White LED flashlights have come a LONG way. Let's do a little "back in my day..." to compare how far we've come. Try to remember price, date, and other details like tint, energy usage, etc.. Perhaps even mention what is your "best" LED light today as a comparison.
My "first" was the Eternalight. Remember that? Odd little thing, cool design at the time. 4 exposed (5mm?) LED's, all ranging in tint from blueish-white to purple . No reflectors whatsoever. Flaky membrane buttons (once watched it come alive on its own). $35? + shipping + "packaging fee" from a random discount/closeout catalog (Heartland America). Got mine... circa 2004? Probably still holds the record for number of modes, and UI still could've been better. Came with 3 AA Energizers already loaded. Replacing batteries required unscrewing the housing--but this was the ETERNAlight, remember? You don't NEED to change batteries! Actually, I only did replace the batteries once, and the originals weren't dead. Still works--still on 2nd set of batteries!. Even without the flaky buttons/UI, totally obsolete for my purposes. Still by today's standards, very long runtime though. Too heavy to velcro under a hat bill, despite my hopes. Very pocketable though, with flat, wide shape. Just guessing: around 25 lumens on high?
OMG--they're still in business!
Still making the "Ergo"! $40 directly from the website!! omg! Site almost unchanged since <2007!
Unlike your "first time", the "second time" is harder to remember... drawing a blank on my 2nd (something from DX years later).
My 'best' white LED flashlight today: Solarforce L2P hosting a Manafont Ultrafire 3-mode XM-L drop-in with an OEM Surefire Z41 twisty switch (soon to be Solarforce crap S7 twisty switch modded to Oveready Zero Resistance).
This one. The "driver" was a resistor. It was supposed to be suitable for two rechargeables. It wasn't! It smelled truly horrible when it burned.
My first mod - replacing the resistor with one that wouldn't burn. It was fearsomely bright by the standards of the time - I measured it at 75 lumens recently.
My second one.
The bottom of its reflector wasn't very well finished and when I tightened the head down it shorted the driver and killed the LED. Replaced it with a strange blue tinted 3W LED which was a third of the price of a Luxeon 3 and another resistor "driver".
My first led Flashlight was this http://www.dealextreme.com/p/3-in-1-15-1-3xaaa-flashlight-10-white-led-5-uv-led-red-laser-3248 also i f i don't know if it can be consider a real flashlight.
My first "real" flashlight was a 501 body with a q2 in it.
No, I think the 'unreal' flashlights count more! Kind of trying to trace what people were buying when 'white' LED's emerged, and were a novelty.
'Squeeze light'! Yes! My family had an incandescent one. Piece of crap. Great way to get Carpel Tunnel.
Come to think of it, my '2nd' I believe was a white 3-LED mini-mag drop-in (my first drop-in!). Fry's sold both the Nite-Ize kit (with clicky switch) and an almost identical kit branded "Balboa", I think. Stupid me, I got the Balboa, and the switch died prematurely, but the beam was slightly superior to the Nite-Ize. Still have the drop-in. But my mini-mag is dissembled, in disarray, and will probably never be used again. I truly had a love-hate relationship with the Mini Mag. Mostly hate.
Drifting off-topic: anyone remember the Radio Shack (Tandy in Europe) "free" multi-C cell plastic flashlight BODIES they used give away as a promotion every year or few for awhile back in the late '80s? I think RS was hoping you'd buy the batteries for it there. Can't remember if those came with a bulb, but the 'thing to do' was to buy RS's krypton bulb to 'hot rod' it. Remember the batteries leaking onto my friend in a tent in the middle of the night.
My First LED experiences are all DIY. First were combinations of batteries connected to batteries, with resistors. The first torch format one was a double 5mm Amber LED connected to 2AA batteries via a resistor with a switch, in a PVC pipe with cork ends to hold the LED, switch and batteries.
Later there were designs for boost converters for single white emitters and Those were my first White LED torches, in various packagings. Each with a slightly different boost driver design. Everything was put together from plans, Even had to manually draw the circuit board with permanent marker before etching!
It Still works! Even the sliding switch mechanism was rebuilt from tinned wire. I think I was 14y at the time..
Emitter is Plug and Play, Can connect any 5mm emitter onto this host. But the emitter must not be disconnected when powered, otherwise the buffer capacitor on the output charges up and when reconnecting the emitter :POOF:
D10 with 4C tint XP-G on Minimum output, vs 5mm White (not a very bright emitter, prob 6000mcd or something) (this driver is very light on the emitters, low drive current)
This 50 lumen powerhouse I purchased about 15 years ago because it looked like a "serious" flashlight in the package. (and its $40 price meant it had to be a "professional" torch)
It is actually very robust. Much more so than its output would suggest
As you can see, this 3-mode wunderlight has hit the ground several times from significant height, always bezel end first of course.
It's a sad light really but the 10 LEDs are white and it does turn on when the button is pressed. Which is not too damn often.
The first white light I remember having was an LED Lenser V2 Mini Moon it's also the only one I've ever lost.
I got it in Feb-March 2001, it has that odd coloured beam yellowish in the middle and purpley-blue around the edges.
Everyone was amazed by it. Sadly I left it on a desk in an office I was installing network cable in, sadly someone pocketed it rather than handing it in :(
That was about ten years ago. It was a small LED lenser, possibly a V2 and crazy expensive. It used three AAAA batteries, that were so difficult to get. I sold it on.
. No reflectors whatsoever. Flaky membrane buttons (once watched it come alive on its own). $35? + shipping + "packaging fee" from a random discount/closeout catalog (Heartland America). Got mine... circa 2004? Probably still holds the record for number of modes, and UI still could've been better. Came with 3 AA Energizers already loaded. Replacing batteries required unscrewing the housing--but this was the ETERNAlight, remember? You don't NEED to change batteries! Actually, I only did replace the batteries once, and the originals weren't dead. Still works--still on 2nd set of batteries!. Even without the flaky buttons/UI, totally obsolete for my purposes. Still by today's standards, very long runtime though. Too heavy to velcro under a hat bill, despite my hopes. Very pocketable though, with flat, wide shape. Just guessing: around 25 lumens on high?
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