Flashlight help
 

I need help with flashlight information.

I want to purchase some high quality flashlights that will basically last me a lifetime. Not these cheapo china-wares that you get at walmart. Obviously I know surefire makes nice lights, are they the best?

Which model do I want, which models are better then others? Also is it safe to assume that the LED versions of their flashlights won't have the same light penetrating power as the incandescent versions? (P6 LED vs the P6 incandescent) even though they report similar lumens (or even with the LED are higher lumens).

Which models should I focus on? I want a small light to accompany my sidearm on my belt, and I want one that I can stock up batteries for SHTF/bugging out (are lithium batteries since they store...not a rechargeable one...though that might be a thought as a backup with a small solar recharger but not what I'm looking for right now)


Basically I know nothing about flashlights! Please help enlighten me!

Re: Flashlight help
 

Lots of info here: http://www.candlepowerforums.com/

Re: Flashlight help
 

great another forum to get lost on....











but seriously, thanks! I'll have to look there for some information

Re: Flashlight help
 

Id say first and foremost get a good model Sure fire.

I have a Sure Fire L2 Digital LumaMax and I LOVE it.

It has two illumination settings, 60 lumens and 120 lumens with a momentary push button, or constant-on swith/screw cap. Totaly sealed, made of good quality light weight alloys, cost a pretty penny though.
http://www.brightguy.com/products/Su...Flashlight.php

Its the only sure fire I have, only one I've ever needed. Got an old mag light thats pretty good too, but things so big you could use it as a crutch or a car jack.

Re: Flashlight help
 

Cree LED technology is the shite, yup, it's Chinese. Go check out Dealextreme read the reviews, their Romisen and Cree brand lights are very good. Candlepower is a great forum, lot's of guys there buy from dealextreme. Yes I have Surefire, stream light and all the other spensive models but I use my Romisen and Cree the most....I use the rechargeable 16340 880 mAh 3.6 volt......18650 2500mAh 3.7 volt and AA size's. You'll find all the features that Surefire has on these lights at a fraction of the cost, and yes, they are ruggedly built.

Re: Flashlight help
 

When I bought my Maxpedition stuff, I also got one of these little lights. It is awesome! It is very bright. And very sturdy. Not plastic. It hooks on your mollie bags or will clip on a pocket, for a hands free.

http://www.maxpedition.com/store/pc/...80_general.jpg
http://www.maxpedition.com/store/pc/...&idproduct=511
http://www.maxpedition.com/store/pc/...34_general.jpg

I bought several mag lights at wally world for 8.00. Just to have one in every drawer! I like them because they are cheap but bright!

I also got some head lamps. I liked this one because it did not have that jock strap look for the band. It is a retractable band. It works pretty good, and I have read by it at night.
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...500_AA270_.jpg

This is a cool flashlight... Found it by accident at Costco and had 3 sizes to the package for like 15.00. I have not found them that cheap again.
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...500_AA280_.jpg
http://g-ec2.images-amazon.com/image..._emergency.jpg

Re: Flashlight help
 

I have a Led Lenser. I had heard from people they were very good and they were right. Light output is very high, higher than the equivelant Maglite. The chassis is very robust. I have a friend who works security and had tried both. Thinks the LedLenser is much better, takes the knocks and battery life is longer because of the LED technology.

Comes with a nice and strong holster made from canvas or something. I have a P14. Comes with hi beam - low beam and wide focus - narrow focus.

Don't know if you get these in the US but well worth the effort. I don't think you would regret it.

http://www.ledlenser.com.au/2009/index.html

Re: Flashlight help
 

Nice light....it utilizes Cree technology that I mentioned above.

Re: Flashlight help
 

Yeah I am also a fan of Cree LEDs.

Specifically this one:

Re: Flashlight help
 

I've got numerous SureFires and a few Inova's. They are all great.

That being said...I also love my MagLites as they take normal batteries. Something to consider for the future is whether you'll be able to obtain the 123 batteries as easily as AA's.

Re: Flashlight help
 

Maybe you can find a solar or hand crank recharger for these batteries

Re: Flashlight help
 

Dont reinvent the wheel

Get Maglites........They have rocksolid reputations, Built like tanks, are dirt fricken cheap in comparison to others (Surfire ect) out there.

