No brainers for flashlight mfg's...

First and foremost, these are not my ideas. I credit CPF's members. If anyone can give proper credit please do so.

1) Anti roll without clip.
2) Either candlestand or not the blessed thing. PLEASE do not combine the two. Edit: Got this from AardvarkSagus' "Layman's Perspective" reviews. Full protruding tailcap switch or full tailstanding capability. Scalloped tailcaps try to combine the two.

3) Every holster must have the seam at the lip bent over and sewed to the OUTSIDE of the body of the blessed thing! Not bent over and sewed to the INSIDE! Tired of flashlight's edges catching at the inside lip of holster when trying to draw!

Any others?

Lord Bear said:

First and foremost, these are not my ideas. I credit CPF's members. If anyone can give proper credit please do so.

1) Anti roll without clip.
2) Either candlestand or not the blessed thing. PLEASE do not combine the two.
3) Every holster must have the seam at the lip bent over and sewed to the OUTSIDE of the body of the blessed thing! Not bent over and sewed to the INSIDE! Tired of flashlight's edges catching at the inside lip of holster when trying to draw!

Any others?

Click to expand...

I don't understand your point in 2). "Either candlestand or not...please do not combine the two"...what are the two?

gcbryan said:

I don't understand your point in 2). "Either candlestand or not...please do not combine the two"...what are the two?

Click to expand...

I must say I don't get that one either.
No. one never bothered me. I only have a few lights that have clips and none that have an anti-roll feature besides the clip. Well, I shouldn't say none as I do have a few that are not the typical cylindrical shape like Data's Spy007 and Sabrewolfes Mini Chimera.

None of them bother me (well, I don't actually know if 2. bothers me since I don't understand 2.).

I don't use clips and take them off and I have lights that are cylindrical and ones that have some flat edges to prevent rolling. It's not a problem either way.

Nor do I use holsters so that's not an issue.

There probably aren't any "no brainers" from manufacturers since none of us agree on anything

I think what he means on No. 2 is that he dislikes lights that have protruding bits on the tailcap that do not provide any function (ie. no tail standing function). I personally think that the function of these is to protect the forward click switch in case it falls straight on it, which is a good idea on "tactical" lights. The raised portions would also help with inadvertent activation in holsters when jamming them bezel up. I do agree though, if a manufacturer goes as far as to put a raised portion that would irritate your thumb, why not just make it able to tailstand too?

there are sooooo many offers, so why not just purchase the ones featuring what You like,
and leave the rest differently for other ppl who have other opinions
:thinking:

OP editted. Hopefully point no.2 is clearer.
The point became clear for me when I compared the Jetbeam lllM to the Eagletac T20C2. The Eagletac has full protruding tailcap switch. It was much easier to switch on compared to working around the scallops on the Jetbeam to get to the switch. The Eagletac comes with an ingenious tailstanding rubber piece. Gives solid tailstanding capability. The Jetbeam will stand, but it will fall over more easily. Way more easily.
For me scallops did compromise both fast switching and tailstanding because the Jetbeam tried to do both. Now don't get me wrong. There is a whole plethora of other things the Jetbeam got right to make me right proud to make this a keeper. But on the point of scalloped tailcaps, Eagletac got it right.
By the way, the Eagletac's a keeper too.

On point no. 1, I got that from lucid with his thread on "Fundamental Design Flaw". I agree with him. When I compared two Jetbeams, both aesthetically pleasing, the one with the anti-roll design made "putting the light down" on a table an easy proposition.
The Jetbeam RRT-0 vs. the Jet-lll PRO ST BVC. They are both cylindrical designs. I prefer the RRT-0 clipless. The Jet-lll doesn't even HAVE any way to clip it. Without the clip, the RRT-0 rolled away from me the first few times. The Jet-lll never rolled away from me from the FIRST time I laid it down on a table.
Now of COURSE I learned not to put the RRT-0 down on it's side. I now always put it bezeldown or bezelup. (By the way this is a dedicated tailstand design.)
BUT!...it sure would be nice to be able to put ALL my flashlights down on their sides and not have to be consciously thinking about which of them will be rolling away from me.

Point no.3...
Fenix PD20. The old one with the anti-roll design and NO pocketclip. Came with a sheath. The cover folds down and is held down with velcro. Good sheath. I keep my SF T1A Titan in it now. The anti-roll lug on the PD20 always "catches" on the inside seam of the upper lip of the sheath whenever I tried the draw the light from it. The SF Titan slides out very smoothly.
I believe that if the foldover of the material at the upper lip of the sheath came up from the inside and folded over to the outside of the lip, ALL flashlights, whether they had edges that could catch or they did not, would slide out of the holster easily.

I believe these are "design tweaks" that if implemented, flashlights across the board, could benefit by their implementation.

