Looking for a dimmable twisty

olo · Jan 12, 2009

I'm looking for a flash light with a very specific interface. I want it to turn on at the dimmest possible setting and become brighter as I turn its head part. Sort of like a dimmer that clicks off at on end and gives full brightness at the other.
In a perfect world it would a small AA (even AAA, maybe) light, with accent on flood rather than throw, color rendering good enough to tell a blue wire from a green one. Price doesn't matter, as long as I don't have to remortgage my house.
Can anyone remember seeing anything like this?

Kiessling · Jan 12, 2009

Welcome to CPF :wave:

If you want a seamless dimming instead of distinct levels, the choices are *very* limited. There will only be the Surefire TITAN and the upcoming aluminium version.

If you can accept discrete levels there's more:

RA Twisty
McLuxIII lights by McGizmo (see subforum)
Aleph lights by McGizmo (tail rotation)
SF L1 (tail rotation)
Muyshondt Nautilus
SF U2 (with clicky at the tail and selector ring at the head)
etc.

Depends on what you want and need.

bernie

Marduke · Jan 12, 2009

Surefire Titan is the only one I know of.

crocodilo · Jan 12, 2009

Ra Twisty will give you three light levels as you rotate the body/head. The three levels can be customized via a somewhat awkward and lenghty procedure, but factory presets are quite adequate: very low, medium, high. Floody and white as can be.

The 85-Tr version will start off with a low red, and then run through white levels.

A bit big, plus it feeds on 123's. But totally awesome and overbuilt. A fantastic light, with a reasonable price for such quality.

To be true, a continuous dimming scale (infinite levels) may not be worthy the (Titan's) price for most common applications. YMMV.

kramer5150 · Jan 12, 2009

Hmm... I can't think of any bezel-twisties that infinitely adjust output. Most outputs are fixed at specific lumen value.

Target has some variable dimming Brinkman lights that won't break the bank, a 2D and 3AAA IIRC.

You could use DX11074 or 17593 in a host of your choice. But neither use AA/AAA and its not going to be bezel-twist.

Hitthespot · Jan 12, 2009

It's a shame you didn't get the new Titanium Olight. It has the exact interface your requesting. Unfortunately it was in CR123 format and only 200 were made.

Bill

olo · Jan 12, 2009

crocodilo said:
To be true, a continuous dimming scale (infinite levels) may not be worthy the (Titan's) price for most common applications. YMMV.

$500? Forgot to specify that I work for living, my bad.

Thank you for very useful replies. It helps a lot, now I have a short list to choose from.

ToeMoss · Jan 12, 2009

I believe the "Gatlight" also has the dimming functionality you want.
Uses CR123 battery.
A little expensive, but is one of the coolest flashlights made.

Kiessling · Jan 12, 2009

Before committing to a light, you might wanna learn about the different user interfaces available.

True, the TITAN's is the most intuitive and the most KISS, but there are others that are quite good, too, and you might be able to adapt to them once you learn about them.

bernie

Marduke · Jan 12, 2009

Dosun has several models with a selector ring (R1, R5, R6)
https://www.4sevens.com/index.php?cPath=91

Kestrel · Jan 12, 2009

olo said:
$500 [for the Titan] ? Forgot to specify that I work for living, my bad.

Thank you for very useful replies. It helps a lot, now I have a short list to choose from.

You might be able to wait for the upcoming Aluminum SureFire Titan T1A (goodness knows we've been waiting:sick2

. It should go for a bit over $200. FWIW

brucec · Jan 12, 2009

I think the Gatlight also has an adjustable output clicky knob on the tail.

Kiessling · Jan 12, 2009

Marduke said:
Dosun has several models with a selector ring (R1, R5, R6)
https://www.4sevens.com/index.php?cPath=91

Anyone got one? My "buy it now"-finger is triggerhappy, but I resisted well so far

Sounds like a nice glove-box light.

bernie

Marduke · Jan 12, 2009

Kiessling said:
Anyone got one? My "buy it now"-finger is triggerhappy, but I resisted well so far
Sounds like a nice glove-box light.

bernie

I think they are too dim by CPF standards. After all, they are large lights to only be 85/120 lumens.

Flying Turtle · Jan 12, 2009

I think the LiteFlux LF2X might meet your requirements. Single AAA, two settable levels accessed by twisting the head plus a bunch of other modes if you want them.

Geoff

carrot · Jan 12, 2009

Kiessling said:
Anyone got one? My "buy it now"-finger is triggerhappy, but I resisted well so far
Sounds like a nice glove-box light.

bernie

I handled them at PF11 and the consensus is that they were cool, fairly well made, but a little laggy on the interface. Still nice though.

Kiessling · Jan 12, 2009

Laggy ... means what in this case?
Is the selector ring a magnetic switch like the U2?
And how was the brightness? 120 "real" lumens or way less? Compared to something I know, please

Thanx!
bernie

carrot · Jan 12, 2009

I was pretty distracted by all the crazy HID lights people had around but I don't think 120 lumens is an outrageous claim. Certainly no less than 80. Laggy as in, you could detect a slight pause between you turning the ring and it changing levels. Not a deal breaker for all users but definitely a little disconcerting at first. I couldn't tell if it was a magnetic switch but it felt pretty similar to the U2's.

olo · Jan 13, 2009

Kiessling said:
Before committing to a light, you might wanna learn about the different user interfaces available.
True, the TITAN's is the most intuitive and the most KISS, but there are others that are quite good, too, and you might be able to adapt to them once you learn about them.

I wasn't looking to commit to a flash light, I hoped to just buy one, if you know what I mean. I spent some time reading this forum and flash lights where you have to quickly turn it on/off three times, then wait at least 2 seconds, but not longer than 3, and then click five times to make it sing Hava Nagila in Morse code make a beautiful conversation piece, but provide more entertainment than I'm currently looking for.
So I'd rather stick with my original choice - rotating bezel (tail, but not some obscure part of the body) with many (ideally - so many that it's seamless) brightness levels.
I did suspect that something simple to operate is probably hard to design, so I was ready to pay a premium for that. Sort of like buying a Mac. But $500 flash lights belong to a jewelry department. I might spend $200 on that aluminum version of TITAN somebody mentioned, and that would fall into "commitment" category... So I'm taking your advice and reading up on UIs.

Flea Bag · Jan 13, 2009

olo said:
I wasn't looking to commit to a flash light, I hoped to just buy one, if you know what I mean. I spent some time reading this forum and flash lights where you have to quickly turn it on/off three times, then wait at least 2 seconds, but not longer than 3, and then click five times to make it sing Hava Nagila in Morse code make a beautiful conversation piece, but provide more entertainment than I'm currently looking for.
So I'd rather stick with my original choice - rotating bezel (tail, but not some obscure part of the body) with many (ideally - so many that it's seamless) brightness levels.
I did suspect that something simple to operate is probably hard to design, so I was ready to pay a premium for that. Sort of like buying a Mac. But $500 flash lights belong to a jewelry department. I might spend $200 on that aluminum version of TITAN somebody mentioned, and that would fall into "commitment" category... So I'm taking your advice and reading up on UIs.

If you're lucky, you could buy the Lumencraft Gatlight V3 or the latest Titanium second-hand in the high two hundred dollar range. RRP for the latest Gatlight Titanium is $395. It's more bulky than the Titan but is also significantly brighter and runs off higher capacity CR123. It was the original 'infinitely variable brightness' adjustment light which came out years before SureFire came out with the Titan.

The Gatlight V2 or earlier editions had a flickering problem so avoid those. Visit Gatlight.com to check it out. There's also a cheaper and more compact Lumencraft Polaris supposedly coming out, but we've yet to hear of any progress on that for months now.

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