Plus you can get Maglites in the LED version for a pittence

Natchez has great pricing on them

http://www.natchezss.com/product.cfm...y=271&brand=00

Re: Flashlight help
 

I buy my lights from a supply house for professionals or from the local gun shop.... here's a link to some good ones:

http://www.galls.com/category2.html?...talog&cat=2830

My favorite light cost me $39.95 from the gun shop, but hubby's favs are the Sure Fire.

Re: Flashlight help
 

I agree with the rec for dealextreme. Use Paypal (I know, I know.....)
I recently got one of their mc-e series LED lights, branded MTE. 38 smackers IIRC and it beats the pants off my (many) other flashlights.
You could also get a SF G2 incandescent and hit up DX for a replacement LED module. Did that on my G2, and it's ti*s. All for what? Less than $15? Try to do that w/ SF.

I'D HATE TO LOSE A TINY LITTLE HUNDRED PLUS DOLLAR SUREFIRE WHEN I GET BETTER OUTPUT CHEAPER FROM OTHER SOURCES!!!!!!

Re: Flashlight help
 

The Surefire plastic is good--good light, low price.

The metal surefires are built good but fairly overpriced unless you'll want to fix your light to a firearm at all. Surefires and a few other pricey brands can take that, but most cheaper brands cannot.

I have a Z2 and a L1 because back then there were no other really good similar options. The Z2 is a combat light and the L1 I bought for work-carry because it was the ONLY light at the time that had two different run-levels.

Surefire builds their lights really rugged, but they are not as fast to get new LED technology into their stuff. They have only recently started using CREE LEDs, for example. Other companies (like Fenix) had CREE lights for over a year before Surefire did, and if you want maximum light output, there are already better types of LEDs than what Surefire is using now.

----------

Go look at the Fenix and Innova lights also.

---------

The Mag-lites are just not that great anymore. When you carry a flashlight all the time, you get to understand why it is best to have a smaller light that is very bright, instead of a 2- or 3-D-cell Mag-lite.

The main argument for mag-lites (and the reason that they first became popular among cops) was that they used to be thick enough for using as a club if it came to that--but the consumer grade ones aren't nearly as strong as the police models now. The consumer grade ones are made of metal that is only about half as thick as the police/rechargeable ones.

-end-

Re: Flashlight help
 

The other day I was shopping for a new flashlight. I read for hours at candlepower. Looked at all the expensive lights. Then I saw an add in the Home Depot sales paper. Ryobi led lights $19.99. I went and looked at them. Turned one on in the store and you could see the beam about 75 yards on the back wall of the store in the daytime with the store lights on. I bought it. The light was $19.99, battery was $13, charger $25. The next day I went back and bought another light and two more batteries. The light is only about 5" long and 1 1/4" in diameter. Seems well made. I made the mistake of looking at the light while turned on, It hurt! It was like looking at a welding arc.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p>
Here's a link:
http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/...744&marketID=9

Re: Flashlight help
 

I spent a lot of time researching lights a while back because I wanted more or less the same thing you do. All the lights I chose were LED, I dislike incandescent for several reasons; the bulbs burn out at inconvenient times, they break easily if you drop the light, and they have shorter battery life.

Here are the lights I bought. I live out in the country, so I use them pretty regularly. I have been very happy with and highly recommend all of them.

1) Fenix LD01 takes one AAA battery. I use an Energizer Lithium AAA. They seem to last forever in this light, and it puts out more light than a standard 3 D cell Mag Light. I keep it on my keyring. http://www.4sevens.com/product_info....roducts_id=639

2) Fenix PD20 takes one CR123A battery. I have the earlier version of this one, the P2D. This one is nice because you can buy an extra AA battery body for it, so you can use either CR123A or AA batteries. I keep it in the car or carry it when I know I'm probably going to need a light. http://www.4sevens.com/product_info....roducts_id=360

3) Eagletac T10LC2 takes two CR123A batteries. This light is bright! I keep this one on the nightstand and use it whenever I need a lot of light or need to see something far away. With this light I was able to find a lost black puppy 100 yards away in a field on a moonless night with a storm coming in. https://www.eagletac-store.com/produ...roducts_id=611

Re: Flashlight help
 

Thanks for all the suggestions and the help. It will atleast give me a place to start. I should have known that the opinions and suggestions would vary as much as if I had asked which handgun to get...

I appreciate the help!

Re: Flashlight help
 

i just sold my surefire G2 on ebay and rebought a fenix pd30...hope the seller sends it....ebay always gets me nervous.

Re: Flashlight help
 

I dug through a lot of those flashlight forums a couple of years ago. I decided I didn't want to get a flashlight that used some kind of specialized batteries. I wanted batteries I could recharge at home just like my camera batteries. And I really wanted to go LED. But all the LED flashlights I had at that time were basically floods. They were great for short range but if you took them out in the pasture at night, you couldn't see the beam even 25 yards away on the trees. Much less 50-100 yards!

But, as some have pointed out, LED technology has really evolved. I wouldn't buy anything else at this point. You can get LED flashlights that still have great "throw" for long range and still get very long battery life. And if you shop around you can even do it with one that takes rechargeable AA's.

I bought a Streamlight ProPolymer to try it out. I was amazed at the throw. Best I had ever seen with an LED. And it uses four AA batteries. They last forever. I have one in the bedroom that still has the four batteries that came with it installed. And that was two years ago.

I liked my first one so much that I bought two more. Then I started giving them for Christmas presents. People thought it was a bit odd until they really tried them. Truly outstanding design. They used to only be $26 but looks like they have gone up five dollars or so.

http://www.brightguy.com/products/St...Flashlight.php

For belt carry at night, I had to go with Fenix as well. Model L1D. Uses one AA battery that can be rechargeable. Multiple output choices. Solid little metal thing. Most I ever paid for a flashlight of that size but it truly is high quality. After I demonstrated mine to an Air Marshal friend, he went out and got his own and carries it on the planes.

This is a newer model than mine:

http://www.brightguy.com/products/Fe...D_Q5_Black.php

They seem to have actually gone down in price! Hopefully that doesn't mean lower quality. Mine is a little tank.

Gregg

Re: Flashlight help
 

Or you could go for the high end, between 2 to 3k and get one of these:

http://www.polarion-usa.com/media/Polarion.html

These are also extremely tough - there is an article on that sight, a marine mounted a polarion light on his barret 50 cal sniper rifle - shot many times, no broken bulbs or frames. He was clearly seeing targets at 300 meters. I may have to get PH-40 in December.

I have three brand new surefires (two T1A Titan's and one U2 Ultra) , these are made in the USA and are awsome lights, reliable and rugged. They run on lithium 123A batteries, which last a long time. I purchased 156 extra batteries as part of my preps. I may buy a few cheaper Fenex lights as barter items if the SHTF - I suspect a brand new in the box LED light, with 10 spare lithium batteries would be a fantastic barter item.

Re: Flashlight help
 

If you want to avoid a serious headache and just get a great survival oriented setup obtain the following...

SureFire G3 incandescent flashlight
Malkoff Devices M60LL LED Drop In
2x AW protected 17500 rechargeable batteries
Pila IBC charger w/ 12v adapter

Throw away the SureFire incandescent lamp assembly. Really. It's pointless. The M60LL will go all night long and then some at over 80 lumens on the rechargeable batteries. It will perform similarly on 3x CR123 batteries. It will run for over 3 days straight on 2x AA alkaline batteries. That's right, three days. The output will start off fairly strong and it will be fairly weak but still useful after three days on plain old AA's.

The chief strengths of this setup are:

-Ability to use three different types of batteries effectively.

-Ability to recharge off your car, boat, riding lawnmower or other 12v DC sources.

-Bright enough to identify objects at nearly 100 meters on dark nights yet not too bright to be useful for close up work nor too large to carry.

-The Nitrolon polymer body will never get too hot or too cold and it will stay looking nice longer than aluminum.

-Simple on, off, momentary and lock out switching. No Mickey Mouse strobing or multi level gimmicks, it will always and only do exactly what you expect it to do.

-The LED runs cool, it will not be thermally damaged no matter how long you leave it on, neither will the flashlight get too hot to hold.

This setup is not cheap, it will cost you $200. Nothing on it is "bargain" or "discount." It is expensive to put together and that money buys you unique capabilities. Unlike cheaper hardware store alternatives or many Chinese offerings this light can be easily modified by an advanced flashlight user to dramatically increase output. You can easily get 500 or even 1000 lumens out of this light by adding the right combination of performance parts. It can be modified to emit UV or infrared light. It will ride in your pocket or on your rifle with equal ease.

And don't buy a SureFire G3L thinking it is the same thing. It isn't. The SureFire P60L LED lamp assembly is inferior in every respect to the M60LL.

Re: Flashlight help
 

TK40, its an awesome light. I got one about 2 weeks ago. It is not cheap, $140. It works on 8 AA batteries and can also work on 4 AA for half the time. It is 630 Lumens.

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Re: Flashlight help
 

I am not aware of any difference between a good flashlight and a not so good one, except maybe that one might be heavier and more rugged. They all fail the same if they get wet, they all get crushed if you use them as clubs, and the batteries still go dead after a while.

Speaking of batteries, the lithium models are pretty good: twice the price, seven times the power, and fifteen years shelf life. You might want rechargeables if you use the light a lot, but my experience with rechargeables has been depressing, even without considering the expense.

BTW, if you are camping with kids you get the cheapest batteries you can find. You need one flashlight per kid and one set of batteries per flashlight per night.

Re: Flashlight help
 

Good ones resist water, impact and shock. They are also more efficient in their use of power, more adaptable and have better beam quality.

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A flashlight may very well last a 'lifetime', but batteries are very temporary, and are not things you can seriously stock up on.

Make sure you lay in a couple of oil lamps.

Re: Flashlight help
 

7 year shelf life works for me...

Re: Flashlight help
 

The difference is night and day. The tk40 is waterproof to IPX8 standards.

IPX8 = Water-Tight Equipment (protected against the effects of submersion; tested to 12 feet/3.6 meters for 24 hours)

It also can throw a solid beam 300 meters, its like having a police spotlight in your pocket. Try that with your plastic 2c battery flashlight and you will see the difference. Also on low it has a 150 hour runtime.

Re: Flashlight help
 

Buy one of his these lights. They meet all of your requirements. You will not be disappointed.
http://ralights.com/?id=Products They also take lithium (primary or rechargeable) batteries.

NovaTac, Surefire, and Inova are all made in the USA like Ra Lights and have different qualities to them.

You should have a strong "thrower" for outdoor use as well as a light with great spill for indoor and up close use.

The Surefire A2 is very versatile because it has both a LED and a incan bulb. The LED will provide plenty of useful light in the house, while the incan is great for the outdoors. The downside to this light is the fact that it is a 2 cell light and the batteries will last for only about 1 hour on high (incan).

Be warned though...after you buy your first really great flashlight, you might be afflicted with flashaholism and continue to buy many more fantastic lights. If you buy a titanium light, you'll never want to buy another aluminum light again and you'll probably become a flashaholic.

I own 45 flashlights right now and I am looking for help with my addiction. :biggrin: :shine:


Let us know what you buy.

Re: Flashlight help
 

So true. Several SureFire's and a few Inova's.

Got a lot of cheapies and Maglites also.

Stopped it with the high $$$, high quality flashlights last year.

Really liking the cheap Everready LED headlamps from WalMart. The $12-14 ones. Got one in the truck, couple around the home, and one in with the range gear.

All of them immensely helpful with the shorter daylight hours.

I've got an attachment for the Inova which is totally cool. Make's it like a 4-5 inch light saber. Sort of like something you'd use to direct traffic. Works well hanging in a tent or in the back of my truck.

Re: Flashlight help
 

Excellent choices.

I like lights with AA use.

Got a few maglites, AA, you can use em like a small lamp too.

The light I use the most all the time is an innova 1 AA battery,
with a new battery it throws the light as far as a D cell maglite,
incredible. Cost about 25 bucks, very small.

Lots of cool led lights on the market with AA's.

Why AA, very versatile, try to get everything with AA,
radio, etc, using expensive hard to find batteries is not
the way.

Consider 3 D cell Maglite, black, it is also a weapon.
Have more than one, for that purpose, safety, light and weapon.
You can blind someone and then crack em in the head fast.:biggrin:

I got lots of lights, this thing is a powerhouse, 1 AA.
In my pocket all the time, most use ever, had it for years.
Screw the back or press it for on.
http://www.opticsplanet.net/inova-sp...-x1-white.html

Re: Flashlight help
 

.

I keep one like this in my bugout bag: :bear_thumb:
http://www.lootlady.com/images/elmo%...hlight%202.JPG:cry1:

Re: Flashlight help
 

Thanks MM, I plan to check one of those out.

