What's the smallest brightest LED flashlight

Amonra

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What\'s the smallest brightest LED flashlight

What's the smallest brightest LED flashlight available
ive been searching everywhere but the more i search the more i get confused. the ideal for me would be 50mm long X 15mm diameter with a lux3 at around 60 - 70 lumens medium throw with good side spill with a runtime of about 1 hour continuous.

is this even possible ? does anything come close ?
 

Chop

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Re: What\'s the smallest brightest LED flashlight

An Aleph II with a flat top switch running a NexGen700 with a T bin luxeon. Maybe a TX1J.
 

d'mo

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Re: What\'s the smallest brightest LED flashlight

I'm not sure of the exact specs, but the Fire~fly is pretty good...
 

Amonra

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Re: What\'s the smallest brightest LED flashlight

where do i find it ?
 

Amonra

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Re: What\'s the smallest brightest LED flashlight

is the keylux brighter than the firefly II ? cause im sure it's smaller. where do i find the keylux ?
 

paulr

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Re: What\'s the smallest brightest LED flashlight

Amonra, a Keylux is nowhere near as bright as a Firefly.

Keyluxes are hard to find these days. Fireflies aren't available new any more(?), but there are a fair number of them in circulation. You can probably find one with by posting a WTB (want to buy) ad on the BST (buy/sell/trade) forum.

You could also look at the thread for Endeavour's "Ion" CR2 light. It will be between the Keylux and the Firefly in brightness and in size. It's not available yet but you can ask to be on the list of people interested in it.
 

LitFuse

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Re: What\'s the smallest brightest LED flashlight

You can build your own FireFly II with parts from the Shoppe. There is a list of what you need right there.

Peter
 

Amonra

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Re: What\'s the smallest brightest LED flashlight

thanks guys but what is the Katokichi Ichishiki ?
 

paulr

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Re: What\'s the smallest brightest LED flashlight

The Ichishiki is a beautiful CR2 light made by a Japanese modder. One comes up for sale once in a while. There is a new batch being made right now. All the units in the batch have already been reserved, but usually after delivery, some of them end up on the market after the owners have had a chance to use them for a while. I sort of thought about ordering one but $250 each was a bit much for me and I decided to wait for the Ion, which will be a bit smaller.

(Edited: I mistakenly referred to the Ion as the "Endeavour". Ion is the name of the light; Endeavour is the person making it!)
 

cy

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Re: What\'s the smallest brightest LED flashlight

My Ichishiki is driven pretty hard and draws 900 milliamp off the CR2 li-ion.

FF depending upon which sammie is used can just as bright or brighter.

FF also has a CR2 option. which is no where near as small as Ichishiki.

one important consideration is FF2 is available from the shoppe. aprox. $165 for all the parts depending upon which config.

I've been building up custom tuned fireflys for aprox. $15-20 over shoppe prices. but that's coming to an end. takes too much time.

I've posted in dspeck's forum instructions on how to tune your FF.
 

Amonra

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Re: What\'s the smallest brightest LED flashlight

I currently have a LED Lenser V8 micro on my keychain which is a good light but i need something with more power, much more power.
so CR2 lights are the smallest lux lights available and the FF2 with CR2 is still on the large side. so which one is the smallest and brightest of the CR2 lights ? (something which is available for sale).
 

Frenchyled

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Re: What\'s the smallest brightest LED flashlight

Larry CR2 II is one of the smallest/brightest LED flashlight /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif But very difficult to get it /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif
If you really want the better report Brightest/smallest, try to order one Endeavour Ion CR2. Or ask Tvodrd, if he has one CR2 II for sale /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
Itichiki, is one of the brightest CR2 flashlight, but is largest than LArry CR2 II or Endeavour Ion project !! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
The price is not the same too /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/broke.gif
All these flashlights haven't any things to see with a Led-Lenser one /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
Oops, I forgot the Neoca BL project from PEU, another small CR2 flashlight you could pre-order here /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 

paulr

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Re: What\'s the smallest brightest LED flashlight

Cornkid, the Firefly uses interchangeable LED/electronics modules and its brightness depends on how you decide to configure it.

The typical configuration these days is with a 650 mA converter, probably a little bit lower current than a KL1 uses. On the other hand, you may be able to get a slightly better LED for your Firefly than Surefire is able to get in huge quantity for thousands of KL1's.

The KL1 will have a tighter beam, which is possible because of its larger size.

Basically they're in the same ballpark; E1e/KL1 may get the edge in brightness but it's much bigger than a Firefly.
 

paulr

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Re: What\'s the smallest brightest LED flashlight

Tom, as cy mentions, you can get the parts for an FF2 through the Sandwich Shoppe for around $165, plus then you have to put it together and tweak it to get it to work reliably. Is it worth the money? That's an extremely personal decision that only you can decide. Some people would say that spending $165 on any kind of flashlight is crazy. But an entry level Rolex watch will cost around 15 times that much.

If you're simply asking about the flashlight's cost effectiveness as a utilitarian gizmo to find something in the dark, then no, there are no flashaholic lights that are worth what we pay for them. It's just like buying a Rolex is insane when you can get a $50 G-shock that tells better time and is tougher and more waterproof. People who buy these lights are looking for something more than utilitarianism. There's a satisfaction in owning something that performs a particular function not just well enough for practical purposes, but as well as anything possibly can, etc. That's the reason for buying these lights. If you just want a nice bright practical light that you can carry in your pocket, try a Nuwai Q3 (3 watt LED) for about $40, or even a Princeton Tec Blast (2aaa xenon) for about $8.

That said, I was surprised to find that I never felt as happy with my Firefly as I do with my McLux, which was my first flashaholic light. I thought I wanted the tiniest possible powerful LED light for EDC'ing, but in practice a 5mm LED is plenty bright enough for most EDC purposes, and the Firefly is a little on the heavy side for putting on a keychain. I guess I'll get the Ion and see how I like it on my keys. The Firefly may replace the venerable UK 2L xenon light in my semi-EDC belt pack.
 

cy

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Re: What\'s the smallest brightest LED flashlight

Paul is dead on! Please note Firefly is one light you do have to tune to get working 100% right.

A properly tuned firefly is a thing of beauty. beam becomes one of the nicest beams you will find anywhere. with a tuned two stage switch, you get reliable hours of operation on low, then kicks up to high.

firefly was one of the first lights to offer two stage operation. lots of complaints about it not working properly.

here is a beam shot from a FF2 I just sold to someone in Tiawan. I equiped it with aluminum head, MM R2H weighting in at 24 grams w/o cell. sammie only drew 698 milliamps giving long runtime and a pretty bright beam.

CR2 pack is beside 123 pack.

bs r2h.JPG


ff2 cr2.JPG
 

SchaqFu

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Re: What\'s the smallest brightest LED flashlight

Just curious if the reason no one has mentioned the HDS EDC U60-GT is because no one has one yet? When Henry from HDS gets them shipping in large quantities, won't those be smaller/brighter/better than the Fire-Fly or any of the other lights mentioned in this thread? I'm actually really curious to hear peoples' take on that.

Thanks,
-SchaqFu
 
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