What was your first White LED Flashlight?

Here's picture of the insides I took a long time ago.

maybeitcouldFoy

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 :(

My first also / Romisen RL-B7 = Still have it , but now XM-L T6

Pook: I've got something like that.

Mine is blue. I think it came with another light I bought, probably 15 years ago.

offtopiccauseitaintwhiteFoy

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.

An old XJC B-12 . It came in a nice box with an 18650 and a charger .

Fall of 2003 I discovered this little classic in my local home improvement store. This is a little later model of the same light (which I still have and still works just fine.)

It led me to search for 'LED flashlight' on Google, which led me to CPF, which led me to start FlashlightNews, which led me to get ticked off at CPF's management, which led me to start FlashlightNews Forums, which eventually led me here.

All because of one little LED flashlight...go figure!

Mine was Ace hardware Luxeon III(china made) light driven by 2xAA, surprisingly waterproof i left it at 0.5m under water in the swiming pool overnight and no single drop of water inside. I changed it to SSC P4 since and now it still in by box without driver hoping to get a new lease of life.

Wow, an Indonesia member! Welcome, rizky_p! Seen you around here before but didn't notice your location--hello! They have ACE hardware in Indonesia? Just products, or the actual hardware stores?

My first LED light was an unbranded, clear anodised 9x5mm LED cluster light, resistor regulated, 3xAAA, around 1999. Back then, I was admittedly ogling at the then-new LL lights with those funny names like "V²" or "photon pump" and the ridiculous pricetags, but never bought one. More sense then money.

My second LED light was this one: https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/1966#node-2175

I got it sometime around 2000, and was really proud of it. It had the air of "professionality", or at least I was convinced of that.

Despite a few more 9-LED and 12-LED cluster lights, it wasn't until late 2009 that I looked into LED lighting more seriously, again. I tried to modify a minimag with a "super-bright 5000K" white 5mm LED, directly driven off two alkalines. This didn't satisfy me for long, and in spring 2010, I replaced my crude first attempt at modding with a proper terralux TLE-5EX conversion which I used for well over a year.

If my foggy memory recalls accurately, my first “real” LED light (other than some run of the mill 5mm LED) was also a TaskForce from Lowes. I remember my brothers showing off their 1W LED torches and being amazed at the output. Saw this one at Lowes and had to have that 1W beast! Oh, how times change!!

my first was a White LED keychain with a 5mm led. when the battery died, it got tossed.

my first hand held white led light was a Maglight 2AA incandescent with a cheap 5mm 3LED drop in module that i got at walmart. little bit blue tint. i think i lost it somewhere.

the first that had some usable output was a Coleman max with a XR-C (i think) led. 3AAA. fairly green tint. still have it. it may get some mods soon. 2nd light from the right. you can see the green compared to the rest of the lights.

Brian

Old thread but a good one! I'll contribute my history here...

My first LED light was the $5 Dorcy 1x AAA light from Wal-Mart (the first-gen model I found described here: http://www.flashlightreviews.com/reviews/dorcy_aaa.htm)

I loved this light because it really did make a useable amount of light as compared to a micro-mag, and about half the price. So I've been a true BLFer since the beginning. After I bought this, other family members went out and bought the same light because they liked mine so much. After owning this light a couple of years, I eventually modded it using an updated Nichea 5mm LED that allowed me to gain a little brightness over the stock emitter. I tried adding a side-emitting white LED at one time to experiment with getting some use from the reflector, but my results were pretty dismal.

My next LED lights were Mag-mods. I had an LED Mag long before Mag released their own. My first attempt was an array of 36 5mm LEDs that fit the head perfectly and connected using the factory bulb post connector so the mod was completely reversible. My second mod was an early XR-E P3 (IIRC) emitter with no optic, but that was rather dismal. I eventually added a DX 52mm OP reflector that improved performance somewhat. It was better than a factory mag, but wasn't great. I finally purchased the 3x XR-E reflector from DX, ground it to fit, and installed 3x R2 emitters, each driven via a separate driver. This took up ALL available space in the head of the light, so it was necessary to remove the bulb post and solder directly to the switch. This combination worked VERY well and made the brightest Mag-Lite I had seen. The batteries leaked in that light, so I have just completed pulling it apart and cleaning it, and am in the process of replacing the drivers with the single 3x emitter driver from DX. This Mag has seen a lot and has been the test-bed for a lot of LED mods. When I soldered to the switch, I used one of the JST connectors from DX (a great investment for modding) so all of my mods are now modular. I can pull a mod and connect another without resoldering.

My other Maglite is a hard-driven XR-E R2 installed with a good 50mm optic from DX making a very impressive thrower than can throw 1,000 yards...

My first real LED flashlight was the single-mode 501b with XR-E R2 from DX. The original driver failed so I replaced it with the 5-mode AMC7135 driver with the mode group selection set to the 2-mode hi-low only. I still like this light.

Pretty dreadful... IIRC.

Hand crankers from around 1990-2000 (a forgettable flashlight era for me). I was cleaning out the garage 4-5 years ago and found these in a pile of junk. Snapped this pic before tossing them in the can. You can see the pry marks on the silver one from me taking it apart to try and fix it. These things completely SUK, 5-6 minutes of rigorous hand crank for 2-3 minutes of unusable light.

... this awful turd from around that same time, $25 at big-5. I got raped on this one, I was over-joyed though, at least I didn't have to hand crank it!!

More turds from that same time span... I realized early on that 3AAA stinks, same goes for N size cells, Led Lensers don't smell much better for the $$. The mag incan was a pretty good light looking back, alkaline cells eventually puked their guts and killed it.

my fave light from about 1984-1992 era was this fulton anglehead.... solid tool. I upgraded it with a Radio-hack halogen lamp and a glass lens that I pulled form an old ray-o-vac light.

Hmm, maybe a fauxton.

After it, I bought some China-made flashlight with Finnish brand with 4 x 5mm LEDs, 2 x AA.

LED´s started to burn out one by one first evening, got second one as replacement, same deal.

After that I took a while without LED´s.

First real powerful LED light was Black Cat! Used it with POS batts and thought it was broken -> bought more lights and since then I have been in forums.

First REAL, SERIOUS, WORKING LED-light was Romisen RC-C6, I gave it away when I sold my iTP A1 as a freebie.

Great thread here. My two relics from the past and the first LED flashlights I purchased are perhaps 7 or more years old, could even be 10 years old. The first takes 3 "D" alkalines and may have cost $29.00+ and the smaller uses 4 "AA" alkalines and likely cost $24.00. The larger has perhaps 109 or might actually have 128 LED's and the smaller may be about 50 LED's. Both are approximately 7000k or higher color temp. As I'm sure you're aware, the beam, or lack-there-of is all flood. I did always like the side-body clickie on them though. They were rarely used and remain in like-new condition on my display shelf.

Just finished it up today. swapped driver for solarforce single mode xml driver and xml U2 from led dna. also chopped off an inch to accomodate a 18650. a little jb weld and voila! updated for today.

Here are my LED oldies.

They are all 3xAAA.

Bought all 3 cca 2001 (cant remember exactly) in a China-shop, Trieste, Italy, about 5 euros each.

Interestingly, one of them was replaced few minutes after I bought them because one of the LEDs wasn't turning on. During the years I got used to 1-3 LEDs randomly working (or not), on all 3.

Over the years they suffered drops, kicks, leaked batteries, and plenty of other abuse. All 3 still work, minus the few LEDs on each. :)

I carried the left one as a keychain light for a long time. :D

I was always a flashlight enthusiast, ever since I was a small kid. :)

Viktor


Edit:

The middle one is actually a twisty. The rubber "clicky" is just a decoration, I always hated that. :)

Dorcy 1 Watt Metal Gear - around 50 lumens...

http://www.flashlightreviews.com/reviews/dorcy_metalgear.htm

Still one of the best form factors ever, IMO. And everybody loved and wanted it. I gave it to an uncle who lost it. I was so blown away at how easily this could whip the 2 D Mag incan I had been using.

Then came the Inova 82 lumens...

And today...too many to count!

I really don't know why, but I've always wanted a shower head light.

The nearest thing I have to it is a Fusion 36 Mag dropin which actually works pretty well.