Brightest white LED flashlight and compact

I found you guys by an led website. I am legally blind and find white leds help me see better, although most lights are dimmer than standard lights.

What I use now is one of those stubby blinkman lights that uses an xenon bulb and 2 camera 123 batteries. Its bright for its size, but only last an hour. I also have a stylus pen lamp which is bright, but it does not always come on without flicking the switch a few times.

Anyway, there seems to be a grey area where led and standard bulbs work and run time. It seems a dim led lamp can last a few days on a set of batteries, where as a bright one can last a few hours. I am trying to find a good mix between the 2 ranges. I would say its a shame they do not make a dual bulb product, but i see on my latest cabelas catalog they have a few products with xenon and led bulbs. tt1, tt2, tt3c, tt2d

They also have a range of led flashlights that seem to be fairly bright on paper. tl series 42 and 85 lumens, then xpg series 30 and 150 lumens and a few other products.

I looked at the top series of forums and could not find a sticky about brightness and the led museum did not either.

What I was wondering, what is out there that is bright, about the size of a blinkman, has a reasonible run time or maybe varable brightness. Lets say I can use the spot light mode to look under a truck and a dim mode if I am stuck in the dark a week.

I have a range of led lamps. THe ccrane trek 3 led lamp before they changed it to 2 led lamps. The stylus single led pen, the stubby blinkman 2 cell single led lamp, the ccrane 20 led aluminun lamp, ccrane knife light (quit working), dorcey single cell (brightest single aaa powered light yet), energizer 2 led area lamp, looks like a CCFL lamp, and numerourious keyring lamps.

Of all, I like the single cell dorcey lamp as it is effing bright on its single aaa battery. The only problem is, it lasts 4 hours then fades off quickly. Second is the ccrane trek one, its fairly bright and I used it as a night light and off and on during the day for 2 weeks on the same set of batteries.

THanks for any help. I think according to the few lamps in the cabelas catalog the xpg 5 watt model is the brightest and last the longest not to mention the dual mode feature, but that is just what the catalog lists.

welcome to cpf. i aint sure of size of the light ya are refereing to but there are tons of cool leds lights im sure some one will give good advice

Maybe you really want a rechargeable light like a Streamlight Strion. It's a xenon light about the same size and brightness as your Brinkmann 2x123 light, and also lasts about an hour, but when it goes flat you just slap it in a recharger like a cell phone. If you use it less than an hour a day, you can just put it in the charger every night. Cost is about 80 bucks.

If you want a variable (2 level) LED light that switches between that level and a dimmer level, try the Surefire L2, though it's pretty expensive.

Second Paulr...

If you've got the cash, the upcoming Lionheart by Mr. Bulk will be the new titleholder for 'brightest compact led' and is also rechargeable.

BTW, welcome to our madness, Cobb!!

Welcom to CPF. Here is a link that should help you narrow your search. flashlightreviews

definitely check out that link from Dan. it's a website full of flashlight reviews done by a member of this very website who goes by "Quickbeam".

he's a great guy and puts alot of effort into organizing the reviews and his website. he includes beamshots and brightness ratings and approximate runtimes on all of his reviews, so it will be a huge help to you. just find the lights with your most ideal compromise of brightness/runtimes. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Thanks, I will check that out. That sounds like what i was looking for. One problem I have with what little data the book mentions from this company is the fact they go between watts, lumens, candle power and some other 4 letter measurement. Then on top of that they list run tome. Seems strange to me how 2 flashlights with different size bulbs can put out more or less light and have a more or less run time.

BTW, what causes one to collect LED flashlights? I, my folks do and my folks are not technical people.

Hi Cobb welcome to CPF as far as collecting light, i think you would have to get the alcoholic's anonamous big book and replace the phrase "alcohol" with "LED light's" to best get an understanding /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif VDG

THanks for the link guys http://flashlightreviews.home.att.net/articles/output_vs_throw/chart_overall.htm man now I know how all the lights line up. Who knew how dim over all the mini mag, 3-4 cell and dorcey single cell led lamp was?

cobb,
I missed this thread for some reason. First of all welcome to CPF.
My wife was legally blind also. I say "was" because I saved every penny I could for a long time to get her corrective laser surgery. She had the surgery done 2 years ago. I am happy to say that she now has perfect 20/20 vision. It is like a miracle.
Edit: I know this was off topic and in hindsight I should have just PM'd cobb about it. Sorry about that. I typed it before I thought.
cobb- PM sent

That is ok. I use to pm and email, but hate for others to miss out on posting addition information. Glad to hear that surgery helped. I know of many who have had success with that surgery or even the more common catteracts(SP?). The only bad side, at least from what I have heard, african americans do not have as great of success with laser surgery than most whites. I do not know if its operator error or something more reasonible.

