I thought this would be a fun thread. What got you started with you addiction, dependency, hobby? I have liked flashlights since I was a kid and I remember thinking that some old incan disposiable light was the bomb back then. Heh. I had some led Maglites and a couple zoomies I bought cheap a few years ago. Then I got interested in knives and I guess that is how I became exposed to high performance lights. But I purchased a TN4A HI last year and it was my first high performance light. Bad, bad decision. Others soon followed. So, what got YOU into flashlights?
When I was a kid, I did some exploration around the rural neighborhood in the evening. I don’t remember what I found, but whatever it was must have been really cool, because I’ve been dying to go exploring again ever since. Even today, you can give me a cheapo $3 Rayovac flashlight, and I will imagine myself walking around and exploring the area, looking for cool stuff to discover.
… needing to see in the dark. 
Definitely my grandfather. He owned a TV / electronics repair shop in the 60s-70s and had an entire garage full of vaccum tubes, speakers, phonograph stuff from his shop. He was a certified HAM operator and was into CB too. He ALWAYS bought me my first… everything. First FM radio, first tape recorder, first walkman cassette…etc…etc.
Of course he bought me my first flashlight… it was big and bad-ass all the way for a 6-7 year old in ~1978.
Of course he signed me up for the Radio Shack battery club!! every month I would go to the local radio hack and pick up a D battery. After a couple months of free cells and a little allowance I had one BIG flashlight locked and loaded.
Since then I ALWAYS had some kind of flashlight at my disposal. But my grandfather was definitely the one to trigger my interest in electronics and that continues today as a 46 year old kid!!
I used to collect padlocks, torches & lego as a very young kid 
One light i remember having was this duracell
.
Gradually they disappeared over the years until i was a lot older and going on a camping trip with a girl so needed a light and bought one of these 9 LED lights, the new technology…
.
I must admit i thought it was quite bright, well compared to the Maglite solitaire i had it was blinding!
Then i thought it would be great if i could get one of those LEDs into the solitaire so went on the hunt for an AAA sized battery that would supply the required higher voltage, i didn’t know 10440 lithium ion cells even existed at the time and after some searching i saw a sipik sk68 and bought one for like £2.50 with a couple of crappy 14500 cells. (Gave up on the solitaire idea)
That was it, even though the cells were rubbish the increased output vs AA was impressive enough but i did wonder how one cell would make the torch run longer than the other and if this was 300lm then what would the 1000lm lights be like…
This got me investigating and finding out about quality and all the rest so i found myself here doing a lot of reading and it’s progressed from there.
I’ve always liked tweaking & modifying stuff to my liking so this keeps me interested.
BTW half the 9LED flashlight emitters failed during the first night of the trip so i can’t recommend these i’m afraid :laughing:
I always liked lights and gadgets. A few years ago, something Bear Grylls said stuck with me: if everyone had an emergency kit in their car, most people would never need one, but everyone who did need one would have one.
Decided to build an emergency kit, that lead to EDC and EDCForums.com, which lead to finding some lights, which lead to 35+ and growing…
The history of how I became a flashlight hobbyist is lost in the mists of my memory. But I do know the fundamental motivation behind my love of lights, lasers, and the like: extending my human reach and senses beyond the limitations of self, of my physical grasp. It’s a primal thing, to want to project one’s influence, and presence out into space and the world.
Wilkey
I’m not sure how to post this picture…but it should show my Grandfathers WW2 light.I remember my thumb being
sore cranking on that light.I have loved lights for quite some time
Oh wow! I remember having that one and playing around with it. But I couldn’t remember its brand.
Oddly enough my interest in flashlights was partially the result of my interest in zippo lighters. I was a member of a zippo collector site and when they announced plans to convert to a paid membership I criticized and was banned for it. Of course, there are other reasons like need to see at night and interest in preparedness, fishing, camping, nighttime checks on my tobacco crop, …
edit: I remember when I was a child (1970s) a friend gave me a flashlight that was powered by squeezing a lever in the handle. I was fascinated by it and whenever there was a problem with it I always got it working again - until it disappeared one day.
@kramer5150 I have a light like that here somewhere. Never used and if I remember correctly it still has the sticker on the lens.
Well, I have addiction to fire and light since I was very young…
I started to “love” LED flashlight(s) since a hiking trip several years ago.
Walking down the mountain, it’s getting dark and our incan flashlights had run out the batteries (AAs).
Fortunately I have this crappy police AAA in my pocket:
It worked well (5 hours of walking) with just a single AAA battery, stored inside it long before the trip.
That made me wonder, other branded flashlight will deliver more output and satisfaction for sure.
like any kid? i liked “playing” with flashlights… but, as dad said? batteries arent FREE!
as i grew? i occasionally needed a light, but, would use “anything”…. but i PREFERRED to always have a little maglite 2xAA… although mine was the brinkman copy, lol
i always had a penlite with me, cause i have the “go exploring” gene, lol… thought i was slightly nuts? now with the internet, I am called an “urban explorer”, LMAO. (i’m not alone in liking caves, tunnels, abandoned stuff, etc etc)
=
as an ADULT ? after software engineering career ended, i ended up a delivery driver and managing my friends business for a number of years. As a delivery driver after dark for 15+ years ?? I “needed” a flashlight to see house numbers and such, and to walk thru junk filled yards.
i did the “dollar store thing” with essentially disposable lights, that cost less to buy with new batteries all over again, than to replace the 2xD cells, (lantern cell lights are a prime example, buy the whole LIGHT with a NEW battery? than the cost of the battery alone, LMAO)
then? the ex wife bought me a MAGLITE… woo hoo! I mean, whatever ELSE ever happens, i knew i had that flashlight thing covered, you know? ended up with a 4D mag for my truck, a 3D mag for the car and a 2D for the house.
==
but? i wasnt a flashaholic… i was just a guy who wanted a “real flashlight” because as a delivery driver, i needed a good one.
I accidentally found “crazy flashlight guys” on the internet? i actually “poked fun” at these “lunatics”, gabbing about 34743 THIS, and 14555 THAT… I mean, how little of a LIFE can you have, to get THAT into a freaking flashlight, you know? Get a girl!
my OTHER hobby? required me to get into making high powered long distance IR lights… because i could NOT justify spending over 100 dollars on what i found out was simply guys in their basement, buying chinese zoomies, slapping emitters on stars in it, and charging 80 - 90 dollars profit for a good zoomie IR light… and acting like they were providing me with NASA level work….
=
so? i HAD to now get “into” making visible flashlights, these new LED lights i was hearing about… I laughed about it, honestly. I mean, i just “had” to be on a visible flashlight site… but only to learn how to make zoomies myself…
=
THEN i am getting into optics, and making 3 and 4 lens “IR zoomies” that looked like plastic camera lenses (PVC, lol)
THEN even though i DEMONSTRATED i had made a better mousetrap? no one that sold the IR lights was interested in my thing… why? simple… they were NOT interested in fabricating anything, they just wanted 80 dollars profit for emitter swaps, LMAO…
===
still wasnt a flashaholic, though… until… i jst HAD to buy a cheap LED light at walmart… I mean, just top say i did it, you know?
HOOKED in about a WEEK… i mean like i was on crack, ha ha.
=
the POINT is? I was here KINDA like a “undercover cop” pretending i was into visible flashlights… just so i could learn about zoomies…?? and fooled around and got “hooked”.
===
couple years go by? got a mill drill thng going, a real lathe… wanting to cast my own metal for machining… i am picky about files now, LMAO… i am starting to get into brazing…
lmFao… basically? everyone at work runs and tells new employees to NOT mention the word “flashlight” around me? or they get a “doctoral dissertation” that bores them to death. (i used to be a software engineer in a previous life? i can geek out when i wan to, ha ha)
no one wants to go to a STORE with me, if the store has flashlights, and they are in a hurry, ha ha.
==
and? despite what you guys told me? i am NOT the life of the party, talking about focusing invisible flashlights, LMAO
I started out on CPF ? I… uh… i just wasnt “real happy” there and kept my head down.
once i found THIS place?? never went back.
and? for several years now? i am no longer “in the closet” about being a flashaholic, lol… I kinda kicked the door wide open and wallow in it, ha ha
I have a “budget” cars, I have a “budget” house… heck, might as well have budget flashlights, too.
=
honestly? once i got into lithiums? good lord, i still feel like a little KID, that i can just “play” with my lights, for no reason… and simply recharge them at will.
=
i have only HEARD of one other possible flashaholic in real life… girl at work said her uncle was “like i was”, and any store he WENT to? he HAS to check out the FLASHLIGTS… never hooked up with him, the girl is probably afraid we will annoy everyone at evening barbecues playing with our lights, LMAO
lostheplot is totally to blame for sending me broke with this flashlight disease. He showed me a cheap light years ago that lit a tree up in his paddock in the distance that really had no right to be lit up.
I like lights in general but in both my parnets hous and grandparents’, they only have those orange energizer lights with incan bulbs. Super dim and ugly ass beam. Tehn those 5mm leds came out. It was better but those couldnt throw till I bought a zoomie in malaysia for like 50rm. Once that spoilt, i went online looking for a replacement. Thats when I found this haven!
When I was kid I found at my grandfather house German WWII flashlight like this:
And it was still working.
I started working 2nd shift as a State Park Ranger in Va. They gave me an old 3D mag-light. I knew that there had to be something better.
25 - 30 years ago, a family friend gave me a 2xAA Maglite, which was my first decent light by the standards of the time. That made me the kid with the best light right up until I left school! It served me well for several years, then I upgraded to a xenon bulb, and that did well too.
Later on, my eyesight started to slowly degrade from normal to legally blind - I have no low light vision at all - so flashlights became indispensable. I had a 5x5mm LED light, then 1W and 3W LED Lensers more or less as soon as they came out.
After that, I discovered Fenix, CPF and Convoy, followed by custom lights and BLF. I must have at least 50 lights in the house these days, and any amount of parts.
I still have that 2xAA Maglite, though
Always had a thing for flashlights, ever since I was a kid in the 60:ies. Didn’t get my first decent one, a 2xAA Maglite, until the 80:ies though. I remember a box-shaped 4xD with a halogen bulb from the late 80:ies; decent output (for the times), but very short runtime.
My first high end was a 4Sevens MiNi 123. Close to ten years ago, that much light (about 200 lumens) from such a small light really surprised me. Then I found CPF and later BLF.
Nowadays I’m addicted to small lights with high CRI and lots of lumens.