Unpopular Flashlight Opinion Thread

  1. I don’t like throwers or flooders - I prefer the in-between - like the TIR in the Olight S1A.
  2. I don’t really need a flashlight. Most of the time, I could get by using just the “flash” light on my phone for getting around in the dark.
  3. If I had to choose between my flashlight hobby and my hot sauce(s), I’d get rid of all my flashlights today and never buy another!
  4. CRI is NOT worth paying extra for! :smiling_imp:

i like cool white - hate too-yellow

i like side switches

i don’t like TBTC carry lights (too big to carry)

i don;t need the light to be a [bad] charger

i don’t like magnets

i don;t like[need] “throwers” and usually don;t like ‘floodies’ - like it in between or with a hot spot and lots of spill

ramping seems like a good idea but it;s too much trouble usually

1. Excellent color rendition is everything to me, efficiency be damned if so (with LEDs of course).

2. No commercial light should use spring bypasses, especially in small lights. Using dual BeCu springs is enough, and allows for universal battery fitment(see the PL47 for what a few mm less can do)

3. 21700>26650

4. I hate 14500 lights.

5. SST-20 is best overall HCRI LED.

6. Some people spend too much money on torches.

Let’s give it a try:

  • Keychain sized lights are rendered mostly obsolete by the introduction of smartphones with flashlight apps. I just have to draw a “V” shape on my locked smartphone to activate it.
  • Flashlight industry is at least 15 years behind of modern user interface technologies. No bluetooth/wifi, hardly any configuration or personalisation.
  • Two buttons next to each other to switch higher and lower make for a much better interface than a single side switch.
  • 99.9% of owners who buy a “tactical” flashlight have never and will never be in a “tactical” situation.
  • Strike bezels on tactical lights are useless. If you are good enough to strike someone with that without getting knocked out you are already good enough to win the fight.

I don’t mind Turbo mode for only 30sec-1min… On all my lights i keep it at a level enough to see, and only raise it to Turbo when necessary. If I need more than a minute to see a target from a distance I probably have adult ADD…

Opinions are like flashlights around here. Everyone has one.

IDK if this is a thread where we’re supposed to reply to other comments at all but…

in emitters like the Optisolis for example whites aand other colors are so accurate because there is good red rendering (+other parts of the spectrum in the correct proportions). If you have the yellow, green, part of blue, but very little red and deep blues like most low-CRI emitters white will not look correct and greens will be over-exposed or unnatural.

Mules don’t suck, infact they actually perform some jobs better than any reflector / optic could (photography for one).

I’m not a tint junkie and I don’t really care about beam pattern too much.

I have lots of tints and some are nice when looking at my orchids, or other flowering plants, but tint isn’t the ‘end all be all’ for me.

As for beam pattern, I don’t much worry about that, as I use my lights to find stuff in the dark, or light the way. I have SWM V11Rs and M11Rs and they’re ‘ringy’ as all get out, but using them outside, I never notice that.

I understand that plenty of us are ‘white wall hunters,’ sitting on the couch with a bag of Cheetos, but that’s basically where it ends, for me at least.

Chris

The budget in budget light forum has no connection with what you think it should mean

I agree with a lot of this. Arduino and Raspberry Pi are so small now they could easily be implemented in medium to larger flashlights, with GUI programmability and control on a phone instead of blindly clicking and praying. Remote light operation is a huge plus especially if it’s mounted or on a tripod. A GoPro is infinitely smaller than a BLF GT yet that can take 4K60 video with image stabilization, and send a live feed to YouTube through your phone. The only big issue would be the aluminum housing of most flashlights - there needs to be some outer plastic for the antennae to work. I think a combination rocker/pushbutton would make a nice interface. Even a slider. And I agree with the strike bezel - if the strobe didn’t scare the perpetrator away, you won’t even get a chance to use that strike bezel… unless you happen to be a Navy Seal or MI5 or something…

I’m not against a light that has high CRI, just saying that if it does not also have a neutral CCT (to my eye somewhere around 5000) then it cannot make white look white. I don’t understand people who are so happy they have a 90+ CRI when the light is 3000K and makes a white wall look like someone threw orange juice all over it last week. 70CRI in 5000K will always look more natural to me, no matter how much a 3000K gives some people the warm fuzzies. I can ONLY appreciate high CRI if it is on top of neutral CCT, and don’t quite get how anyone can think otherwise.

Maglights are the best flashlights ever made, and you better call them M@glights or else you'll get sued!

As WLE.

apart from liking a 5000 tint. and loving little copper toys.

Yellowish( egg colored ) tints, too blue tints

Turbo for less than 1 minute

Fading/oxidation

lights only uses CR123A

poor anodizing

finicky control buttons

Include me as one finding it difficult to understand the position of some posts.
Has this turned into a complaint thread ?
Are we still supposed to treat it as an unpopular opinion thread ?
Should there be a popular complaint thread ?

Bravo!

Agreed. Some fantastic unpopular opinion have been posted, though there may be a fine line between a unpopular opinion and a complaint that we should observe.

To add to the theme of the thread; I believe the Manker have the best UIs in the business.

Tint > CRI and Armytek > Zebralight

The ‘always starts on lowest’ ramping UI from the first Emisar D4 prototypes (vers. 1) sent to RMM is a valuable model to avoid burned pockets, holsters, and damage to the retinas of unsuspecting innocents.
A short single press is not the only way to access turbo flamethrower or memory modes.