Looking for the perfect light...

Simple enough request, right???

I thought it would be simple, until I came across CPF and realized there are about 100 bazillion different lights out there! So after lurking around for awhile I thought I would come in from the dark say "Hi" and "HELP!"

Anyway, I'm looking for a general purpose around the house/camping (around the site and to and from the bathroom) light. I would like one with multiple modes and uses common batteries. Clicky or twisty doesn't matter, but I would like it to start in low mode. I would like to keep the price tag under $50 if possible.

So far I have an Energizer 1W from Target that I have been carrying around with me and I plan on getting a couple of the Streamlight Nano's for my wife and daughter.

Thanks for the help!

Looking for the perfect light...

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Don't... There are millions of flashlights outthere but not a perfect one. Instead there are flashlights that fits your needs, you should look for that one. :welcome:

To start you should look for reliable and accesible brands such as Fenix, Nitecore, Eagletac, and some others. As your first hi power LED flashlight, I do not recommend you to get very expensive nor very cheap ones. Good and practical lights are priced between $50 and $80.

These are the most common flashlights that uses the common AA cell:
-Fenix LD10 / LD20 / TK20
-Nitecore D10 / D20
-Eagletac P100A / P100A2 / P10A / P10A2

If you still can't decice.. If I were you I would get the Fenix LD20. Bright, easy to use, lightweight and durable.

Within your price range there is the Fenix L1T V2.0, L2T V2.0, and probably the L1D and L2D with coupon(discontinued, replaced with LD10 and LD20).

What size?
How many modes?
How much throw?
User set-able modes?
Runtime?

:welcome:

Under $50 is kind of hard to meet for good lights unless you go for cheaper lights at DX. I don't own any, but Romisen seems to be the preferred choice that uses common batteries. If I'm in your shoes, I would start off with Fenix LD10 or Nitecore D10.

Here it's the definition of 'the perfect light' : JETBEAM III PRO IBS
- excellent, in fact the best thrower for its size
- excellent regulation for 90 min on high
- the chance of choosing 3 desired level of brightness - or strobe -

I have a couple suggestions for you to look into. I'll stick with nice AA lights. There are some very good, high quality (not cheap-o DX lights) lights available around the $50 mark.

On a budget look into an Eagletac P110A2. Uses 2 AA cells a medium and a high setting, very simple to use. Very good quality and under $40.

Another great all around light is the Photon Pro. Great user interface, small and comes in around $50. Also has a red light for preserving night vision. Not the most powerful light but it is one of the must haves for a lot of flashaholics.

Fenix P1D is another great multifunction light. Best regulation (and thus runtime for a given light output) that's out there.

Lumapower Connexion isn't a bad little light either.

Jetbeams and Liteflux 5XT and Nightcores are beyond the $50 limit. Not bad lights, each it's own beast in terms of programming the interface and available functions.

:welcome:

I think you need to specify your definition of perfect light. What you said so far was,

- general household and camping light (means you don't need very bright light, is that right?)
- common battery. (means those batteris easily found in walmart?)
- Multimode with low first (not too much lights come with low first)

Other than that, what about other requirements like size, runtime, flood or throw, how low is low, etc?

As you see, finding perfect light is not an easy thing. I would have one if I know what's perfect for me. So, please specify bit more, so that we can recommend you something close to what you need.

My suggestion would be to find one that takes a single standard AA and has at least a very good low, since you want to use it for camping where you don't want to destroy your night vision.

That said my short list would be the Jetbeam Jet I series, Liteflux LF5XT or the Nitecore D10.

All of these lights are over $50, but if you were to put up an ad stating that you were looking for a used model of any of these three lights you would eventually have one, and probably sooner than later.

All three of them will allow you to choose whether your first setting will be full blast, or lowest available, and anything in between. The Jet I Mk IBS or Jet I Pro IBS, and the Liteflux LF5XT will allow a wide range of customizable settings. That said, my Jet I Mk IBS and LF5XT, which I have no plans of selling, mostly sit on the shelf, while the D10 is always in my back pocket.

Thanks for the suggestions, narrowed the field down considerably!

So at what point does the flashaholic bug bite you? Is there a vaccine??? I'm very prone to these collecting bugs (which my wife will attest too!) and really can't afford another "disease"! :laughing:

Research ITP c series lights at Shining Beam . com, more in your price range and very good service from Bryan. Easy to use User Interface (U.I.) too.

There is not cure, the only help is to avoid this site(and all similar to it) and bury your wallet.

Gunner12 said:

There is not cure, the only help is to avoid this site(and all similar to it) and bury your wallet.

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Lol, so true.


:welcome:

and read my sig by Art.

If you're up for cheap DX lights, there's a quite nice 1xAA for $22, the Akoray K-106. It has 3 fully programmable modes, and starts in whichever you were in last (so starts in low only if you left one of the modes programmed as low, and left it in that mode before you turned it off). Runs on 14500 (AA-sized 3.7V Li-ion) batteries as well as AAs (KOH, NiMH, or whatever).

richardcpf said:

If you still can't decide.. If I were you I would get the Fenix LD20. Bright, easy to use, lightweight and durable.

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This is the one I was going to suggest. You can't go wrong with this little Fenix. You will get 13 hours at 47lm(medium/low setting). This is certainly enough light to get you around the campsite.
Max lumens is 180. Pretty amazing runtime and output for a very small AA light.

If you need brighter, you can go with the EagleTac P10 A2. It is a two mode, and high is 220 lumens. Its a bit bigger and heavier, but can run at 220 until the battery runs out. The Fenix recommends you not run on the 180 lumens Turbo mode for more than 10 minutes.

The Black Knight said:

So at what point does the flashaholic bug bite you? Is there a vaccine??? I'm very prone to these collecting bugs (which my wife will attest too!) and really can't afford another "disease"! :laughing:

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Oh, isn't that cute. He hooked and he doesn't even realized it yet. :thumbsup: