Hello everyone. A new member here. Actually, not so new. I’ve been following BLF for almost three months now and finally decided to join.
As I mentioned in the subject, I believe I’m suffering from flashoholism. My symptoms include: being impressed with how bright my flashlight is every time I turn it on; irresistible desire to buy at least one more flashlight; curiosity on how much brighter my flashlight would be if modded; visiting BLF at least once a day.
So, how did all this start? Here’s my story.
I ride a road bike a lot. Most of the time I finish my rides around midnight. I just enjoy riding at night. There is almost no light pollution, no sound pollution and very low traffic. Just me, bike and the road. And of course a source of light to see where I’m going. That’s where my very first flashlight comes into play, a 5 White LED POLARIS 2xAA. Amount of light was low, but sufficient for safely cycling at 25-30 km/h. Batteries lasted for a few days , until one day a parasitic drain started eating batteries in a few hours. Buying new batteries every day was not an option, rechargeables too due to even lower voltage. Since I had nothing to lose, I tried a 950 mAh LiPo battery from my dead cell phone. It worked, and it was much brighter (and much warmer, melted the rubber on the switch). Battery went from 4.2V to 3.4V in ~90 minutes. This summer I fixed that mobile phone for my brother and had to give up the battery. A quick internet search for new battery led me to eBay. There I discovered cylindrical li-ion batteries and with them world of flashlights. After a few days and a lot of hours spent reading and analysing, mostly here on BLF, I narrowed choice to single battery 26650 zoomie. A Keygos M12 met all those criteria. An addiction was born.
Few days ago I searched my whole house and found 14 lights (I bought only 3) 0:)
A quick preview:
1: SMART 5 LED bike light 2xAAA, little brighter than moonlight
2: SMART 5 White LED POLARIS 2xAA, was my main bike light for a long time, great with Li-ion
3: SMART 1 SUPER POWER white LED 2xAA, my brother’s light, purplish
4: 9 LED 3xAAA, sufficient for indoor use
5: 4 LED 2xAA, plastic toy, surprisingly bright, SMO reflector
6: 6W halogen diving light, 4xC, SMO reflector, never used
7 & 8: 4 LED diving light, 4xAA, SMO reflector, very purplish
9: Old Varta, unknown bulb, 3xD, never seen it working, maybe some custom build one day
10 & 11: POLICE 5W Waterproof, single led, 4xAAA, deep SMO reflector, used it sometimes on bike as “high beam”
12: RGB LED, 3xAAA, aspheric lens, 9 different colors + white, great light
13: Indestructible Varta Headlight, 1 Watt XP-C, 3xAAA, 2 mode (100 & 36 lumens)
14: newest member, Keygos M12, XM-L T6, 1x26650, zoomable, absolutely the best light I have ever seen
That’s it for now. I’ll do my best to contribute to BLF!
