Tiny light for... fun?

Hi guys!

I know there's been alot of threads about different EDC's around the forum, with very detailed reviews and pictures to compare... especially bessiebenny's 3-part budget light comparisons! That was awesome! In fact, having looked at those that interest me from his 3 overlapping lists, I have come down to a few lights that I just need a little push on to get me buying one. Haha!

My choices are:
Mini 3W Cree - 10cm: a tad too long for my liking but I could live with it if output and battery life is good.
Romisen RC-C3 - 7.4cm: love the length, but is the brightness good? As in, good enough to blow someone who doesn't know LED lights away? Haha!
Romisen RC-N3 - 15.7cm with AA extension, which I will only use if I didn't charge my RCR123A's. Otherwise, does anyone know how long it is if I'm using the 123 body? Read so much reviews about it but according to benny's tests, the throw at 1m is 1900 vs 3400 of the Mini 3W Cree. That's holding me back... the brightness.
Romisen RC-G2 - 10.5cm: only looking at it coz I have SO many NiMH AA's, mainly used for my flash and... my flash.
Romisen R-1A01 Lumiled - didn't find out the length coz I know I was just getting carried away with all the lights available at DX. Hahaha! But it doesn't hurt to have a good 1xAAA light.

Hmm... seems like Romisen has carved its name in my head!

I got myself a Tiablo MA6 not too long ago, but it's still too big for EDC.

I've got 2 RCR123A's now, and a charger, and will have 2 more from DX sometime soon. So I'm actually looking for as short as possible, and thus am more biased towards CR123A lights, PLUS they usually shine brighter. :shrug: Yes?

Frankly, I'm already quite biased towards the Romisen RC-C3 because of its size.

Oh! And most importantly, I had to cruelly scrape off those above $20. Seriously, like, once the first digit is a 2 and there's another digit before it hits a decimal point, my cursor moves to the X at the top right. I just want something good enough for... I dunno... running at night through the forests? And to show off too, of course. :twothumbs

if you want the smallest possible light....PM KevinL about his picolights...

Crenshaw

Lummi Wee NS?

25/50/80 lumens (you decide)
90/30/15 minutes runtime
3.4 cm length, 1.5 cm diameter

It is rechargable, so you will need a CR123a charger. It is my favorite "big-output, tiny package" light by far.

MikeSalt said:

Lummi Wee NS?

25/50/80 lumens (you decide)
90/30/15 minutes runtime
3.4 cm length, 1.5 cm diameter

It is rechargable, so you will need a CR123a charger. It is my favorite "big-output, tiny package" light by far.

Click to expand...

Wow! That IS tiny... But it says it uses some other battery doesn't it? And I thought 25/50/80 lumens output is variable, but turns out that you can only choose 1. Haha! But well, I guess I don't need it THAT small. =) It's cool though, thanks! But it's more than US$20.

I saw they had holes for tritium locators? Anywhere I can get them cheap? They look cool.... :laughing: And can be used on more than just torchlights...

incywincyspider said:

Wow! That IS tiny... But it says it uses some other battery doesn't it? And I thought 25/50/80 lumens output is variable, but turns out that you can only choose 1. Haha! But well, I guess I don't need it THAT small. =) It's cool though, thanks! But it's more than US$20.

I saw they had holes for tritium locators? Anywhere I can get them cheap?

Click to expand...

Unforunately, no. IMHO more flashlight designers should simply design in really low current indicator LEDs that run off the battery, but serve the same purpose as tritiums -- allowing the user to find the light in the dark easily. A few color LEDs as bright as most tritium tubes could run for years on the batteries in most flashlights.

I none of my mag hotwires, I actually modified it so that it has a constant glowing switch membrane with a couple uv LEDs. The light from the "GID" switch is enough to read my non-backlit alarm clock with, and will take about 4 years to drain the batteries (which I usually recharge every 2 weeks)

2xTrinity said:

Unforunately, no. IMHO more flashlight designers should simply design in really low current indicator LEDs that run off the battery, but serve the same purpose as tritiums -- allowing the user to find the light in the dark easily. A few color LEDs as bright as most tritium tubes could run for years on the batteries in most flashlights.

I none of my mag hotwires, I actually modified it so that it has a constant glowing switch membrane with a couple uv LEDs. The light from the "GID" switch is enough to read my non-backlit alarm clock with, and will take about 4 years to drain the batteries (which I usually recharge every 2 weeks)

Click to expand...

Hey! That's a damn good idea! I should learn to do something like that! How does yours look like? And how do you rewire the power supply to light up the UV LED at the switch using the batteries for your light?

Sorry, this is going off topic but I do love glowy things. Haha! But please, do continue to input stuff about GITD switch AND my original intent, which is a small bright EDC. Haha!

Man, I've never stuck to one thread and refreshed the window every few minutes, waiting for new replies before! Hahaha!

Of the lights you listed, I have three: the 3w Mini Cree, Romisen C3, and Romisen G2.

My favorite of the three by far is the C3. Crazy bright, small, regulated, and definitely impressive to non-flashaholics. I love this light.

The 3w Mini Cree is about as bright (maybe slightly brighter) than the C3, but it isn't regulated. (Expect the light to get dimmer with continued usage.) One bonus is that it has two modes (high and low) if that's important to you.

The G2 is longer than the 3w Mini and nowhere near as bright as either of the other two lights. It's a nice, solid light, but if you're only going to buy one flashlight and already have CR123 batteries I'd recommend the C3.


If you're limited to this list of lights, I recommend the C3.

