Flashlight to go with my Multitool.

K

kidwholaughs

Joined
Jan 17, 2004
Messages
1,189
Hey guys,

I know this is a bit off topic. But I commute about 1 hour in the subways of NYC. I always have a multi tool in the bag. One day last year, the lights in one of the subway cars went out when I was sitting in it. This made me realize that I need a flashlight to go with the multitool in the bag.
I am looking for a light durable long lasting light. The thing is, I really don't have a lot of money, spent it on food and rent.

I know some of you guys are very knowledgable on these things. Please refer me a light or a resource for flashlights.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
 
check out www.candlepowerforums.com, a forum dedicated to flashlight enthusiasts. i'm on there as 'kungfufyter' and have learned a lot from that site.

the newest technology in flashlights now are the high-efficiency LEDs, which are sold under the "Cree", "Seoul", and "Luxeon Rebel" brands. The older LEDs (typically made by the Luxeon company and found in many hiking flashlights today) are not cutting edge but are very good too.

a cheap, small, and bright light that I use (running on one AA battery) is the DX X.9, which can be found at www.dealextreme.com. I think they're sold out right now though.

check out the site first and then maybe post some requirements in terms of battery type, size, runtime, bulb, and see if anyone has any recommendations.

good luck!
 
Of course streamlight and surefire are good lights but I have had very good luck with Dorcy's led lights,found at wallmart etc. I have a couple of the 1aaa models led's that cost about $6,not a spot light but enough that I can easily walk a trail at night.I also have one of the larger 3aaa models and it's brighter than a 2d maglite.Their good inexpensive lights in my opinion.

lotoblades
 
I agree with Lotoblades. In the <$20 world, Dorcy is probably the best place to go for reasonable quality and durability. The $5 AAA keychain lights are fine, though I wouldn't give them more of a beating than keeping them on my keyring.

If you can go up to about $30, you can get a AAA Fenix or AA Civitor (same Chinese manufacturer) or a AA Maglite LED. The Fenixes and Civitor are pocket-sized; 2xAA Maglite LEDs are the size of a large marker.

Lighthound.com is my favorite domestic dealer (the owner has a great rep here and on Candlepower forums). If you can wait a bit, you can get good deals on lights direct from China from dealextreme.com and kaidomain.com (who also have good reps on the forums). Note that DealEx and Kai are in Hong Kong so their shipping takes about 2-3 weeks (in my mind, their cheap direct-from-China prices are worth the wait but then I already own a jillion flashlights :D).

If you buy from Lighthound, he'll throw in a decent quality keychain LED so you get two lights for the price of one!
 
Get a 2AA Mini-Maglite and fit it with a Nite Eyes Conversion. That will provide great bulb and battery life in a tough package. The LED conversion provides decent light too.
 
MG_Saldivar said:
I agree with Lotoblades. In the <$20 world, Dorcy is probably the best place to go for reasonable quality and durability. The $5 AAA keychain lights are fine, though I wouldn't give them more of a beating than keeping them on my keyring.

If you can go up to about $30, you can get a AAA Fenix or AA Civitor (same Chinese manufacturer) or a AA Maglite LED. The Fenixes and Civitor are pocket-sized; 2xAA Maglite LEDs are the size of a large marker.

Lighthound.com is my favorite domestic dealer (the owner has a great rep here and on Candlepower forums). If you can wait a bit, you can get good deals on lights direct from China from dealextreme.com and kaidomain.com (who also have good reps on the forums). Note that DealEx and Kai are in Hong Kong so their shipping takes about 2-3 weeks (in my mind, their cheap direct-from-China prices are worth the wait but then I already own a jillion flashlights :D).

If you buy from Lighthound, he'll throw in a decent quality keychain LED so you get two lights for the price of one!
Click to expand...


