Sharing the things I learned in this flashlight hobby

in my experience

-do not buy a light that you cannot repair yourself. (my otr m3 driver died and never got a chance to repair)
-your current light isn’t bad or outdated, you’re just greedy and want everything

Unless it’s a M@g-Lite.

There’s no hope for me…save yourselves

For me:

  • Be honest about buying the light. If you want it for asthetics or because it’s cool or basically as a toy, you have to be ready to admit, accept, and (most importantly) budget for that appropriately
  • If you are really going to say the light fills a need - or, okay, at least fills a plausible use-case - actually define that use-case. I wanted a light that ran efficiently on NiMh/Alkaleak/14500, had a tail switch, and was smaller than my SC62 by enough to justify using it with 14500 instead of just carrying the SC62. But then I got the Ti version because (and I admit this) it’s cool. I didn’t need the Ti version.
  • Budget. To me, Budget Light Forum doesn’t mean a forum full of cheap lights. What it does mean, is make sure you remember what your budget is. Your budget will be different than anyone else’s. One member may have more disposable income in a month than another makes in a year, so don’t try to “keep up” with others. If the Joneses are buying every new Imalent and all the McGizmos and Oklumas and stuff, that doesn’t mean you’re doing anything wrong buying an S2+ twice a year.
  • Don’t try to get into modding thinking you’re saving money. Between all the tools, all the stuff you break, and all the parts you buy, it won’t be that cheap, and then next week there will be a new light/host/part that gets your mod done with 25% of the cash. I bought an L6 host and a separate XHP70.2 for a mod not too long before Simon started selling the fully assembled XHP70.2 L6 for less than I paid for the earlier combination.

In the end, it’s a hobby. Make sure you have an acceptable “hobby” budget, and accept that you’re spending your money to have fun. And don’t be afraid to enjoy lights that aren’t all that “special” in the eyes of others, just get what you want out of the hobby. That’s what it’s for and part of why I love this place, I’ll figure out exactly what I want out of a certain light and then someone else will have the complete opposite preference and that’s fine! Or even better, someone will have an idea I never did and change my mind :slight_smile:

Buy 1 quality light that is what you want, rather than 2 or 3 cheaper lights that do about 90% of what you want.
You will be using that 1 quality light far past the time when you’ve shelved the cheaper lights.

I’m still using Zebralights I bought over 5 years ago, and my more modern Zebras I use every day. I seldom use budget lights longer than about 2 months before I get tired of them. (There are a couple of BLF group-buy exceptions.)

This is so true, it cannot be stressed enough. Flashaholism (at least on this community) is not a competition.

First lesson I learned was that lumens aren’t everything and a flashlight with a balanced beam that puts out about 200-300 lumens is going to cover pretty much all my uses. Likewise, a focused 300 lumen beam can easily out-throw many floody 1000 lumen lights, so peak candela number and pictures of beam shots can mean just as much as the raw lumen output.

For an EDC light, UI, ergonomics and form factor are the biggest factors. If I plan to carry a light in my pants pocket but the pocket clip doesn’t retain the light or too much of the light sticks out the top of my pocket, then it won’t get carried. Likewise, if I can’t access my preferred one or two modes easily from turning it on, then it won’t get carried.

I personally like to try out a wide variety of flashlights and then just sell the ones that I don’t prefer. Reviews can be helpful, but I need to establish a baseline of my own first, which helps me separate the marketing from the reality.

With Chinese flashlights, price range is not necessarily a predictor of flashlight quality or performance, but is most definitely an indicator that the packaging will look nice. Some of my best flashlights came in flimsy, generic-looking cardboard packaging, while some of my least favorite flashlights came in really nice packaging with magnetic flaps and color photos printed on the outside.

This, for me, in a way. I have a couple lights around that I just don’t like. I figure there’s two options: mod it, or get rid of it. But getting rid of it presents some interesting opportunities:

  • Giveaway (did one already and I recommend this. One man’s trash is another man’s treasure!)
  • Sell (kind of feels disappointing, because you’ll never get what you paid unless it’s somehow a collectible)
  • Trade (I think this feels best)
  • Just throw it away (Not recommended)

People are not much different from wildlife and will usually respond accordingly to a powerful, silent beam of light. Aggravated wildlife/people will not be deterred.

