Please help me thin the collection!

Thanks in advance for wading through this somewhat lengthy post.

OK, somehow I went from having a maglight a year ago, to having a box full of expensive "lighting tools", and an empty wallet. I know the conventional wisdom here is keep 'em all, but I need to thin the herd before an upcoming move. Being able to make some money to get a Ra Twisty would be cool too. I use lights for spotting addresses from car, walking around neighborhood at night, car camping, backpacking, emergency preparedness, playing around. So, what stays, what goes?


(I've grouped the lights that I think are somewhat duplicative)

Multi-output
Fenix L2T v.2 RB80
+Great beam, output, runs on AA's, flex battery when I had P2D body
-rumors of problems with emitter and switch, both fine so far

Novatac 85P
+Great beam (although less throw than L2T or L1), great flexibility, low low, seems durable, rechargeable
-I always worry that it's complicatedness will eventually lead to failure, a little bulky

Surefire L1
+I love the light it puts out, it seems very clear and sharp to me. Great throw on high, good enough spill on high. Like the switch.
-Low beam not that useful, not enough spill

Lumapower IncenDio
+Very bright on high, good variation between levels, better spill than L2T, L1, rechargeable, memory mode.
-UI a little weird, pocket clip will likely bend/break, build quality just doesn't feel as high (my subjective opinion) particularly the switch.

Headlamps
Seoul Modded EOS
+Bright, good beam profile, runs on AAAs
-Low is a little high

PT Quad
+Long runtime, runs on AAAs
-Bluish tint, little throw

High output/6P/9P Legos
Surefire G2, G3, 6P, bodies, +an A19 extender
Malkoff M60, M60L
Lumens Factory EO-9, ES-9, HO-4 lamps
AW batteries and charger to run them

Miscellaneous:
Coast Lenser Mini-Frogman
+Nice beam profile, runs on AAAs
-Otherwise unexceptional

Streamlight ProPoly Lux
+Runs on AAs, good throw
-Narrow beam, big

Arc AAA-P
(Gonna trade it in for a Fenix E01)

Photon Freedom
+Small in my pocket

What would you cut?

lol, well once you decide what you want to cut I'll do my share and send you my address. I look forward to your PM

Maybe you want to consolidate by battery type?
Only CR123 lights.

Yeah, I like the idea of having some organizing principle for the thinning, be it by battery type or something else. I guess one thought is to reduce the overlap of functionality, ie: one high-low light instead of four.

i would keep the malkoff and novatac and get rid of everything else

qip said:

i would keep the malkoff and novatac and get rid of everything else

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Except the L1!
BTW You may have to sell the L2T at discount unless there is someone that missed the whole recall stink.

Ahh! this is why I still have them all!

What are your thoughts on keeping the L1?

Re: the recall, my understanding is they recalled the recall, or something similar. Basically decided it was a tiny portion of lights, and that they'd fail very quickly. Here's a link to the most recent discussion of it...https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/193761

You could always put them on ebay

Keep the EOS, L1, Novatac, C-series Lego kit, and Arc for sure (don't trade it for an E01, you'll miss it)

Get rid of the Coast Frogman, Quad and Propoly (as much as it is the CPF darling of yore, there's better lights now)

The rest is up to you.

Keep the ARC! with all the stuff about CIS and the new GS, theres no way i would sell/trade my arc-p ds

Crenshaw

Thanks for the replies! What's the rationale for some of the choices? For example, why keep the Novatac and the L1?

I know the conventional wisdom here is keep 'em all...

Click to expand...

Not quite. I would say goodbye to the following:

Novatac 85P
SureFire 6P
Fenix L2T v.2 RB80
Lumapower IncenDio
Seoul Modded EOS
Princeton Tec Quad
SureFire A19 Extender
Lumens Factory EO-9
Lumens Factory ES-9
Lumens Factory HO-4
Coast Lenser Mini-Frogman
Streamlight ProPoly Lux
Photon Freedom Micro

...and keep only the following:

Arc AAA Premium
SureFire L1 LumaMax
SureFire G2 Nitrolon
SureFire G3 Nitrolon

...and start a new collection starting with the SureFire M series and an H30-Q5.

What's the rationale for some of the choices?

Click to expand...

I always figure that quality takes precedence over quantity.

My .02 is to keep just three (well, maybe 4 or 5 )of all that were listed:

Novatac - because, my God, it's about as good as it gets for a multi-level, multi-function light. Plus, it's programmability allows you to make it emulate just about any UI out there. Additionally, as a tailstander, it makes a great emergency lamp that will run a long time at it's lower (and still bright enough) settings.

L1 - because it's a classically simple light that is just "right" for so many lighting situations. You can have my L1 when you pry it from my cold dead fingers...

Malkoff M60 (in the 6P body) - because it throws with the best of them, but has a much better overall beam than any of the others with a nice large hotspot AND a very bright spill area. For your brightest lighting requirements, this is the way to go. Be sure to keep it in the 6P body for best heat dissipation when you use it for extended runtimes.
I'd also keep the M60L in one of the plastic Surefire bodies (doesn't get so hot) for more general use and loads of runtime on a pair of batteries. A G2 w/M60L might be considered the best "general purpose" light of all of the above due to it's way more than adequate brightess coupled with it's 4+ hour runtime.

The above lights will cover pretty much any lighting situation you run into, including a need for a headlamp because you can clip the L1 or 85P to a hat brim or collar if need be.

However, I'd keep one more light, the L2T, for the singular reason that it runs on the ubiqitous AA batteries. When all else fails, and CR123's are just not available, you'll want something that will take AA's.

Then one more light (promise, this is the last one) I'd suggest you look into is the ElektroLumens Blaster 1D, still available if you just ask Wayne about it.
It's a 60 Lumen, single D cell flashlight that is PLENTY bright for typical emergency or general use, but it's significant feature is that it will run for over 40 hours non-stop on one D cell battery (it will run a battery all the way to totally dead which is a good feature to have for emergency use and getting the most out of your batteries).
Because it's base is flat, it tailstands nicely which makes a better emergency lamp than any emergency lamp I've seen, and it's dual use as a flashlight and a ceiling-bounce tailstander puts it at the top of my "most favorites" list.

So, if I HAD to get out of the flashlight collecting business, of all the lights I have, I'd take my own advice and keep the following among those that I have:
Novatac 120P
Surefire L1
Surefire E1L/Dual
Malkoff M60 in 6P body (but I'm going to soon add an M60L in another 6P body)
Fenix L2D/Q5 (for the AA's)
Blaster 1D


You wanted an opinion, you got an opinion.

Thanks for the thoughtful response!