I may benefit, at least to the point i do not need to wear glasses. Basically I have a muscular disease that effects my whole body, why I use a wheelchair, chronic pain here and there and the vision thing. If you have a negative view on stem cell research, that research could allow me to see again and walk, among other things.

Anyway, long story short, or as short as i can make it. My eyes are different shape, so I am both near and far sided.

One eye is long the other short. On top of that the lens in one eye is dislocated, the other is tilted. Further more, the retinal is streched, so I have a lower resolution than most and possible 1 out of 30 rod and cone diseases. The rod and cone disease was though to be RP, but a flash EGR ruled that out, but left 29 other possibilities. Basically they put electrodes on your eye balls clamp them open and make you sit in a globe and flash different colors of lights and flash it at different frequencys and measure your iris response, which tells them what you see. Basically I see blue the best of the colors, which in retrospect may be why white led lamps help me see better.

I believe one of the last serious talks with an eye doctor he told me they would have to remove my dislocated and tilted lens either by surgery or laser. Then I believe implant a new lens and or a contact lens because the lense will need to flex to focus like it is suppose to do. I may have them do it to one eye first than both, but it could go wrong and I could see less than I do now. I had a time with floaters many years ago and saw little to nothing and some vision is better than none.

I had postpone any thoughts of surgery for fear I may loose what I have left. I will look into it when an eye fails or if. So far I do well, I just can not drive a car or more to the point past the eye test to get a license. I can see to get around, but all people look a like, I can see where signs are, but can not read them, see products, but not able to read labels unless I get close or resort to a flashlight. Thats why in another thread I have 6 55 watt halogen lamps on my wheelchair. At 6 am it is pitch black out and all car reflectors, license plates and signs glow at me. It is rather difficult to get new glasses as both 1 and 2 when they try lenses looks the same to me.

Since, I have discovered many with eye problems that white led lamps help them see and they use head lamps and other reading lamps. Even the **** poor battery operated ones that may rate little to nothing on this forum works for them.

I find my stylus pen white led light that takes 3 AAAA batteries can give me as much near seeing power as the blinkman stubby lamp. Infact I used to use the 3 led 3 aa cell trek lamp from ccrane on a mag light head band to read by and later bought a led head lamp from ccrane.

So, this brings me to the latest topic. Since I had bought the cabelas xpg 5 watt light and waiting a reply in another thread that I may of made a mistake as far as the brightest compact led light with a reasonible run time. In the mean time i hope I purchased or will find out the brightest led lamp so I can increase my reading ability at work, library and other places where i wing it in concern of battery life or just pull out my blinkmann flash light.

If you or the other guys here are interested, here is a portable cctv i made to use on the go. I use it off and on, but mainly in my spanglish class where i had to reference 3 books at once and it was not pratical to get them in large print or the electrnic format like I do most of my books now days. http://www.wheelchairmodifications.org/home_made_cctv.htm

Compact And Bright: Try Q III. Only one 123 cell and less than $50. 3 watt Luxeon. Very small. Only has one speed: ON.

Or spend $$$$$$$ and get Arc or HDS multipower minilights.

Nuwai has 5 watt Luxeon 3 cell lights- under $100-

SureFire L6- real nice but $$$$ (Bigger too)

NikolaTesla /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

An Arc lamp is the Spark that takes away the Dark--HID Forever!

My Lights

Wow, Nikola Tesla, Ive read much about you and shocked myself a few times trying to copy some of your experitments. Although there is some suspect you were involved in some black projects the one mystery that also remains is why your coils are conical shape. They say there is not any benefit having them in that shape, but maybe you knew something we did not?

I am just joking. THat is quite a collection you have. I hope to narrow mines down to one light and a box of batteries. Within reason of course as far as battery consumption is concerned.

This maybe topic of a new post, but seems the same ordeal I went through with my uncle finding the brightest PIAA lamps for his truck applies here. Basically I looked through the PIAA catalog at the detailed specs they had for all lights and they had complete specs. Basically all driving or fog lamps use the same bulb 5 watt or 35 than a few had an 85 watt one, but depending on the reflector and lens they put out different amounts of light. Here with flashlights they seem to use a range. Some use candle power, others wattage, further mcds(what ever they are), then lumens. On top of that run time seems to vary too. Why would a light with a higher wattage bulb with a higher lumen output have an addition 2 hours of use from a set of batteries than another one? When I use to shop for a CF bulb I would grab a light bulb with the specs on the box as far as wattage, lumens and what not were and look at the same specs on the CF ones to find something the same brightness as CF produce roughly 3 times their rated wattage.