Re: Flashlight help
 

Fenix is probably the cheaper option compare to the Surefire. Don't get me wrong Surefire lights are very good but they are very costly. Fenix is just as good and cost half the price. Get one of their AA or 2xAA light, they are probably the brightest light you have ever seen. I have the LD10 and at turbo mode it kicks pretty much all Mag lights out the window.

Combo them with some Eneloop batteries and you are all set for all your lighting needs.

Re: Flashlight help
 

Imacannin, you can pre-order the light you want here https://www.fenix-store.com/product_...oducts_id=1898

Re: Flashlight help
 

Fenix make nice lights. If you get it maybe you can let us know how you like it? Curious to hear a GIMmers report on that puppy.

Re: Flashlight help
 

Re: Flashlight help
 

One of the things many buyers are unaware of is the need for led's to have a heatsink. The heat they generate needs to be stripped away. In that view, a warm light is a properly functioning light.
While I advocate the purchase of cheeeep lights from HK, I would not use them for purposes where you need the light as opposed to simply wanting the light. There are loads of reviews for the China lights with recommendations on how to improve the heat sinking....where to apply the thermal paste....how to install the aluminum foil.....
Also, beware of how many modes you buy and how you need to cycle through them. Clicking 5 times for the off position gets to be an imposition. First click "HIGH" might not be appropriate for taking a whiz at camp. Wakie wakie, everyone!
Cheapie mart lights don't come with parts availability support. Do we need to talk warranty? Like you're going to waste postage and time sending back a mart light just to get a new POC in it's place?
Decent branded lights are usually better engineered. Much of the HK and / or mart lights are simply groupings of parts. Oh, they'll work. For how long? How well? Does it honestly matter to you?

What makes headlamps so damn dorky? They're as practical as could be. But dorky. Why? By what mechanism are they targets for ridicule? I love the things.....but then, I'm a dork. Got a Led Lenser h7 coming just to enthuse my dorkism. In all seriousness, HL's have been getting short schrift for ever. Now there are some HL's that look good. Surefire is bringing out their Saint and Saint Minimus, mixed reviews-Surefire pricing.123 batts. Floody beam.
Fenix just put out the HP10. 200 + lumens on 3 minute turbo mode. 3 minute turbo sucks, but it has separate mode and power buttons. Normal pricing around $70. AA batts if I recall correctly.
The aforementioned Led Lenser h7. Sweep adjustable output lever on batt back-focusable output and heatsinked. AAA x 3 batt pack. Not digitally regulated. Some hate that, but it isn't as if I'll be up in the hills expecting 500 zillion hours of usable output only to have someone jump out of the bushes yelling, "Surprise! Your light is unregulated!"

I'm liking the look of 4Seven's Quarks. They match up to Fenix pretty well. They run a little dimmer on the high side, but just kill on the low end. Recently placed order for a tactical version of a Quark 123(2). There's a sale on some models for another week or 2. I suspect they're clearing out so they can get newer led equipped models in.
Not pushing, but use "QUARK15" as the coupon code on checkout.
I bought it for a few reasons:
1) need to replace 3 lights on the nightstand (UI issues)
2) already have scads of 123's and rechargeables and 18650's
3) want to support a small company that looks to be aggressively pursuing some quality and innovation
I'm not selling these guys. More of a , "Hey look what I found!" thing.

If'n yer interested, I'd be happy to comment on these recent purchases when I get them.

Re: Flashlight help
 

pelican flashlights are good. I have a few but they were given to me by a contractor I worked for.

Re: Flashlight help
 

Re: Flashlight help
 

"Fenix is just as good and cost half the price."
purt-near, yup.

Re: Flashlight help
 

generally i agree with buying solid tools.

i have a 6-battery MagLite that i can't get replacement bulbs for. now they don't sell them anymore - cops can buy them at cop suppliers.

so when i went to deal with it, the simplest path was to buy 2 flashlights, each of which take 2 D cells ... for a little over $3 - for BOTH of them.

that was the path of least resistance and i wouldn't be surprised to have them last 20 years. especially because i can easily buy replacement bulbs, i think.

if you're going to buy a flashlight, you might want to consider getting a replacement bulb or 2 at the same time. if you buy a flashlight now and can't get the bulbs when the time comes ...

but if you must have QUALITY, i suggest a 4 D cell Maglite along with some 4D bulbs.

