Flashlights I've liked and disliked

Flashlights I\'ve liked and disliked

Hi all, I just found this site through the Slashdot thread on LED lights. Wow, a whole site full of flashlight nerds. This is great.

I thought I'd give my opinions of flashlights I've had and what I'd like to have except nobody seems to be making it.

First of all, I mostly like lightweight flashlights that I can take everywhere. That means an always-with-me keychain light, and a brighter light in my belt pouch/pack.

Mag 2AA: overrated in my opinion. Too heavy to leave in your belt pouch all the time unless you think you're going to use it. The switch gets flaky after a few months, so you have to keep cleaning it, etc. I still use one as a handy light around the house, with NiMH AA's inside, so it's cheap to operate.

Mag Solitaire: also unimpressed. Worked great for a while, but then got flaky. I can't get it to work reliably no matter how much I clean the contacts. Guess I'll send it for repair, but I don't use it any more anyway.

Photon II: I use this on my keychain instead of the Solitaire now. I've had a couple of them. Again, the switch gets flaky after you've used it for a while (it uses the LED lead as a spring, and that gets soft. One of them got stuck "on" til its battery drained). This is a really nice light except for the reliability problem. I'm thinking of trying an Arc AAA next.

Underwater Kinetics 2L: a very lightweight polymer flashlight with two lithium 123 cells and a xenon lamp. Weighs about 1/3 as much as a Surefire 6P and is maybe half as bright. Several hours of runtime and is waterproof to hundreds of feet. This is always in my belt pack now and it's absolutely great, my standard to which others must be compared. I love this light. I see Surefire is now making some polymer flashlights too, so they've seen the "light". I haven't tried those yet though.

Underwater Kinetics 2AAA: also nice, less bright than 2L.
I have the penlight version. They also have a side-by-side AAA version.

Mag 3D: for when I need a big light around the house. Works great, otherwise unremarkable.

Lights I'm interested in but haven't tried:

Arc AAA: to replace Photon II. I think I'll order one soon.

EverLED lamp: I might try this in a 2AA hand light that uses a PR flange bulb.

Arc LS: I'm intrigued by the idea but it's way too expensive for me for now. Also, I don't understand the benefit of the heavy Surefire-like metal construction. I'd like a polymer version. My UK 2L has held up fine for several years, so wear isn't an issue.

Features I don't care about:

fancy operating modes (blinking etc) like the Photon III: they just make the flashlight more confusing to use. A flashlight should not need an instruction manual.

Complicated high/extra-high/low output modes like LS4: again confusing. If I'm going to carry a light bigger than an Arc AAA, it's because I want as much light as I can get. I'm always going to have the keychain light anyway, so I'll use it for when I don't need much brightness. A very simple brightness switch might be ok, but no complicated interfaces please.

Anyway, the light that nobody seems to make is a waterproof, polymer, high-brightness (Luxeon?) LED light powered by a 123 cell. Any suggestions?

So, those are my favorites and peeves. What are yours?

Re: Flashlights I\'ve liked and disliked

Welcome to CPF, Paulr!!

The EverLED will work in your 3D Mag-Lite as well. There are a number of LED based replacements for the minimag bulb.

The Arc LS is lighter than you may think it is. It is built to last and the aluminum is needed for heatsinking the Luxeon Star LED.

You will love you Arc AAA when you get it. I don't have one, as I don't happen to like AAA batteries.

Slashdot, eh?? I hope we don't get slashdotted, or I will be able to hear Sasha scream without internet, or anything else. We have large bandwidth requirements as it is.

Re: Flashlights I\'ve liked and disliked

Here's the slashdot article. Never been to that site before, and based on the way people talk about it, I don't see what the fuss is about.

http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/03/20/2044250&mode=thread&tid=159

A lot of misinformation and a very irritating EverLed salesman are present. There are also a peculiar number of glowing reviews on the EverLed from different people only days after it was released. It looks like a couple of our members posted there as well.

Mark

Re: Flashlights I\'ve liked and disliked

Hello paulr,

Welcome.

I think every flashlight should come with an instruction manual...

