Could use some Advice on flashlights

dericdesmond

dericdesmond

Gold Member
Joined
Sep 10, 2007
Messages
15,538
Hello all :)

The knife collection is plentiful these days :D Could always use more (who couldnt), but it may be time to get into something else, only have 1 mediocre flashlight so thinking about expanding. I do a bit a searchin, and holy moly, a few options is an understatement :eek:

So I come to my fellow knife junkies. Looking for the staples, maybe a few high end ones. Mainly stuff that is halfway easy to carry comfortably. The 110's/delicas/military/0350/sebenza of lights. Say I have $300-500 to blow on em, what would you recommend to a newb like myself?

Thanks in advance

-Eric
 
I was a Surefire guy for several years. I owned 9-10 flashlight plus i had Scout lights on 5-6 rifles. I wouldnt even look at any other flashlight i was such a Surefire snob. Then one day i bought a Fenix E01 and couldnt believe the quality i got for just 12 bucks. I picked up a few more different fenix lights over the next few months and was hooked. I have since sold half of my Surefire lights and invested in more Fenix lights. I couldnt be happier. In my opinion they are Surefire quality at a fraction of the price.

They have a ton of different models to fit your needs ranging from $10 to $300.
 
Howdy,
I also have a couple of very good Fenix.
The thing to do is to get to know the guys at Candle Power Forums. They are just as devoted to lights as we are to blades. And yes, it can get bad. The addiction that is.
Cheers....
 
Fenix and Olight have both been very good to me.

Problem is, it's like buying a computer... only to find out one twice as cool comes out two weeks later.


The CR2 battery powered NITECORE's are my favorite. Bright as hell and tiny... Great EDC lights. Tough as nails too.


.
 
I have several Fenix that I EDC and I like them, they are like the Kershaw of lights. Surefire is like the CRK of lights. Everything I'm going to tell you is somewhat of a broad generalization though. Light technology has gotten very complicated.

Most good lights use Cree LED's these days. There is very little reason to buy incandescent for most uses.

You also have to decide what battery types to look for. The best lights used to use CR123 Lithium batteries because 2 of them would supply a good 6V which would work well with incandescent or LED. With alkaline batteries you needed at least 3 to do a similar job, and as they got old the voltage would drop and performance would drop. But now most lights use electronic circuits to boost the voltage so you can get pretty good lights that run off of a single alkaline battery. There is still an advantage to the CR123 Lithium batteries but if you go that way you have to learn where to buy them. If you buy them from the local drug store they will cost as much as $8 each, but on the internet you can easily find them for less than $2 each. If you go for a lot of use then you should go with rechargeable Lithiums such as the 18650. Some lights that use a pair of CR123's can work OK with a single rechargeable 18650. If you don't want to go to this trouble then there are good lights available now that use alkaline batteries.

Lights have evolved a lot in the past 5 years or so. When LED lights first got big they used Lumileds Luxeon LED's. Now they use Cree LED's which provide much more output.

Here are my current user lights-
The top PD32 uses a pair of CR123's and is very bright.
The middle LD01 uses a single AAA battery and is barely bigger than the battery itself. It is amazingly bright for its size and will put to shame a lot of the good multi-battery lights of 5 years ago.
The bottom P1 is an older light that uses a single CR123 battery and is barely bigger than the battery itself. It still works well but is outclassed in output by current models.

DSC_6618b.jpg



This shot shows relative size of the lights and the batteries.

DSC_6617b.jpg
 
i would say first decide on what batteries you want to use, cr123, aa, aaa, rechargeables, or specialty batteries like cr2. it's much easier to care for a few lights if they share a battery type. next, think about what uses you need and places you want to store them. then you getto move on to manufacturers and ui, and it gets really complicated (or really fun!)

just as an example, i standardized on cr123 batteries for longer runtime and a 10 year shelf life.
next, i wanted a light in my tool kit, car, home, and bob.

the toolkit got a surefire lx2. 15 and 200 lumens, 2xcr123 package. two stage thumb button, and you can twist it to leave it on.

car got a sunwayman m11r. 4, 60, and 180 lumens, 1xcr123 package. it's positively tiny, uses a magnetic ring on the body to control, and a quarter twist will lock out the controls, letting it sit for ages without draining the battery.

home gets a sunwayman m30r. 60, 250, 800 lumens, 3xcr123 package. relatively tiny hand held light cannon. i especially like it because it's short, having all three batteries next to each other instead of long. uses the same magnetic ring system as the m11r.

bob got a surefire saint minimus. 0-100 lumen 1xcr123 headlamp. single twist control with full variable lighting, like a dimmer dial in your house. figured in any scenario where i'll need to use a bob, i'll want my hands free.

those are all great lights, but not necessarily recommending them. this is just one example of what you might want to setup around your house. hopefully this is helpful and not just annoyingly long... :) happy researching!
 
Picked up a Fenix tk35 the other day... unbelievably bright. 860 lumens at 30,000 candela. Not very easy to carry though.

For a good edc light, look at a surefire backup, streamlight protac 2l, or fenix pd32. For a higher powered, slightly larger bodied light, I would opt for the streamlight protac HL. Great quality for the money, and you won't find another light in it's size class with near that output, other than a surefire fury which lacks a pocket clip and has a polymer lens.

Definitely go LED.. especially with these new XM-L bulbs that they are cramming in to these tiny lights. Xenon is obsolete. Also, look into rechargeables... 18650's will save you a lot of money in the long run. The protac HL is not 18650 compatible.
 
I really like protected 18650 batteries and their lights. They can really save you money and crank out power. There are some very easy but serious do's and don'ts safety rules that you need to know however. More than a few have learned the hard way. Do your homework and everything should be fine.
Regards...
 
