What to get, what to get...? A little help for a 'flashlight-illiterate'

hello everyone,

it's starting to get winter again - which in switzerland is quite a dark and cold time of the year... i just started looking into a nice flashlight when i stumbled over this page. i have to admit - and now please all you torch experts have a seat before continuing reading - i'm the person who has no clue about flashlights and up to today bought something cheap in the local department store.

reason for checking into something 'real' is that i got fed up with these low light 5$ things - final trigger was my new cellphone (sony-ericsson k750i), which has a light stronger than my average flashlight...

a little sidenote: if my wife saw me putting so much time in looking into 'such a simple thing' as a flashlight - i guess she would send me to the doctor ;-)

well, i want to get to the point: i'm looking for the non plus ultra amongst the flashlights. it should accompany me on long walks at night, on a little trip from my bed to the fridge as well as shining a bright little spot on my neighbor's house 50 yards away ;-) - it should be the brightest thing possible whilst still having a decent battery life (i don't want to run out of light halfway through my little hikes...).

can someone enlighten me with some ideas? ideally, you experts would agree on two or three models, this would make the selection easier for me...

alright, that's it. looking forward to your replies!

:thanks:
swiss

Hi Swiss,

We're gonna need just a little more information to help you out bud. How much can you spend? and... are you willing to use non standardized batteries? (cr123 etc...). And how big or small do you want this light to be in actual size? Once you clarify these details i'm sure there will be more than enough counsel towards the right light for ya! Welcome to the world of flashlights, hide yer wallet and all that other stuff!

You might want to check out the Streamlight Propoly Lux AA. It uses 4AAs, and can run on alkalines or rechargeables. Runtime with alks is 3.5 hours of nice, constant output light; it won't dim noticeably in that time. You can probably get similar runtime with the same brightness from nimh cells; a four-pack plus charger can probably be had for around 15USD.

Output is great, easily blowing away anything you've been using. It uses a one watt luxeon led that never needs replacing. It is a bright, very white light that throws very well with virtually no rings or artifacts in the beam. I think you'll be happy. We have all been very pleased with it. Price is only around 25USD, a good deal for what you get. The body is a tough, waterproof plastic that will accept all but the most grievous of shocks. You can check out reviews and the current threads on this light. Almost everyone has posted a thumbs up. It's a really nice "starter" light, but be warned: when you compare this light to what you've been using, you'll never go back and you addiction is just starting. Really.

Welcome to CPF!

Welcome to CPF!

First of all: What's your budget, or which amount does the wifey allow you to spent? It can get pretty grim...hold on to your wallet...

For cold environments, the general rule is to use lithium batteries, so either CR123 or something that is able to be run with lithium AAs. I prefer LEDs over incans...

A good advice is always the UK 4AA eLED. Not too expensive (~$25 +shipping), can run on lithium AAs, long runtime (~10hrs+ on alkalines, nearly 18hrs on lithium). Plastic body, nice to handle in the cold. Con: not really bright.

If the budget allows it, there are the high-end lights with adjustable brightness. My personal favorites: Gladius (~$220-250), Surefire U2 (~$270) or maybe Surefire L2 (2 brightness levels, ~$180). Don't know how the ceramic coating of the Gladius is for the cold. The aluminum Surefires are not the best choice for this, but all three should be nice to handle with gloves.

There's also the cheap Surefire alternative G2. Nitrolon (plastic) body for the cold, ~$35. There's also an LED drop-in module for this, but I forgot the details.

Oh, how about rechargeables? The only one I have and can recommend is the Inova T4 (~$80). Nice and bright, 2hr runtime, and a lithium-polymer battery.

Hope you know Quickbeams review site. Nice overview with runtime and brightness data (and prices!).

Welcome to CPF Swiss! Certainly the right place for your questions. Hope you locked the wallet away and switched the lights off? We have lights for throw, 50 yards are nothing! We have lights for loooooong runtime, 10 hours plus? Wanna light a room at the flick of the switch?
We have lots of lights, coz we are flashaholics
We have a motto: "Buy both!"

To your question: how long should the runtime be? How big can the light be? Rechargeable? LED or incandescent? How much do you wanna spend?
There are a lot of nice multi level lights around for EDC (every day carry).
http://www.flashlightreviews.com/ can be a good start point. We love helping out with suggestions. So stay tuned.

