Blinking, strobe, and SOS modes, have they ever been useful to anyone?

I'm not a fan of all these strobe and SOS settings and so forth. I think they just get in the way and don't have any usefulness. So here's my question, has anyone out there ever, legitimately, had a situation where the strobe or SOS setting of a light was in anyway useful? I'm having a hard time thinking of any situation where they could be useful, so I'm anxious to hear from you guys.

No. But I hope to go camping one day, and there it may though I hope it never comes to that.

By and large I've never had much use. If I ever run in to an unruly bum out somewhere I don't know if the strobe mode is going to do much to deter them.

I have used slower blinky modes at times. I was in a big dark abandoned space once and strapped a Petzl Zipka in blink mode to my tripod when I wasn't using it so I could find it easily again later.

Nope, never had any practical use for those modes, although I don't mind them as part of the UI, as long as they are hidden. To me, it falls into the "I'd rather have it and not need it, than need it and not have it". Not sure when I'd ever really need any of them though

As usual, YMMV.

Of all the lights that I have purchased, not one of them has had a blinking mode and so far I haven't regreted taking this path. If ever I need to annoy anyone I just press the button repeatedly :naughty:

I use 'em on Halloween and the 4th of July, but that's it.

Alternating through the colored strobes on the Quark RGB this past 4th was pretty amusing.

Cyclists sometimes like blinking (preferably a slow one). Particularly for the rear tail light which would usually be red although some people do uses torches. But some people use it with a handlebar light too (and quite a few do use ordinary white torches for that).

Ironically while DX have a red dropin with modes, the only two cheap red led torches I'm aware of are a DX red Luxeon K2 and a KD red Cree, neither of which have modes...

Strobe - yes, getting peoples attention in a crowd or across a crowded area.
SOS - no

Most useful modes at our checkpoints are : High, Medium, and Strobe.

Cub Scouts use them in tents set up in bedrooms.

The strobe may be effective in self defense, but only if you are highly trained and instinctively employ it.

I like the idea of a slow beacon mode for locating an important landmark (tent, car, etc) when night hiking.

Otherwise, I think they should be a hidden mode for the VAST majority of lights, and left off completely on many.

In summary, NO, I have never used disco modes, though I do see the use of a beacon/SOS on a camping/survival/marine light and strobe on a dedicated tactical light in the hands of a trained individual.

No, but for some reason they impress non-flashaholics far more than the ability to select outputs.
:shrug:

I have seen posts on:

A number of people use strobe to alert oncoming cars when crossing streets/street corners without lights.

There was a CPF member at an accident scene on a highway off ramp waving a torch to slow oncoming drivers. He got bumped by one of the cars. The driver had slowed enough not to injure him. But if he had strobe that driver probably would have reacted that split second faster and not bumped him.

A gentleman in Australia walked out to a sandbank at dusk. The tide came in and he was stranded. Nobody on the beach to see his SOS. There was a webcam covering the beach. A lady 40 km away happened to check the webcam saw the SOS and phoned police. The 'remote rescue' was oddball enough to make the news and it was posted on CPF.

I can see the use of a locator beacon mode that flashes every few seconds. SOS? Give me a light with a UI that features momentary on and I can do SOS myself, not to mention other morse (Ok, well, I could if I knew more than a few letters...). Strobe? Again, I can see the use of a slowish strobe for bicycles and the like, even if it's something I'll never use. Faster strobes? Fun at parties, I suppose... but not something I want in a light.

I think that strobe has it's valid points (getting attention etc.) but I don't like any of the other blinking modes.

Never had an actual need for one of these modes. Don't mind having them since they seldom get in the way these days.

Geoff

carrot said:

No, but for some reason they impress non-flashaholics far more than the ability to select outputs.
:shrug:

Click to expand...

LOL! It's sad but true!

I have only seriously used strobe once when I was crossing a very crowded walkway. I needed to clear a path to walk through so I kicked on strobe mode for a few seconds. It worked pretty well.

In general though I don't mind having the flash modes, I haven't really found a regular use for them. They're nice to have but not critical for me liking a light or not.

I'm on the bike patrol for my work so I ride a bike every day and the strobe comes in handy for me when I'm riding through a parking garage. I have an MTE SSC P7 mounted on my bike and believe me, every motorist sees me.

Strobe is important in emergency situation when it is crucial to get the attention of people as fast as possible.

A car accident or an engine fault on highway or countryside, are both situations in which a strobo features can make the difference.

It can help also in being recognized by far distance when a simple flashlight could be confused with other light sources (never tried to watch down from an helicopter or a small plane at night, flying at more than 2000 ft AGL?).