Recomend me a red LED

Hi all,
I'm new here, just wanted to say hello and introduce myself and ask for recomendations for a small red LED flashlight.
I'm from the U.K and I'm mainly into collecting knives and I visit various knife forums regularly. This is where I got into flashlights, after asking advice for a replacement to a lost AA maglite. I ended up with an Inova T3, then I needed an EDC and so on and so on. Recently I've been wanting an incandescent so I came to CPF to read up on some, I've just ordered a SF G2 from Lighthound.com and will probably be ordering a Streamlight TL-3 pretty soon as well.

Anyway back to the flashlight, I was thinking something along the lines of:
- 1*AA (or 1*CR123)
- Clickie tailcap
- waterproof
- preferably below about $80

Any ideas?

Many Thanks

Arc AAA with red LED is the classic small EDC

I've got one available for $45, please PM if interested

The Gerber Infinity Ultra with red LED (1xAA). I got mine from Batterystation.

The Gerber Recon (1xAA). But be aware that the red beam is very dim.

The Inova 24/7 (1x123). Beam quality and output is much better than those of the Gerbers, and it offers lots of other features besides the red beam. IMHO, the best choice for red light in night-vision preserving applications, and the best value.

If you need a *lot* of red light and are willing to go with 2x123, then the PentagonLight S2 Red is also an option.

Red Pal-light survival is pretty good. The beam is similar to inova X1, and puts out a good red beam. I'd prefer a red X1, but the pal-lights are exceedingly inexpensive.

1 vote for the 24/7. 2 red led's make a nice and smooth flood with crazy long runtime, too. (anyone know exactly how long on red?) Plus a host of other modes as mentioned.

This may be bigger than what your looking for but the Inova X5 with red leds is a nice light. The red led version runs off one CR123.

These 11,000 mcd, 20° red LEDs from Light of Victory are very good. Only $0.21 each shipped in 100s. I think BestHongKong has a 14,000 mcd red on their site which might be even brighter.

Red Surefire L-1's can be found on E bay for around $80. You could also post a wanted to buy in the B/S/T of this forum. The L-1 is a great light. I had a white one that I used with a blue filter, mostly on low. I had used it for over six months on the same battery before I gave it to another Soldier. Surefire rates its low runtime at about 90 hours I believe. The L-1 will not have a clickie tailcap.

Re: Recomend -- PALights -- HALF PRICE deal too!

I'll agree with Greenlight on the red PALight "Survival" model.

www.palights.com (old name, still works)
www.safe-light.com

They have several little 9-volt one-LED rubberized (well, some kind of flexible material) lights, with various specifications. Not to mention some huge railroad signal lights I'm wondering if we can buy .... I emailed James Meyer asking, and he asked me to post a CPF half price offer through October (he's having forum login problems)

See this thread: https://www.candlepowerforums.com/posts/1105358#post1105358

I have several other red LED lights -- we do a lot of night astronomy dark camping -- but around the house, we have the PALights hanging on hooks by most doors, for grab-and-go moments. And they're harder to lose than the small round AA or AAA lights.

They have several models with white LEDs, and also blue and green as well as red.

Oh, and huge railroad signal light LED arrays. Twitch. Drool. ....

I'll second weaponlight's recommendation of picking up one of those red SF L1's on ebay. That's a quality light for that price. Pick up an F04 beamshaper too.

What about a red LED that takes 2AA or 3AA?

It takes coin cells, but the Pelican on the Batterystation site (http://www.batterystation.com/cpf.htm) works great. I've had one for a year, used on weekends on my boat. Tiny, very bright for the size.

