Do you haz them? Some people might find it strange to think that such things exist, but I am a bit of a "flashaholic" and have several high performance lights. The vast majority of manufacturers design their models for LEO's (which is awesome because the general population can buy them and have a kickass flashlight), but occasionally a company like RAlights comes along and designs a truly amazing flashlight for the average joe who needs a great EDC (every day carry) light. My RA Twisty is by far the best light that I own in terms of usefulness. It's bright, tiny, indestructible, and it's about to have a new big brother. I just ordered a custom RA Clicky light yesterday which should be (hand) machined and manufactured over the next couple of weeks, and with me by the end of the month I wouldn't call myself a collector (look at some of the collectors threads on CPF if you want to see flashlight collections ) but I do have some nice lights. Pix to come when I get my camera charged and a working card in it tomorrow, but here is the list; RA Twisty RA-85-Tr [well known for being the most durable - read: indestructible - flashlight on the market] Dereelight DBS V1 With 3 stage digital Cree Q5 driver [Well known for having the longest throwing beam of any LED flashlight on the market] Fenix L0D [Keychain light, incredibly small, bright and versatile with 5 modes and up to 1 hour runtime on a single AAA battery] Fenix TK11 [A nice tactical flashlight with 225 Lumen output] Along with the rechargeable lithium cells that power them and the charger, what I just listed is about £500 worth of flashlights If you have them, post yours. If you don't but have questions, ask them EDIT: I have 2x 3D LED driven mag flashlights, which I bought long before any of the above, and for build quality, performance, design and in just about every other aspect you could think of, each of the above lights is infinitely better. People (especially the police in this country) seem to think that maglites are the be all and end all of flashlights, but they are SO wrong -------------------------------------------------------------------------- [October 2010 update] More to add: Titanium Ra/ HDS Systems Clicky 170 Tactical - this was custom built for me with tactical switch operation and max 170 Lumen output by Henry Schneiker in Tuscon, Arizona, USA in August 2009. It is one of only 75 Titanium "Clicky" flashlights that HDS Systems produced and considered to be one of the best and most collectable 1x CR123 flashlights in the world. Dereelight DBS V3 - An updated version of the Dereelight flashlight mentioned above. Better body design, higher manufacturing quality and a brighter emitter with farther throw move the bar a little higher for the worlds "Compact LED Spotlight". Nitecore Extrme GDP (Holds an OSRAM Golden Dragon Plus LED) - pretty cool colour of light from this but it's my second favourite EDC because of the modes, brightness and compact size. It looks badass too Nitecore D20 R2 Nitecore SR3 - Worlds first "SmartRing" flashlight with an 8-mode magnetic selector ring Nitecore D11 Bitz Pocket Aluminium - "Bitz" in Korean means "Light" as I understand it. These are custom made by a korean flashlight designer and are considered both very collectable due to the small numbers produced and the fantastic design. It's the smallest CR123 flashlight that I own and is capable of producing 130 lumens on the highest mode. It's very solidly built and features a very efficient "buck-boost" driver circuit with multiple mode output. Bitz Pocket Titanium - Titanium version of the Bitz light. Liteflux LF2XT - Commonly hailed as the "Worlds brightest 1x AAA flashlight. I tend to agree, best in every way. Brightness, fully programmable 5 mode User Interface, and an incredibly warm tinted LED giving superior colour rendition compared to other LED emitters. It almost looks like an incandescent light next to the rest of my flashlights actually. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- [August 2011 update] Most of these were purchased or traded for in early-mid 2011, all of them were stupidly bargaintastic deals and they were all spread out over months. I had to wait patiently for these beauties Surefire T1A Titan Surefire C2 Centurion - custom bored to accept 18650 Lithium cell - FIRST bored Surefire I've owned, FIRST high end incan light I've owned Nitecore EX10 Nitecore EX11 Olight M20 Warrior R5 Also, one of my Malkoff Devices modules in my black Maglite 3D body blew some time ago. Gene Malkoff sent me one of their new 3D modules (260 lumens @ 4.5v) absoolutely free of charge as a replacement. The modded Mag lives again, brighter and better than ever before. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- [Summer 2012 update] A few more purchases from earlier this year (all were bought during the summer). I went for a couple more throwers and also delved futher into the world of Surefire. It's a slippery slope! +1 Dereelight DBS V3 with a 3SD driver circuit. I'm unsure of the emitter, this one was a second hand buy and lives in a Pelican case under the seat of my car. It gets used for emergencies when the big Malkoff driven Mag doesn't cut it. 18650 bored Surefire 6P with a Malkoff M61 - all the way from down under via CPFMP! Surefire G2 Nitrolon with Oveready tritium stainless steel bezel and Malkoff M61HCRIL (High CRI low output drop-in LED module) and 3x 17670 lithium cells. This one came from Belgium, again via CPFMP. Dereelight DBS v3 Aspheric head with the new R900 emitter and an 18650 extension tube. This turned my existing DBS V3 spotter into a 500m lightsaber! I also picked up a titanium bezel ring for the Surefire 6P from the Belgian seller on CPFMP. I'd like to make our British readers aware that my use of the word "flashlight" in place of the more common English word "torch" is a result of two years membership on CandlePower Forums, which is largely an American and Asian community and also to do with my Canadian relatives If you said "Torch" to them, they'd wonder why you were talking about flaming sticks
I've had a fair few SureFires in my time, but currently only have a L5. My main workhorse is an Ultrafire WF-1000L, which was pretty cheap and comes set up with rechargeables; loads of free lumens means I don't often use anything else. And there's the Mag 6D for burglars, you just have to have one by the bed I've still got a soft spot for the P-91 but it no longer has any real practiacal use since the LED revolution.
Oh man, there are several surefres on my list of "things I want to buy but know I shouldn't" at the moment! The L5 is a nice light, pretty good as an EDC I've heard but the RAlights have that extra edge of being proven indestructible and so tiny you hardly notice them in a pocket full of stuff. There's a coloured (haven't decided on colour combination yet - Definately need red) Tomahawk from First-Light very high on my list too, I have wanted one of those for ever I also want to shelf my DBS V1 and get one of the new and very very powerful DBS V3's. Those things almost have the output of a low power HID (Xenon) searchlight!
Fenix E01 (keychain) and Maglite 2AA (LED) (car). I've been eyeing up a Nitecore D10 or another Fenix to replace the Maglite though.
Two of the "Solitaire" single AAA ones, both black One Mini-Maglite, double AAA, black Three Mini-Maglite double AA, black, blue and silver One 2C Cell Maglite, black Two 4C Cell Maglites, black and red One of every size from the D-Cell range, all in black 6D-Cell is by far my favourite. Nice and heavy, quite bright, and works well for a guy of my build :B They might not be the most efficient, brightest, or whatever torches, but they're my favourite brand.
Fair enough... That's quite the mag collection for a casual user. Not excessive thoough. One of the members over on CPF has a "wall o' maglites" which is at least one of every colour of maglite that has ever been produced. So that's one of every colour that the 3D is available in, one of every colour the Solitaire was available in etc etc. Every single one on the wall is mounted in a wood and glass case and all are brand new. He has 4 or 5 other mags that he actually uses. Crazy stuff I also have a few solitaires, although they are collectors items and (let's face it) toys compared to the Fenix L0D that has lived on my keyring for the past year or so. My favourite Mag is the converted black 3D cell that I put a malkoff drop-in LED mod into and added a "bust-a-cap" tailcap to. It's a monster of a light!
UltraFire A30B with a GITD clicky. 220 lumens apparently... but I don't believe that really given its small size and I paid <£20 for the torch, a couple of sets of protected 16340/CR123As and a charger. I do love it though!
