what was the first led flashlight you owned?

[Dave_H]

Mine back in 2003 was a small keychain light which had been adapted from 1AAA to single LED (5mm white) using a small stack of four LR41's. Not very bright and not much runtime but it was a start.

Dave

 

[snakebite]

Probably made it out of a pr base and 4 of the new at the time hp ultrabright red 5mm.
Late 80's
Use was in a 2c plastic cheapie to use when treating hornet and yellow jacket nests with a dust puffer at night.
They cannot see red.
Never got chased or stung.
First "white" led light was likely a photon.
Then the dam burst and the leds were cheap enough to stick em in everything in place of a bulb.
I still have some first gen nichias.
A blinding 6400mcd at 15 degree beam.

 

[Hamilton Felix]

Before Y2K we were enlarging the reflector hole a bit on 2 AA mini mags and poking in red LEDs bought at Radio Shack, to make red “night lights.”

My first commercial flashlight with LED was a Streamlight Syclone. The primary bulb was krypton incandescent, but the secondary “low” bulb was a yellow LED, designed to give just enough light to find your way out of the tent to pee or read a map up close.

 

[JimNSULaw17]

20+ years ago and still lives in the kitchen drawer

 

[dida104]

Maglite Solitaire with xenon bulb. My first LED flashlight is a Nitecore P25 Smilodon.

 

[PandoraPuzzles]

My first LED flashlight was an ARC-AAA keychain EDC flashlight, followed by an ARC LS.

 

[Hamilton Felix]

While that Syclone was my first purchase with an LED, I think the little Coast LED Lenser “V” I bought at a gun show was my first pure LED light. It uses three AAAA cells, hasn’t ridden in my pocket for years but still hangs on a hook above my bed/night stand.

 

[dakeller]

First one was a photon microlight, followed by the Q-III.

You are right about the Photon, it was the first commercially marketed LED however, the second light was the ASP Saphire, I was involved in the design of this light.
Don Keller

 

[JimNSULaw17]

While that Syclone was my first purchase with an LED, I think the little Coast LED Lenser “V” I bought at a gun show was my first pure LED light. It uses three AAAA cells, hasn’t ridden in my pocket for years but still hangs on a hook above my bed/night stand.

I have the V2, with the white & red. The red button has started to fail and inly turns on about 30% of the time.

 

[lampeDépêche]

Welcome, Don Keller! Nice to hear from someone who was there at the beginning.

 

[Monocrom]

First was an Inova X5.
I probably still have it, somewhere in storage for more years than I can remember.

 

[Hooked on Fenix]

great input everyone.ps anyone recal how many lumens the first arc aaa had?

Nichia CS l.e.d. version was 5.5 lumens. Not sure if that was the first version or not. If not, probably around 2-3 lumens.

 

[raggie33]

crazy and i thought it was so bright lol mine quit working then i lost it. i lose most small lights

 

[Brasso]

I had some 1watt luxeon, 2aa light that Costco put out. It was all silver alluminum with a tir reflector.

 

[bykfixer]

Welcome, Don Keller! Nice to hear from someone who was there at the beginning.

It's ironic to see the fellow who played a role in the industry and even invented some of it be ranked "newly enlightened" here at CPF.
That's like saying Bill Gates knows a little bit about computers.

 

[lampeDépêche]

It's ironic to see the fellow who played a role in the industry and even invented some of it be ranked "newly enlightened" here at CPF.
That's like saying Bill Gates knows a little bit about computers.

I'm sure Mr. Keller never designed a flashlight that stopped working just when you need it, and then says "abort, retry, fail".

 

[knucklegary]

I was given a red aluminum inspection flashlight by a Snap-On dealer. It ran on AA batts, had 6ea 5mm bulbs. The blue tint was so ugly, when shined onto auto paint it would change the car color.. I ran over it on purpose one day

 

[dmenezes]

My first was a genuine Photon Microlight (the "II" model IIRC, with the white LED), bought in 2004 and carried in my keychain until it literally fell apart from use ~10 years later.

I still carry a similar light on my keychain, but nowadays it's a cheap Chinese clone; could not justify spending $10 in a Photon when a pack of 5 clones cost about half, and work just as well (they're all plastic anyway and will eventually wear out just the same). Truly enough, that Chinese replacement has been in my keychain for 5 years already and it's still working.

My first "real" LED flashlight was an ITP A3 EOS, a "special edition" (purportedly from a custom run for law enforcement, without any markings and also without the "strobe" mode) which I bought on eBay in 2010 and is to this day my preferred flashlight. I love its simplicity (just 3 modes, medium/low/high in that order -- specially like it not having the strobe, which I find useless and distracting, and the modes it has provide just the right amount of light for each situation), extremely small size/weight being AAA, and working great with eneloops.

I carry it in my belt pouch all the time (along with an extra AAA just in case) and use it very frequently. After 12 years of heavy use it has never had any issues, and even the black anodizing is still holding except in a few spots. My only complaint is that being twist-operated makes it hard to turn on with just one hand; all the rest is just about perfect.

 

[dmenezes]

I'm sure Mr. Keller never designed a flashlight that stopped working just when you need it, and then says "abort, retry, fail".

And also never said no one would ever needed more than 640 lumens in a flashlight

Seriously, all his billions notwithstanding, I think billg is one of the most overrated jerks of all time. If he had never been born, the computing world would probably be a better place without the Windows crap and stifling monopolistic tactics MS keeps applying to this day.

 

[pennzy]

Not counting the free Harbor Freight ones I think my first was a Coast from Home Depot. Actually posted about it here and someone steered me to the Convoy S2+. About 50 lights later including a bunch of S2+ , well you know the story.