Anyway, it should arrive by Oct 5 or earlier. If its bright beyond belief I will keep it, if it is average from what i have seen from an led flashlight from walmart I will no doubt return it and seek further assisstance.

[ QUOTE ]
cobb said:
Since, I have discovered many with eye problems that white led lamps help them see and they use head lamps and other reading lamps. Even the **** poor battery operated ones that may rate little to nothing on this forum works for them.


[/ QUOTE ]

Posting this info is useful indeed. I have a friend who is blind in one eye, diabetic, and always in danger of losing the other eye. The last instalment of the tale he wrote to me in email is that it was filled with silicone fluid (or something similar, at least that's what I gather) instead of the normal fluid in the eye. Of course I am scared to death that he's going to lose it. He's awaiting a transplant and the list goes on forever. He deserves so much more.

I've always thought about sending him a light but wasn't sure what would help him. Perhaps I'll try the CMG Infinity Ultra. It uses a Nichia 5mm LED that is overdriven and has incredible battery life, uses cheap AA cells.

Your diabetic friend should go on a binge of drinking water. The best way to lower your blood sugar is to dolute(SP?) your system. When your blood sugar goes up, your blood stiffens or thickens. This causes damage to your nerves like in your fingers, toes and eye balls. Although your fingers and toes can go numb from the damage, your blood vessles in your eyes leak and your fluid in your eye gets drops of blood in it, then later clouded till you see little to nothing but a red tinge. Some folks are able to come back, others result in damage. The fluid replacement is to try to keep the blood vessles from leaking from the increased pressure by putting thicker fluid in the eye.

On another note, pain in his feet and hands is a good sign. That means he has some healing going on than damage and at some point the pain will lessen on its own and he can get some feeling back. Likewise with the eyes.

See I have low blood sugar. I have to eat frequently and watch my water intake. Likewise with my sugar and food. I try to keep a bottle of water and something sweet with me and when I start yawning I try one or the other. If the water makes it worse, I know I need something sweet my blood sugar is going low. If the water makes me yawn less, than I know my blood sugar is going high. Fatty foods tend to cause my blood sugar to go high several hours after eating, where as non fat foods can cause me to crash 45 minutes after eating.

I could not tell you about your friend. If he is older, he may have a technologyphobia and not use it, on the other hand he may like the idea and or the usefullness of the product. In my experience from working at the rehab center for the blind and as a student and talking tothe tech folks at ccrane most with reading problems, seniors and what not benefit from led lights for reading.

Bottom line, blood sugar is hard to regulate. Pills can only do but so much, insuline then diet and last but not lease exercise. Basically you are regulating the fuel flow to your engine by your intake and activity. Think of it as driving a model T ford. You got to get the spark adjusted right, engine rpm and gear right for it to work well for you. Thats why my wheelchair has a refigerator on it and i carry fluids like sweet ice tea, pepsi, propell water, low carb protein shake, regular slim fast, protein bars and last but not least, money for buying food.

*smacks self* /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/stupid.gif sorry, I stated his condition wrongly. He's got a case of kidney failure and all the health problems that go with it, he's on dialysis most of the time. The eye problems are definitely there though.

Good point about technology, I know this guy from a computer mailing list I used to hang out on, and last I heard he's spending his time rebuilding one of his old computers, so he should be OK with something as simple as a light. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif last thing I sent him was a CDRW drive and despite the visual impairments and all he installed it himself!

Its my experience that disabled people are just as able as regulars in most aspects. Lets say I drove a car. I can see to get around but not read signs or license plates, but sure I can misjudge distances, get distracted or be in an accident I am not at fault. Since I am disabled the blame will automatically fall on me, because I am disabled.

Oh and the light, its my experience that the bluish to purple ones work best. The whiter ones and the so called greenish tint would not work.

Definitely, I'm not saying that they can't do everything the rest of us can. In fact my friend used to love fishing, computers, and life, despite his sight impairment. The reason why he can't do all of what he used to be able to is that he's now in hospital most of the time with severe complications, or dialysis. I wish I could do more for him.

The 5mm Nichia LEDs usually have a little bit of blue tint. I'll give it a try and let you know how it turns out. Thanks /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif