What is most important factor in your light purchase?

Just curious as to what everyone looks for. Gotta keep in mind that tastes change so whatever the results are results for the moment as folks can change their minds in the future. However this should give a good indication as to where trends stand for the time being.

Quality.

I might be looking for a light to do a certain job, so having certain features is important. However, it is not as simple as the light having the feature or not. Usually you can choose from "the real deal" or a multitude of cheap knockoffs. I have regretted buying immitators so much that I pretty much go for the real deal, even when I have to eat ramen to save up for it.

Scott

The most important factor that is involved with all my purchases is quality. Even if I'm spending $10, I want a quality product for the money. Therefore I choose manufacturer.

Yeah it depends on what it's going to be used for, but I always look for quality so I'll choose manufacturer.

I'd have voted for weather resistance ( if not outright waterproofness). Backpacking/hiking is when a light REALLY counts for me and the ability to shrug off rain and mud sit pretty high on my list.

I guess Quality..so I voted Manufacturer..

The other factors are all important..but they change priority depending on the purpose of the light.

I can't vote for just one factor in this poll. My factors would mainly involve: brightness, size, battery, and cost.

Good that you posted the vote poll, but I think that you might need to make one new vote... where people can choose different Manufacturers.

It would also be interesting to know if people want to use cold white, white or warm white lights.

I buy lights for lots of reasons, but the COST for what I'm getting is what swings my decision to buy. Sometimes I'll buy things I don't need (or maybe even want) if the cost is low enough. If that Sears sale of Streamlight 1W Tasklights for $6+ each had been in stock, I probably would have gotten a bunch of them just because I couldn't stand not getting them, even though I have a number of similar lights I hardly ever use.
:shrug:

"ability to use lithium ion cells." Not sure if this fell under "battery type" so I didn't check it.

A wise man said, "Whenever someone makes a list, he leaves something out."

I live on a "fixed" income so I need to streach my dollars.

Paul_in_Maryland said:

"ability to use lithium ion cells." Not sure if this fell under "battery type" so I didn't check it.

A wise man said, "Whenever someone makes a list, he leaves something out."

Click to expand...

:laughing: Oh so true! Yeah I thought about having left something out, but the whole idea is to get a general idea of choice determinaton. BTW I would say your factor falls under "Battery Type", as you base your decision on ability to use lith cells.

I will admit that now that I think about it, quality should have been entered, however that one can fall under "Manufacturer", i.e. knock off or real deal (as previously stated). Then there are those who only like SL, or SF, etc.
Another example, you like quality but don't stick to one name brand, you may find appeal in that an item is at "the right price" and still get standard you expect. Well that would be price.
I just didn't want to get too invovlved in options.

Just do the best you can or make an educated guess, or make none at all. This is not meant to be an all emcompassing end all for everyone to know exactly what is involved. Also one can post if they would like to add comments.

I mostly like single cell, 2xAAA, 2xAA and 3xAAA lights so I guess I'd have to say that size is more important for me... I'm about done with buying new lights larger than 2xAA.

A lot of folks get really hung up on brightness and this is reflected by the results of the poll... and I guess on an extremist website such as this, this is to be expected. But I find it ironic that in actual emergency situations, runtime is likely to be very important and it wasn't even an option.

I guess for me, it's size, quality, then a balance between runtime and brightness.

Basically I want everything!

Cheap old Turtle votes for cost. I assume, hopefully, that competition will keep the quality as high as the price allows.

Geoff

In order
1.Battery (AA prefered, CR123 at worse to me or those rare types...)
2.Runtime (Always good, unless its 0 power)
3.Brightness (I want to see the BEAM of my light going through the air on a humid light hitting my neighbors house 25ish feet away at minimal)
4."Some form of regulation" (Boost, whatever.)
5.Preferablly able to withstand falls. (Like 2 storys to soft carpet, 6 feet to concrete, etc while taking no or very few scratches)
6.Not cruddy artifiact beam.
7.Selectable levels of brightness.
8.Warranty/Quality (HDS, ARC, etc)
9.Price (Not trying to go over hundreds is hard...)
10.Form factor (I like a mediumish light smaller than a M*g AA but somewhat large enough to hold comfortably.)

cratz2 said:

I mostly like single cell, 2xAAA, 2xAA and 3xAAA lights so I guess I'd have to say that size is more important for me... I'm about done with buying new lights larger than 2xAA.

A lot of folks get really hung up on brightness and this is reflected by the results of the poll... and I guess on an extremist website such as this, this is to be expected. But I find it ironic that in actual emergency situations, runtime is likely to be very important and it wasn't even an option.

I guess for me, it's size, quality, then a balance between runtime and brightness.

Basically I want everything!

Click to expand...

I dunno, your's is a toss up between battery type or size would be my guess.
Also wouldn't a longer runtime be a feature? Just my $0.02:thinking:

Now that my basic needs are taken care of, lights for work, lights for vehicles, lights for emergancy kits, etc. etc. etc. I now pick my lights based on the "coolness" factor. If I got to have it, I buy it. I'm beyond rational justification of a purchase. I already have more lights than I need. My backups have backups.

Its good to be a "Flashaholic!"

kelmo

I'll have to go with Roy on this one too. I figure out what I want the light for, how much I want to spend, and then look for candidates.

That said, I just bought a SF U2 :thinking: :huh: It's pretty much the ultimate light I could find that'll do what I want it for, and last a loooooong time (at that price, it better!).

A company that manufactures quality products is my most important factor when it comes to making any light purchase. Price is a very close second.

I hope no one base their buying decision on a single factor. It will always be a tradeoff between several factors, what factors matter the most will also depend on what the light is for. When buying lights for myself, cost is probably the factor least important, I rather buy one good expensive light I'm happy with than a bunch of cheap ones.

Btw,three important factors were left out from the poll: Runtime, weight and looks.
For me Runtime is the most important factor for any light.

Sigbjoern