When I read through some of the reviews on sites like DX I see people saying "I'm going to get some of these as gifts". The thought occurs to me, hey, I could get some of these as gifts.
I guess my question would be, as a noob myself, I need a solid performer with a rep for reliability and suitable bling to give as a gift. I (so far) lack the skills to really dig in to a torch. I would hope to buy a handfull of said torches and be fairly confident in consistent reliability.
I'm leaning toward the Ultrafire C3 SS. It gets lots of mentions here with pretty good marks. Seems to be one of the staples of this community.
Anyone have other suggestions? I suppose an AAA light is not out of the question, but I think the AA format makes for a better all-around gift for a nonbeliever.
I think Don has mentioned a few times that the Ultrafire C3 SS is not one for everyone. It requires a few tweaks here and there to make it right and there's the 93mm version and 98mm version. I might be wrong though. :)
Many of the Hk dealer lights may require tweaks on some samples. It comes with the territory it seems. I did receive my C3 SS from lightake without much trouble. The head was not screwed in all the way so it wouldn't light up at first. It was easy to tighten and then it worked fine. If you want to guarantee a rock solid light from the get go, you should go with the ITP A2 or A3, they cost a tad more, but still in budget territory. They are one of most popular gift lights around. You can get them from US and European dealers so if there is a problem, it is generally pretty quick and simple to have the dealer replace them, and you will get them in a few days instead of waiting weeks to months.
Are you in the US? If so, go to goinggear and use the CPF discount code for 10% off and buy a bunch of the older Q5 A3's. They'll run you 15.75 after discount and if your order totals over $50 you get free shipping as well.
The C3 SS is really good - I give it to 5-6 persons as a gift (goods friends, who have a Maglite (old version without LED) - now they have a bright new light.
The C3 alu-version could make some problems (some of them flicker and you have to invest some minutes to get a nice light). With the SS version I ahve never such a problem.
Another nice light is the UniqueFire AA-S1 - old4570 test it (take a look at the DX review of him, posted on 9/21/2010 ).
Ah, a rebadge of the Sipik Zoomer. I've been eyeing that one. Eight bucks apiece is a mighty tasty price. Good thrower from what I've read. Might have to give it some serious consideration.
I think one of the notions I had in mind for a gift light was a kind of sleek, non-tactical stainless bling. Superficial to be sure, but hey, it's a gift. I really like the looks of some of those that just resemble a polished chunk of straight stainless tubing. Or better still, some of those minimalist "cube" styles. They just look so cool, ya know?
I recently gifted a grey L2r plus 3-mode XPG dropin which was liked very much. I think I'll get more of those for christmas. It's 23$ combined, so not the cheapest one to gift away. But the looks, quality and output (and the bling, of course) will impress any non-flashaholic and they'll think it costed at least twice as much.
Yep, I bought one of these for my wife. It so small and shiny, she just love it. The Sipik is nice too and it has this certain wow effect. It's probably the smallest Cree zoom for AA.
I think ITP stinks ... it's way off my list of lights I'd reccommend .. the bad pwm makes me want to throw up and makes the light unusable junk. I think it's better to give really nice lights to people who will appreciate them rather than lots of junk to everyone .I like AA Tanks .people like 566's in single /5 mode and with extentions.. it's an easy light to like imho.. i also like tank AAA's as gifts 701's or 703's.
How about the Romisen RC-G2? It's impressively bright with decent throw, and runs on a single AA cell. Plus, it has a good quality switch and is reliable.