Welcome!

I believe that you've come to the right place!!

To answer your question, perhaps we will need more information........tha biggest one being "how much would you like to spend"??

For a 2 brightness levels, one "low" for "inside night juants" and one "bright" for hikes, there are many choices.............a two cell light, such as

http://dmcleish.com/CPF/Aleph-Series/A1-2x123.jpg

or a single cell rechargable with 2 levels

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v65/kiessling/McLux/first-production.jpg

Go to the "McGizmo" forum for information regarding these lights.

There are many other choices, as well.

Good Luck!!!

jeffb

Hello Swiss-

A big welcome to CPF. Hang on to your Francs and credit cards!

If the members on this forum can limit suggestions to just three lights, it would be the first time and completely shocking. :laughing:

There are really many good choices that would suit your needs. I will start with one of my favorites and a favorite of many here on CPF.

The Streamlight 4AA Propolymer Luxeon. Has very good throw for some long distance viewing and good runtime on 4 AA batteries. Very well built, durable and inexpensive. About $30 here in the U.S. It is either for sale in Europe or shipped from a number of dealers here.

SL Propoly

If your wife begins to think you are a little (or a lot strange), welcome to the club. Buy her a small good quality light for her purse.

Have fun choosing. Keep thinking you only need and will only buy one light.

Mark

Welcome Swiss,

Without more information, I'd like to 3rd the Streamlight Propolymer 4AA Lux.
You can get it for about $25-30 and it uses standard AA cells and it's performance can't be beat at anywhere near it's price.

You can see the review at :

http://www.flashlightreviews.com/reviews/streamlight_propolyluxeon.htm


MB

Hi Swiss,
That is almost the my situation. And I must say that in this few days I got a lot of information thanks to this forum, It's really the best resource of flashlight info and advice one can find. Though I am looking mostly for a good hiking flashlight combination it is not all that different..
Well, just purchased the ElektroLux Blaster JR. Under $40 for a really good 3AA flashlight. (Thnx yaesumofo)

For beck up when hiking and for EDC I would like to take a small versatile 123 cell light. The HDS EDCs and MCGISMOs are what seems be the best there is in this category, but the price is adequate to their exclusive status

Q3 and fenix havea a good price/quality but I wouldn't go for a EDC light without at least two modes, after all that is something that will have more use of the lowest than the highest settings and it is an useless battery consumption to have it just on highest it can achieve.
LRI Proton might be a good one and there are some hints it will be on the market in a few weeks. As for now I can't see a real cheaper alternative to the cca $100-300 for various HDS/MCGISMO models. But if you are not looking for the small size it could be easy to find a good light for a good price I think.

Well just an opinion and personal choice, I'm new to all this and not able to give any advice..

P.S. I have to ad that I'm recently single again and can spend all the money on the "useless toys" :buddies:

Hey guys, thanks for all your input and the warm welcome! You guys really know your stuff.

Ok, I try specify what I'm looking for: most importantly, that thing should be so strong and cool, that my wife really sees that a flashlight is not just a flashlight regarding the price it probably shouldn't cost more than about 100$ - if it's cheaper, even better (doesn't matter if it's sold here in Switzerland, I an always order it online). It should be fairly compact, but doesn't need to be tiny tiny - after all it's for me and not my wife or the kids ;-). I haven't thought about batteries really. But after giving it 10 seconds thought, I would think that either rechargeable or standard batteries would make most sense.

I have no idea what the differences are between LED or incandescent... so perhaps somebody could bring some light into that topic?

i like the idea of having an adjustable brightness for different purposes that one of you guys mentioned - never thought about that one.

so i'm looking forward to some more great input before i break it down to a few 'finalists' in my flashlight-quest

Swiss

LED's are extremely tough. Since they don't have a filament inside a bulb like an incandescent bulb, they are extremely rugged and well suited for outdoor use. Drop an incandescent flashlight, and you're likely to break the filament in the bulb, rendering the flashlight useless.

LED's use less than a third of the power required by an incandescent. Since LED's use such small amounts of power, they generate very little heat, and will usually last 10,000 hours or longer. The LED will probably outlast the rest of the body of the flashlight for that matter.

