Calling all flashaholics...need your help!

I have been a member here since September this year and I have bought many lights during this period including: Inova X1, Peak Matterhorn, Orb RAW, HDS EDC60, SF A2, Fenix, Eternalight Derringer, and a bunch others.

During this time, we had our first child and to this day, I have not found the perfect light for doing what new parents do - ie, navigating around the house with minimal lights in order to not wake a sleeping baby. Now that our kid is 6 months old, I think have had enough experience to come up with a list of requirements for this "perfect light." They include:

1. small size (easily fits in pocket or attach to body with lanyard for example)
2. common batteries (AA, AAA) and/or rechargeables
3. EASY to operate with one hand
4. at least 2 stages of brightness (one for checking on baby in pitch black room; brighter level for other tasks like brushing teeth, etc.)
5. able to tailstand (eg. while brushing teeth)
6. reasonably affordable so that I may give as gifts to my sister and two cousins who also had new babies during this time

So far, amongst the lights I have purchased, the only light that meets all or most of these criteria is the HDS. Oh, almost forgot, I have the Jil Intelli on the way. Could this be THE ONE??

I appreciate any input from those who have infants of their own and understand my situation and also those with a wide range of flashlight knowledge...

For the dark room navigation, just get some keychain coin cell lights with red leds. They're dirt cheap and the batteries last forever. They're $1.00 each in bags of 20 from Countycomm.

For the bigger, stand-up light, try a Fenix L1 or L1P.

Just curious about the Fenix that you purchased. Is it the two-stage one that 4Sevens is selling? High and low (on low) output I would say is the way to go on that one when you're around the sleeping little one.

Enjoy!

Like your question and your paramaters. What model Fenix do you have and
what do you think of it, also the Derringer? Hope you get just what you want. Jil-lite looks good to me. Good luck.

Have you considered a headlamp? The Petzl Zipka+ is what I use for house navigation. You get 3 levels of brightness. Uses 3 AAA batteries. Can be had for around 30 bucks. One hand or zero hand operation.

The only thing it won't do from your list is point at the ceiling, but you kinda don't need it to because you can wear it on your head. Although I suppose if you pointed it at a mirror just right it would bounce the beam onto the ceiling if you really needed ceiling light.

thanks for the suggestions so far.

paulr: coincell lights are good as I have a bunch of them. they get dim pretty quickly though

CHC: my Fenix(es) are all one stage. the problem with the two stage is that you must twist for on, then click to cycle between stages - a bit cumbersome.

Pathlight: I have fenix L1P - love this light! but for the purpose I mentioned, it needs to have convenient two-stage action. The threads on fenix cannot easily be twisted with one hand, therefore when holding baby, its not practical. high is too bright for most around-the-house tasks. I thought the derringer would be the one. however, simple one-button operation means multiple presses to get to the right light level. I do like the red LED but it takes about five clicks to get to it. also don't care for the press/hold to turn light on/off.

Ras: I don't yet have headlamp in my arsenal and i will look into the one you mentioned.

any other suggestions??

by the way, the more lights I buy, the more I realize how great the HDS series of lights are. One handed operation, 4 stages all easily accessed, takes primaries or rechargeables, can do a (wobbly) tailstand, programmable if you need, very long runtime on low levels. its a shame they moved the HDS to its own forum as I see it gets mentioned less these days. more people should know about this light...

For a low impact flashlight, I would recommend the Pak-lite. It uses a 9-volt battery and meets all of your other criteria on the list. I recently purchased the glow-in-the-dark super model, which is brighter than the regular model but the low setting is about the same. It's a minimalists dream, basically an endcap to the battery. You can find it here:

http://www.9voltlight.com/inc/sdetail/5414

Good luck!

--Bob

No
Surefires???

There are two I would recommend. One is the Eternalight EliteMax. It can be dialed down to a very low level or kicked up to be quite bright. The CPF edition also has sockets that the leds fit in which means it is easy to change one or more to a color like red for the ultimate stealth. The other choice would be the Palight. It will run forever on the "moon" mode and has two other levels to boot. If you flip the lens over, you will have a nice wide beam that will be easy to navigate with but will not disturb others. It is very inexpensive which means you can buy several and stash them about. Good luck.

