Unpopular Flashlight Opinion Thread

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I find that a phone is useless 99% of the time when I need a light

Wellp, this is about unpopular opinions, so in that sense I guess it fits, if everyone’s getting their undies all in a twist. :laughing:

Thing is, I’ve seen phone “flashlights” in 3 different varieties: screen goes full white, lit by the backlight; camera-flash LED doing double-duty as a “flashlight”, and a dedicated teeny 5mm LED or so being used as an actual flashlight. They’re all kinda silly, just as pliers on a SAK. They might be better’n nothing, but not by much.

I’ve got key doodads that slip onto the key itself and have a built-in coin-cell and LED. I’ve also got dedicated blanks to serve that function (available at your friendly neighborhood locksmith). Squeeze to light it up, and it lights up the keyhole perfectly right where the key’s going. Limited lifespan of the cell, usually nonreplaceable, so not quite suited for general-purpose lighting.

In any case, when something rolls under the couch, or falls under a car-seat, or drops down sewer-grates, using a cellphone for lighting would be either useless or retarded (unless you don’t mind the phone falling down the sewer, in a toilet, between cabinet and wall, etc.).

So even an AAA light would be better. Some twisties being barely bigger’n the cell itself, they could be put to good use by quite many people.

But hey, we have our choice of AAA/10440, AA/14500, 16340, 18650, whatever. You wanna carry a Q8 strapped to your belt, hey, go crazy.

So… can’t we all just get alooooong? [snark]

@Lightbringer, using the full screen backlight doesn’t seem very efficient, since intensity is absolute crap at that point.

And yes, we can get along, no problem.

It’s just that with flashlights, we have every choice imaginable in terms of size that phone lights should only be used as a high CRI camera flash, and nothing else.

I mean, we have tiny rechargeable button cell lights, AAA lights, 18650 lights, lights for every size!

We even have lights for women’s pockets… which don’t exist for some reason on some women’s pants.

Was beginning to wonder, being that people are getting so “invested” in an opinion…

I still don’t get that. Sounds like a manufacturing defect, but it’s by “design”.

It’s not a bug, it’s a feature

Sure, desk jockeys may never need much more that a cell phone light…

but plenty of people don’t work at a desk all day or live in the city where there is a ton of street lighting/light pollution.

I tried going back to keychain light only (~80 lumens) for a while and was wishing several times throughout both the day and night I had a bigger light with me.

I don’t buy pants1 without pockets.

Then again, I usually don’t buy pants1 at all.

Pants1 are pants2.


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  1. American meaning.
  2. British meaning.

Cellphones suck.

Agreed with the first part. Trousers and shorts with no pockets are worth very little to me, even as loungewear, exactly because I can’t carry a light on them.

Mixed emitter lights, i.e. a D4 with two 3000K and two 5000K, look like a manufacturing defect or a bizarre EOL light. Mixed emitters don’t consistently yield a BBL tint. You are still at the mercy of the tint lottery, but now you’re spreading yourself further out. Lee Minus-Green filters are a superior method that works consistently at producing “rosier” tints from green-biased emitters, yet no one seems to be talking about those? Oh yes, I wanted to add that the Lee filters, when applied to green or above BBL emitters have been shown by Maukka to improve R9 and even CRI values while emitter mixing worsens these values. The Lee filters also enhance the objective saturation values— R (g), and make colors pop.

So maybe there’s hope for my Quarks and Jetbeams?

They might help, assuming they have a lot of green, but you’re working with emitters that don’t push much red. You’ll be loosing out on output, the main reason one might go such an emitter in the first place. Still might be interesting if someone maybe does some spectral analysis tests?? You’re probably better off going high-CRI then objectively filtering to your hearts content in a manner that offers greater control and immediate flexibility. It’s trivial to swap filters, but it’s over an hour’s work to swap emitters back and forth.

The Quarks might as well be welded shut, and I hear (haven’t really tried it myself, other than hand-cranking) the Jetbeams are little better.

Would be nice to breathe a little life into ’em.

The LED light on my cellphone (HTC 10) is excellent. It has 2 emitters, one cool and one warm. Together they get a nice “averaged” neutral tint that to my eye leans a little warm. The only thing that sucks is that the hardware seems incapable of supporting a dimming function (not on OEM app & 3rd party can’t seem to do it).

I don’t use my cellphone flashlight much, because I usually keep a small AAA EDC light in my pocket. Or use the rechargeable Olight i1R on my car keychain. Those are far brighter and easier to wield. But, sometimes the cellphone light comes in handy. Easy to prop up and lean against something. Plus, the floody beam is very useful.

I really don’t get why people will go out of their way to say one particular kind of light is the best and diss all the rest. There are so many uses for the different form factors available.

I have to agree a bit on the FW3A. The tail button needs to be recessed more (which would be at all, min currently seems to sit flush), or harder to click, or both. I frequently turn mine on when clipping it onto my back pocket. I've never had that issue with my other tail switch lights. I expected this light to dominate my pocket-time, but it hasn't. If I'm not out after night, I'm frequently carrying only my D25C or RRT01. If it's dark out, I will always take an 18650 light, and sometimes with a backup smaller light for fun.

Also, I love that your EDC is a Supfire host. It's just... It's perfect for this forum. That tailcap is awesome, too.

My skeletool would like a word with you.

Leatherman pliers are excellent.

SAK pliers are generally a joke.

Not every light needs an electronic switch (side or tail).

In most use cases, the e-switch, with all the fancy firmware that it makes possible, is just a novelty or fad.

The long awaited FW3A has convinced me if this.

Agreed.

I love my Leatherman Wave, but for the pliers function I find the SOG Powerlock to be superior. It has a compression style mechanism that multiplies the force. Really nicely done. The rest of the functionality is good but a little oddly implemented.