What did you use your flashlight for today?

[Chauncey Gardiner]

A Mini MK II Turbo proved most helpful to my fellow (up the ladder) Trustee as he touched up some paint that was damaged when the cross and new corpus were installed. I pointed to the damaged areas with the light.

Since I had the flashlight, he climbed the ladder. Pretty smart.

~ Chance

 

[Skaaphaas]

Watering the garden tonight, (it's spring here and rain has been scarce), and realised that you actually need far more light than I expected. Without at least 500 lumens I could not see the saturation levels.

 

[peter yetman]

A Mini MK II Turbo proved most helpful to my fellow (up the ladder) Trustee as he touched up some paint that was damaged when the cross and new corpus were installed. I pointed to the damaged areas with the light.

Since I had the flashlight, he climbed the ladder. Pretty smart.

~ Chance

VERY smart, that's too high to be sensible. Get some scaffold, you know it makes sense.
P

 

[Chauncey Gardiner]

VERY smart, that's too high to be sensible. Get some scaffold, you know it makes sense.
P

Right you are, Peter. That's why I took the Turbo instead of the more flood-e regular Mini MK II. It had to reach all the way to the top of the wall. Rick, The Painter, used a ten foot orchard ladder and a 14' extension painter's pole.

A job well done and two XX DOS EQUIS afterword, out in the parking lot, of course. :buddies: Lutherans love beer.

~ Chance

 

[Chad Varnadore]

Used a Armytek headlamp to change a couple electrical outlets and light fixtures with the power off. Later used a Klarus while trying to figure out what the dogs kept on barking at in the woods half the night and also looked to see if a gray fox was still camping out in a brush pile we need to burn in the field next to our house - we usually only see it at night. I think it's finally moved on so we can burn the pile.

 

[Chad Varnadore]

Those are stunning!

Used my zebralight flood and hi cri headlamp to light paint some pictures. Was on a one week hunting trip and the sky was clear all week. The aurora was insaine at times, so had to spend some time outside taking pictures in the dark. But was a litte annoyed that the foreground was too dark on the pics, so the solution was to use the headlamp for one sek to light up the foreground while taking pictures. Came out quite well.

 

[Ishango]

Not actually used today and not by me, but my little flashaholic-in-training. I gave my daughter (8yo) a Nebo Larry like light for the vacation she went on with her grandparents two months ago. When I asked her where it was today, she told me: "It saved my life." And after asking why (my parents would have told me if it was something serious): "The power went off in our caravan, and I am terrified of the dark and was able to help grandpa fix the power". Funny how serious she sounded when telling me it saved her life

 

[bykfixer]

Man I did the unthinkable tonight...
Started out with a 1x AAA that after 2 minutes did the low battery flicker... then a 1x 123... 3 minutes later, same thing... another light... same thing. Now it just so happened I had 5 lights on my person... and all 5 ran outta juice...
I walked about a mile and a half back to my truck and grabbed my unregulated Coast HP7 with alkaleaks and been using it all night so far.

Never, never, never will I carry a slew of regulated lights all fed by protected rechargeables...

 

[Poppy]

Beautiful pictures Jorn!
I'd say that you have the technique of lighting the foreground down to a science.
Just beautiful :thumbsup:

 

[Richub]

Man I did the unthinkable tonight...
Started out with a 1x AAA that after 2 minutes did the low battery flicker... then a 1x 123... 3 minutes later, same thing... another light... same thing. Now it just so happened I had 5 lights on my person... and all 5 ran outta juice...
I walked about a mile and a half back to my truck and grabbed my unregulated Coast HP7 with alkaleaks and been using it all night so far.

Never, never, never will I carry a slew of regulated lights all fed by protected rechargeables...

That is why I always charge all batteries of my EDC lights every saturday, regardless of use in the past days. This kept me from experiencing what you described here...
If you have to use your lights a lot, you might consider charging them every second or third day like that.

 

[bykfixer]

Not going to obsess about it. It was a spur of the moment deal where I volunteered to help at night for a couple of weeks.

Just confirmed one reason why I've always relied on primaries and not bothered by unregulated flashlights.

 

[ven]

Couple of lights i used today,D1 and D4 to have pretty much everything covered(throw and flood!)

 

[david57strat]

That is why I always charge all batteries of my EDC lights every saturday, regardless of use in the past days. This kept me from experiencing what you described here...
If you have to use your lights a lot, you might consider charging them every second or third day like that.

I'm the same way, but I recharge whatever batteries were used that day, in the evening, when I get home, regardless of how little or much use they got.

I'm also not a proponent of using smaller than a 18650 light for EDC, because I never get the run times I want out of those smaller batteries. It took some time getting used to that, but now that I am, no turning back.

I like having fully-charged batteries, when I leave the house, no matter when, for what, or for how long. When I'm carrying a pack, I also like to carry spares with me (in a Pelican 1010 case), and I always have two little MC1 Plus chargers in the car, for emergency charging, while on the road. They've rarely needed to be used, though.

No surprises, then.

 

[david57strat]

Couple of lights i used today,D1 and D4 to have pretty much everything covered(throw and flood!)

