Dynamo lights. Helping a friend.

Buy them a $6 QVC shake-it piece of junk and let them see how terrible it is. Then Go grab them a mini-mag and a pack of AA Energizer lithium primary’s. Tell them you’ve put on your calendar that in 2026 when those batts are supposedly bad, you’ll bring them another fresh pack.

Apparently so. The ones they give away at some stores around here moo when you turn them on.

Well, tank/romisen or minimag incan. I think we all know which one we're rather get as a gift.

How about MiniMag LED?

The LED one is kinda expensive and not very bright or all that great in general. For 20 you can get the terralux aa lights w/ cree if you want a retail brand, which are supposed to be pretty good.

For a gift, personally I like to get something that they'll be pleasantly surprised by, and mags are just meh IMO.

I don't have any experience with MagLEDs but I was sure they would be as unimpressive as the standard Mag Lites.

I own a 2AA MiniMag 3 led model....and it is not bright at all, maybe 25 lumens. I keep it in the car for an as needed basis. Here is my idea....I understand what you are trying to do and also what they think they want. Here is how I see it:

they are not flashlight people, so they just want "a light".

they will want something simple, so complex modes are out

they will want/need a unit with easy to get batteries

I think that a quality yet not to expensive AA light would be great for them. My vote is for Romisen lights. They are well made, you can get them locally Online,and about the same price as that Maglite. I know you can get this brand of light cheaper at a place such as Deal Extreme, but you also will wait a month to get it. I say have a look at www.shiningbeam.com and look at their Romisen lights.

http://www.shiningbeam.com/servlet/the-By-Batteries-cln-AA/s/9/Categories

http://www.shiningbeam.com/servlet/the-231/Romisen-RC-dsh-G2-II-NW/Detail

Wow. I like that. Stocked in this country too. Neutral white is a definite plus. That is very tempting.

I feel they are a good bang for the buck They are not the brightest in the world and are not super cheap in cost. However they are well made and they just work, they are also simple with no complex modes and Shiningbeam is a great place to buy from. Chances are that if you order from them tomorrow, you will have it by the end of the week.

The problem with most dynamo lights is that they still have a rechargeable battery inside. And that battery will be stored with no charge for most of the time, so it will go bad faster than most rechargeable batteries. If you get Eneloop batteries (or anything else LSD) then you can have a long shelf life and still not use disposable batteries. Lithium primaries are nice because of the long shelf life, so if it is an emergency light, that might be the way to go.

I though some of them might like the shakelights have a cap (or super-cap in the better ones) inside.

why would the tail cap fail on a romisen ?

did you just say the tail caps gonna fail in an emergency ...you gotta be kidding .. so these people who aren't gonna use a light ever anyway will suddenly experiance a tailcap failure ?

what are the odds of that ?? where's that quote about seagulls and the sahara :P

It's happened to me before on a Rom G2. But the thing is it's not all that much more reliable on more expensive lights which are often small batch and not mass manufacturing QC. Some mags can be more reliable because they're screw on, so maybe get a ITP a2/a3 if you need least amount of moving parts.

Wait they didn't want batteries ..shiningbeam isn't gonna work .. this isn't CPF .. itp and shiningbeam aren't our fall back positions ..

No batteries .... get them a jar of fire flies ..Go green .

Or maybe the cpf favorite ..A box of trits . depleted uranium ..or a few spent fuel rods ... half life 3000 years ..no batteries needed.

Matches.

I do not recall any need for batteries for this guy, correct me if i'm wrong.

My vote goes to the Romisen RC-N3 from Shiningbeam .

Fireflies ? Just how many lumens does a firefly produce anyway ?

Boaz , you are one funny dude .

The only dynamo light I've used was one from Harbor Freight, and it lasted only a couple months before the internal battery died, and it would only put out light while cranking it very quickly. Looked like http://www.dealextreme.com/p/super-mini-2-led-hank-crank-battery-free-dynamo-flashlight-keychain-12932

If they're into green, there's always solar. http://www.dealextreme.com/p/2-in-1-hybrid-solar-power-hand-cranked-dynamo-survival-flashlight-with-fm-radio-and-phone-charger-13761 is both solar and hand-crank...

A friend had the male masturbation lights (the ones where you shake them up and down really quickly), but they died very quickly, and unlike the hand crank one, were completely useless once they died.

--Bushytails

I had one of the masterbaters once, and not really a cheap one. It didn't work well but I can't see how it could fail. They don't even have wear parts inside, the cap should be good forever.

After I got the good led lights, I just used this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbsSeVr5NSI, but my muscles still don't look like the ones in the commercial. Fooled by the ad once again.