A light for the wife

I'm rather disappointed in my Olight. It has, however, shown me what the wife would find easier to use and, I suppose, this goes for me too.

We both find the twisty head very indeterminate in action. I was naive enough to believe before I sent off for the light that a twist action would have a proper detent positioning to save trying to judge the different beams. She finds the end button difficult to push and has to use two hands. I can switch it okay but find it awkward to carry the light along in my hand, ready to turn on. I only have to inadvertently lightly touch the button to put it into strobe mode, which is a real pain.

So, I think I'd better get my wife a small light that is very easy to use. On the whole a button on/off would be better for her, (and perhaps me) without a twisty. But a complicated sequence of presses is definitely out. A single AA or single 123 model should fit nicely in her handbag.

Some advice here would be appreciated.

For a really dead simple light that costs a little but works a dream is my little simple Fenix EO1, one twist with one hand gives you enough light for most simple jobs,runs for hours and hours on a AAA cell.

Something better and just as easy to use is the ITP A3 EOS 3 mode version,has a really good high and runs off 1 AAA cell.(twisty but easy twist)

My daily edc light is my trusted Microstream with clicky switch.Pop a Lithium battery in it and transforms itself and makes a real difference.

Now the experts will blow you away with choice.

The fenix e20 could be a good choise. Only 1 mode, as simple as it can possibly get, and a click switch.

Not sure how much you want to spend, but for a 1 mode, the romisen rc-g2 from shiningbeam might be a good choice. For a two mode, the quark tactical or fenix L1T might be good choices.

Maybe also an inova x1

Thanks for your replies, guys. Glad the Fenix's have been mentioned because I can buy them here in the UK. I shipped in the Olight from the USA and this didn't work out too well and was a bit of a nuisance.

Have a good Christmas and a stonking New Year.

My wife is not into the the mode changing either so whatever come on first that is what she keeps it on so I gave her a Fenix P2D with reverse clicky and just tightened it to max and told her if she ever did need less light to loosen the head but I don't think she ever has.

I think I will give her a Surefire E1B for Christmas since it comes on max first and the switch is rather easy to press.

LedLenser P5 maybe? Only one brightness setting and a very easy to press button at the end (although left in a handbag it might be too easy to press accidently on).

modded minimag in whatever design/color she wants

A Proton Pro. Takes any AA, Click the button once and the light comes on in high. IF you want less light it's available.

Bill

I bought my girlfriend a fenix e01 awhile back.
Nice and small to go onto the keychain, since i dont think she would like to put another piece of *junk* into her bag.She also changes bags often,so having a keychain light means its always there for her.
Chose the fenix e01 because of the good runtime-less need to worry about battery changes and the simple UI.
But the Preon just came out and it looks pretty good.
Oh and i forgot to add.It comes in a few colours too!

My wife has the following:
- Fenix LD01 - tiny backup stays in her handbag somewhere, twisty. Good runtime.
- Surefire E1L with a KX1 2-mode LED head - her main/fav one with 2 modes + easy clicky switch, and reasonable runtimes. I top up her 3V LiFePo4 123 battery every so often...
- Surefire E1E with a LumensFactory replacement bulb, with a 3.7V RCR123, twisty + momentary. Bedside table. Max 30 mins runtime.

She likes the miniature ruggedness of the SF's weirdly enough.

I would also suggest a 4Sevens Preon 1 (AAA) with the optional clickie tailcap, or a Quark 123 regular. Both easy to use and even the Q123 is pretty small. Both of these are relatively inexpensive, but high quality design and manuf. Check out the 4Sevens forum on Marketplace. So far I've always ordered 4Sevens lights directly from the States with the free shipping and have only been stung once by UK customs for a slightly larger order. Might also be best to have it sent to your home address rather than a work address with a company name.

If she likes something more designery / objecty / custom made - you could get a Lummi Wee NS from Rob here in the UK. Twisty, 1 mode, tiny, beautiful. £35. Nano charger extra unless you have something already. I have the slightly larger but still very small RAW AL which is clipped to my belt loop every day.

Good luck with it all. Cheers,

Chris

I'm evaluating your suggestions and very helpful they are. I find I can get most of them in the UK, probably because I now know what to Google.

This is a great forum: there's a huge willingness to help which is refreshing.

Best, Slapper

The gf is carrying my E2DL.
And I have the E1B.

I don't want to carry a light that might fail when you I it the most.

This whole subject gets interesting, doesn't it? I've just read a thread with indoor wall beamshots (quark 123 & jetbeam, etc, dated 07 06 2009) and on the wall is a light switch. Now one of the flashlights has a centre hotspot so dense (?) that it obliterates the switch altogether.

That torch wouldn't be the greatest in a house when the elec is off, would it?

I guess it's all relative - beamshots will not necessarily give you a good idea of the real experience of brightness - it's also alot to do with the photography/exposure. However, beamshots are pretty useful as a rough comparison between lights, and of the beam quality (to judge the prevalence of artifacts, rings, dark spots in the middle, unevenness, sharp or smooth graduations from hotspot to spill, relative size of hotspot - therefore throw / flood characteristics).

Unless you've got a really high output light, or you're worried about losing your night-vision temporarily, most small single-level lights won't be problematic - even the more powerful ones.

The Quark 123 with the regular (reverse clickie) tailcap is pretty easy to use and comes on in a moonlight mode which is good for not causing you to lose your night-vision at night / reading in bed next to your GF/wife.

A simple gentle half-press of the rubber clickie then switches modes to the next level. There are a number of brightness modes plus some additional modes, but essentially a few light half-clicks rotates you through the lot. You can also tighten the head for the turbo/max mode. If for some reason the standard rubber boot is too firm for your wife, there's a cheap boot kit which you can order with a softer compound, but my wife has tiny delicate hands and has no problem at all using my Q123 with the one it came with...

Jetbeams I have no experience of but have heard v good things. AFAIK most models also come with a few levels of brightness plus some additional modes. From what I've read their clickies are also very usable. The RRT-0 looks like a nice piece of kit...

Cheers,

Chris

Hitthespot said:

A Proton Pro. Takes any AA, Click the button once and the light comes on in high. IF you want less light it's available.

Bill

Click to expand...

Just what I was thinking. And it has a easy to use side clickie.

Geoff

She likes her L1T v2.0.

slapper said:

Thanks for your replies, guys. Glad the Fenix's have been mentioned because I can buy them here in the UK. I shipped in the Olight from the USA and this didn't work out too well and was a bit of a nuisance.

Have a good Christmas and a stonking New Year.

Click to expand...

May I ask where in the UK

I bought my wife a iTP A3 EOS, yeah it's a twisty and 1xAAA but the med-lo-hi sequence is perfect for normal use.
And it's red.

slapper said:

This whole subject gets interesting, doesn't it? I've just read a thread with indoor wall beamshots (quark 123 & jetbeam, etc, dated 07 06 2009) and on the wall is a light switch. Now one of the flashlights has a centre hotspot so dense (?) that it obliterates the switch altogether.

That torch wouldn't be the greatest in a house when the elec is off, would it?

Click to expand...

The human eye has much better performance than a digital camera sensor so photos can be very misleading.

That said, 20-30 lumens is generally plenty for most indoor uses while more is often better outdoors, hence the utility of multilevel lights.