parametrek
Enlightened
- Joined
- Apr 3, 2013
- Messages
- 578
Some people have a soft spot for yella knives. Me, I have a thing for yella lights. I'm not sure when it happened, but it was early. That Eveready Sportsgear was the first real flashlight (waterproof with a forward click switch) I ever bought and it played host for all of my early LED experiments. The Fenix HL21 was my first headlamp, and still the favorite for backpacking. And most recent was a Solarforce P1, a real P60 workhorse.
There's plenty of reasons to like yellow flashlights. Hard to misplace when you set them down and easy to find in the dark, for starters. They're better for harsh environments; won't corrode or spark or freeze to your hand. Always timeless, they age well too. Since the color goes the whole way through most dings and scrapes are invisible. That Sportsgear went on every childhood camping trip and was dropped more times than I can count. Still looks great. A plastic light is the only light I feel comfortable holding in my mouth, for fear of chipping a tooth. And yet modern nylon-based polymer composites are as strong as aluminum.
Now some people can't take a plastic light seriously. After all, it will melt! But we are in an era of LEDs that are nearly as efficient as physics allows. 150 lumens per watt, even 200 lumens per watt. When efficiency climbs, less energy is needed and less waste heat is produced. A watt or three makes plenty of light for me and can be safely dissipated without any overheating.
But it is getting harder to find a good yellow light. Fenix has a few yellow headlamps still, but they are old and XP-G based. Pelican and Streamlight make a handful of simple options. Surefire's G2 line keeps getting thinner every year. Anyone have some classics they could share?
There's plenty of reasons to like yellow flashlights. Hard to misplace when you set them down and easy to find in the dark, for starters. They're better for harsh environments; won't corrode or spark or freeze to your hand. Always timeless, they age well too. Since the color goes the whole way through most dings and scrapes are invisible. That Sportsgear went on every childhood camping trip and was dropped more times than I can count. Still looks great. A plastic light is the only light I feel comfortable holding in my mouth, for fear of chipping a tooth. And yet modern nylon-based polymer composites are as strong as aluminum.
Now some people can't take a plastic light seriously. After all, it will melt! But we are in an era of LEDs that are nearly as efficient as physics allows. 150 lumens per watt, even 200 lumens per watt. When efficiency climbs, less energy is needed and less waste heat is produced. A watt or three makes plenty of light for me and can be safely dissipated without any overheating.
But it is getting harder to find a good yellow light. Fenix has a few yellow headlamps still, but they are old and XP-G based. Pelican and Streamlight make a handful of simple options. Surefire's G2 line keeps getting thinner every year. Anyone have some classics they could share?
