Confession of a "Flashlight Junkie"

Well, I stumbled upon this site a couple of weeks ago...and I am impressed!

I have known since I was about 5 years old that there was an intense fascination with flashlights. I would turn out all the lights, and creep around the dark basement armed with an old plastic flashlight.

Currently, I am a health care professional. When conversing with one of my co-workers (a psychologist), I confessed my flashlight fetish.
I wasn't sure why I felt this way...

Then the shrink told me "It is simple...you are an explorer!"

Sounds good to me!

Before this forum, I would often find myself staring at the selection in the flashlight aisle...yet I didnt indulge! Until last week, I had only a few relatively inexpensive lights.

I recently purchased a bunch of PT and CMG LED and incan's. I AM IMPRESSED!

perhaps I will give a few of my impressions of some of my lights...but it looks like most of them have been reviewed to death.

Also, I would like to give kudos to Princeton Tec. They seem to have a light for every application--and at reasonable prices. The lights seem tough, bright and well thought out. I havent had an issue with any of them--and the Aurora doesnt flicker...thankfully, because I use it at night on low to read while my fiance' sleeps.

take care,
Bob

After logging on to this forum, I have purchased

uh oh.... you're in trouble now. That's how it begins. I've always known the same, but only had a couple of Maglites and assorted cheap-o LEDs. It really began with an early luxeon-mag mod from Wayne at Elektrolumens. From there, well, let's just say I haven't had any spare $ for a very long time. Gotta lotta cool lights though. Stay away from Arc and Surefire. I repeat,... stay away from Arc and Surefire. Incredible lights, very expensive (relatively I guess), and very, very addictive. Welcome to the forum!

Hi Bob, and welcome!
Be happy!, you're not alone... Lots of people have a flashlight fetish.

Have fun browsing this board.

Welcome to CPF, Bob! Now you will be spending money on high quality, but, expensive lights. The best thing is to have something for a variety of needs, from bright-short runtime to dim-long runtime.

welcome to the board! hang on to yuor wallet.

and explorer huh? nice!

the first thing you need to do is get an arc aaa, attractive, small, cheap batteries, ha3, waterproof, indestructable. it's only around $20, so it's not the expensive arc ls that virgo was refering to you won't be unhappy with it.

i do the whole flashlight isle thing too, then i say to myself...bah! none of this stuff is any good for mods.

that is what you need to look out for! stay away from the mods. (just imagine burning out led after led after led)

Impressive beginning collection. I'll second what Roth said, the AAA is a good light to have around.

Don't listen to him on the subject of mods though--they're where the real fun of flashaholism comes in.

yes. fun and frustration

pedalinbob:

I too am a recently addicted LED flashaholic. Can't even go to Walmart now without telling the wife I'm going to look at videos and secretly sneaking off to the flashlight section to see what's new.

Just got my Inretec MiniMag 2AA adapter (white) today and installed it. Wow! What a light! Now have a Photon II (blue), CMG Infinity Ultra (white), and a Inova X5T (white) -- with a Surefire E2e/Kl1 on the way.

Just a warning: visiting this forum is like an alcoholic going to his neighborhood bar. The only help you're going to get here is the kind that gets you in deeper. It's best not to fight it -- just let it happen. Oh for an Arc LS2, a couple more Surefires, more Photon colors, and whatever is coming next week. I hope your kids don't need food and shoes.

The more torches you buy, the more torches you want! Then your garage becomes a torch graveyard...bits of old torch festoon the kitchen... your car's glovebox becomes uncloseable because of all the torches you carry...
call it torch trauma... I call it out and out torchaholism!
What's the answer to torchaholism...more torches!
Welcome to CPF, a board populated by some rave'n torchaholics!

In the old days (pre-internet) you could only get in trouble when the brick & mortar stores were open. Now, you can act on that 2 a.m. urge and order any light you want. This is a big problem.

I just got my Visa bill and I bought lights or light-related merchandise 7 times this month. I'm very sick. I should be punished by the Mistress of the Dark, Elvira. I wonder what she uses for a light?

Marty

EMPOWERTORCH:
... your car's glovebox becomes uncloseable because of all the torches you carry...
call it torch trauma...

Click to expand...

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">umm, is that torch karma?

Well, I don't really think I'm a flashlight junkie, but then again some might think it odd that when I went to Albertson's for groceries this afternoon I had six flashlights with me, two of them LS's.

Oops! Make that seven; I forgot the Photon II.

Hmmmmmmm ... Maybe I do have a problem ...

I used to be a crack addict....
Then I ran into this forum....
Had to give up crack due to lack of funds...
Now to figure out how to put a LED into a crack pipe...

Welcome to the wonderful world of the ever expanding need for the pursuit for the smallest and brightest LED...and the big, nuclear powered, multi-Luxeon blasters to burn holes in walls.

You know that have have gone too far when it is time to purchase batteries and the 18-packs seem too small. Have a good time with this addicting hobby... maybe you will be the first with a 20 5 watt LS array in a 6 D cell Maglight (complete with peltiers to cool it and a fuel cell for power) Run while you still can

Bob - What virgo said is absolutely correct. If you have a web browser with "parental controls", you may want to have your mommy block the following two URLs:
http://store.yahoo.com/flashlight/
http://www.surefire.com/

That will help avoid the type of problems that can occur when members of this forum insert blind links like Check this! or Check this! into their deceptively innocent posts.

Or, you could just DO IT! Resistance is futile. In the end, it just wastes time.

John

yeah, i give up! just in the last few weeks i have purchased the cmg infinity ultra, reactor, PT attitude, aurora, impact II and tec 40.

also got some loose ls led's from arc, and just sent for more ls/o's, heat sinks, resistors, rheostats, new vom...been to radio shack like 6 times. ls side emitters are next...

jeez...im really in trouble now...better have Carey hide my wallet...

Bob

Bob,
Perhaps it is a Freudian thing. We buy the smallest flashlights to compensate for our large...? At least that's what I tell my wife when she ask, "how come yours is so big." Did I mention she is referring to the bulge around my midsection commonly referred to as a gut?

David

Try building the perfect light. You'll always have something to think about.