is no 'conversion' to make it a push button with momentary????

 

[coastalcruiser]

"though I find multimode much more useful then focusable"

Haven't tried multi-mode yet. I believe some of the lights I have on order have this. Looking forward to checking it out.

CC

 

[Gunner12]

Most of the smaller bright lights(around Minimag length) have a tail clickie. The only Cree one with a side clickie is this one, and output and quality is unknown.

The Fenix L2T V2.0 has a tail clickie but it has a forward clickie, unlike many of the other lights and or under that price range.

Look here if you want a head start on the terms that you might be reading.

 

[PhantomPhoton]

The two difficult things here are side switch and adjustable focus. The other stipulations are easy.
Myself I don't think adjustable focus is a desirable feature in most lights. It generally doesn't work so well. You just end up with a huge donut hole in the middle of your light. A diffuser works way better.
One thing that comes to mind which would be pretty close, having everything but adjustable focus would be the Pelican 7060 LAPD light.

 

[Marduke]

Yes, there are forward momtary switches for the MiniMag. If you live in the USA, Sams Club has a 2-pack of Energizer 2xAA lights that have Cree's, variable focus, and a forward momentary.

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=173941