Have you made a convert of anyone into a Flashaholic?

As flashlight enthusiasts, I know we all love the chance to get to use our lights. Often times it attracts the attention of other people, who sometimes inquire about them. Have any of you ever made a convert, if you will, of someone whose idea of a high quality flashlight was the $20.00 cheapo they could find down at Walmart? I know over the past month, I've convinced four people to purchase a Thrunite TN12. I know this hardly constitutes making a convert out of someone, but I think it's a step in the right direction . I'd love to hear your stories.

I convinced a good friend of mine that their are other, better options available. It started with a plethora of questions as to what he wanted his HDS 4000K to have, as a gift to him for enlisting in the Canadian Military. Tint, beam, battery, flush or extended, clip, etc has left his head spinning haha He understands my passion a bit better now, so he says!

I just did some training with the Canadian military - Hard bunch of guys, I have a lot of respect for. What a cool gift idea! Perfect given the line of work.

I have a friend who broke his xbrite a couple years back. I just mailed him a Malkoff for his 6p and a Coast HP1. The Malkoff replaced a 1000 lumen junk drop in that lasted minutes.

Lately he's been busy on a multitude of projects. and such. But he's questioning the use of chinese rechargeables vs the protected 18650 and has bought a 6P for parts.

Good sign.

I try to educate whenever possible. I know I have successfully made a flashoholic when they're looking at something that takes 18mm cells

I knew my boss liked flashlights, but without much regard to quality. I showed him a new E25 I had shipped to the office, and he got one. Now, he's got a number of high quality lights, 18650s, Eneloops, an Xtar charger, and now he's talking about a headlamp. Not only that, but he's given a number of quality lights as gifts.

Sure, I've loaned a Zebralight SC52 to a couple of people that were used to using a POS LED Maglite. They couldn't believe how much light came out of a small AA flashlight. When they went back to their Maglite, they were a convert to something better.

However, they didn't actually buy something better, because they had no idea how to buy a flashlight anywhere other than a local hardware store. In one case, I let them keep the SC52. Well, more of an indefinite loan.

So, were they a convert? Yes, kind of. I don't think they'd spend more than $20 on a light themselves, but as a gift, sure!

Yeah, my roommate and best friend from college.

Started with revamping my NiMH batteries and chargers, he followed. Moved into the Fenix PD32 and some others and he followed. Then into li-ions cells and chargers and he followed and finally li-ion lights.

He now has 3-4 of Vinh's lights and I have 0, so I guess he's beating me, lol.

Chris

I'm slowly doing the same to my room mate...

I have gotten one person to buy a Fenix UC35 after he noticed I was checking battery voltages on my lights and made the comment his mini mag wasn't reliable anymore and wanted better. He said he wanted rechargable, runtime that was better, easy to use UI, and above reliable. I showed him the UC35 on Fenix's website, showed him some examples of how big it would be, and he said ordered it so we did.

I haven't gotten anyone else to buy better lights but have gotten a couple of people to at least edc a light and realize how handy it is to have a light so I feel that is a start. One of them carries a Coast pen light and the other a lowes light but he is planning on ordering some thrunites. My dad started EDCing a maglite xl50 in I gave him but recently I upgraded him to an Olight S30R II and he loves it, he shows it off when ever he gets the chance and appreciates a good light now.

The first time doodoo happens to them, they will be converted automatically. Happened to me with a flat tire on a dark country road. It took me a long time to change the tire blind so to speak. The next day I got an Incan light & kept it in the glovebox.

I've found most people have little interest, outside this forum, in lights in general and trying to articulate the rational behind high end lights is fruitless. Telling someone the good lights run constant without sag gets you a 'I only need the light for a few minutes at a time tops' or 'I've run the light for a few hours and I've seen no difference in output'. Telling them about the difference in quality and robustness gets a 'I drop my light all the time and it works' or 'I never had a problem'. But when you tell them the price that's when you really lose them, most don't see the practicality in spending so much for something that can be had for so much less. And from a purely practical sense, multiple lights for the price of one high end light seem more sensible to most. The last person that was 'wowed' by one of my lights was when I was night kayaking and flashing distance boats that were approaching to my location. That was a mini-mag led that I use exclusively for such and for $20 the person will probably pick one up as they're cheap and found everywhere. If it was a SF/Malkoff/HDS they would hear the price and have no interest, or be turned off by the non-typical (for most) fuel source, or be turned off by having to go online to buy.

I agree, with many choices on shelves that meet most users needs, this hobby is becoming exclusive to hobbyists only.
It was a secret world of performance now it's, high end jewelry to me beyond basic needs of light itself.
Jmtc

Convert? Yeah, my girlfriend. She's stubborn and insists on only owning Maglites. To work around this, I'm slowly in the process of modding all of her Maglites. I slipped her a couple of minimags with dropins, so she innocently went and got another incan minimag. Heh.

By giving her the maglite minimag holster, she began to EDC probably for the first time in her life. There's a bit of a sense of pride in watching her get up in the middle of the night to visit the small room and using her modded minimag rather than turn on the lights.

My brother-in-law ran a plumping company in New York (recently retired). I'm not talking toilets. Steam systems and such. First we got him into a Filson wool mackinaw that didn't melt if it touched a a steam pipe. I showed him my lights and he liked the zoom and warm tint on my lenslight mini. Not my favorite by a long way. But he liked it and didn't mind the cost of CR123s. I gifted one to him and he used and liked it for years. But I couldn't convert him.

I haven't but BarryG is to blame for me being on this board and for spending WAY to much of my money for me!!

jdboy said:

I haven't but BarryG is to blame for me being on this board and for spending WAY to much of my money for me!!

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You're welcome:buddies:
After 20+ years of friendship, it's the least I could do.




Barry

I have had a few converts, over the years. My first real higher end flashlight was a Streamlight SL20 that i bought in 1985, a couple of the guys I worked with also saw the value in it, and also purchased one.

When I bought my first 3 SureFires (2 6P's and a 9P) in 1995, the guys I worked with couldn't believe the light they produced, most of them also couldn't believe how much they cost, but a very few saw the value.

The next time I got a few converts was with the Malkoff drop-ins I started using in 2008.

I do agree with what WarRaven said
"I agree, with many choices on shelves that meet most users needs, this hobby is becoming exclusive to hobbyists only.
It was a secret world of performance now it's, high end jewelry to me beyond basic needs of light itself."

I find many here have lights that are nothing more then toys, or as WarRaven said, jewelry.

To the jewelry comment above, I don't really have any of those but myself and others I know have some knives that could be considered jewelry. I'm sure there are some that have some firearms like that. They may never get used, but there is a certain pride of ownership in owning such a marvel of craftsmanship or technology and same goes for lights.

Convert someone to a flashaholic? Ha it's hard enough convincing people to spend more than $30 for just one quality light.

I think I've told this story here before, but I have a friend who can be a know it all and is outdoorsy like me, and we were discussing flashlights after I'd showed him my new at the time SC52w and L11C. He started going off on color temperatures to my surprise and the exact range he prefers which was warmer. I guess he'd heard about it somewhere. He even claims to have some incan Surefires. After some time, I recommended some lights to him, namely the SC62w as I believe he was interested in 18650 and asked my opinion. A week later, I asked him what he chose, and he went with some $5 2000 lumen XXXfire light plus battery plus charger combo probably with a hellacious blue tint. He said it probably wasn't 2000 lumens (lol) but it was cheap. I responded to not catch himself or his house on fire with it and that was that.

Prepped said:

I'm slowly doing the same to my room mate...

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What, revamping with NiMH batteries?