Car camping and general use light

Hi guys-

I've been searching the forum for the past couple of days, and there is tons of useful information out there.

Can't quite seem to find what I'm looking for though...

In short, I would like a small light that I could use for camping, in addition to the handful of lights I already bring. (Headlamps, lanterns)

This light should have some throw, for those things that go bump in the night. Plan would be to leave it in the glovebox of our truck when not in use as a general use light.

I like the idea of the LED Lenser T7 a lot, as I could see having both flood and beam be very useful. But I rarely see it mentioned in the camping threads at all?

I also like the SureFire lights, although I've never actually used one. Can't seem to find an adjustable Surefire either thouh.

Budget is ~100, and I'd like to power it with readily available cells.

Enlighten me.

It's just a matter of digging around
use the search at the top for things like
aa flashlights

nitecore D10 would be a good all rounder for you

jpl said:

In short, I would like a small light that I could use for camping, in addition to the handful of lights I already bring. (Headlamps, lanterns)

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It would be helpful if you could describe what you have and in what area they fall short. Just "I would like" is a bit vague, if you know what I mean...


My own personal opinion is that any reasonable modern 2*AA light is plenty bright enough for general "bump in the night" use, camping or otherwise. Examples are fenix, quark, nitecore or the budget lights from shiningbeam.com.


That being said, I can understand the craving for a multi-die light (P7, MC-E), which certainly will be brighter. You don't need it, but it's FUN. But then you either sacrifice size or use more sophisticated batteries (li-ion 18650), or both.

Oh, and Led Lenser is sort of ignored here. I'm not exactly sure why, but I can think of 4 reasons
- Led Lenser simply has no appeal to the enthusiast - there are more fun lights to be found for less money elsewhere.
- The light appears to be overpriced for what it does and what it is
- Manufacturers specifications are misleading.
- Most or all of Led Lensers appear to be direct drive (not regulated), which is not popular with the CPF crowd. .
Regulated means that the light will maintain approximately the same output while the battery drains. Unregulated means the light start out bright but goes dimmer and dimmer. As unregulated lights can be made very cheap they are associated with really crappy cheap low quality lights, which is unfair. Both regulated and unregulated lights have their places and uses.

I would suggest anything that runs on 2 AA cells, Quark comes to mind, which can be bought online at 4sevens.com

WRT batteries, how important is the readily available part? For something that you're going to leave in the glove box of your car, you might be better off with a 2x123 light like a Quark 123^2 than a 2xAA light.

I currently bring 2 Black Diamond 'Moonlights', which work great for around the campsite, setting up, cooking...

I use a ARB 4x4 Adventure light (LED) to light up the table, cooking area. Also some Coleman battery powered lanterns.

So I dont have anything that really acts as a spot light, or has any decent throw at all.

And part of this is definitely the 'fun' aspect as well.

Thanks for the comments on the Lenser lights too.

I guess one of my concerns is getting a light that is to 'fun/bright', and end up with so much reflection that it is essentially unusable.

Do all of the Surefire lights need lithium batteries? Everyone I clicked on seemed to.

AFAIK, all Surefires are designed to run on 1 or more primary CR123A batteries.

jpl said:

...

Do all of the Surefire lights need lithium batteries? Everyone I clicked on seemed to.

Click to expand...

Yes.

The Quark series of lights are my current recommendation although Fenix, Nitecore and Jetbeam all make lights that you would be happy with. A Quark 1 or 2 AA with some lithium batteries in it would work for you. The Lithium cells are recommended for leaving in the car since they should not leak like alkalines, have low self discharge and are more tolerant of temperature changes. If you are going to use the light more often then maybe get some low self discharge rechargebale NiMH batteries. I like the Quark tacticals because of the forward clickie switch and lack of SOS and strobe.

Thanks for all of the scoop!

The Quark AA2 looks like it's just what I need.

At first I was going to go with a Surefire G2, as it seems like a great all around light.

But now that I'm looking at the Quarks, I like the AA2 as well.

I can see how people end up with a collection! I want them both now!

Take a look at the G2LED.

For many used I prefer incandescent lights, but for a glove box light something with 123 Lithiums is a good idea.

I would keep a few extra batteries with it in the Glove box.

+1 on 2xAA.

