Personal flashlight thoughts

[Gary Hudson]

A Surefire L4 is just a tad over your budget. Maybe you could find a used one. There are some mods that fit the e2e/l4 body and are quite bright.

I have a McLux PR-T with a db917 converter powering a T rank Luxeon III emitter at 6 to 12 volts. You can buy a head like that for the e2e body and really impress your friends. Just don't tell them what you paid for it.

G.

 

[Geraldo]

I'm not a flashlight techno geek, so I can't give you any specs, but with two hurricanes and significant power loss (13 days after Frances, currently 6 days and counting after Jeanne), I think I've learned some practical things about lighting.

My wife and I carry E2es everywhere (while I stayed through Frances mine was on my person 24/7). Mine has a clickie tailcap, hers does not. I cannot imagine a better light. I used it to check damage during the eye, as well as every other mundane task. One nice feature I do know about is the lens, which does not melt when you use the light for a long time.

Another light we used a lot was an old Minimag. Not much light output, but it uses cheap batteries, which is a consideration if you're using it day in and day out like we were.

I didn't use my Arc AAA, but both of us used a small Princeton Tec led recently. Not much light, but it's good for finding things you set down and lost, or searching through the boxes of canned food to see what's for dinner.

Some other notes:
I carry the E2e whenever I leave home, day or night, wherever I'm going. One reason is that one day at work I was in the receiving department when an afternoon thunderstorm took out the power. There are no windows, and it was pitch black. I did have my Arc, but I kept thinking, "Of all the days not to carry the Surefire."

I was getting lunch yesterday and another customer saw my E2e, in what has become the usual conversation down here, he pointed to the light, and said, "No power?"

 

[Nathan S]

Now that Arc is no more ...

Arc is no more!? When did this happen?






edited to add that I just took a look at CPF and answered my own question.

Damn, that sucks. Arc had such great products, and great customer service, too. :grumpy:

 

[xsrdx]

Wow, I think about flashlights way too much...

Not at all, good points all around.

LED's have expanded the utility of handheld lighting, considerably - especially the 1-5w Luxeon lights.

I have about 35 flashlights, from Inova X5s to SureFire M3s, and each has a slightly different personality and intended use. 20 years ago, your maglite had to do it all.

Now, we've got a gazillion choices in as many categories.

I find the 1w Luxeon lights to have tremendous utility, my Inova XO and Princeton Tec Impact XL's have exceptional run times, and a very useful, clean, bright - but not too bright - indoor search beam. Close to the perfect utility light, with better light than the previous gen LED's and nearly the same runtime.

I have a number of HOLA equipped SF incans that are very, very bright, but their 20-30 minute runtime consigns them to "tactical" use, and most are dedicated to some self defense application.

My 65 lumen 2 cells, like the G2s, E2e's, and Streamlight Scorpion are either in the cars, in a few strategic spots around the house, or EDC in the case of the E2e. I still prefer the extended range of an incan for outdoor, and EDC, use, although ideally I like to have a low output LED like an X5 on hand in the event I need long term personal lighting.

I like my L4, but it's doesn't get very far outside, and it's (bright) runtime isn't much better than my E2e. It's an exceptional floodlight, especially for it's size and it does a decent job of combining nearly the output of an E2e, with the regulated, low output runtime of an X5.

I still have my old C and D maglites scattered around, in the garage, etc, but eventually they will get replaced with probably 1 or 3w luxeon LED lights, which have a longer runtime and a better light - or the nearly as flexible Streamlight Twin Task lights, like my 3C or 2L.

The problem I have with the TT lights, is the incan goes to he** pretty quickly with extended use, while the LED's just keep on trucking. So if you want long run time, don't expect to run it for hours on LED, and then switch to incan, because it won't be bright. After a few hours, it's effectively just another LED light. They're great when the batteries are new, though, and the 2L seems to maintain incan brightness better than the alkaline versions.