You what? HIDs have been king of efficiency for years. Know what streelights use? Yeah...High Pressure Sodium, one variant of an HID lamp. It's only recently that LEDs are coming slightly close to them, on a very small scale only. When it comes to lighting something big up - HIDs are the only way to go I'm afraid. They may make a shitload of heat - but the lumen per watt is unrivalled. As for a real mans torch - don't you mean Fleshlight? <---- NSFW!!!!
I have a small collection: -Black Petzel Tactikka Plus -Fenix L2D -Skylight Comfort And some older cheaper flashlights.
They are a bit noobish when it comes to efficient design IMO because every light that I own except the mags are cooled this way. Look on the Fenix TK11 and you'll even see cooling rings machined into the body behind the head. The RA lights are passively cooled also, using the alu body as a heatsink.
HID handheld spotlamps like the one that was pictured are inefficient in that they produce a lot of heat, require a lot of power and require larger bodies to both cool the emitter and house the cells. If that doesn't make them inefficient in comparison to the likes of the new generation of Cree Q5 LED lamps, I don't know what does. I know they don't offer anywhere near the output of a small handheld HID, but they are getting closer and closer, and IMO it's better to have a Q5 thrower like the Dereelight DBS V3 that will give you several hours of constant output on small cells like 18650's (which incidentally I can carry a few of in my back pocket if needs be) than it is to have only an hour or two's output from a handheld HID light.
I got MOAR lights over the past couple of weeks, pix to come later tonight of ALL my lights as I am posting this from my phone at work. Here's what I have recently acquired: Nitecore Extreme - my first Nitecore but definately not my last. I love this little thing so much! Liteflux LF2XT - The most advanced single AAA light in the world and if you've ever used one you'll know why! Absolutely stunned by how versatile and well designed this tiny thing is. The programmable menu system is... gah there are no words, you have to get one! Bitz - Got two lights from Bitz, an Aluminium version and a Titanium version. Haven't had much time to inspect these yet but they are very nice from what little I have seen! RA/ HDS Clicky Titanium - I just ordered this today. Something just a little bit special. Henry will only be making 75 of them from what I have heard, and each one is being made to order, and as with all other RA lights, made by hand. When it arrives it will soar straight to the top of my "Most expensive and collectable flashlights that I own" list! Watch out for the pics of my lights in the OP of this thread later tonight No pics yet because I loaned my camera to someone for the week so they'll have to wait! I gave the Bitz lights a good bit of use over the weekend and love them, so I bought another of the Titanium version for my "shelf queen" collection. The first one I got was slightly used by its last owner but the Alu version is mint.
Sorry to be thread necromancer here, but i'm looking for a cheap, small, high powered flashlight. Because of my job, i drive around a lot in the dark, and need a light that can throw a beam a fair distance, and its gotta be either able to clip onto my belt, or attach to a keyring, and not like the flimsy POS 1xAA MagLite I had about 5 years ago... Any names to google/ebay would be appreciated, or if you know of any going cheap anywhere's, I'd appreciate it. Much thanks
No problem at all, you definately came to the right place! If you want to be really OCD about the purchase you could start a thread in the "LED Flashlights" section on CandlePowerForums.com and get dozens of suggestions in just hours, but off the top of my head I can thoroughly recommend you google the names Nitecore, Fenix and 4Sevens (spelt just like that) because I own flashlights from all three of those manufacturers and they're 3 of the best out there. Fenix for their stupidly high reliability, Nitecore for their innovation and 4Sevens for their great value and innovation as well. All 3 make fantastic value, high performing flashlights that are magnitudes better than those sorry excuse for a flashlight Maglites that we've all owned Any particular preference to what size you'd be looking for and what batteries you'd like it to run off? 1xAA, 2xAA, Lithium cells like CR123's or bigger lithium's like 18650 rechargeables? I'm guessing you probably want to stick to standard size primaries like AA, AAA etc? If that's the case give the Nitecore D10 (1xAA) and D20 (2xAA) a look as starting points - I own a Q5 LED version of the D10 and an R2 LED version of the D20 and they are just incredibly good for flashlights that run off 1xAA and 2xAA respectively. The D20 in particular has an incredible warm white 220 lumen output from 2xAA Duracell batteries, and for that reason gets a lot of carry time on the inside pocket of my coat. Hope this helps, and if you have any other questions about specific light models, ask away!
Not quite hardcore but I have lurked on CPF for a while. I own: Ultrafire WF-606A, a nice medium bright torch when you don't want too much glare back in your face. I even got my old man one. Romisen RC-F4 with an 18650 with the packaging stripped off so it fits in to the barrel. Also got some CR123A's for it. Nice and bright for it's small size and doesn't get hot either.
And those are cheap for high-performance? Gdamn... well those aren't coming to Small Nations with me! :/
There's a difference between cheap flashlights and good value flashlights You don't have to spend that much to get a good light though, but I recommend you stretch to at least the £65 of the D20, or the Fenix TK11 (which I also own a heavily used example of and it has taken a serious beating on more than one occasion without breaking).
I just stumbled upon this thread when mining the forums, never knew there were so many torch connoisseurs around. One LED Lenser Police Tech Focus, for me, and one MagLite (long version) for gf. I'm familiar with the MagLite but not with the Lenser, it will be interesting to see how the Lenser turns out. The MagLite was chosen because I wanted my gf to have something which she could use for self defence, should the need ever arise, and I couldn't think of any other torch more suitable. The Lenser was recommended to me. I don't know what your take would be on these two in terms of quality, though. Edit: I know saw your take on MagLite.
Well I'm convinced, the next thing on my to-do is list to buy myself a big maglite! I can't wait to absorb all the self defense knowledge and abilities from simply holding the torch I also imagine that if I were to hold the torch as if it were a baseball bat, that I would also instantaneously inherit super ninja attack experience
yeah, i had to use my 4D Maglite to defend some woman at a festival once, guy was off his head on god only knows what and was scrabbling away at her top, and she was screaming, he was punching and pushing the security guys away, so i just tapped him on the back of the head. not too hard, but enough to disorientate him so the security boys could drag him away. That was a fun night. Ended up in the lass's tent Joe
LED LENSER I've got a P7 and it's all I need basically. It's damn small for the amount of light and it last's pretty long on one charge of the 4x AAA-akkus. I also like the rapid-adjustment of the focus it has and allthough the asked price may seem steep, the produkt-quality is worth it.
I've got a Nitecore D10, which is pretty awesome. It is plenty bright (about 130lumens), light (40gr) and best of all, it uses a single common AA battery. No more pain-in-the-ass expensive hard to find battery's. I love it. I've also got a Led Lenser Hocus Focus in the car.
I've got a few... Photon Freedom Fenix E01; T1 Lummi Wee Lummi RAW (CR2) - modded w/ neutral Luxeon K2 Nitecore D10 4Sevens Quark 123 (warm tint); Quark 123² Turbo; Preon Surefire E1e, E2e (w/LumensFactory modules and 16340s); U2; A2 Aviator (w/Strion socket, waiting on onion rings) Maglite Mini AA (w/Aurora hotwire) Solarforce L2(p)s with various extenders and Digilight mini Turbohead
