Narcosynthesis
Newly Enlightened
- Joined
- Oct 28, 2008
- Messages
- 105
I am a big fan of the Fenix e05 mkI as an EDC light (for reasons that I shall make obvious shortly), but I seem to have hit a bit of a roadblock - with the introduction of the mkII version of the light supplies of the original seem to be drying up, so before I go on a last scramble to pick up a couple moreit seems like it would probably be fairly sensible to see what else there is out there that may be a good replacement.
The reason I like the e05 so much is that for me it has hit a perfect balance in terms of practicality and usability - it has more than enough power to easily light my way in a variety of places without being too bright and overpowering, the beam is a nice practical flood (again, perfect for lighting your feet and searching behind furniture) and of a nice colour, it is a simple one mode light without any extra fluff and it gives me all of this with a decent battery life in a nice small AAA package.
From what I have seen, a lot of options now seem to be going the way of the new e05 or the LD01 in giving multiple outputs that sound great on paper, but really just frustrate me when all I want 95% of the time is something like the ~30 lumen flood of the original e05 (and if I want more output, I will reach for a more appropriate light than a AAA option left with a tiny battery life at those power levels, so the extra power is just a nuisance to me). The alternative of course is the low power lights, which all seem to default to the 5mm LED's which get great runtime at ~10 lumens, but with an absolutely dreadful beam colour and profile.
I have tried to do my diligence and searched through all the regular names, but so far just haven't found anything that fits - and whereas a few years ago I would have just made do with the alternatives, the e05 mkI has spoiled me as it gave me *exactly* what I wanted.
At the end of this I realise there are still e05's out there, but here in the UK the sellers I have used before all seem to be left out of stock of the normal black one, and left with blue and purple (pernickety I know, but black just looks better...) so before I try and dig out a few more to give myself a reserve supply, I figured it worth checking if there are any alternatives suitable to take its place.
If anyone has made it this far and has sat through all my rambling and is able to give me a few pointers, you have my utmost gratitude.
TL;DR - looking for a replacement for the Fenix e05 mkI: AAA, single mode, ~30 lumen (floody) beam
The reason I like the e05 so much is that for me it has hit a perfect balance in terms of practicality and usability - it has more than enough power to easily light my way in a variety of places without being too bright and overpowering, the beam is a nice practical flood (again, perfect for lighting your feet and searching behind furniture) and of a nice colour, it is a simple one mode light without any extra fluff and it gives me all of this with a decent battery life in a nice small AAA package.
From what I have seen, a lot of options now seem to be going the way of the new e05 or the LD01 in giving multiple outputs that sound great on paper, but really just frustrate me when all I want 95% of the time is something like the ~30 lumen flood of the original e05 (and if I want more output, I will reach for a more appropriate light than a AAA option left with a tiny battery life at those power levels, so the extra power is just a nuisance to me). The alternative of course is the low power lights, which all seem to default to the 5mm LED's which get great runtime at ~10 lumens, but with an absolutely dreadful beam colour and profile.
I have tried to do my diligence and searched through all the regular names, but so far just haven't found anything that fits - and whereas a few years ago I would have just made do with the alternatives, the e05 mkI has spoiled me as it gave me *exactly* what I wanted.
At the end of this I realise there are still e05's out there, but here in the UK the sellers I have used before all seem to be left out of stock of the normal black one, and left with blue and purple (pernickety I know, but black just looks better...) so before I try and dig out a few more to give myself a reserve supply, I figured it worth checking if there are any alternatives suitable to take its place.
If anyone has made it this far and has sat through all my rambling and is able to give me a few pointers, you have my utmost gratitude.
TL;DR - looking for a replacement for the Fenix e05 mkI: AAA, single mode, ~30 lumen (floody) beam
Last edited:
