Best map reading light

help please im looking for a small map reading flashlight with good battery life that doesnt affect your night vision between uses Thanks

Howdy and welcome to CPF,
I'm surprised that no body has replied yet, so I'll give you one recommendation just to get you started.

The Fenix E01 is a smallish AAA keyring light. It's bright enough for map reading, but shouldn't interfere to much with your night vision. It's only got one level and the beam tends to be a bit violet in color, but it's pretty tough and should last for quite a while.

Here is a review:
http://light-reviews.com/fenix_e01/

And another review:
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?196078-My-Quick-Fenix-E01-Review

There are many other multi-level lights that turn on in a lower dim level, and if you were to spend some time reading here at CPF you'll begin to see all the neat lights that are available.

Here are some other flashlight review sites:
http://www.sliderule.ca/flashlight.htm
http://www.lygte-info.dk/review/Reviews UK.html

Have fun!

paulmoto said:

help please im looking for a small map reading flashlight with good battery life that doesnt affect your night vision between uses Thanks

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Hi paulmoto, there is lots of good advise to be given here, if you could give us an idea of how much you want to spend then we can assist you better.

Zebralight H31F/ H31Fw. Flood, hold it upright, beam from the side will be perfect to hold, to use, to read.

Personally, I would go for Zebralight H501.

Any light can make a good map reading light as long as it is not too bright. Contrary to some believes, I find red LED the worst as it renders everything a monotone thus making it difficult to discern colors on the map. As suggested, Fenix E01 or Zebralight headlamps make very good and dependable map reading lights.

My HDS 140 performs exceptionally well at this task at its lowest 0.07 lm setting.

Again, an idea of your budget would help us to make suitable suggestions.

The 10 Lumens of the Fenix E01 are far to bright. A Zebralight with flood lens might be nice, other lights with a low mode below 1 Lumen and a rather floody beam will be fine too.

Question - are you using the light for night hiking or for driving/navigating?

Great suggestions so far, but I thought I would suggest something a little different; one I find very useful as a map reading light.

It's the QuiqLite Pro (White-Red version). This is a great little light as it does not need to sit on your head, instead, it sits in your shirt pocket or clipped to your jacket and is out of the way. When required, you have both a red LED and a white LED, with enough light for map reading. The red LED preserves your night vision, while the white LED gives you that little extra if you need more light.

You can always carry an extra light in your pocket if much more light is needed. Maybe something with an infinite ramping ring such as the Jetbeam RRT-0 or RRT-21, SunWayman lights, Nitecore IFE series lights ....

For reading a map without affecting night vision you nee something about one lumen or less.

Zebralights, all small 4sevens lights , HDS, SF Titan...

My experience with maps, night vision have taught me that a small red filter light is what you want. The red protects your night vision, and here's the thing... most all maps printed by the .gov are designed to be red light readable. Some details on these maps will not show up under white light at night.

Harv said:

Some details on these maps will not show up under white light at night.

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? What is your source for this information? I find this quite hard to believe.

Harv said:

My experience with maps, night vision have taught me that a small red filter light is what you want. The red protects your night vision, and here's the thing... most all maps printed by the .gov are designed to be red light readable. Some details on these maps will not show up under white light at night.

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I just googled for US topographic maps. They have their contour lines printed in brown, this makes red the worst light for reading maps because You can't recognize the contour lines with red light. This will lead to fatal consequences on a hike.
Did Your maps look like this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Topographic_map_example.png

I have once used maps which were designed for the use with green light, but they were military prints and i suppose they are not available on the civil market.

My experience of reading a map with red light is that a lot of different markers are suddenly the same color or even hard to spot, therefore making it hard to to impossible interpret what you're seeing. Green and blue are worse (with regular maps), as some colors completely disappear.

It would be easier to narrow down the selection if we knew a little more about the environment in which you want to use the light. In a car you can get away with slightly brighter than in the wild (E01 would be perfect), but for hiking, a headlamp with about 1 lumen or less is definitely a much better choice. For astronomy you'll definitely want something that is VERY low and even 0.02 lumens can be a little much if you're away from light pollution, but start charts are usually red light compatible.

Red light is used to maintain you night vision, and green/yellow light is for reading maps as it gives you a better contrast. You might want to look at the Surefire A2L with secondary colored LEDs. Another choice is a flashlight with "moonlight" mode (I think some Quarks have it).

Not a criticism but this is a good example of how without details a normal question thread goes off on tangents. Veteran posters on CPF and other threads run into this almost as often as rookies so no one is immune but details are a nice thing to have so here goes...

What kind of driving are you going to be doing (even including the type of vehicle) and what type of maps or route instructions will you be using? The reason I ask is that I have a few decades experience in road rallies, working performance rallies, and backwoods navigating. I've noticed that AAA maps, DeLorme Atlases, USGS maps, and maps from other publishers can all use slightly different color schemes for important details. Also, lights that work perfectly well in a nice sedan cruising on a freshly paved interstate don't make it at all when you use them in a car with a stiff suspension traveling down a rough forrest road at 50+ mph. oo:

The wrong combination quickly gets you lost and/or looking for a barf bag. :sick2:

I don't feel any of our suggestions are worth much until the OP gives us some idea of what he intends to spend. We could recommend anything from a $4 maglite soliate to a $300 Surefire A2L, but without knowing the OP's budget it's hard to recommend a light. I wish when new members start a thread asking for a light suggestion, they would please include what their budget is, therfore we can all make proper suggestions. Suggesting a zebralight or HDS or Surefire isn't worth much if the OP only wants to spend $20, same as suggesting a $30 Fenix when the OP wants to spend $300.

I like the Zebralight H501w (neutral tint,) but any of the zebralights would work fine or any of the quarks would as well. All of these lights have a sub 1 lumen setting which is perfect for night adjusted eyes. The H501 has a perfect floody beam, and there is a reason it's on the "Flashaholic's Must Have top 10 list - Click Here

There is a new edition coming out in the 4th quarter this year called the H502. It's expected to be a nice upgrade from the older version, and will be sporting a XM-L LED with the same perfect all-flood beam. Here's zebralight's data sheet with upcoming lights - Click Here

I am using a warm white (more like neutral white, actually...) zebralight all-flod (H50b) which hangs around my neck (not on my forhead). It can also be clipped to the chest strap of my backpack. 3 lumens, all flood, colors show up better than with cool white, IMO. Runtime is so good I just leave it on and flip the map in and out of the light cone as needed.

This gives me good map reading light exactly where I need it, and also some ligth to see where I put my feet. Not much, but enough to avoid tripping in a ditch. This setup allows me to use whatever's left of my night vision to see the terrain around me. I have a decent handheld thrower (spotlight) as well, but use it only when I have to.

Forget about some mythical lights that can preserve your night vision. There is no way around it - if you use light to see then your nigth vision will suffer. Obviously, a dim light is more gentle to your nigth vision than a strong light. It is all down to finding the right compromise.