2xTrinity said:

Unforunately, no. IMHO more flashlight designers should simply design in really low current indicator LEDs that run off the battery, but serve the same purpose as tritiums -- allowing the user to find the light in the dark easily. A few color LEDs as bright as most tritium tubes could run for years on the batteries in most flashlights.

I none of my mag hotwires, I actually modified it so that it has a constant glowing switch membrane with a couple uv LEDs. The light from the "GID" switch is enough to read my non-backlit alarm clock with, and will take about 4 years to drain the batteries (which I usually recharge every 2 weeks)

Click to expand...

i would think using LED locators with a Li-on might not be a good, imagine if you left it for a few years like that (however unlikley), they battery woudl die..just a thought..

i LIKE the idea of the UV leds and GITD though...cool!

Crenshaw

When my budget permits (few years down the line) I plan on getting a Lummi Wee purely as a tiny fun light. I think it's a perfectly good reason. Some people have big cars for fun, why can't I have a tiny light?

Crenshaw said:

i would think using LED locators with a Li-on might not be a good, imagine if you left it for a few years like that (however unlikley), they battery woudl die..just a thought..

Click to expand...

The LEDs would "shut off" before the LiIon could discharge themselves to death. Even assuming 100% conversion of electricity to light, it takes a minimum of 2.8V to make a 450nm blue photon, or 3.1V to make a 395nm UV photon. (minimum voltage = 1240/wavelength in nm). Even when the lights are freshly charged, the amount of current needed to be drawn to equal the brightness of a tritium tube is FAR less than the inherent self discharge of the cells, anyway. So impact on battery life is negligible.

ALso, in the case of my ROP, the GID backlight also gives me visual feedback that the light is "truly off". If I want to, I can untwist the tailcap one turn, and physically open the circuit without even breaking the O-Ring seal. When packing the light in a suitcase, I actually remove the tail spring entirely, so there's no way the light will "switch itself on".

Hey! That's a damn good idea! I should learn to do something like that! How does yours look like? And how do you rewire the power supply to light up the UV LED at the switch using the batteries for your light?

Click to expand...

Won't work easily with tailswitches. Maglites have side switches, and the switch assemblies have a lot of dead space. I simply created a few cavities with a dremel tool, installed the LEDs and resistors, then wired the (+) end of the LEDs to the positive battery contact, and the (-) end of the LEDs to the ground screw. Sicne I'm running 2xAW C-Cells, I installed 2 UV LEDs in series, with a 20kOhm resistor as a current-limiter. Current draw on fresh charge maxes out at 0.1mA, less as the battery voltage diminishes. Even much light is complete overkill. You could reduce it by a factor of 100 and it woudl still be enough to clearly find the light in the dark.

For this to work in a small EDC, the manufacturer would have to explicitly design the indicator LEDs into the head of the light. For lights with "finned" heads, a LED with a optical fiber "loop" to diffuse the light, similar to the cosmetic ring around BMW headlights, woudl look pretty slick.

I like small LEDs to, I have both the C3 and WF-602D

In my opinion the WF-602D is slightly nicer with a better finish than the Romisen C3.

I'll take beamshots against a P3D...

Owen

Hiya,

A comparison.

Here are the contenders (My collection!) Battery for size...




Same camera settings etc(ISO50, F2.8 1/125)

Out of the 'tiny' flashlights the WF-602D seems to have it.

Owen

Hi guys! I forgot to update that I got myself the RC-C3. It was supposed to have been mailed to me last week but somehow the postal service screwed up. Am collecting it from them tonight though.

Meanwhile, my wandering eyes and mouse have led me back to Benny's Part 3 thread again, and now that I have 4 RCR123A's and 2 17670's, and only 1 Tiablo MA6, I'm itching to buy a medium-sized LED, large being Tiablo MA6, and small being RC-C3.

I'm looking at the RC-N3 again now, because it has the capacity for 2AA's and 1 RCR123A. Along the thread, the RC-F4 also caught my eye (for its brightness). Haha! Now my question is if the N3 and the F4 accepts protected RCR123A's that are slightly longer than CR123A's. Seems like my Tiablo can't fit in 2 of those protected ones, even after I changed the switch module. *pouts*

FYI, the RCR's I got are SKU#11670 and SKU#3273 from DX.

Any advice?

Bump! =)

I got my father-in-law the RC-F4 and 2x Ultrafire RCR123's. I also have the gray Trustfires and they fit if I remember correctly. This is a great light.

I almost bought myself the RC-C3 but splurged for the HAIII WF-602D because of the finish and the advertised XRE emitter. I did end up breaking the emitter but I replaced it with a Q5 and that DX 16mode driver. So it's all good now but I've spent about $35 on this light. If I knew I was going to be modding it I would've just bought the RC-C3 in gray because I'm not a huge fan of the mis-matched finish. Oh well, it's superbright now and even better with the multimodes

Trustfire protected rcr123 fits in Romisen N3, so the ultrafire ones should fit me thinks.

On the Wee & Romisen Lumiled AAA

Gallagho,

Thanks for the comparison shot it helps when one is size sensitive with the pocket toys.

Assuming most who read this have read all the reviews, can I get a smaller package than the Romisen Lumiled and after doing the upgrade mod with the SSC LED that is? I really like the size and design of this light. For those of you that have it, is the little Romisen as sweet as it looks?

I would really love to have a great AAA EDC and for less than $2o including the upgrade, if anyone knows of anything brighter I can easily install please jump in, and this seems to be the best option I have seen.
I know the little Romisen is not in the same class as the Fenix L0D, but how would it fare in a head to head after the mod upgrade has been done?

Thanks, lots of great stuff here. Many of you have saved me some $$ from buying junk.