LED Flashlight

There are lots of good LED flashlights, I own a few. Which specific light are you looking at?
 
LED flashlights can vary in quality of manufacture just like anything else. Inova comes to mind as one of the good ones.

Two main qualities of these flashlights appeal to me:

1) LEDs have a ridiculously long life--they last longer than any comparable bulb. Chances are good if you own an LED flashlight the light emitting diode will last longer than you will.

2) LEDs draw very little power. Compared to standard bulb flashlights which last only 6-7 hours on a set of batteries, or Surefire flashlights which have a high intensity light and last only an hour on a set of batteries (depending on the model) the typical LED flashlight can run on dozens of hours on a single set of batteries.

The downside is that although they can be bright, individual LED's don't provide the same degree of illumination as bulbs. Manufacturers have compensated for this by designing multi-LED fllashlights to increase the brightness of the light they produce.
 
There are now 3 watt LED's that produce more light than incandescents formerly thought to be very bright.

Quality varies tremendously, as noted above.

www.candlepowerforums.com is a good source of comparative reviews.

I like the 1.5 watt 2 x AA sold under the River Rock brand at Target as a good combination of brightness and battery life. Compared to my Streamlight Scorpion, the 1.5 River Rock is brighter, uses much cheaper and more available batteries, is more durable, and gives a high level of light much longer from a set of batteries.

While the cheapest LED lights are not a good value, value is not solely linked to price.

Easy to use conversion kits are available for under $5.00 at Walmart that convert a MiniMax 2xAA to LED. The level of light is not world class, but it is a very useful level for camping -- more than from the original MiniMax bulbs --and the batteries last 10X as long with no realistic chance of bulb breakage.
 
Thomas Linton said:
There are now 3 watt LED's that produce more light than incandescents formerly thought to be very bright.

Quality varies tremendously, as noted above.

www.candlepowerforums.com is a good source of comparative reviews.

I like the 1.5 watt 2 x AA sold under the River Rock brand at Target as a good combination of brightness and battery life. Compared to my Streamlight Scorpion, ther 1.5 River Rock is brighter, uses much cheaper and more available batteries, is more durable, and gives a high level of light much longer from a set of batteries.

While the cheapest LED lights are not a good value, value is not solely linked to price.

Easy to use conversion kits are available for under $5.00 at Walmart that convert a MiniMax 2xAA to LED. The level of light is not world class, but it is a very useful level for camping -- more than from the priginal MiniMax bulbs --and the batteries last 10X as long with no realistic chance of bulb breakage.
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There are some very good deals on LED's if you look around like Thomas says.

You can also spend a small fortune if youd like.

Skam
 
Sometimes we get carried away with power too. A Gerber infinity (CMG) will be perfectly adequate for finding fire wood, trails and general illumination around a camp at night time. It uses 1 AA and runs for 100 hours.
Others got up to 85 lumens but only run for a couple of hours and use expensive batteries. I have found that anything over 70 lumens is overkill, in fact anything over 40 is probably too much when you consider what you are using it for. Its cool to highlight things a long way off but they tend to be too bright for the things I use them for. YMMV
 
The main problem I have found with LEDs is they are pretty much mostly flood or mostly throw, I haven't found too many that combine both. An incan on the other hand has excellent throw and flood. The other problem with LEDs is, if something happens to the regulation setup in it and the light won't work, you are out of luck as far as field repairing it. Incans could be fixed or atleast rigged to work as long as you have a spare good bulb and spare batteries. Personally I carry a Surefire E1e with KL4 head, which has ok throw with excellent flood and I carry a Bulb and the E1e head with the spare batteries. If I want/need more light I just switch over to an E2e body and bulb with all the exact same other stuff. Then I have all my bases covered.:thumbup:
 
The mini-mag led/tail click switch kit is great.
The original mini-mag bulb is quite fragile. The led's are as bright and much more sturdy and will last for a LONG time. The clicky tail switch in the combo kit is great too. I hate having to use two hands to turn on a mini-mag. It's no where near as well built as a surefire but it does the job.
 
There are some very good LED lights. I suggest browsing the flashlightreviews.com site - very informative.

Personally I think a Luxeon light is the way to go, as these are gettin very affordable. The other I saw a "tactical-sized" (2xcr123a) Luxeon light with multiple lighting modes and a aluminum body go for about 24 Euros at a local store. It looked like a quality product. If you decide on a regular led light, I highly recommend getting one with some kind of optics to concentrate the beam. Leds give a wide flood, wider that necessary, and the light washes out over any distance. I've had a Nuwai stretch light, sold here under the Retki brand, and it was very bright, had a nice beam - not too tight or wide - and had a very long runtime. I used it while in the army, and it worked great. Only thing that could have made it better would be a current regulator circuit to make it evenly bright over the whole runtime.