The only advantage that an incandescent still enjoys over LED is a much longer throw of light and more in the yellow-white range which some consider to provide better visibility.

Has anyone recommended a headlamp? I prefer them over flashlights in that they leave your hands free. Great for rummaging through a closet for an old coat or checking under the hood of your car. The Princeton Tec EOS is an excellent bargain for a headlamp. $27 US and it has a 1W Luxeon LED. In addition, most headlamps offer 3 brightness settings which allow the user to adjust light output and increase battery life.

BlackDecker said:

The only advantage that an incandescent still enjoys over LED is a much longer throw of light and more in the yellow-white range which some consider to provide better visibility.

Click to expand...

The other MAJOR advantage of incandescent lights is that they are scalable. i.e., more power will always mean more light. This isn't so with leds; you have to create elaborate arrays of more than one emitter. For example, there are several nice rechargeable incans like the Magcharger, Tigerlight or Streamlight SL-20 that are in the 10-20 watt range, producing 350+ lumens. An led cannot do this without multiple emitters and probably some electronics. Led technology just isn't there yet.

In summary: leds produce more lumens/watt, but incans can be built using many more watts at the expense of size/weight of the light.

Throw is mostly determined by the size and shape of the reflector; larger and deeper is better for throw.

For a very nice CR2 relatively "small light, or CR123
see www.lighthound.com

jil (up) cr2 battery

or a Nuwai TM-303 (CR123 battery)

Both are under $100 and both can be modded for 2 level operation by modders on CPF

jeffb

A pretty cheap and easy way to go would be something like a Princeton Tec PT40 with a 4 cell mag bulb replacing the original. The brighter Mag bulbs with the rounded tip. Magnum Star I think? It uses 4 AA and will work fine on rechargeable nickel metal hydride batteries. Fairly bright, small enough to put into your pocket, and light. Maybe $20 US for the light, and about $3 for the bulbs.
A good rechargeable light might also work for you. The Streamlight Strion is supposed to be a very good light that is also nice and small. I'm planning on getting one myself. I don't know if they are being sold in Europe though. You could easily get one online as you said, but I don't know if a 220 volt charger is available (I'm assuming that you use 220 volts there).

Swiss you mentioned: "looking for the non plus ultra amongst the flashlights. it should accompany me on long walks at night, on a little trip from my bed to the fridge as well as shining a bright little spot on my neighbor's house 50 yards away... should be so strong and cool...shouldn't cost more than about 100$...should be fairly compact, but doesn't need to be tiny tiny..."

Several suggestions: For about $25, the Streamlight ProPoly Lux 4AA is a great deal and better than most any retail store flashlight:

http://www.flashlightreviews.com/reviews/streamlight_propolyluxeon.htm

For about $40, the Fenix 1LP is a fantastic bargain -- essentially the same output as the PP Lux 4AA, but in a far more compact and stylish package. The current Fenix Group Buy at http://candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=91435 is closed, but you might be able to contact 4sevens about getting one.

http://www.fenixlight.com/

For $100 Peak has several good products; my favorite is the Peak Caribbean -- about the size of a chapstick with the output of a 3D Maglight, but with almost 2 hr regulated run time. Note the pocket body version is smaller than the keychain body version.

http://www.flashlightreviews.com/reviews/peakled_caribbean.htm

For $120 the HDS EDC Basic 42 is about $120 -- a little over your limit but it has variable output, plus is very cool looking.

http://www.batterystation.com/hds-edcflashlights.htm

I personally favor variable output lights like the HDS. I think people often overemphasize total output and throw at the expense of real world features like variable output.

Any of the above or similar lights will be so much better than anything you've used, you will be astounded.

Don't forget electrolumens. they have the blaster JR which is amazing for like $40.00.

In terms of price value these are great!! The light they produce is wonderful as well.
Yaesumofo

Another vote for - Streamlight ProPoly Lux 4AA.

One more idea -- while you can't go wrong with the Streamlight ProPoly Lux 4AA, if you want roughly similar capability in a smaller light, consider the Streamlight Scorpion LED. It's roughly $52, vs the PP Lux 4AAs roughly $25, but it's somewhat more compact.