Nice, one of my 18650 chargers is an UltraFire. 220 is probably a bit ambitious, but if it does the job you need it to then you got a bargain! I almost freaked out at work today. I was working on the site that I have been all week again, where there is not yet any power, only running water so far (still a building site really) so my RA Twisty has been getting more use than usual. The company that I'm doing the work for have generators all over the site for lights and tools etc, but one of them vibrated a spark plug out of the cylinder head and blew it out yesterday just before quitting time, damaging the cylinder head. A site full of pretty much nothing but builders and refrigeration engineers would tell you that nobody knew much about it, so I brought some extra tools this morning (most importantly a 16mm spark plug socket ) to have a crack at it. In the process of taking it apart to re-tap the cylinder head, I used my light to look into the hole and see what damage had actually been done to the threads. I set the light down on the ground beside the gennie and went to the car to get some more tools, and obviously when I came back I put the light back in my pocket, without thinking about it. Two hours later I was running around the site like a headless chicken looking for my £90 custom made flashlight, thinking someone had nicked it whilst I was at the car. It had actually fallen out of my pocket when I got into the car at lunchtime and went down the side of the seat. Talk about panicking! The new plug went into the gen just fine after some TLC, and it started on the first pull That's Honda engines for you! I also repaired some broken connections and gave it a general service because it had obviously had quite a lot of use and never been maintained. Losing such an expensive (and now rare) light would really suck so I am going to have to make sure I know where it is all the time, until I get my new RA Clicky which comes with a pocket clip
Maglite Mini and Solitaire. Latter is always with me (on a second "keychain" with USB stick). Partial thread hijack: are LED conversion units available for either one?
4D Maglite w/LED mod, customized 3AAA LED light from work (it's potted in epoxy resin now, no more water problems) and I make them occasionally. Need a second waterproof flashlight for working in my tank...
Not that I'm aware of. The modded maglite that I have was done with a drop in driver from Malkoff Devices (gogle them and you will find it). As far as I am aware they only sell mods for larger mag flashlights like the D and C cell models.
Fenix P2D. Used to have a 2D Mag modded with a 24W bulb but then realised there were streelights outside
I'm sorry, but all that is a bit *****. What you need is a REAL MAN's flashlight: Those aluminium fins behind the head are not decoration --they are for passive cooling. HID light, 35W, 3500 lumens. Comes with its own case and charger, and 12V 4400mAH Litium Ion battery. Who's your daddy?
Yes. AA mini, AAA mini, Solitaire. I have a SureFire E1 with Incan and LED heads, Fenix T1, P2D and E01, an Ultrafire WF1000L (hello ElThomsono.), a rather odd D26 setup running off 2x17670s, a modded Lummi Orb RAW (was 50lm, now ~200lm), a Lummi Wee NS, a Glo-toob, a couple of headlamps and Fauxtons galore. No HIDs (yet) though...
Not into HID's. And the lights I listed are not *****, they offer incledibly high output in the smallest package possible! BTW do you own one? £199 isn't bad for what you get, although HID's are horribly inefficient. I love my LED lights because most of them are ultra efficient and fully regulated (google it if you don't know).
I was looking into the Meglite 2D (LED version), but they seem to have some issues with cooling. MagLite just replaced the bulb in a normal 2D with a LED replacement without any additional cooling. (bad idea on a 3W LED). I'm unsure how noticeable the reduction in brightness will be (when the LED gets hot), though. Apparently the dimming is from thermal protection, and not the LED itself fading (which is a good thing). I find it a bit strange that they haven't taken advantage of the fact that the whole body the the flashlight is made from aluminum... After all, that would make a great cooler for the LED.
Naah, that was just a geeking contest. Although it is a nice piece of kit, I think that LED's are a more elegant solution.
Nobody specified a price range so how about Polarian? http://polarion-usa.com/media/Polarion_Images/Polarion_Images.html john