+ 1 for Lighthound and the Chinese keychain LED lights. They're great. I own a small business and I purchased 250 of them from Lighthound, had 'em pad printed with our company name and 800 number, and give them out as business gifts. I carry one on my keychain all the time and it's very durable and bright. I am never without a light that way! Our customers and referral sources love 'em, too!

- Tim
 
For cheapies:

Keychain lights can be had at dealextreme for 0.46$ each.

Wal-Mart and Target have a good selection of low/mid end lights that are small enough to carry and have decent runtime and decent brightness. No glass lenses or full regulation though. Prices are generally between 10-30$, look for lights that are 1 or 3 Watt Luxeon models and stay with some of the good brand names such as Dorcy, RiverRock, Mag-Lite and Ray-o-vac.

If you're in the mood to save and buy a better light than you can do no better than the Streamlight Sidewinder to pair with your multi-tool.
 
If your looking for an inexpensive & reliable flashlight to pair with a multi, I'd have to go with the keychain lights they guys have mentioned. I've attached an X-gen LED "fuzion" light to my LM-Micra. Its about the size of an average thumb (maybe even smaller) runs on a small (inexpensive) button-type battery and throws a good visible light to about 12-15 feet.

Its the perfect combination for pocket carry, IMHO.
 
I have a cheap Garrity LED keychain light on my keys that is bright, handy, and about the size of half a stick of gum.

Yesterday I impulsively bought a Petzl E-Lite. It is a waterproof headlight about the size of watch face that has several settings (low, high, white, red, strobe), 45 hour battery life, and a storage case a bit larger than a Zippo with a beltloop. $29 bucks at EMS.
 
Not so cheap, but extremely good Petzl E-Lite headlight. Waterproof, ultralight, red and flashing as well as white. Much superior beam to the ultralight Black Diamond Ion headlight.
 
For ten bucks off batteryjunction you could get a Photon Freedom, the BMW of keychain lights. Tips, though...keep it in the neck-holster attachment to cover the switch so it doesn't come on in your pocket. I have several in different colors, but I actually wear them around on the neck-carrier like a necklace casually. If you want the white model, wait a month, they're upgrading the LEDs sometime in October to double brightness. The Dealextreme clones are good if you're okay with going through them like tissues, not very reliable either but cheap.

Actually have an E+Lite on my desk typing this. Wonderful little thing, heard good things about it from ultralight hikers and EMTs, the marketing as a back-up light is an underestimation if you ask me. The belt holster is nice, but the thing itself is small enough to stash in a multi-holster if you use one, an EMT once mentioned he keeps it in his change pocket. At the time it might be a bit out of your price range, and you probably don't want a headlamp for the geek factor it has. The Freedom has a cool clip gadget included that allows you to turn it into a headlamp if you need to.

I'd recommend CPF as well, started there way before bladeforums, good guys who know their stuff.
 
I like the Gerber Infinity Ultra Task LED Flashlight. It is very lightweight and has a very long runtime. Usually the battery starts leaking before the light gives out. It runs on a single AA battery. The Inova X1 and X5 are also excellent. For higher-powered LED lights check out the Surefire line. There are also excellent high-powered incandescent flashlights, but usually the runtime of LED lights is longer.

Richard
 
If you can handle something a little larger (the size of a can of Red Bull), strongly consider the Streamlight Propolymer 4AA Luxeon. It costs around $25 at Fox-Intl.com (and elsewhere), and runs 5 hours with no diminished output. It is bulletproof, and will feed on rechargeables too. Throwy and floody. You need something with a long runtime, IMO. Were it me, I would add a long-running keychain light like an Arc AAA.

Edit: another long-running one is the Fenix EO. Its a tiny AAA light that runs 8 hours. Doesn't make a much light, but in total darkness it would be plenty. www.fenix-store.com. I carry one of these (with 4 batteries) in my vehicle's PSK (personal survival kit).
cheers
 
About a week ago I bought a Gerber Firecracker light to carry in my laptop bag. It uses 1 AA cell for a claimed 5 hour run time. I'm quite pleased with it. The beam will reach 25 yards easily. It was $20 at REI.
 