Re: Flashlight help
 

Buy LED lights, LED bulbs are lifetime bulbs for all practical purposes (50,000 to 100,000 hours) and they are much less likely to break if dropped.

Re: Flashlight help
 

Woot is currently selling 120 lumen D cell flashlights. They are $9.99 + 5 for shipping. So $15 total. It is LED and runs 30 hours on 2 D cells. It is in stock as of 10:30PM EST.

http://www.woot.com/

Re: Flashlight help
 

Surefire is very good but to get the absolutely best, meaning brightest or longest running, you have to customize it. Get a lite that's a Lego concept - so you can take out the LED module and insert another one when the original is obsolete or you just want something else.

Secondly, get a lite that can run on different batteries, as many types as possible. You can do that with Surefire Lego. Examples.

Here is a Surefire 6P, modded with an aftermarket body that will take Li-Ion recharg. cell 18650. It can also run on 2xCR123A cells. It has a custom drop-in module from Malkoffdevices, which generates a blinding 230 lumens. You get about 1.5 hours of full lumens and then 2 hours of gradually dimming but still useful tail. It's my current EDC. I don't worry about the (relatively) short runtime as I have spares. But 1.5 hours + 2 hours of tail is not that short at all.

The 18650 you can recharge forever, but 123 cells are better for emergency and are a bit brighter @ 6V.

The lite is very small, compact for EDC. Shorter than POS minimag.

http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x...Mega_18650.jpg

If you want some serious runtime, here is an aftermarket body for Surefire 6P/9P that takes either 2x18650 cells or 4x123 cells. You get about 3+ hours of full brighteness @ 230 lumens and then a long tail. All that and Surefire quality.

http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x...f/M60_12V3.jpg

If you don't want to depend on Lithium primary 123 cells, and have all your devices standard on AA cells, no problem.

Take a Surefire 9P, stick a Malkoff M60LL module in it. You can get an aftermarket body bored to 18mm or just use the stock one.

Here is Surefire 9P pictured with Li-Ion 18500 cells. But you can also use 3x123 cells and also 2xAA cells. Ideally Energizer Lithium AA cells, but will in fact run on Alkalines or any AA chemistry, even obsolete Carbon Zinc junk.

This is probably the ultimate TSHTF lite. It will be brightest on 18500 and 123s and noticeably less bright on 2xAA cells but also run much longer. Think a day of lite maybe. To sum it up, it can run on:

1) 2xAA (Maybe 40 lumens for 24 hours, will vary greatly which AA chemistry)
2) 3x123 (13 hours of 140 lumens)
3) 2x18500 (13 hours of 140 lumens)

To me, it suggest flexibility.

http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x..._18650_one.jpg

If you don't want to have anything at all to do with Li-Ion and 123 cells, (which is a mistake, as 18650 is the most common Li-Ion cell, most laptops run on it and 123s are very good power density wise), but you still want the Surefire quality, you can get an aftermarket 2xAA or 3xAA body that will work with Surefire bezels and LED modules.

Here is the (left to right) 3xAA body, 4x123 and 3x123. All have Malkoff modules in them. No surefire modules.

3xAA with Malkoff M60LL will run on any AA chemistry, Energ. Lithium, any Alkaline cell, rechargeable NiMH stuff, anything at all.

The really cool thing is that the output level will vary depending on what you feed it. Insanely bright with Lith. AA but relatively short runtime of a few hours at most. On Alks you get very bright runtime for 45 minutes and then hours and hours of dim lite, which is useful in TSHTF situation. The NiMh cells will be somewhere in between output wise. Too bad Surefire doesn't make anything that runs on AA and you have to get aftermarket FiveMega bodies but the quality is very good and it acts like a Surefire.

http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x...f/M60_12V1.jpg


Here is the family picture. I would feel "OK" having any of these lites in the TSHTF situation.

The really cool thing is that you can pick which module you want to put where, depending on requirements. I shuffled them all many times. With various modules and cells, you have literally have dozens if not hundreds of possibilities.