I really don't think there are any no brainers for flashlight manufacturers. There really is a lot of variety in what we want in a flashlight.

Personally, I don't tend to want any anti-roll without a clip features. I prefer a good clip for pocket carry on my decently sized lights (AA, AAx2, 123). I want all my pocket-able lights to be as smooth & small as possible for unobtrusive carry.

I tend to like a light that can tail-stand but I don't mind if it accomplishes this through a scalloped tail-cap as long as it doesn't affect usability.

Your third point seems more universal perhaps but I don't tend to use holsters so what would I know?

.
... oh world of conformity, where are thou?

None of these items (1,2,3) are no-brainers IMHO.
The all have distinct pros and cons depending on the intended deployment of the product.

1) In an EDC or purely hand held application protruding features (large enough to prevent roll-aways) can hinder the design or at a minimum serve no purpose. Many pocket-carry EDC users prefer a smooth round cylinder... its deal-breaker for many who carry this way.

2) A scalloped (partially exposed) tailcap still allows some ease of operation while protecting the fragile tail-switch mechanics from accidental drop impact and accidental turn-ons when pack carried. As a hand held defensive weapon it allows a trained user to apply force pressure to weak points on the body and neutralize an attacker. Many agencies across the country have banned D maglites, as they cause too much blunt force trauma to the body when used tactically (I hate using that word, but its applicable here)... enter the SF-E2D series lights, with scalloped tailcaps.

3) Not everybody likes/needs/prefers a quick draw holster. To many EDC users a tight fitting holster that prevents accidental draw is preferred. I talked to one CPFer once who had a 2C mag in a nite-ize LHS-03 belt holster, he took a tumble down a steep inclined trail and was glad his light did not get lost on the fall.

Lord Bear said:

3) Every holster must have the seam at the lip bent over and sewed to the OUTSIDE of the body of the blessed thing! Not bent over and sewed to the INSIDE! Tired of flashlight's edges catching at the inside lip of holster when trying to draw!

Any others?

Click to expand...

+1

Lord Bear said:

First and foremost, these are not my ideas. I credit CPF's members. If anyone can give proper credit please do so.

1) Anti roll without clip.
2) Either candlestand or not the blessed thing. PLEASE do not combine the two. Edit: Got this from AardvarkSagus' "Layman's Perspective" reviews. Full protruding tailcap switch or full tailstanding capability. Scalloped tailcaps try to combine the two.

3) Every holster must have the seam at the lip bent over and sewed to the OUTSIDE of the body of the blessed thing! Not bent over and sewed to the INSIDE! Tired of flashlight's edges catching at the inside lip of holster when trying to draw!

Any others?

Click to expand...

i.e. fake tailstanders. Yeah, that's my number one. Or when they ruin an otherwise standable tailcap with a protruding lanyard or keyring attachment- those can & have been implemented in a number of ways not to interfere (DO IT)!



I'll add:

4. "no brainer" to take advantage of the smaller aa's diameter when making both cr123a & aa versions of the same pocket edc. Not same size cr123a & aa's.

5. make clips removable, not permanent. NOr of the type that when you remove them they leave a set of protrusions on the body, or worse compromise their water resistance.

6. Keep little pocket/keychain lights floody instead of super focused "spot" light beams in single cells with tiny diameters that are not suited for such purposes anyway. Save the concentrated spots of light for higher powered lights.

7. similar to op's no.2, if a particular model's u.i. requires that it start always on one level, then choose either lo-first or hi-first. Med first is a compromise that seems to satisfy neither the hi-first nor lo-first camps!

8. strobe vs. anti-strobers, it would be great if manufacturers would offer strobeless versions, like they offer different versions of beam tints. Hopefully s.f.'s M3LT & M3LT-S (strobe) will inspire!

yellow said:

there are sooooo many offers, so why not just purchase the ones featuring what You like,
and leave the rest differently for other ppl who have other opinions

Click to expand...

Because for some of us, that doesn't exist yet!


...unless you can point me to a simple tailstanding strobeless 1xAA head twist-for-off ~3.5 x <1" LED I've missed from one manufacturer?
:naughty:

I must agree with all who think the pocketclip is a GREAT way to prevent the light rolling away from oneself. :thumbsup: But. The Jet lll ST.
I mean full switch shroud at the tailcap. Yup. Solid tailstand. Smooth and streamlined along it's length. Yes it IS round along it's length. There is NO provision for pocketclip at ALL. And this one won't roll away from you nor have any edges that will catch on "seams" when you draw from a holster even if the edgeflaps are folded over into the interior.

None of these are deal breakers for me. Even all three together aren't deal breakers.

The only real deal breaker I can think of that would probably unit all CPFers (apologies for speaking for anyone out of turn ) would be to have disco modes hidden, e.g. not available to be accidentally activated during the course of switching between light levels.