Advice needed on the lightest/smallest/most powerful light made, step inside

I just tripped over a deal on some green Photon LED lights. Does anything beat the white Photon 2 or Photon 3's (.25 ounces) that you folks know of? Criteria is for a superlight, tiny, powerful light. I'm a rockclimber and I figured that I should be tossing one of these Photon3's into my chalkbag pockets to supplement my kit and too hand over to my partner in an emergency. I already have either a lightweight headlamp inside, either old school Black Diamond Ion or a newer Petzl E-lite in there. (I own multiple chalkbags) If I get stuck having to navigate a steep off trail rocky decent in the night I want some light to survive it. The Photons are for backup to the headlamps. However, in looking at the green bulbs they are a tad dim, and a brief search brought me to candlepower forum where there was some real good, but very old, review and test info members had done of earlier gen Photons.

Currently my chalkbag pockets are small and are close to stuffed full with the following:

Petzl E-lite (BD Ion) - .95 ounce
The smallest Bic lighter made
CRKT NIAD or Petz Pirana knife
1 square of paper towel (doubles as TP and firestarter)
and occasionally I'll stuff in a small space blanket as well if it looks like marginal weather.

This is stuff I carry for long climbs only, where I might be stuck out overnight. So my question is this, given the small size and lightweight I'm looking for, can anyone add their thoughts on what would be a good adjunct for my already underpowered headlamps

just to make it a bit clearer to me are you looking for a very small powerful green LED light or just a very small powerful LED light? Nitcore Tube is pretty dang small and is 45 lumens

The Photon is fine,well tried and tested but I agree with Mr. CelticCross74 the Nitecore Tube is a fine light,so light hung around your neck you cannot even notice it plus has a real low low for use in a confined tent or as finding the bathroom at silly o clock,bangs out 45 lumens on high and you simply charge it via usb.

I was disappointed in the green ones brightness celticcross. I realized that there would probably be 20 people or more folks on Candlepower who would immediately know a better product than just buying a white Photon. I had not looked at your Nitcore Tube which looks good. It comes in at .3 ounces, about the same size and 45 lumens is much better as well, although that might be dependent on run time and battery drain. If it gets pressed into use, it might be a 4 hour hike in pitch black to get to the car. Any idea of the run time at 45 lumens? Max run time shows as 48 hours but I don't see what brightness that is. That looks like a nice choice, and I'd never heard of them.

Anyone able to offer any reliability/waterproofness or tested performance specs on the Nitcore? ..... other candidates?

Cross posting there mcnair, thanks. Yes I see the specs now. (slow on the google uptake USB charging would be a nice feature too.

Runtime:
+++ 45 lumens (1 hours)
+++ 1 lumens (48 hours)
* Dimension: 2.2 inch x 0.83 inch
* Weight: 0.3 oz

billcoe said:

I was disappointed in the green ones brightness celticcross. I realized that there would probably be 20 people or more folks on Candlepower who would immediately know a better product than just buying a white Photon. I had not looked at your Nitcore Tube which looks good. It comes in at .3 ounces, about the same size and 45 lumens is much better as well, although that might be dependent on run time and battery drain. If it gets pressed into use, it might be a 4 hour hike in pitch black to get to the car. Any idea of the run time at 45 lumens? Max run time shows as 48 hours but I don't see what brightness that is. That looks like a nice choice, and I'd never heard of them.

Anyone able to offer any reliability/waterproofness or tested performance specs on the Nitcore? ..... other candidates?

Click to expand...

Check You Tube for the Nitecore being abused and a review by the famous Selfbuilt,just Google for full specs and reviews.

Ahhh, this? HOLY smokes, that's a standard setting review now isn't it. I'll need to digest it, thanks! http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?396430-Nitecore-Tube-and-V54-TubeVN-%285mm-rechargeable%29-review-RUNTIMES-BEAMSHOTS-VIDEO

Sounds like someone cut the handle off the toothbrush to save weight
Just a thought, 1.5 Oz with the battery,long lasting, great back up. green
bring a cheap emergency blanket, two of my friends died on a climb when the weather turned.
Opps you already know

Old school, but how about a Gerber Infinity Ultra? Close to 50 hrs continuous at 10 lumens. And it makes a great headlamp clipped to a hat.

opps, deleting issue. Sticking with the 2nd post. sorry.

ingineer said:

...two of my friends died on a climb when the weather turned.

Click to expand...

Sorry about your friends. I've been in the game for @ 40 years now, seen a lot of that. Gone up on some rescues on Mountains with good results, been up looking for friends when the weather is too bad for Mountain rescue to respond and and seen it go bad too. Mostly given up mountains for the warmer cliffs for now. I'll have to look at the Pak-lite, looks like it will be a tad large though.

Brasso said:

Old school, but how about a Gerber Infinity Ultra? Close to 50 hrs continuous at 10 lumens. And it makes a great headlamp clipped to a hat.

Click to expand...

Not enough room in the pouch. That measures 3.2 inches round, the Photon and Nittube noted above are much less than an inch and mostly flat. Same issue with weight. The Gerber is 2.4 ounces and the others are .3 ounces. That's an important issue.

The DQG Spy is tiny.
120Lm (high) - 20 min.
10Lm (low) - 5 hrs.

Someone should make a light/battery mount for the 1 watt NiteIze 2-6 battery led conversion (3-9v).
I've gotten close to 36 hours from an AAA alkaline Duracell out of mine (unregulated, less and less moonlight), and it's lit up a 9v that my deluxe, two mode Paklite wouldn't even light up at all...
There's nothing to them, basically the size of an old incandescent Maglight bulb...
I think you could light one up with a strip of copper, zinc, and a potato.

eh4 said:

Someone should make a light/battery mount for the 1 watt NiteIze 2-6 battery led conversion (3-9v).
I've gotten close to 36 hours from an AAA alkaline Duracell out of mine (unregulated, less and less moonlight), and it's lit up a 9v that my deluxe, two mode Paklite wouldn't even light up at all...
There's nothing to them, basically the size of an old incandescent Maglight bulb...
I think you could light one up with a strip of copper, zinc, and a potato.

Click to expand...

Whoh! I didn't know that such a thing existed, I have a 4 D cell Maglite I keep in the drawer downstairs which I hate replacing batterys on. I'lll will be getting the LED upgrade kit for it stat. That's awesome!

The one I'm talking about is only 1 watt, is not the brightest, but has a long runtime.

all about the Nitecore Tube-Vinh54 offers a brighter modified version but at the cost of runtime
http://flashlight.nitecore.com/product/tube

cooyoo quantum. If tou need smaller and lighter, just cut your socks in half

jorn said:

cooyoo quantum. If tou need smaller and lighter, just cut your socks in half

Click to expand...

Love these little lights!!

Hi,

It's not what your really looking for but I thought I'd put it out there for information only. Princeton Tec used to have a light called a Pilot. This light would attach to the head band of a headlamp. It's small not too much bigger than a US Quarter and weighs about .5 - .75 of an ounce. It's not bright but the good thing is that if your headlamp goes out you simply reach up push the side button and you have some light aimed forward to help you figure out your next step. It does use 2-2016 or one 2032 battery. Again, for information only. Good luck with your hunt.