Example: Malkoff M60 module can work either with 1x18650, or 2x18650 or 2x18500 or 3x123.
I have another M60 module that will run on 4x123.
I tried M60 in all modules but ultimately decided on 1x18650 as it's very small and just a bit less bright.
Now Malkoff M30 is designed for single cell and will be very bright just on 1x18650 or 1x123 but short runtime. Greater runtime on 3xAA.
M60LL (Low-low) module will work great in any permutation. I ran it for a long time with 2x18500 cells but decided I really like it in 3xAA configuration. You get a lite that's very dim but runs literally for 100 hours. At the end it's barely enough to read a map but that's an impressive TSHTF lite and impressive performance from cheap Alk cells.
If you really want some lumens, take out M60LL and stick M30 in it, you get only 1.5 hours of runtime but blinding 230-260 lumens, which is insane from a 3xAA lite.


http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x...lkoff_all7.jpg

Re: Flashlight help
 

Also, there are other very good lites in addition to Surefire (technically, I don't have any SF, just clones)

Gerber Infinity is very old technology (5+ years) but 1xAA and runs forever. Built tough.

3D Mag can take a Malkoff drop in, very long runtime and bright. 260 lumens.

In the tailcap, can keep a Nite Ize drop in, very dim but runs for hundreds of hours. Can probably go through a few weeks of outage without a recharge.


Also not many people realize that a 2D Mag can also run on 3xC cells and that 3D can run on 4C cells and so on.

Re: Flashlight help
 

If you choose not to go with an "exotic" light, on Black Friday, Lowes and/or Home Depot usally have the Mag Lights for cheeeeeep. While they are not the small units or the absolute best light out there, the LED units are pretty nice, especially for the $$$$ spent. Here's the preview link for this year:

http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?actio...155+4294961544

I believe this is an excellent value. The replacement bulb costs more than this!

Re: Flashlight help
 

I just got a Quark AA NW tactical. It's a sweet little light that packs a lot and just as important the moonlight mode. I'm hoping to run it on 14500's to give it a little more punch, but it's fine using AA's.

Re: Flashlight help
 

HA! A couple of hours ago I received my Quark 123/2 Tactical! Nice light. Have the low side programmed to moonlight. It's rated to run 30 days on moonlight mode. Wowsers. In a bad spot, or for camping I can see leaving it on moonlight all night just to help insure that I'll find it.
I've been running tritium keychain fobs that I got from DX on the wrist straps of my bedside lights. No fumbling around!

Also got my Led Lenser headlamp. Blows my other ANCIENT (like 3 years old) headlamps away. FWIW, I can tell you the light is bluish. The focus is mighty nice as is the dimmer. My intent is to use it as my bump-in-the-night light-hands free, will light up pistola sights be default. Had considered a First Light Liberator.....but....c'mon.
The strap sucks, but I have no problem going full-on dork: I'll be mounting the business pieces with velcro to an old "pith" helmet. There's a beauty to it, I assure you.
*bump*----> wake, plunk, click, snick, and it's go go time!

Had a weapon mounted light, but found I was using my (*) as a flashlight. Not safe at all.....ergo looked into a Liberator.....c'mon.....

Re: Flashlight help
 

Now that we got our Quarks, what do you know there's more additions to their lineup the Quark RGB. Not to mention the new Quark mini 123 or AA.

Re: Flashlight help
 

Turbo head's a possibility, but I might just end up getting multiple bodies. It seems the heads/tails are interchangeable. AA? 123? 18650? Looks like no problem. Part of the reason I went with Quarks was the potential to interchange to meet varying needs.
As for minis and RGB etc....not for me. The Prion is veddy veddy interesting. I've used a Sunlite Slim for years and have just loved it. The Prions are shorter yet in 2xAAA flavor. Tres pocketable, sir!
The real winner tonight was the Lenser. Wow, how flexible. Mounted it to the hat and had a great time getting wood from the pile. Reminded me of Grover on Sesame Street with his "Near.....far...." routine.

Re: Flashlight help
 

I'm cool with just the AA, might get the AA2 body to lego it but not likely. I'll just run mine on 14500 cuz the output will be the same as running on 2 AA's which is good enough for me.

For AAA's I got the iTP EOS upgrade version fits the bill for my normal uses, 3 modes with a decent build.

Re: Flashlight help
 

If you standardize on AA, Princeton Tech Apex is a very nice headlite. Probably the best within the price range. I had mine modded with a P4 and it's very bright. Has 4xAA cells. Runs for a long time on Lithums.

No lite collection is complete without one IMO.

Re: Flashlight help
 

Look at the Pelican 8060- it is designed for LEO's. Rechargeable, with a 6 hour run time at 190 lumins! Mine is great stays in the truck all the time has not been affected by weather/temp.