Nice setup you have there, Ven!

 

[david57strat]

Every evening, I opt to use some of my lights to light up my room. I have many lights, with different tints from which to choose; so it's always fun

Definitely not my greatest picture. The beam patterns would have looked more uniform if I had placed the lights closer in towards the monitor (with those old Altec Lansing satellites on the outside, rather than the other way around). Having a white wall on the left, and mini blinds on the right, a little farther way, didn't help. I like lighting up my desk area this way, because a) it's a lot more pleasant (with broader, more uniform coverage) than being directly lit by a desk lamp, b) it takes up substantially less space than a desk lamp, and c) it's better for cutting down on eye fatigue, when I use my computer at night - which is quite a bit.

My computer desk is in the corner, and in this shot, I'm using a pair of Solarforce P60 hosts (L2M with L2T head on the left, and L2T Stainless, on the right), with Mountain Electronics XM-L2 T5 5D3 drop-ins, on either side of my monitor.

Above that, is a Fenix PD40 (Which is an MT-G2, but looks somewhat similar in tint, because of the way it's bounced off of the shelf so closely above it). If I want something warmer, I'll go with a 7A3, or go the other way, for something cooler. Nichia 219Bs are amazing, as well - naturally. Depends on what I want.

More than half of my chargers (mostly XTARs) are pictured in this shot, but not very clearly seen, the way this was lit. I was too lazy to re-compose the shot.

On another wall, I'll use whatever else appeals, and the lights rest on top of my speakers (also, ceiling-bounced).

Sometimes, I'll combine two different tints, to get just the right color. Works out very well.

I may even place a light on top of a pair of IKEA DVD towers, on the opposite wall, which are about 8 feet apart from each other, and stand maybe 6 or 7 feet tall, if I want more light on the other side of the room, but I don't tend to do this set-up very often.

I've never liked direct lighting in my room, or in any work area.

 

[ven]

Thank you David, it's my little tool bag for easy access(climbing up stuff basically).

 

[ven]

Very cool David, I can just imagine the OCD in you positioning the lights with different tints. Standing back "nope"....moving them again.....repeat! :laughing:

 

[david57strat]

Very cool David, I can just imagine the OCD in you positioning the lights with different tints. Standing back "nope"....moving them again.....repeat! :laughing:

Use. Rinse. Repeat. Start Over, with different tints (of course)

Yep - that just about sums it up.

 

[david57strat]

Man I did the unthinkable tonight...
Started out with a 1x AAA that after 2 minutes did the low battery flicker... then a 1x 123... 3 minutes later, same thing... another light... same thing. Now it just so happened I had 5 lights on my person... and all 5 ran outta juice...
I walked about a mile and a half back to my truck and grabbed my unregulated Coast HP7 with alkaleaks and been using it all night so far.

Never, never, never will I carry a slew of regulated lights all fed by protected rechargeables...

It kind of explains why you own only one charger.

Everyone has a different method to their madness; and none of those methods are necessarily right, or wrong. It just depends on the individual's needs and how they feel those needs are best met, to fit their budget and life style.

For me, although I don't have 500 plus lights, as you do, keeping good, dependable batteries in the lights I did have got astronomically expensive, for me, and I became really fed up with repeatedly spending money on primary batteries, only to have to throw them away a week or two later; so, I had to come up with a viable alternative, that would also be cost-effective, over the long haul.

This journey and change of methods kind of began around May of 2012, the beginning of my official EDC awareness. I was an EDCer long before I knew such a term even existed. I just didn't know there were others with a similar mindset, until I discovered this and other forums, for which I am very grateful.

Anyway, lithium ion, nickel metal hydride, and a few lithium phosphate batteries became that alternative, for me.

I do own one light that's actually still running on primary batteries, and that's my old 6D Maglite (with a TerraLux 1000 lumen upgrade module I installed, some years back). It sees very rare use, and I just haven't gotten around to configuring it for use with a pair of 26650 batteries (and suitable sleeve/spacers). It's been a low priority, for me, but one day...

 

[bykfixer]

Tonights featured light is a primary fed Laser Products 6P with a Malkoff M61WLL to satisfy my sweet tooth for an incan glow yet providing 10 hours regulated and a good taper after that.

The mutt light

Mutt light in action

Mutt light shows no eyeballs staring back....

Now the light won't be used for 10 straight hours, but 30 minutes here n there intervals in a really dark enviornment where the occasional black bear is known to hale along with wolves howling at the moon.

I'm inspecting items in unattended work zones next to an unlit interstate highway in the smack dab between 2 metropoli' some 150 miles apart from each other.

I was told I'd be working around a well lit operation some 25 miles away from where I was actually dispatched to be a night watchman of sorts. No biggy. But I found myself remembering last night why I was so slow in jumping onto the regulated lights fed by protected fuel cells bandwagon.

My usual edc lights are fed by freshly charged cells tonight. I may only have 1 charger, but do have a multitude of charged cells in the waiting, I just didn't have any in my pocket a mile from my vehicle and could've sworn I heard some snarling in the woods next to the road I was walking beside.