Forgoing discussion on UI/modes and CRI for more technical subjects is the wrong approach IMO. Interface is in many ways the MOST important aspect of choosing a light the way I see it.
If activating it and getting to the mode you want is a chore every time you use it, who cares if the efficiency at certain modes is better than another light IMO.
CRI being as nearly important is debatable but I would have stuck with much older lights I already owned if high-CRI options weren’t available to me when I started looking into flashlights again. For me the best resource to see how UIs and emitter CRI/temp/tint have changed and to compare available options was the “Advanced Knife Bro” channel on Youtube. Very muggle/layman friendly buying guides.
Still a great guide here and I am excited to see what additions are made in the future!
Awesome! I am still at the very beginning of the learning curve with regard to flashlights. Every day spent reading at BLF is a day of “Oh’s! and Aha’s!”, sparsly followed up by digging deeper into the matter, the “Errr, later…maybe!’s” moments. Right now there are still many things I don’t want to learn, or try as all things discussing or modding of emitters, drivers etc. is simply still too complex, too technical for me and it will take a while before I venture into it.
I tried reading and understanding the Flashlight Wiki but this explanation is so much better! This thread is a keeper. Also one to which I will refer different beginners around me. Thank you very much for listing all basics and explaining it clearly and simply. Thanks, Narmattaru!
hm, seems i wrote it in to complex way and use some russian idiomas
to have straight hands, to have have groing from shoulders, not from butt - all that means being able having tech skills of doing things well with your hands. like soldering, repairing, wood-woriing
i mean, in other words, “if you want and if you can - you may play around with installing TIR optic”
i will read my text couple of times more, to add some new ideas and to pick proper words for them
Too late. Those pics of the flashaholic bookcases are from my house. If I only read this 10 years ago. The only thing missing is size matters. The noob won’t know what they’re looking at unless you put something alongside those lights they can compare it to, so they can better gauge how big the light is.
Thank you very much for doing this for the sake of the flashlight community. Very nice introduction and I was able to get some gaps in flashlight understanding filled in .