Reading by flashlight at night??

How do you guys do it? I hear a lot of talk about reading in bed at night with a lower powered flashlights. Do you somehow point the light directly at what you are reading? Because lately I have been doing this, but find I cannot comforatbly hold the light to see by(excluding a headlamp of course). So I have switched to tailstanding a light that is about 100 lumens out the front to cast enough light down for me to read. Just curious how a lot of you do this...?? :thinking:

I usually lay my light facing backwards so that the bounce off of my white backboard is enough to read by. Or I just lay the light somewhere pointed at my book, such as myself or a nearby pillow. It depends on the book and the print.

Headlamp.

Probably want to give WadeF a PM
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I just use a headlamp.

Illum_the_nation said:

Probably want to give WadeF a PM

Click to expand...

WadesDereelight thread https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/177395
original picture
http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/3189/dsc02898yz7.jpg

EDIT: mmm, I thought I had it resized to 800x600...I guess I didn't

nautilus or zebralight!

Freeplay Indigo w/ user selectable output. True guilt-free lumens.

This is where the Mule Ti-PD comes in handy. Its pure even beam pattern covers a whole paperback both pages without having to move the light. ALso it has a very useful low for this kind of situations. Even reading the menu in a dark romantic restaurant does not effect others around..

Hi Strauss
Is your PT Apex Pro not up to the task of reading in bed?
Think its been touted as the premeir HL for skinning elk
at midnight in the Yukon or finding a ladies lost earrings at the Hyatt.
Reading illumination should be a piece of cake for the Apex.
But I don't own one. Let us know.
hopkins

I quite often use a multi led 36 led light for reading,

LED Lenser headlamp here :wave: I even take it with me when I head to the bathroom or kitchen.

Since my wife and I work opposite shifts and I typically go to bed around 4-5am while she doesn't get up until 6-7am, and I have insomnia, I read by flashlight (actually headlamp) up to an hour or two a night. I can't imagine trying to balance a flaslight to read a magazine or book with for an hour+ every night. A headlamp makes things much easier, and I usually use a red LED since it isn't as distracting and is less likely to wake my wife up than a white LED. Nothing fancy, I just use an inexpensive RoV headlamp with red and white LED's (and an incan bulb, which is never used), and power it with rechargeable AAA's.

This is gonna be very unflashoholic of me, but I never understood the idea of using a flashlight for reading in bed. What's wrong with the regular bedlight? Is it cause of your significant other? Cause most bedlights I've seen are aimed so they wont spread that much light(at least more than a flashlight) to the other side of bed anyway. Or why not just read in another room? Or is it just an excuse to use your flashlights more (that I totally get, do it all the time myself :naughty.
When playing around with new flashlights(as I guess we all do), I've tried to read by some once, but it gets uncomfortable really fast. Using a headlamp might be better, but feels very cumbersome to put on and use since you just can flick on your bedlight, or go to another room?

If you're not going to use a LightWedge, a Itty Bitty Booklight or other dedicated book lamp and do not want to use a headlight, you either wedge the flashlight between your head and shoulder or use a small pillow to wedge the light between your head and shoulder. The size of the flashlight is a personal choice as are the level of output and the color of the beam.

The reasons a lot of people here use flashlights/head lamps to read at night are:
- do not want to disturb the SO
- a nostalgia thing about remembering being a kid and reading comic books under the bed covers
- do not want to run up the electric bill
- do not want to light up the whole room
- just another phase of the addiction to lights
- really do like looking geeky
- any or all of the above

Illum_the_nation said:

Probably want to give WadeF a PM

Click to expand...

My Apex Pro would work fine with the 5mm LED's on low, I was just wondering how these people are using regular flashlights to read by. Thanks for all the input everyone

hopkins said:

Hi Strauss
Is your PT Apex Pro not up to the task of reading in bed?
Think its been touted as the premeir HL for skinning elk
at midnight in the Yukon or finding a ladies lost earrings at the Hyatt.
Reading illumination should be a piece of cake for the Apex.
But I don't own one. Let us know.
hopkins

Click to expand...

Well, several different ways to do it.

You can buy a small lamp with a "bite" attachment that can just wedge onto any flat surface - I have one attached to a bookcase. The connection between the base and the lamp fixture is flexible, so you can shift it around to get just the right amount of light. This works at a fixed location, of course.

Then, if you do it with a regular hand-held flashlight (ie., not a headlamp), there are two issues: how you hold the flashlight, and which flashlight is best for the purpose.

I find I can kind of wedge the flashlight in the crook of my neck and, if I position myself just right with pillows, it works.

This then narrows down which flashlights you can use! for instance, the old standby, the Inova X5, has plenty of good, floody lumens for the task, but tends to get hot! So somewhat uncomfortable for the old neck...

Alternatively, I use my McGizmo Ti-PD-S, with a Surefire F04 diffuser (which matches the size of the bezel perfectly). The resulting beam is then perfect for reading. (no hotspot, and enough light to illuminate most of a page) On low, the light doesn't get hot. On high, it does get hot, so hopefully the low output would be enough for your eyes.

Actually, the Lumapower M3 with the 2xAA tube works great for the purpose, because it gives a beam that is not too narrow, and the extra tube length helps with positioning. (the light even has, at least theoretically, an adjustable beam/focus, although this feature tends to make a rather small degree of difference in practice). It has 3 different output levels, so you can find one that works. You can also then use NiMH batteries which is a big plus for long hour uses like reading.

A final possibility (which I haven't tested for reasons that will become clear) is just to use a Molle design, so if you can just place the flashlight sitting on a nearby flat surface so it can illuminate the book your holding, it will be great. The reason I haven't really tested this yet is that the only Molle light I have is the Streamlight Survivor, which by design has a very narrow (10 degree) beam and so doesn't work that great for reading. One of Elektrolumens' Angelux designs, which should be very floody, might fit the bill.

Illum_the_Nation's picture is a classic CPFer. :twothumbs

I use one of these ... with a weak battery:

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.5715

(actually, I bought mine from DAE in assorted colors).

You want very few lumens as the light will only be about a foot from the page.

I read laying on my stomach, with this light in my right hand. Since the light is small, I also use this hand to support my head (near my ear). I read 15-30 minutes like this before going to sleep each night.