It's very possible that you and your car will be elsewhere (& not at home where your extra cells often are) when you find that you need replacement cells for your car light, and AA alkalines will be easy to find. I love SureFires enough to keep a SF G3 in my car, but it will soon be configured to run on 2xAA (lithium) with a low-voltage LED drop-in, as I want greater fuel-flexibility for at least one of my lights while traveling.

My favorite car camping light, hands down:

SureFire Z44-HA bezel + Leef Body-Ha natural 2x18500 + SF Z48 tailcap + Malkoff M60W MC-E + 2x AW 18500 Li-Ion = King of the Camping Site!

Outdoors Fanatic said:

My favorite car camping light, hands down:

SureFire Z44-HA bezel + Leef Body-Ha natural 2x18500 + SF Z48 tailcap + Malkoff M60W MC-E + 2x AW 18500 Li-Ion = King of the Camping Site!

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I dont even know what that means!

Outdoors Fanatic said:

SureFire Z44-HA bezel + Leef Body-Ha natural 2x18500 + SF Z48 tailcap + Malkoff M60W MC-E + 2x AW 18500 Li-Ion = King of the Camping Site!

Click to expand...

jpl said:

I dont even know what that means!

Click to expand...

Something like this:


:huh:

I normally use a Fenix L2D or quark AA or AA2 neutral (mainly, since I do carry bigger ones) for car camping. Does the job perfectly, multiple settings and every small villages all have AA bateries.

Kestrel said:

Something like this:

:huh:

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The atomic canon, nice!!!

Welcome to CPF jpl.

The SF L2 is a great camping and general use light. If you are into incans a E2e w/both MN02 and MN03 lamps is good. If you don't mind doing some work, the KL3 w/beam diffuser on a 9P tube gives both soft flood and decent close to medium range throw.

jpl said:

Hi guys-

I've been searching the forum for the past couple of days, and there is tons of useful information out there.

Can't quite seem to find what I'm looking for though...

In short, I would like a small light that I could use for camping, in addition to the handful of lights I already bring. (Headlamps, lanterns)

This light should have some throw, for those things that go bump in the night. Plan would be to leave it in the glovebox of our truck when not in use as a general use light.

I like the idea of the LED Lenser T7 a lot, as I could see having both flood and beam be very useful. But I rarely see it mentioned in the camping threads at all?

I also like the SureFire lights, although I've never actually used one. Can't seem to find an adjustable Surefire either thouh.

Budget is ~100, and I'd like to power it with readily available cells.

Enlighten me.

Click to expand...

$99 will get you an LED Lenser P14, it runs off 4xAA cells, can focus from flood to spot, has 3 modes, press in the tailcap switch half way to get max, click in fully to go to high, click again to get low, click to get off.

One thing (very minor) is that when clicking to get from high to low a,d from low to off, it will go momentarily into max but that's just a small thing IMHO.

you can get it here though i dont know how much shipping is.

specs are available here

size wise, its smaller than a 2D maglite if that is a consideration, i also own the P5 which runs off 1xAA and its surprisingly bright, its only 1 output level though.

jpl said:

Hi guys-

I've been searching the forum for the past couple of days, and there is tons of useful information out there.

Can't quite seem to find what I'm looking for though...

In short, I would like a small light that I could use for camping, in addition to the handful of lights I already bring. (Headlamps, lanterns)

This light should have some throw, for those things that go bump in the night. Plan would be to leave it in the glovebox of our truck when not in use as a general use light.

I like the idea of the LED Lenser T7 a lot, as I could see having both flood and beam be very useful. But I rarely see it mentioned in the camping threads at all?

I also like the SureFire lights, although I've never actually used one. Can't seem to find an adjustable Surefire either thouh.

Budget is ~100, and I'd like to power it with readily available cells.

Enlighten me.

Click to expand...

To me Led Lensers are not an option to camping because they are not waterproof.
If you change the beam shape it sucks air(and water) from the holes near the lens.
Also if you want low output, first you are blinded by the 130% output..., it cycles like 130%-100%-15%.

Try Fenix TK20 or 4Sevens Quark.

Enjoy the Quark 2XAA but you should also pick up a few of these:
http://www.batterystation.com/streamlight_polytacled.htm

1 for each car and a spare for the house. Great beater lights that will still function in 10 years if you leave them with cells in them and forget about them.
Almost anything AA powered will of leaked and ruined the flashlight by then, ESPECIALLY if you are leaving it in the car when unused.

I am camping tomorrow night and the toughest part of packing is figuring out which light to bring. I want to take them all!