Your First EDC Light

what was the first flashlight you EDCed (every day carried). Did you start EDCing crappy lights then buy better ones to replace them or did you already have good lights then start carrying them?

My first EDC light was one of those cheap 9 5mm LED lights. after breaking two or three of them I decided to upgrade and bought a Streamlight polytac. from there I bought a LD20 and after that is history.

yeah, I've always pretty much been "every day knowing right where a flashlight is".
That meant a a 3D maglight in the car, or a succession of early led hand lights and led headlamps.
The photon was the first real, practical edc light for me, I've had a red CMG Infinity for 10 years + and it's excellent for the amazing things that it does but it's no regular utility light.
Photon and CMG aside, the mini maglight was the first "good" small light for me, but I'd carry one at work or in my tool bag.
Got a SF E2E and carried that for a couple years but I didn't like feeding it batteries at all, never got smart and got ahead of the game with ordering them or rechargeables.

So I'm stoked to jump back into this with the great reviews and information I've gleaned from you guys.
Ordered an HDS Rotary the beginning of November with rechargeables and a 12 pack of primaries, and have consoled myself in the mean time with EDC carrying a ZL H51Fc for the last month with some eneloops -love that light.

Overall, it looks like it's gotten exponentially easier to edc a Good light in the last 8 years. and I can see that I was missing out for the last few, but this has proved to be an excellent time to get back into it.

In 2001, my wife bought me a purple 2AA minimag that I carried on my belt daily until I bought one of the first run Neutral Quark AAs. I carried the Quark for a while before switching to an L-mini II (also neutral) and then settled on the high CRI HDS Executive Clicky which I've carried almost exclusively since I bought it mid-2010 or so.

I hope to get as much use out of the HDS as I did that purple minimag.

--flatline

I used to think mini-mags were the end all/be all, and never went camping or fishing without one. Then I found CPF in late '09, purchased a Quark 123-2T (first-run neutral, and so glad I did) in January '10 and have since had at LEAST two lights on me at all times, with backup batteries of course. And I don't miss the mini-mags at all

I've been an EDC sort of person since about 5 years of age (influenced by things like Batman's utility belt ), and have carried a flashlight around almost from the beginning. For a while I didn't have a flashlight that was suitable for EDC, though. My family had a couple of those good old 6V lanterns and some very cheap 2D flashlights (leaking batteries kept ruining them, hence the focus on cheapness :shakehead). I thought about EDCing a disposable flashlight that I found around the house (probably a Life Lite ), but it was still too bulky and the batteries were weak. Then one day I read a story about a boy who used a penlight to read at night and do some urban exploring, and I figured that was exactly what I needed! Not long afterward I finally, unexpectedly, found my first EDC flashlight when I was at Disneyland :twothumbs:



My mom bought it for me. It's mostly plastic (polystyrene) and measures 4.9" x 0.56"--about the size of a Preon 2. Although it's crappy by the general standards of this forum, it held up rather well over years of being EDCed by a child. I took good care of it, though, never using its flimsy clip as a clip--because it was also the switch--and always making sure that I didn't leave the same batteries (2xAAA) in it for too long. Except for some minor scuffing and oxidation, I think it looks pretty good for a well-used 30-year-old penlight (the photo above was taken recently--that's my actual childhood EDC flashlight, not a stock photo), and it still works fine. I don't use it much these days because it has sentimental value, and I have plenty of other more rugged and capable flashlights, of course. I do, however, drop in a couple of AAAs now and then to fire it up, the last such instance having been this September 8, when the big San Diego blackout occurred. :laughing:

That's not so weird for me, by the way. I still use a couple of fountain pens--one over 40 and the other over 50 years old--every day (I don't carry them, though) because they write better than modern pens and they're so durable (clearly). I just wrote a check with one this morning, in fact, using a special anti-fraud ink (modern). It'll be interesting to see whether my Sheaffer Snorkel and Parker "51" will continue to be used after I'm gone...assuming that people will still use pens or even know how to write by then, that is.... :shrug:

While I've always collected lights the first I really EDC'd was an Arc AAA, purchased shortly after finding CPF a long time ago. It's still with me on the keychain.

Geoff

Started to EDC flashlights in November 2010. Started with the single AA Energizer Ultimate Lithium one. I got it on clearance at Target for some $27.xx

Always wanted a small EDC flashlight, then got one Tank007 TK568 since May last year, replaced by Sunwayman V10A XM-L (prefer a spill rather than long throw on TK568), add in a backup JetBeam PC20 & another Olight i1 EOS on my keyring as well

I carry a Nitecore D10 SP W during the day and a Nitecore Defender Infinity at night.

I first started EDCing a light back in 1997 when I started working in a manufacturing line. I was responsible for sometimes setting up the CNC tools for the machine operators, so I needed some light in order to position the cutting blades correctly close to the parts being worked on. The lights inside the CNC tools were terrible. I carried my 2 AA Mini-Maglite in a belt holster back then. I had the light since the late 1980s, though I don't remember the exact year that I bought it. I bought it at a flea market brand new and still in the packaging.

I EDCed that same Mini-Mag for about six years until the bulbs burned out. I shelved the light because I was too lazy to buy another bulb.

I still EDC that very same black Mini-Mag in a belt holster, but it has been upgraded and modified. It now is my backup light to my main EDC light, a Fenix LD20.

I always had some sort of small coin-cell keychain flashlight. However, once I heard about the Fenix LD01 I started carrying that in my Leatherman case on my belt, and my EDC flashlight has become immensely more useful.

Coast TAC Torch V2 (the predecessor to the PX25) 8 years ago (maybe) it advertised something like 160 lumens. I never could get it fail and finally gifted it away to a co-worker.[h=1][/h]

A double AA Pelican Mitylite Xenon. Bright, focused and good contrast in the woods. Was always in my briefcase, car, or on my person.

I started collecting and EDCing as a child waaaaay back in the early 70's thanks to the monthly give aways for the free Tandy newsletter. (Tandy was the British arm of RadioShack.) Anyone here of a certain age would remember (both UK and US) that they would print a coupon every month for a cheap, and I really do mean cheap, AA torch. As I lived 2 mins walk from my nearest store, I go and pick up my freebie every month. I think they sales people must have taken pity on this light obsessed kid and didn't complain about me taking so many lights. I also had a Battery Club card which entitled you to free batteries at certain times, so I was able to feed my lights. I always had a light in my school bag, one in every room in the house, and a pile under my bed. Although I had lots of lights, they would fall apart pretty quickly so the numbers never added up to ridiculous proportions. I once got a free 4D light via a Tandy coupon, which was the best thing ever, as far as a kid was concerned. Unlike the AAs, this 4D was only made out of the second most crappy quality plastic known to man.

First flashlight I ever EDCd was a TK10. I always had a maglite around or sometimes a dorcy. TK10 was the first meaningful light I bought back in 2007-08 when I joined. From there it was all over....


Alex

A SureFire L1. Owning a good-quality light that I could count on justified flashlight EDC for me.

Flying Turtle said:

While I've always collected lights the first I really EDC'd was an Arc AAA, purchased shortly after finding CPF a long time ago. It's still with me on the keychain.

Click to expand...

:thumbsup:

GaAslamp said:

[...] I still use a couple of fountain pens--one over 40 and the other over 50 years old--every day (I don't carry them, though) because they write better than modern pens and they're so durable (clearly). I just wrote a check with one this morning, in fact, using a special anti-fraud ink (modern). It'll be interesting to see whether my Sheaffer Snorkel and Parker "51" will continue to be used after I'm gone...assuming that people will still use pens or even know how to write by then, that is.... :shrug:

Click to expand...

I don't get it with pens - when you scroll the screen down, your writing stays in the same place. Furthermore, 'delete' or 'backspace' don't seem to do anything at all. What's with that ?? :ironic:

ABitDark said:

A double AA Pelican Mitylite Xenon. Bright, focused and good contrast in the woods. Was always in my briefcase, car, or on my person.

Click to expand...

Actually, those 2xAAA Mitylites were the first flashlights that really got my attention, way back in the 80's. I found them to be FAR more reliable than the MiniMags, in a slimmer & handier form factor.

I guess I started regularly carrying a light when I was in the Army, '89-'93. CMG Infinity with red LED went everywhere with me, including two overseas deployments. Got into the early Photon lights, squeeze only and slide switch after that. A Mag or two or three, and then had a salesman come visit where I work selling some Fenix lights. Bought a LDO (?) (The one with strobe and S.O.S, not the newer one) AAA with 10440 cells and a Nano charger for an insane amount of money in hindsight, not able to believe how much light came out of that little guy. Knew nothing of Li-Ion cells, or the consequences of heat for little lights... After smoking the Fenix, and those poor Ultrafire 10440's I searched the 'net for more info and found this place called CPF. Been down hill ever since... :shakehead :nana: :devil:

2AA side by side plastic incan.
Then a Mag Solitaire starting in the late '90s.

My first was an EX10 with a Ti bezel from Russ and a trit locator pimped into the piston.

I realized I needed to carry a flashlight 24/7 about 6 or 7 years ago. I bought a Surefire Outdoorsman for the task. I carried it until I found CPF almost 2 years ago. Then I discovered Novatac, HDS, Fenix, Eagletac, Nitecore, etc. Now it's a HDS 170 Cn around the clock.