Hi BLFers - thanks for giving me something to rediscover my old obsession during all this time at home!
Looking at all the available flashlight brands, many - if not most - abide by an established and similar design principle.
To us enthusiasts, they might all look very different, however to a lay-person (muggle?!) most will appear quite similar.
(If you want proof, just try asking your wife/husband/significant other to choose a favourite from your collection!)
To be clear - I'm not talking about the internal designs, emitters, shelves, pills, drivers, firmware, UI, etc. These components may well be very interesting, modern, and vary wildly. I'm talking specifically about the external design aesthetics.
It's fair to say that the Keychain category has focussed most on unique and interesting designs, styles, shapes, and angles.
Whilst the >18650 mostly abide by a number of the same form-factor design with slight modifications:
- Head --> Tube --> Tail.
- Side button, tail button.
- Tube-style lights (A6/S2+), Big-head (C8, GT Mini, etc).
- Scaled-up / Scaled-down sizes. Eg X5/X6, S2/S3, GT/Mini/Micro.
- Special materials - But same design: Titanium, Brass, Copper, Stainless Steel. Usually a shelfqueen.
- Extra internal function as powerbank.
Basically nearly all flashlights can fit into the above design categories.
Where the design becomes interesting - in my opinion - are where the following categories are applied:
- Improbable size for main cell: eg 18650 with short tubes. Eg. Nitecore MH20/23 & clones.
- Multiple emitters - in different locations or function. Front facing and side aux light. Eg. SWM C22C
- Interesting button design/mechanism. Eg. Two-stage camera style click.
- Aux LEDs. In head (different function) or positioned elsewhere to main emitter.
- Non-round head - squared off: Eg. SWM C22C
- Uni-body design - larger head blends into body. Seamless taper at neck.
- Patterns or designs within the metals.
- Mixed Metals - Aluminium/Steel body with copper head. Eg. Astrolux S41S/S42S/S43S
- Non-metals used - Carbon Fibre. Eg. Lumintop Prince / Prince Mini.
- Graphical display for power/UI.
- Special Editions - any unique design/shape changes that differentiate from the regular edition (other than just metal material used).
- Form-factor concepts. Die-cast styles eg. Nitecore P18, TM*, EC4S
The search for a 'different' or 'unique' style of flashlight is difficult by trawling the product catalogues of so many brands, online stores, and chinese marketplaces.
I had an idea to use this forum thread so that people can post links, pictures and details of whatever flashlights they discover that fit the criteria of being an interesting or uniquely AESTHETIC design. Especially 18650/EDC/Pocket sized with a stylish form-factor.
I'll start in the below post as I have some more time to gather pictures of the lights I've owned or found.
Please feel free to post your own finds and suggestions, maybe we can get this thread full of interesting looking and stylish lights, instead of the usual black round sticks....