Small and EDC or Big and Bright?

[Gransee]

[ QUOTE ]
Mark_Larson said:
I was thinking about what usually tickles me the most in flashlights - its size. The smaller the better. That's the reason i bought this Soiltaire, that's the reason i bought nearly all the lights i did.

I'm still looking for a small LED light that's small, looks good p) and is EDC'able. Yup, i've tried the Arc AAA.



[/ QUOTE ]

Mark, would you please elaborate off-thread on your small LED requirements?


[ QUOTE ]
JerryM said:
...

Now let's figure how to get a very small, bright light, that does not use up $3 worth of batteries every hour. That would not be enough if you were lost and trying to find your way to camp or a lost hunter.

Jerry

[/ QUOTE ]

Jerry,

How about 24 lumens that casts a spot out to over 100 feet in a 1 X 3.25 inch package with a 50 cents/hour lithium battery cost?

--

The thread title is "Small and EDC or Big and Bright". EDCs should be easy to carry. As a result, this sometimes means they should be compact in size. Big lights tend to also be bright.

Therefore, your EDC will probably be small. The light you show off to your friends will probably be big.

Anyone can make a light bright by just making it big. Some people are simply impressed by brightness. Here's a concept: practical lights.

What can you carry and use practically? What are you buying to simply impress others?

Unless you are a flashlight collector... don't, "buy them both". Otherwise your just adding to the clutter. Simplify; but not at the cost of results.

There are many costs associated with using a tool to see. The initial purchase price is only one of those costs.

Peter

 

[bwcaw]

I have to agree with what peter was implying in his post. The arcls is about the perfect all around utility/edc light. I don't carry one all the time however, for my needs it just isn't bright enough, or long throwing. For someone who lives in a city, or in suburbia it would be fine as the ranges you usually illuminate stuff are pretty short <50M. However, my needs exceed that brightness/range category that is so well served by the arc ls. I live in a rural area, and it is very flat, and there are few trees except around houses, so if I need to light up something it is most likely goin to be out of range of my arc ls. So while I really love the arc ls for using as a "utility" light, I usually carry longer throwing and consequently larger and brighter lights.

Ideally, my edc consists of a one watt luxeon light of some sort for short range "utility" use, a 6v "tactical" light for fairly long throwing light, and a big honkin/long throwing light (Surefire M6, or ubhII with kt2/mn16) for burning holes in stuff or impressing people. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[JasonC8301]

Arc AAA-LE is with my dog tags everywhere I go. Not EDC, more like 24/7 (except time for showers when I take them off.)

EDC in regular clothes is a SF E2e and when its at night, I carry a 2 ounce can of Fox OC.

On duty carry is a Tigerlight in a D cell holster on my left hip and a County Comm Inova X5 holster with a Streamlight Scorpion in it riding horizontally above my right back pocket.

In the field is when I pack a Streamlight TT 1L in a County Comm Inova X5 holster with a spare 123 cell in a APS film case sitting inside the CC holster.

So I'm not really pack the biggest you can. I am prepared for most situations. I have a Arc AAA LE with me everywhere I go, its better to have a light than no light at all. An E2e for those situations I need more light. The Tigerlight just stupifies people from the sheer amount of light coming out of that, even with eyes closed.

I used to go Scorpion for EDC, but the SF E2e is a better choice due to smaller size and not having the darn rubber sleeve slide off. I do not see myslef EDC'ing the Tigerlight, its just too big.

A light that outputs 1000 lumens thats the size of an Arc AAA LE running off a single AAA bettery for 10 hours before falling into moon mode...Yeah, like thats going to happen any time soon.....

 

[rlhess]

Peter,

My wife (and some of the folks at school) are very happy with the older sLS that my wife EDCs.

She's been using her AAA LE a lot this holiday roaming around her brother's 130-year-old home at night.

I used to carry an E2e, sLS and AAA LE, but when I got the L4, I gave my wife the sLS and retired her Lambda Ill Pill in a Minimag mostly because I wanted her to have the reliability and smooth-long-runtime of the lithium battery. She carries a spare 123. I carry two spare 123s.

The Arc is a great light.

I found my 1W KL1 to be adequate (or more than adequate--except it is purple) for doing things Christmas Eve, so I agree that a 1W with longer run time is very viable. In fact, I didn't want the 5W of the L4 for that <smile>.

An optimized 1-3W Luxeon is a great compromise.

Cheers,

Richard

 

[paulr]

[ QUOTE ]

Now let's figure how to get a very small, bright light, that does not use up $3 worth of batteries every hour. That would not be enough if you were lost and trying to find your way to camp or a lost hunter.

[/ QUOTE ]

Unless you go hunting or camping every day, the lights you have with you when camping are not necessarily your EDC lights and normally won't be. In EDC situations I've hardly ever needed anything brighter than a short-throw 1W LS or incandescent equivalent. For hunting or camping I'd always bring a brighter light just like I'd always bring food and water. But I don't EDC any of those things.

 

[Prolepsis]

Paulr:

I like to pretend that I go camping every day, even though in reality, I generally sit in front of a computer all day at work /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

Going to pick up my L5 soon. I'm going to try to see how long I can comfortably EDC that, even though in my line of work, I don't have a need for such a light. I remember when I was younger, I used to every night carry my 6D MagLite--the fun in that wore out pretty quickly /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/poke2.gif

 

[paulr]

EDC'ing an L5 shouldn't be too difficult. I think it weighs around half a pound, which is comparable to the analog cellular phones of not all that long ago. Lots of folks used to EDC those, even in fancy office clothes.

 

[CalgaryGuy]

Yeah, I EDC my Scorpion (2 CR123A). However, EDC a set of CR123A is a different story.

 

[nexro]

I EDC the Arc LSHF. That's good enough for my needs, bright and a little extra throw over the LSH-P.

I haven't been bringing my E2e around lately after getting the Arc /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif