What do you look for in a new flashlight?

What do you look for in a flashlight?

  • Must /or may serve a purpose.

    Votes: 23 59.0%
  • Must be LED.

    Votes: 15 38.5%
  • Must be Luxeon LED. 1 watt or less ok.

    Votes: 4 10.3%
  • Must be Luxeon LED of 3 to 5 watts.

    Votes: 11 28.2%
  • Bulb matters little to me. (Don't hurt me!)

    Votes: 3 7.7%
  • Battery type for the application / cost.

    Votes: 15 38.5%
  • Carrying case.

    Votes: 4 10.3%
  • Tough and durable. Hardened plastic or Type III coating.

    Votes: 20 51.3%
  • Dimming capability

    Votes: 12 30.8%
  • Modding capability.

    Votes: 2 5.1%

  • Total voters
    39

tron3

Banned
Joined
Oct 6, 2005
Messages
746
Location
NORTHERN NJ
The poll is multiple choice.

We all have differing criteria, so being a conservative to modest flashaholic, thought I would profile what I look for in new lights.

* Does it serve a real purpose? Not always. Collecting flashlights is like watching reruns. There is little point to it, but you do it anyways.

* Is it a 5w Luxeon? I tend to shun anything that isn't at least 5w. I do make some exceptions in the cases of the Striker-VG, and QIII.

* Brightness levels. More and more I want flashlights with 2 or 3 brightness levels. It's just better for battery life. Returned a Nuwai for being 120 lumens with no dimming. Single switch setting flashlights are for people who just want it to turn on and off... like many elderly people.
 

Learjet

Enlightened
Joined
Oct 19, 2005
Messages
436
Location
Mackay QLD Australia
What I look for in a flashlight is dependant on it's purpose. For instance I might want something with a long burn time. But there are two categories to that, bright and not so bright. The latter can be acheived with a smaller light, the former needs to be large for bright and long burn time.

Sometimes I want a small bright light and don't need a long burn time. Sometimes I want the brightest light possible regardless of size or burntime. Sometimes I want a spotlight, sometimes I want a flood. No wonder we end up with so many lights. I don't think one can do all.

I don't have a Lux V yet, but would like one some day.

My future lights will probably all be LED.
 

cratz2

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Apr 6, 2003
Messages
3,947
Location
Central IN
tron3 said:
Single switch setting flashlights are for people who just want it to turn on and off... like many elderly people.

What the hell? There are an awful lot of police, firefighters, law enforcement and military personel deployed with single switch setting flashlights... If the light is to serve one purpose, why not keep it as simple as possible? Regardless of if the user is elderly or not.

thinking.gif
 

Flying Turtle

Flashaholic
Joined
Jan 28, 2003
Messages
6,509
Location
Apex, NC
All I want is a two stage Arc AAA. First stage something like moon mode, and second stage full brightness. Keep the twist head switch. I might accept a slight increase in length. Am I asking too much? I've been hoping for something like this since joining this forum, and I don't think I'm alone. All the new pocket rocket lights are great, but most of the time I just need a little light.

Geoff
 

Kiessling

Flashaholic
Joined
Nov 26, 2002
Messages
16,140
Location
Old World
Since you didn't list "I just want it" and "Quality" I can't vote ...

Apart from that ... dito to cratz2 ... I have some very very nice and useful on/off lights ... SF E2D, SF L6-P, SF G2, Fenix, McLux-TK, Arc LS ... just to name a few.

bernie
 

Luxman

Enlightened
Joined
Jun 20, 2005
Messages
535
Location
Local dark area
Unless I misunderstand the poll...Actually I can't vote because I would have to check all of the boxes!
..And if your saying "Always looking for"... I can't check any..

Depending on the purpose I may want a bulb or LED, a 1W or 5W, sometimes variable is important sometimes not, if I carry it and it is large a case/holster would be nice, if its small then pocket carry is ok...etc.

Maybe the poll should be "What are Usually your 2 or 3 most important criteria?"
... and Quality should be one of them...
 
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