I love my Singfire 348, which is not even 2mm thicker than the AAA battery inside of it. Are there any similar flashlights in an AA/14500 format? The thinnest I can find is 20mm, but the battery is only 14.5mm.
I like really slim, smooth lights that just slide into your pocket easily. Many, like the awesome SK68, are so aggressively knurled that they catch on the pocket as well as being thicker than necessary.
The L3 L10 comes to mind, it’s about 17mm thin uses single AA.
Also the DQG AA light which is not only thin 17mm but one of the shortest AA lights I’ve seen at 67mm.
Btw, I don’t own either but both have gotten decent reviews.
The thinnest AA light I have is the L3 Illuminations L10 (with Nichia 219A LED). I measure it at just under 17mm thick. Great pocket-carry light due to how thin it is, though I usually stick to AAA lights for pocket carry because they almost disappear in my pocket.
Still, it’s a great light, fairly inexpensive, 4 output levels including a real moonlight, and comes with a fantastic high-CRI LED. I prefer my Zebralights for their interface, but they are quite a bit thicker so not as easy to pocket carry.
This must be a new trend. I built a 14500 light for a customer just last month.... that was exactly what he wanted.... thin, smooth and a high polish. I left the walls .070" thick....against MY liking & polished the thing to a mirror finish and buffed it then with Mothers. I nearly dropped the thing 25 times before I could get it out of the shop. It felt like tin foil... but the customer is always right!!! TL
I’m not even sure if it’s still available, but the Fenix LD15 (my EDC for the past several years) is supposedly 16.6mm diameter. So potentially 2.6mm larger diameter than the battery. I don’t have calipers on me, so I can’t tell if that refers to only the un-knurled parts or whatever… But holding against a ruler it does look like 17mm or less.
I love the form factor! Simple UI, relatively good brightness and runtime for the size. But I’m not thrilled with the tint - just this morning I ordered an L3 L10 to hopefully get the best of both worlds (size + tint).
EDIT: WRT your comment on knurling, there is a lot of knurling on the LD15, but it’s not too aggressive. I’ve never had a problem with it catching in a pocket, abrading other pocket inhabitants, etc.
The L3 L10 is really a terrific light. In my experience, the US distributor, SBFlashlights, is excellent. It’s less than $25 and has four nicely spaced modes.
+1
I have the mini aa and its tiny. It’s thinner than my DQG Tiny AA but slightly taller because it uses a reflector instead of an optic. Still, extremely pocketable.
The Mini AA, by the way, is a twin to the sadly discontinued Olight i2EOS. The heads are even interchangeable. Some of the very last ones even came with XP-G2 emitters.
While we’re on the subject, has anyone managed to change the emitter in a Mini AA / i2EOS? I’d really like to put in something a bit more neutral, but I don’t want to rip the driver to shreds while doing it. I’ve tried the various means of applying heat with no luck.