These are the pocket sized flashlights I have tried

fenix ld01 - i like it a lot but I'm not into different settings, I just like 'em to come on when I need to see something
fenix ld15 - I like this one a lot but it's also a twisty, still trying to drink the koolaid on that one but so far no luck
streamlight microstream - less on quality compared to fenix, but it's a good light, easily replaceable, and it has a clicky
 
Thus far, my favorite light for EDC has been the Jetbeam Raptor RRT-0 XML. It's a very small, pocket-friendly light that only uses one CR123 and blasts out 550 lumens. In addition, the infinitely adjustable ring is very convenient for adjusting brightness on the fly. They go for around $100-$120 but worth every penny IMO. Definitely pick up some IMR cells and a charger though as it won't get to that 550 lumens on normal 123's. I've tried a few Fenix lights, a Lumens Factory light, modded Maglites and this beats them all hands down.

RRT-0XML4.jpg

RRT-0XML6.jpg

RRT-0XML8.jpg

Included AA extender tube
RRT-0XML3.jpg
 
Fenix LD01. Goes with my everywhere.

And if you take a bag with you anywhere (messenger bag, briefcase, backpack, laptop bag), I would recommend that you always have a Petzl Tactikka Plus in that bag because it's very light and hardly takes up any space.
 
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Oh wow! Jus woke and am
Excited to get home from work later to read all the excellent advice. Thanks for taking the time fellas. Will be back later tonite.

Cheers
Eric
 
There's no flashlight that is the equivalent of a Sebenza. LED technology has been advancing so quickly that the flashlight you buy today will be obsolete in just a few years. If it were me, I'd buy a good, single AAA, a single AA or 123, and a 2 cell AAA/123. All your bases will be covered, and in four or five years, do it all again to get the lasted technology.

Take a look at Zebralight. A Zebralight isn't "tactical" but can be very useful with an excellent user interface (ui.)
 
Scott Free said:
LED technology has been advancing so quickly
Click to expand...

Thats the truth. When I first got into flashlights - which were my first hoarding obsession, followed by guns, knives and multitools - the Surefire 6P was state of the art. It had an incandescent bulb that burned out after a few hours, began to diminish in output immediately, and broke if you dropped it. It put out 60 lumens, and at the time was the coolest thing ever because it made more light than a Mag-lite but was much smaller. I had (and still have) several.

Fast forward a few years, and my current favorite non-EDC light is the Fenix TK35. Its the size of a small Mag-lite, but cranks out around 800 lumens. A standard incandescent Mag-lite is around 40 lumens. Its LED will last virtually forever, and its regulated so the light output does not diminish as its rechargeable batteries drop in power. On my belt right now is a Quark Mini 123, which is smaller than a 35mm film canister and probably cranks 200 lumens.

So some wise counsel might be to buy what you like from one of the major manufacturers (Surefire, Fenix, Quark, and many others), use it and love it while you have it, and realize that if you are a real flashlight freak, in 3 years (or 6 months) it will be in the back of your junk drawer because something smaller and brighter and "better" has emerged. Thats just the nature of LED technology. My 12 year old Sebenza works and feels just like it did when I got it, but my flashlights from 12 years ago are gathering dust.

20120709_162559-1.jpg

Though many choices abound, among my current favorites is the Fenix TK35. With 2x rechargeable AW 18650 batteries and charger (purchased separately), it will probably run around $160. The light by itself, which can feed on 4x CR123 alkaline or 2x 18650 rechargeable batteries, is around $110. But it will make you giggle like a Catholic school girl the first time you crank it off on a dark night.

IMG_1610.jpg

Quark Mini X 123. Small for EDC. Multiple output levels for extended runtime or cornea-melting output. Strobe. Feeds on alkaline or rechargeable CR123. Not spendy. A Powernoodle favorite.

f7c515f5.jpg

Surefire 6P and variants from back in the day.
 
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I think SureFire is worth it if you are hard on your stuff. I used to carry and baby my lights. When I started using and abusing them in times of emergency (http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/entry.php/138-Average-guy-above-average-toys ) I discovered that I really really like SureFire. Carrying a Fury at the moment 500 lumens is quite bright!
 
Have you tried rechargeables in that Fury (2xRCR123, 17670 or 18650)? I have read conflicting reports on candlepowerforums.
 
powernoodle said:
Have you tried rechargeables in that Fury (2xRCR123, 17670 or 18650)? I have read conflicting reports on candlepowerforums.
Click to expand...

No but I'd be interested in a link to what you have read. I'm quite happy with it as is though.

Im not sure I'd say I'm
A snob about sf (or anyone else is for liking them) They are great, but for producing a beam of light there are NUMEROUS other options...it's just when you start doing other things with it.
 
Just read all the posts. YOWZA! SOunds like a bunch of computer talk if ya ask me :p Dont feel like doin much studyin (beer 30) so diving in head first. Up tp 3 in about 20 minutes. Gonna get a few more beers in me and buy some more. The omes I bought arent too pricey. Ill put them through the #s and if they dont work how i like, to the ex they go. All buy it nows on ebay. Sticking to ones that seem to sell alot.

So far
Fenix pd32 for $59 tmd
Fenix LD01 for $35 tmd
Jetbeam ba10 for $35 tmd
eta
Surefire P2X-B-BK Fury for $109 tmd (wth was I thinkin thats a nice spyderco!!!?)
fenix ld15 $40 tmd

Thanks again for all the input guys. I cant imagine there being any more info Id need to know but Im sure thats far from the truth judging by the apparent enthsiam for these bright things :thumbup:

Ill be baahck

eta-oh and powernoodle, those old ones in the last pic are one of the only 2 lights ive ever owned. That sucker went the distance. When the batteries finally died, I gave it away in a contest here. Kinda regret not buyin more batteries for it and keepin it :D
 
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