I have had alot of success with a dorcy light that I bought at wally world. I bought because it was small, bright, and has a handy pocket/gear clip. Kind of looks like a Surefire nockoff. This is the light I keep on my tac vest and when walking the dog at night. I have a mini maglite w/LED upgrade that I keep paired with a multi in a nite eyes belt pouch. I like the the mini mag because its bright and because it has a red filter for map reading and clearing jammed weapons at night. I also keep a 3 cell mag w/LED in the truck "just because". By far my most carried handiest light is my inova red LED on my keys. I can't even begin to say how handy this little devil is. When I am in the field I keep it on my dog tags. With its blinker on it can be a real attention getter when jogging at night. These are just a few of my favorite flash lights, not the most expensive but they work for me.
 
I carry a Fenix P1D-CE, multi-mode Cree LED light. It runs on a single CR123, which I get for less than $2 each at my local Surefire dealer. It's like a flashlight multitool! Medium, High, Low, Strobe, and SOS modes. IIRC it's a solid 5-star light over at flashlightreviews.com
I've also got an ArcAAA Premium on a carabiner hanging from a belt-loop. Hard to go wrong with that either, also a 5-star light at FLR.com. Both were pricey though... around $50 each.
 
I'm a big fan of the AAA Dorcy at 5 bucks. I've had one in my pocket for 2 years now, used a little every night. Great battery life, decent enough for me to give the corgi her last walk of the night in the woods. Sometimes I'll have a AA mini mag that has the nite-eze converstion for dog walking, but the little AAA Dorcy is always in my pocket, so it gets used for night dog walking alot.

Being in a suburb of Washington D.C. we ride the metro downtown often. Twice in the last couple years there was a metro breakdown, and we had to use the emergency catwalk to walk to the next station. The Dorcy did just fine. The wife also carries one in her purse.

At 5 or 6 dollers, you can buy a couple and stash them around. Same thing with the AA mini mag with the 5 doller nite-eze LED conversion. Ive gotten such good service from the Dorcy and converted minimags, I don't see spending alot of money on a flashlight. Technology is getting cheap, and unless you're in law enforcement or the military, how much do you really need an expensive light?
 
If you're looking for a general purpose/emergency light, runtime is better than brightness, I'd reccomend the following;

Inova X1 2nd generation; it's a 5mm based light, has a runtime of around 20 hours per battery (one AA cell) and has a decently useful floody beam, they're getting hard to find though, as Inova has "upgraded" the emitter to a high-output LED that's marginally brighter, but the runtime *plummets* to 2 hours, the one you want has a 5mm LED sitting in a shallow reflector, the new high-power model has a deep reflector and small emitter

Inova X5; this is a 5 5mm LED cluster light, uses 2 CR123a Lithium cells and also has a 20 hour runtime, it's much brighter than the X1, and has a nice, wide floody beam

a third option would be a Fenix L1T 2.0, a 1AA light, this one is a two-level light, you get a 15 lumen "low", which has around a 15 hour runtime and is bright enough for general purpose use, it also has a 90 lumen "High" mode that gives you about 1.5 hours, you switch modes by tightening/loosening the head, the Fenix gives you both brightness and runtime in a single light

but bear in mind that Two is One, One is None, always good to have a backup light

three great keychain lights are the Arc AAA-P, gives you around 5 lumens for 6 hours or so, and has incredibly good fit-and-finish, the Fenix E0 a less expensive version of the Arc, with longer runtime (20 hours) and a little less light, but the F&F isn't as nice, or the LRI Photon Freedom series of "Squeezylights", the drawback to the button-cell squeezylights is they run down the batteries quickly and button cells are inconvenient

keep any one of these three on your keychain, and you'll have an emergency backup light when you need one.....
 
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