My first two ‘good’ lights were the Zebralight SC600 and the Klarus XT11, way back in 2012.

It always had charged batteries in them, seldom used, as months came to years. Then I started buying some other lights.

Years later when I owned 2 Lumintop SD75s and a Nitecore EA11 wherein these 2 lights has horrendous parasitic drain and ruined sets of 18650s and 14500, only then I realized the design advantage of minimal or negligible drain lights

I buy lights to enjoy them, not babysit them with lock-outs, etc.

Lesson? Avoid lights with high parasitic drain like the plague.

Hey, money is money, and even a little bit of extra cash in my paypal account is welcome when moving to my next flashlight purchase. That said, I’ll usually wait until I have at least four or five flashlights to sell at a time, sometimes quite a few more. That way, it doesn’t seem like I’m going through a ton of work photographing, packing, labeling and driving to the post office, just to get back $7 on a flashlight I only paid $15 for.

This is why I’m never buying a Nitecore that isn’t a keychain model with integrated battery. They are consistently atrocious with parasitic drain.

I recently discovered I will gladly fork over money for color options, regardless of “need.” The same can be said for led varieties.
I also discovered how a multi emitter light on its lowest setting can be more than enough light in the absolute dark.

  1. EVERYTHING GETS CHEAPER! We’re still on the upswing curve of LED progress. So, newer lights displace older lights, generally speaking. There’s no rush. Of course, there have been some unusual flashlight offerings that disappear and then become coveted. But they’re a very small fraction of the overall range of offerings.
  2. The only thing you may want to look out for are very desirable emitter tints that may eventually run out and become difficult (and costly) to obtain. Like the Nichia 219B 9080 sw45.
  3. Minus Green Filters… can do wonders for an undesirable tint! You really don’t lose that much output.
  4. Never throw a flashlight away. Give it to someone else!

Oh well, I discovered this too…and what a welcome surprise.

When I started this hobby in 2012, my mindset then was lumens, lumens, and more lumens. My 2,200-lumen Fenix TK70 was my king then.

Eventually I keep on reading people talking about moonlight mode, or something like it’s not ‘low’ enough (which is a complete opposite to the lumen wars).

Fast forward to today, though I managed to get by (suffered is more appropriate) from a lowest of 20 lumens for years, now that I put my FW3Cu SST20 4kk beside my bed, set to its lowest mode for trips to the bathroom, only do I appreciate what those supposedly ‘jerks’ were talking about!

That’s why I like my Cometa. Even on moonlight, the beam’s spread so wide and evenly that there’s not even any glaring hotspot to ruin your dark-adapted vision.

Thanks for the advice everyone. I read through the thread and have broken so many of your points already.

Maybe it’s time I drop out of blf and reddit so I’m not tempted to spend anymore than what I’ve spent on my first four lights which will be arriving arriving this month. :neutral_face:

Hah, good luck with that, flashaholism is a rabbit hole and you can’t reach the walls :stuck_out_tongue:

I bought most of my best lights not because I needed them, to the contrary, I considered them useless for me. But they were cheap. And it turned out that I simply didn’t understand my needs well.

So…I puchased many lights because they were cheap - and they ended up gathering dust. But I regret only the purchase of a couple of $7 S2+. Because once I had one (gathering dust) I didn’t need any more. Give them away? I don’t have local flashlight friends and I wouldn’t give Li-Ion based light to a noob, especially since it doesn’t come with a charger. Give them away on BLF? Shipping cost is too close to the price to make it worthwhile.

The battery is almost as important as the flashlight.

So important to know if your battery is in good shape and will charge without showing undue heat, while achieving a proper voltage. Treat charging batteries like having a steam iron on. You must be mindful of them and should never leave the house with lithium batteries charging. Because you never know…

Also, protect your charged batteries in proper casings.