Hello, I have a Surefire G2 with a Surefire KL3 (finned model) in red led. I run
a Pila 168S rechargable in it. It is a favorite of mine as the beam is not to*tight
but is very good for reading street signs in bad weather. If you contact Surefire
they will tell you if they have any in stock. I paid about $62 if memory serves me..Good luck in your search...William *(tight=narrow)

Four red leds. 3 AA batteries. Aluminum body-- Looks like a mag-lite. Twist On. VERY Bright (I bought a dozen for our astronomy club). $10.50 each, free shipping. Also sold with a red body, but can't find where on their site.

http://www.allelectronics.com/cgi-bin/category.cgi?category=search&item=FL-5&type=store

If you're ok with a coin cell light, I'd go for a Photon Freedom. It's adjustable brightness and has a very bright HP/Agilent LED. Runs on a 2032 cell and battery life should be pretty good for most purposes. And it's tiny.

If you want a fancier 1AA light and can live with a twisty instead of a clickie try the Peak Kilimanjaro ( www.peakledsolutions.com ). Available in various metals, LED colors, etc. I think I saw something about their having some clickie lights in the works but I'm not sure. They also have AAA and 123 powered lights.

The old CMG Infinity with a red led was a nice light but the current Gerber version is sort of chintzy by comparison. If you can get an old one, go for it. The new ones are perfectly practical and functional, but if you're a connoisseur you might go for the (much more expensive) Peak version.

paulr said:

If you're ok with a coin cell light, I'd go for a Photon Freedom. It's adjustable brightness and has a very bright HP/Agilent LED. Runs on a 2032 cell and battery life should be pretty good for most purposes. And it's tiny.

Click to expand...

Paulr,
I've already got a Photon freedom, It's OK but I really want something brighter.

flash99dark said:

Hello, I have a Surefire G2 with a Surefire KL3 (finned model) in red led. I run a Pila 168S rechargable in it. It is a favorite of mine as the beam is not to*tight but is very good for reading street signs in bad weather. If you contact Surefire they will tell you if they have any in stock. I paid about $62 if memory serves me..Good luck in your search...William *(tight=narrow)

Click to expand...

flash99dark,
I've got a G2 with red filter on order at the moment, but I'll have a look at the KL3. Thanks

Thanks for all the replies guys.

I looked for a red SF L1 on eBay, but no joy. So for the moment I'm going to try the inova 24/7 as it has plenty of other functions. It will also give me a reason to keep looking for an L1 :naughty:.


Cheers

The Photon Freedom is about as bright as you're going to get in a single 5mm LED red light. If you want brighter, you need multiple LED's or a Luxeon. Red Luxeon's exist but I don't know of any commercial lights using them. You could get one from a modder, I'm sure.

You could get a Peak Matterhorn 3-led 1AAA with red leds. Unfortunately due to legal hassles they no longer make the 5-led 1AA or 7-led CR123.

You might be able to get an Inova X5 with red leds (2xCR123).

If you want a big light, you can get this with red leds:
http://www.batterystation.com/expedition1400.htm

I can recommend the red version of the Gerber Trio (twist tail though, you can use it in momentary due to play in the threads). It emits a very rich, bright red light and is a good size using 2 AAs.

As an aside, I've been looking for a single LED (flood) red light with click switch for late night bathroom trips, etc. Something for the bedstand- maybe 1AA sized, easy to turn on with one hand (the Infinities often are not)- I think LED lenser made one with 2 buttons, one for white and one for red that ran on 3AAAs but I don't have Fry's around me to check it out.

Oh yeah, I just remembered that Gerber came out with the "Tritac" which is roughly the same as the Trio but has a clicky tail switch instead of a twisty

These lights were just recommented to me in another thread, where I had asked for a dimmable red flashlight.

altoon said:

Rigel makes a dimming red led light specifically for astronomers, about $26. It uses a thumbwheel to adjust the brightness.
http://members.cox.net/rigelsys/rigelsys.html

ledmuseum.com's review of their model for aviators (white and red leds):
http://rememberedrats.home.att.net/rigel.htm

Click to expand...

Maybe try LED LENSER 7731 red pepper? it use only 3aaa can last 50h-70h