I've also had a UK 2AAA eLed, which had a good runtime, solid regulation, nice beam, but it wasn't quite bright enough for my use, so I sold it. It would make a great backup light. Currently I have a very power efficient, though simple, headlight with 2 white leds and convex lenses. The beam is very bright for a 2 led light and the beam quality is damn good. It also has a single red led (no lens) for night vision. I bought it on sale, and though the construction is a bit cheesy and not really waterproof, I really like this light a lot.

For Luxeon lights, Nuwai and Streamlight have products of very good value. Nuwai lights are often rebranded, and are usually not expensive at all. I'm not a big fan of lithium batteries, but apparently Peak and Surefire have some really good Luxeon lights. Lithium batteries have long shelf life so they are a good choice for a disaster kit light though.

I currently have a AL-91AA sold here under the Everest brand. Other than a slightly tighter beam than I'd like, it's seems to be a grade A light. Very nice construction, and for under 10 Euros, very good value. It replaced my 2AAA eLed.
 
the gerber tx 3.0 (or lx 3.0) ar effing bright and take regular AA batteries...I believe they are about 50 lumes...a little bulky though
 
The Gerber is not regulated, however. Plus, a 3 watt bulb necessarily uses up the batteries faster than a lesser output bulb. No free lunch, d#%@ it!
 
I agree with Temper, we tend to get carried away with the power thing. I have a minimag that I bought the 4.95$ niteze conversion for and it works great when I walk the dog at night in the woods by the house. Heck, I've even used my little Photon 2 for that and I can follow the trail around the woods just fine.

I like the Gerber Infinity, and it may be my new dog walking light. Enough light to get the job done, and still compact to drop in my jeans pocket. Great battery life too.

I prefer small and handy rather than being able to spotlight something a hundred yards off. And I want to be able to use standard AA or AAA batteries I can get anywhere.

I've also had very good luck with the Dorcy AAA from Walmart for 5 bucks. Great little light that gets the job done.

Every night I give the dog her last walk of the day about 1030PM so every night I try out my lights in the very dark woods in back of the house. If I can use a small pocket size light to walk the path I'm happy.
 
I find that my converted MiniMag gives a level of light perfectly adequate for chores around a campsite.
 
Overall, the only problem so far with the current LED technology is the issue of "penetration" (or depth of view) or punch to cut thru fog, smoke and haze as well as the scattering effect other ambient lights have on them. I had to opportunity to compare somebody's Surefire Z3 with my Nuwai Q3. The result was that although the Q3 gave-off a respectable amount of light with a white tint compared with the Z3's yellowish one, when I shined them in the woods, I was able to distiguish shape and outlines of leave and branches better with the incan.

This may not be important for rergular folk and usage but this is the main reason why there still isn't a LED-based searchlight for SAR that comparable with regular incans. To each his own.

That being said, when it comes to energy efficiency, runtime, overall durability and longevity, the LED's have it. There are some quite poweful models (the Luxeon-based ones) out there and if you drop them, there is no bulb to break.

My recommendations:
Pelican M6 (2 x CR123)
Nuwai Q3 (1 x CR123)
Fenix L1/L1P (1 x AA)
you could also convert the cheapest Surefire, a G2, or a very cheap Brinkman Maxfire LX ($16 - $20 I think from Walmart) to a LED module from Bugout Gear.
 
skammer said:
There are some very good deals on LED's if you look around like Thomas says.

You can also spend a small fortune if youd like.

Skam
Click to expand...

Truer words were never spoke...I've been pretty impressed with the new River Rock and Dorcy lights now being sold at Target. Pretty good bang for the buck IMO. The suggestion to check out http://candlepowerforums.com/ is a good one also. You may find something useful on their buy/sell/trade forums.
Jim
 
Thomas Linton said:
I find that my converted MiniMag gives a level of light perfected adequate for chores around a campsite.
Click to expand...

Could'nt agree more. I've been very surprised at the good amout of light from a 4.95 conversion. I had a couple of minimags around so it was natural to try it out. In the woods at night it gives me a real good soft flood of blue/white light that show the path a good 25-30 yard ahead, with good side spill to each side.

If I was on a camping trip with the converted minimag as my only light, I would feel very well equipted. It's become my stand by dog walking light.
 
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