Try a palight not super bright but plenty of light to get around a house at night. The paklight is also a good one also,for in house use, such as checking on the kids. You dont want some thing that might wake the baby. I have given many as gifts and most people have told me thay really like them. Hope your baby is a good sleeper mine were not.

Bob: pak-lite looks like it may be just what I need! I will check it out tonight.

Grubbster: I find that the form factor of the derringer may be ideal, any bigger and only a flashaholic would appreciate it...

DaveG/Grubbster: dont know what the palight is. i will check it out tonight.

Thanks for all the suggestions so far...

liteboy said:

I don't yet have headlamp in my arsenal ...
any other suggestions??

Click to expand...

I noticed on Amazon.com that the Petzl Tikka (not the Tikka+, just plain Tikka) is only $20 and it got a good review from Flashlightreviews.com
But I just asked my friend who climbs a lot - he says the Tikka is not so durable, that the Tikka+ is what you want.

JonSidneyB said:

No
Surefires???

Click to expand...

My suggestion is what I use.

Ele with an old KL1 head and a McGizmo two-stage tailcap. Works just as good as with the new KL1 head and a diffuser over it.

I put my nearly used up 123's in it and it sucks the juice out of them real well. More importantly, it provides a very very low lumen level of light. Perfect for navigation in the house when it is dark or checking on a sleeping child. It stands on end. One of my most used features that I never thought I would use.

$25 for the Pak-Lite! YIKES!!!

Cyberguys.com and x-tremegeek.com have paklite basic for $9.95 the basic is not bad but no low level light switch,high only.

I love the Original Pak-Lites with their long runtime. They may seem expensive but they pay for themselves because the average person won't ever have to buy batteries for them.

If you change out your smoke alarm batteries every six months (when you reset your clocks) you should get ~125 hours of runtime in your Pak-Lite from each used battery you remove from a smoke alarm. Even if you only have one smoke alarm, you'll get ~250 free hours of runtime for your Pak-Lite each year. That's a lot of trips around the house. And that's if you have only one smoke alarm. (I have them in four rooms.)

Pak-Lites are only expensive in the same way that solar or crank-up AM-FM radios may seem expensive in a flat, price only comparison with ordinary portable radios. When you factor in the cost of operating these devices for their service lives a completely different picture emerges. For most people, once a solar or crank-up radio or Pak-Lite has been purchased the added expenses end. With ordinary portable radios and flashlights you must continue to spend money to purchase batteries for as long as you wish to continue using the product.

It all depends on how you look at it.

Pal-lite. I think I saw them selling at Battery Plus. I have two that I still use after having our child. Rubber coat makes for easy on your teeth if you gotta hold it in your mouth while changing baby. Shape is enough that you don't forget its in your pocket but not a hinderance to mobility. Is ok if baby wants to play with it. And works as a good nitelight with its low power constant on. I still have one set on the headboard to act as a night light pointing straight up, and its easy to find after lights out:sleepy: .

I also built a table light from an Arc AAA head with parts from Radio Shack. Wired it up to run on a C cell for longer run time. Always wanted to post about it but figured it wasn't "gee-whiz" enough. Has been most helpful to me in the past.

Finally I made a stand for my Arc AAA out of kydex. Basically a rectangular strip. Heat it over the stove burner, set it on a D cell batt so it cools into a "U" shape, then drill a hole for the light to fit into. Makes a great table stand, and you can still easily take the light with you, i.e. if you carry on a lanyard.

just some thoughts from a fellow parent. BTW, boy or girl? Birth weight? Who won the pool ? :laughing:

liteboy said:

my Fenix(es) are all one stage. the problem with the two stage is that you must twist for on, then click to cycle between stages - a bit cumbersome.

Click to expand...

I don't have any Fenix, yet, and don't know about the ones 4Sevens' got. But I saw one of the CPF member's Fenix L1P that had the click for low and click for high and another click for off. To me that was straight forward and not too overly dramatic of a task to accomplish. I did see the other one with the twist-action two-stager that you're talking about though and agree with you on that, it's a "bit cumbersome." I preferred the first one over the latter.

Maybe it was just his. . .But it was sure nice!

webley445 said:

...I also built a table light from an Arc AAA head with parts from Radio Shack. Wired it up to run on a C cell for longer run time. Always wanted to post about it but figured it wasn't "gee-whiz" enough. Has been most helpful to me in the past.

Click to expand...

I've thought about something like that a few times...what direction did you point the head?