What is a good walking light, a nice flood?

I notice that the lights are never really called spot or flood by the manufacturers. Only after looking at the beamshots on different sites do I really see what the lights will do. What would you guys recommend for a good walking light, and by that I mean a light that when held at about shoulder height would give a nice 4-6' flood in front of my feet? It would be nice to have a bright flood with no shadows, and no real hotspot. I realize that throw would be reduced, but that is why we have so many other lights right? I have considered the diffuser for my E2E but don't know how they work and would rather have a long runtime with maybe an LED. It seems most lights are not real specific but rather try to cater to a broad range of use. I'd like to have a short distance flood with long runtime and small to medium size. I have always used the mags cranked up to the wide pattern but there are so many shadows it really isn't a clean light. Thanks for any suggestions

Surefire L4, maybe with a Pila 168S rechargeable battery if that floats your boat. Don't know if it would suit your runtime requirements, tho.

Edit: consider also the Nuwai QIII; its only maybe $35 and puts out a bunch of floody light. Eats rechargeables too if you wish.

cheers

L4 sounds like what you want to me..

I shudder to suggest it.........but a Nite-Ize modded Minimag would do well for that purpose. Cheap cheap cheap, especially if you already have a Minimag around somewhere. Eats easy to find AA's, and nearly 12 hours run time. Smooth flood of light, though a bit blue.



Cheers. :buddies:

Streamlight 4AA ProPolymer SS 7 LED or the Inova variant. How about a headlamp?

I looked at the L4 beamshots and it is wider, but is it really what you consider a flood?
what is the Nite-Ize? I do have several mini-mags around. I assume an LED in place of the standard bulb?

Please consider the L2. It's the perfect walking light. The low is plenty bright and the high is very bright. You can twist low to keep it on and press for momentary high. It has a great lanyard. I walk a night a fair bit and this is THE light for it.

W.

Most of the multi-led lights which have the LEDs behind a lens and backed by a reflector - as opposed to each peaking out of its own hole - will provide a wide flood. There's a 49 led'er from Dae which is reported to have a wide flood and not bad run time (unlike the 3xAAA lights which run out fast). The Gerber LX-1.0 has a wide angle optic (not reflector) which gives a sort of wide, floody hot spot. It should run about 10 hours to on alkalines. Mine ran 9 hours to 50% on nimh's (although nimh's start out dimmer than alks). More than enough for walking a long, long way.

Just my thoughts.

Okay, if it's from SureFire, then what WMIRAG alluded to regarding that "wall-of-light" producing SureFire L2! :huh:

Surefire L4 with two way switch....the ultimate walking liglht IMHO!!

The PT Attitude has a very nice smooth flood and runs a long time. Fits in the pocket, too. Also, the new reflectored X1 has quite a wide flood with smooth coverage.

Geoff

If you're in the country with little or no ambient light, one of the Eternalights would be great. I have an ErgoMarine and it's beautiful for walking in pitch blackness. It provides a panoramic swath of light in front of you revealing everything in your path out to about 20 feet or so. You don't have to scan back and forth at all. Since all four LEDs are exposed, there's a bit of backspill that can annoy; this is easily fixed by carrying the light in a vertical orientation and allowing your thumb to shield the spill light.

For farther distances, I recommend carrying a good thrower too, such as a Streamlight Propoly 4AA Luxeon.

UK 4AA eLED - often known as a great hiking light, excellent flood w/just enough of a hotspot to see ahead of you properly. It's about the size of a mini-mag, water resistant to 10 feet and lasts 12 hours w/regulated light. These are sold to firefighters and cost about 25. See www.flashlightreviews.com.

(Much brighter than the Nite-Ize also.)

Almost any multi-5mm will give medium flood dispersion about the size you describe or maybe a bit smaller, so then it's just a matter of picking what runtime, how many LEDs, batteries. I like a 3/11/25 LED headlamp worn around the neck, or the 28 or the 12/49 two-level handheld on my website, http://happi.freeservers.com, Having multiple light levels is handy, using fewer for runtime's sake until you need to see farther out or run off a skunk or whatever, then light 'em all up. I always carry a small spare in the pocket when out and about. If you go with a luxeon-clone you'll want 3w or better.

HaPPI

L4 with 2 way switch

I did see the Nite-Ize LED kit and wondered if it was really any good. For that price maybe I'll give it a go and see how it works. I have been looking at the A2 or L2, thinking a two-stager would be a really nice thing. What is the 2 way switch for the L4? I had not heard of that one yet but the L4 seems to have a nice flood beam, the only thing I didn't like was the short runtime at full blast. If I could ramp that down it may be a good possibility also. I never have used a headlamp but I think I would prefer a handheld light especially if it were a two stage light. That 49 LED light is certainly inexpensive enough but you guys have me hooked on the quality stuff now. That UK looks interesting, not much in price. Thanks for all the info, now I have to go read about all the suggestions.

Try Streamlight's Propoly Luxeon 4AA light, it has both a good center spot w/throw, and good spill (no tunnel vision) to make walking very easy. This light uses inexpensive AA's, and has decent run times, and another plus is the size of the light is very comfortable to hold.

Chuck

Depending on the amount of light you need the Nite-Ize might be enough. I have several. My boys love them when we take a walk. I prefer the Dorcy 1 Watt 3AAA. It has a wide flood with a hotspot, but the spillbeam is very bright. It runs about 1.5 hours on a set of batteries. Some people don't like the battery carrier, but I don't mind. The Dorcy runs $20 to $25 at Target.