Okay, the learnings in this second year of flashaholism have been pretty tame compared to my first, but progress has, indeed, been made. To give you some context for the last year, let me first describe how my meager collection of lights has changed (in chronological order).
Bought a Zebralight H501w.
Bought an HDS high CRI Clicky.
Bought a Zebralight SC51w.
Traded my LF5XT for a 3D tinted Lumapower Incendio.
As before, my musings only apply to EDC lights. Specialty lights play by their own rules.
Lesson #1: It doesn't matter what a light gets wrong if it's still a pleasure to use or scratches a particular itch.
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Even if a light's design runs counter to all of my general preferences, if I enjoy using the light, then that light is a winner. This lesson seems so obvious now, but it wasn't until I got my HDS Clicky that I even thought about it.
The HDS clicky is throwier than I like, heavier than I like, wider than I like, uses a cell size that I don't particularly care for, and doesn't tailstand. Even so, it's my absolute favorite light. It feels great in my hand, is completely predictable, is a breeze to program, has useful optional features that most lights lack, and the emitter's tint and CRI make for the most pleasing output of any flashlight I own.
The Lumapower Incendio gets lots of things wrong (funny memory, irritating "mode lock" that forces me to cycle modes slower than I would like sometimes, forward clicky, uses CR123/RCR123 cells, etc) but it's the only light I own that has a clip that I actually like. So even though I like just about every other light in my collection more than the Incendio, it's the light I carry any time I don't wear a belt.
Lession #2: It doesn't matter how much a light gets right if it gets something unforgivably wrong
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The Zebralight SC51w sounded absolutely perfect on paper, but ended up being completely unsuitable for EDC since it was so easy to accidentally activate. I know you can lock out the tailcap, but that makes turning it on a two-step process that requires both hands (a huge no-no in my opinion for an EDC light). It has a couple of other minor failings (noticeable PWM on the lowest setting and freakishly stiff clip that takes both hands to get it to clip to my boxers), but except for the accidental activation problem, I would totally EDC this light.
Lesson #3: I don't want anything loose on my light when I carry or use it
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I don't like having to have a loose tailcap to prevent accidental activation. Tailcap lockout is a great feature for when you put a light in luggage or a bug-out-bag, but I totally don't want to deal with it with my EDC light.
I don't like having the bezel loose as part of a light's UI. My Quark AA would sometimes flicker on High because the threads were part of the electrical circuit, but were unloaded because the bezel had to be loose to access the regular modes. I solved this by adding an extra O-ring under the bezel so that I could tighten the bezel enough to load the threads, but still have access to the regular mode sequence. If there hadn't have been such an easy solution, I probably would have gotten rid of the Quark by now.
I think that sums up the new lessons learned this year. I do have some refinements to be made to some of last year's lessons, though.
Tailstanding: I'm still all for tailstanding although it's clearly not as critical as I thought it was last year since my main EDC light doesn't tailstand.
Tint: Still can't stand cool tints, but now that I'm spoiled by the CRI of my HDS, even regular neutrals and warms look anemic to me. Hopefully high CRI will become easier to find by the time I need a new light.
Beam: No change here. The beam of the LF5XT (no defined hotspot, but still some throw) is still my ideal, but a large hotspot as long as it blends into the spill (like the SC51w or ITP A3) is almost as good. Tint trumps Beam, however (which is why I traded away my LF5XT).
Brightness: 90% of my light use is at about 3L. I almost never go higher than 30L. However, there have been a couple of times when my eyes were adapted to bright sunlight and I needed to quickly look in a crawlspace or something where 100L simply wasn't enough. It would have been plenty if I'd given my eyes time to adjust, but that isn't always an option, so I'll grudgingly admit that I was wrong about the 100L being more than I ever need from an EDC light.
Memory: last year, I didn't like memory on an EDC light, but didn't really have a strong opinion about it. Now I hate it. I hope that some day, all lights are sufficiently programmable that I can turn memory off to have a 100% deterministic UI. If I have night adapted eyes, I absolutely need to be able to put the light in the lowest setting without first determining which mode it started in. If that makes it harder to loan the light, so be it. I already carry a loaner light so that folks don't try to borrow my HDS anyways.
Modes: for EDC, absolutely. I want one mode < 0.1L, one mode between 1 and 10L, and then one or two modes higher than that. My HDS is set up for 0.07, 3, 30, and 100.
Battery Configuration: I still prefer AA, but unless I'm traveling, I'm willing to use a light that uses RCR123 cells. Yes, this means that when I travel, I'll carry my Quark AA instead of the HDS Clicky.
Crenelated Bezels: still hate them.
Programmability: I'm still for it as long as it doesn't get in the way. The HDS implementation is great. The SC51 works fine, except that there's no way to go instantly to High from any other mode by double-clicking like you could with the previous non-programmable Zebralight UI. Not really a big deal, but it is an excellent example of how programmability can get in the way of using the light.
Reverse Clicky vs Forward Clicky vs Electronic Switch: Last year I didn't really care. Now that I actually own a forward clicky light (Incendio), I can say unequivocally that I prefer reverse clickies. I thought I could get used to a forward clicky, but after several months, I still struggle with it. Whether or not I like electronic switches still depends on the implementation of the UI. The HDS UI uses the electronic switch masterfully. The Zebralight UI depends on timing to determine if it starts on Low or High and even though I get the level I want 99% of the time, the 1% of the time when I get High when I wanted Low irritates me to no end (not technically the fault of the electronic switch, but without the electronic switch the UI couldn't function this way).
I guess that sums it up for this year. I've gotten a little less idealistic ("in theory, there's no difference between theory and practice, but...") and have started treating flashlights a little more like tools and a little less like toys in my daily use, so unless my needs change in the next year, it seems unlikely that I'll have much to report on the next anniversary of this thread. I hope you all enjoy this post as much as you did the original post and, as always, I look forward to your feedback.
This year, like last year, has been a good year to be a flashaholic.
--flatline
Although I've got to discover what 'works' for me, I've bookmarked your thread so I may always come back to it for understanding. Cheers! :thumbsup:
