Went to Banff,brought 3 lights but I should have..

keithhr

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taken one just for map reading that wouldn't ruin my night vision. Flew to Banff and had to drive from Calgary Airport and had to do the navigation while my wife drove. I brought an L4 for general lighting, McGizmo Mclux pr917 for lighting up hard to read street signs, and my firely with a R2K for map reading and it was way too bright. Now I know why everyone talks about ruining their night vision etc while using one in a car, or in darkness. The interesting part is my wife , who has been totally poo pooing my interest in lights was totally impressed with the variety of lights that I took with me. Now if I had only brought my SL twin task 1L for led map reading, it would have been perfect. My wife was amazed at how well my McGizmo special worked for reading street signs from a distance. Normally, by the time you can actually read some of the signs it's too late, but not with a nice throwing light. For the small pr reflector that Don uses in his special 917 head, it's really nice for what I used it for. Just thought I would share these impressions. We overshot Banff turnoff and had to go another 10 kilometers down the road before we could turn around and in total darkness, my McGizmo pr917 really came in handy, way to go Don.
 

oldgrandpajack

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Sounds like a great trip. Has anyone tried the Surefire A2 for map reading and looking at road signs? I haven't, but suspect it would be pretty good at both.
oldgrandpajack
 

CalgaryGuy

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Sorry to heard that you missed the exit to Banff. Not sure if you're aware, there are 2 exits. You probably were looking for the 2nd exit and missed it. I too often miss exit when I'm in foreign city.

I made a mistake on picking up a CMG Infinity Red LED in matter to conserve night vision. Now it's useless to do map reading... Will probably pickup Streamlight Pro-Polymer 4AA 7LED. Anyone know if that's a good light for map reading?
 

Nerd

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The SL 4AA 7LED does flood very well, but could be too bright for what you want (Map reading)
 

BuddTX

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Arc AAA/AA for map reading, or a 3 LED light, like a Opalec Newbeam, or Streamlight Clipmate, or, as previously mentioned, Streamlight 1L.


Streamlight 4AA, 7LED is a great light, but might be too bright to use while someone else is driving in the dark.
 

BuddTX

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PS, I LOVE BANAFF!

Been there twice!

What a great little town, beautiful, great skiing, great food, not over commercialized, just really nice!
 

keithhr

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my wife was quite suprised that I had brought different lights for different applications. On approaching some of the intersections, the signs were not readable until I put a PR 917 McLux on them and they lighted right up. I did discover that I need to have a really low power led, maybe the streamlight twin task 1L, might be just be another real world reaction of note. Interesting though the security people wondering why I had so many flashlights on my person, I said I belong to a flashlight club and I use them all.
 

jhereg

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Re: Went to Banff,brought 3 lights but I should ha

The best map light I have found is my Dorcy 1 AAA flashlight. The LED has enough flood to read a map with the flashlight held at a normal distance, is bright enough to illuminate the map & shows colors well. It is also dim enough it doesn't dazzle me.
 

CalgaryGuy

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Re: Went to Banff,brought 3 lights but I should ha

lol, security people were thinking why you have 3 lights on you...

I'm unfamiliar with PR 917 McLux, does it have the same power as the SL Scorpion (Surefire M2) or SL TL-3 (Surefire M3)?
 

keithhr

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Re: Went to Banff,brought 3 lights but I should ha

The McLux is made by Don (McGizmo) with a special head with a modified pelican M6 reflector with over driven Luxeon III over driven to 917mah. It is designed to have pretty good throw for it's size and utilizes a surfife e2e body or the 6 volt McLux body which is what I use. Security people were wondering until I turned them on, and then they realized that they were lights of some magnitude, judging from their reactions. This is a single led Luxeon designed for throw, better than the scorpion but less light than the 5 watt sl or 9 volt surefire lights.
 
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