I find it interesting that people tend to over focus on the bells and whistles that some of the manufacturers so thoughtfully incorporate into their products. I have several "complex" flashlights and notice a common feature is that you press a button and it turns on, then you press the same button and it turns off. The lights that I have (ExternaLight (several models) and PALight) do not require that I read the instruction manual to use the light. However, when I have some extra time during a camping trip, I find the extra features fun to use while passing the time (unfortunately I usually do not have the instruction manual with me and I have to learn it all over again via trial and error - oh well, more fun).

Mag Lites are a great platform for modifications, and you will find several excellent modifications listed on this forum.

I think that if you are looking for water proof lights, you need to continue looking at the diving lights. I have a UK SL4. It is quite bright, but I would not consider it light weight - it's not bad, but not light weight. If you only require water resistant lights, then the selection opens up a lot. Your UK 2L looks like a great light. I wonder if you could figure out a LED modification for it. It might be worth a bit of discussion on the modification forum. I am pleased with the SureFire G2, but can not compare it to your UK 2L. I may have to get a 2L and check it out...

The ARC AAA is an interesting light, small, light weight, regulated (kind of), decent run time, and water proof. It is a favorite of a lot of people here.

My favorite lights are the ARC LSH-P, TigerLight, and ExternaLight.

My least favored lights are the several Eveready 2D plastic flashlights that I started with.

Tom

Re: Flashlights I\'ve liked and disliked

Thanks for the welcome, folks. I forgot to mention the most impressive flashlight I've ever seen, the Surefire M6 that I got to try out in a sporting goods store recently. It was just unbelievable. The big rechargeable Surefire was about the same brightness but seemed kludgy by comparison, nowhere near as well made as the M6. I'm just not ready for any type of flashlight that expensive, not to mention the cost of batteries for the m6 (six 123's run it for 20 minutes! Ouch!). I'd thought that 123's still cost $5 apiece or so though. At $1.25 it doesn't seem QUITE as crazy ;-).

Waterproofness (i.e. for diving) isn't that important to me--the maglites with O-rings are resistant enough for me. I just like polymer because of its light weight.

I see someone has an AAAA battery pack for the Arc AAA, making the whole thing smaller. I might try to get one of those. I'd want to get AAAA's by taking apart 9-volt alkaline batteries (there are six AAAA's inside) but those are solder tabbed so I wonder how well the contacts would work in a spring-contact flashlight. Any guesses? Or, it would be nice if Arc made an N-cell version of the AAA, or even used a CR2 lithium (CR2 = smaller version of 123).

Yeah, I've never had good luck with random plastic 2-D flashlights. Frustration with them is how I got interested in high-end flashlights. I have had some cheap plastic 2AA flashlights that I've liked a lot, including the Bullseye (big round reflector behind #222 threaded base bulb, enough space inside that you can tape down a spare bulb) and the Duracell palm light. I also liked the throwaway penlights with two AAA's sealed inside.

Is it worth getting the fancy or limited editions of the Arc AAA? What's the difference between the high and low dome versions of the Arc LS? I like a beam that spreads evenly over a reasonable angle rather than an intense central hot spot, if that makes any difference.

Yeah, the Mag 3D is a well-made light, but generally too heavy to take anywhere (camping, travel, etc).

Actually I'll ask something else that's puzzled me: why are the Mag 3 and 5 cell flashlights so popular? Batteries usually come in 2-packs or 4-packs, so you end up with odd batteries left over. If I buy another big Mag, I think I'd get a 4 cell (or maybe 6 cell) for that reason.

For the Everled, I'd want to use a 2AA light with NiMH batteries. The Mag 3D is just too big. Or, as someone mentioned, maybe I can convert the UK 2L (or home-make something) to use an Everled and a single 123. That seems like a lighter, lower-cost alternative to an Arc LS.

Anyway, it's nice meeting you all here ;-).

Re: Flashlights I\'ve liked and disliked

Take a look at the tec 40 (do a search). Everyone here thinks highly of them.

Raven

Re: Flashlights I\'ve liked and disliked

Hello all
Talking about 1 LED light Arc AAA is very good, many ppl here agree that. I would like to add 1 more light- UKE 2AAA LED, it has some optical assit to make a tighter beam and cheaper.

for Mag AA, upgrade it with BB400 then you will lover it more!!