Multi-mode flashlights aren’t going to get much cheaper than that right now. give it a year and you will be able to buy one for half that price, the technology just keeps getting better and cheaper. I have the AAA version of that light and i think it’s fantastic. i’ve had it for over a month and i’m still on my original battery, i probably use it on average 5-10 minutes a day. plus the AAA version is $8 cheaper.
a 4-6 cell maglite still works really well for that. I carried a 5 D cell maglite when i delivered pizza.
these days flashlights are more compact but curl them up in your fist and whoever you punch will feel it. they also come with weird sharp caps on the light end so you can jab people with them.
A Maglite stuck inside a drilled-out Louisville Slugger.
I was going to make a witty comment about this when the thread came up but it looks like I forgot. On the other hand, don’t forget the benefit of a home invader looking into the light!
I got a Fenix L1D CE… tiny bugger that runs off 1 AA. Bright as hell on the max setting, and could easily carry it in my pocket everyday if I felt like it.
I got the Fenix LD20 from amazon.com. It works. I think the strobe setting can induce epilepsy in young children 100 yards away.
I got the Fenix LD20 from amazon.com. It works. I think the strobe setting can induce epilepsy in young children 100 yards away. It certainly did I number on me, and I had my eyes closed.
Based on my experience with the LD20, I also ordered a TK40. You’ll know when it has arrived, because the national news will report about a streak of epileptic fits in children in a mile radius centered somewhere in Austin, TX.
It was like staring into the sun for a moment. I looked away and had a huge spot for a bit. It’s absolutely amazing such a small LED produces that amount of light.
What’s cool though is that it’s a nice flood, it’s not a spotlight. Everything in a wide radius gets bathed in it’s glow.
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.16607 that looks like a winner and unbeatable for the price. I think I’m going to order one.
Makes you wish videogames had flashlights like that.
I wonder if Hollywood will be dragged kicking and screaming into the modern era or if they’ll just write in old dying flashlights to cause tension.
They’ll just have people use their phones as flashlight, and that way when it dies, they can’t call for help, either.
Just got my 4Sevens Quark AA2 tactical. Dear god, this thing is bright. I flashed my eyes for a brief second and I can still see it when I close my eyes. Gonna have fun with this tonight.
I also gave in and got a much more expensive light. I got this one http://www.4sevens.com/product_info.php?cPath=297_365&products_id=2079 Quark AA2 Tactical R2. It is indeed extremely bright even in a well lit room. I’m going to test it out tonight. I don’t have time to reprogram it now so I’m not even sure if it is in the highest mode or not. It is more than small enough to still carry in a pocket, quite easy to clip it in. If you order off 4sevens.com use the coupon code CPF8 for 8% off. They had nice shipping free of charge. I ordered this weekend and got it today(GA->Chicago).
You didn’t get the R5 revision? They just started shipping those. R2 is 170 lumens; R5 is 206.
Nah, I figured it wasn’t a big difference since the R2 was cheaper. I likely won’t use it on max mode much. I finally programmed it, not as annoying as I feared. Medium mode of 18 lumens is brighter than my older flashlights I had lying around. I didn’t realize these were so bright.
I would also be incapable of buying the R2 knowing that the R5 exists (especially since it’s like $8 more or something), but unless you’re comparing them side-by-side, it’s really unlikely that you’d notice the difference between 170 and 206.
Relatedly, I find myself torn with programming the two modes. I definitely want one mode to be moonlight, because having a dim mode is great for a lot of purposes. (Plus, 30 day battery life? So you could use this as an 8-hours-a-day nightlight for three months before exhausting 2 AA batteries?) For the other mode, the 88 lumen “High” is probably the more practical mode – lasts for five hours, and is still twice as bright as my old “bright” flashlight – but I find it impossible to not use the brightest setting on some sort of general principle.
I have mine set for moonlight and low for now. Once it gets a bit darker out I’m going to test it some more on different modes. I didn’t realize how useful moonlight would be. I imagined it’d be like actual moonlight where you can barely see not like full moon and cloudless sky, which is how it is if not a touch brighter. It is quite easy to read by the moonlight setting and use in darkness to get around.
I got a Quark 123^2 Tactical and turning it on always starts with a flash of brightness before going to whatever mode it’s actually on, unless you literally just turned it off and back on again. It seems that if it’s off for more than a moment, it has a bit of a charge built up the next time you turn it on. Is that indicative of anything, or just the nature of these lights?
It’s how they are. It’s the most commonly cited flaw of them. My experience is that, with it programmed to turbo/moonlight, if I turn it off in turbo and turn it on in moonlight, I get a very noticeable flash; but if I turn it off in moonlight, the flash is pretty minimal.
Weird, I’m not getting any flash at all. Might be the R5s finally fixed this.
Moonlight mode is nice because it won’t destroy your night vision as long as you don’t stare into the flashlight.