“High end” custom flashlights like Okluma, Hanko, Deadwood,and Oveready look amateurish and cheap compared to those from more mainstream manufacturers.
“High end” custom flashlights like Okluma, Hanko, Deadwood,and Oveready look amateurish and cheap compared to those from more mainstream manufacturers.
\
Those look “amateurish and cheap” to you?
Go figure?
Chris
My sensible side knows the effort that went into them, but at the same time they really do look like toys from the 90s to me too.
I can appreciate the effort and skill but yeah, not my style either.
Maybe IRL they are immediately impressive, but certainly in the photo my first impression is they look like plastic toys, garish and glitzy.
Everyone has different tastes, of course, and certainly I am sure the workmanship and effort involved is impressive, but imagine that look in a car, for e.g. It would be laughed at as tasteless by everyone outside very specific niche interest groups.
I have never claimed to have normal eyes or vision.
Now for an unpopular opinion !
Daylight as terminology is near impossible to pin down, changing temperature, composition, and hue during the day, depending on time, geographic location and weather.
As panacea regarding goals for emitter preferences it proves to be as elusive and illusionary as the word beauty.
The budget in budget light forum has no connection with what you think it should mean
Pentagon lives on a budget too!
Yep. It’s sort of like saying “I’m on a diet.” Uh, yeah, we’re all on a diet of one kind or another. What people fail to say is what they really mean, which is “I’m on a restricted diet.”
“Budget” in a title does imply a very controlled or reduced one. Generally, it’s better to say “low budget” if we’re talking about spending less. But of course, “LowBudgetLightForum” is a mouthful.
I have never claimed to have normal eyes or vision.
Now for an unpopular opinion !
Daylight as terminology is near impossible to pin down, changing temperature, composition, and hue during the day, depending on time, geographic location and weather.
As panacea regarding goals for emitter preferences it proves to be as elusive and illusionary as the word beauty.
That’s a good point…
Living in a pretty far north I think has colored my idea of what “sunlight” would look like. We get maybe 4 months a year where the sun actually sits high in the sky, for most of fall and all of winter it can be 1pm and look like evening outside especially because of standard time (constant DSTNEEDS to happen )
To me something like 4000-4500K looks a lot more like what I’m used to seeing as “daylight” for a lot of the year, and since its dark so often you come to see incandescent/warm lighting as natural too.
#1: More than 500 lumens on a flooder is unnecessary for practical purposes.
#2: Ramping UI is nothing but a novelty that quickly becomes a hassle in practical situations. Besides, as Boaz said, how will I know my runtimes?
#3: Li-ion cells smaller than 18650 aren’t worth bothering with nowadays with their laughable capacity.
#4: Holding a light underhanded doesn’t cut it, way too many shadows in the way.
#5: Mules without lenses seem very unreliable.
#6: I’m never buying an American-manufactured torch again.
#7: Copper/brass patina to me equals not taking good care of your stuff, like dull leather shoes.
#8: Non-homemade hosts that aren’t made of aluminium or stainless steel are a waste of money.
#9: The faster-tempo first batch Biscotti drivers are my favourite. Mode select on the “correct” ones is painfully slow.
#10: Convoy is every bit as solid as Surefire and better than Streamlight. Even without potting. If I had a rifle or shotgun, I’d stick a Convoy to it in a heatbeat.
#11: I much prefer a rosier or incandescent-warm emitter than a “like daylight” one. I’m not a big fan of sunlight anyway.
#12: Keychain lights work much better not attached to a keychain.
#13: A solid ring around the tailcap switch is better than the two divots.
#14: The Lumintop Tool AAA not tailstanding is perfectly fine.
#15: Belt holsters are more useful than pocket clips.
Why thank you! Had to dig a bit to get all of these
Also taking this as my opportunity to bump this thread. It’s a fun one to read through. And to top it off…
#16: M@glite is hot garbage. I’ve had not-inconsequential problems with every single one I have wasted money on – the least of which is the 2AA Mini Mags denting the negative ends of my Eneloops.
strobe ready/rear mode switch type flashlight are supposedly a more practical design not just for practical tactical but EDC as well, proven by my buddies who carried Nitecores and Klarus’s, just bad switch design and pwm issues throw them off the appreciation list
Side switches are so easy to screw up. My nitecore EC23 is impossible to carry. And my D4 was until I read a suggestion to lock out the head instead of the tail, now I carry it a lot (that and putting Luxeon V instead of green Nichias).
It helped a lot that my better half bought me my zebralight, or I might not have given side switches another chance. It's one of my most frequent carries and it's never activated accidentally.
I find this bad habit with the attachable clips absolutely horrible, please again more flashlights with screwed on clip or a clip which sits under the tailcap.
And these two comments I absolutely agree with!
The flashlight industry is at least 15 years behind of modern user interface technologies.
Most owners of a “tactical” flashlight have never and will never be in a “tactical” situation
HDS lights are to big for EDC and ridiculous compared to their 16340 capacity.
Yep but I would eat fried grasshoppers to have an FW3A with the HDSEDC clicky firmware.
A couple people here could probably make a flashable version of something similar if you ask really nicely, I know I’d be interested in it too.
Edit: Another submission to the thread… High CRI is almost meaningless below 4000K/if you want high CRI 5000K+ should be the target CCT. I haven’t seen a comparison that would dispute this yet at least.
… Edit: Another submission to the thread... High CRI is almost meaningless below 4000K/if you want high CRI 5000K+ should be the target CCT. I haven't seen a comparison that would dispute this yet at least.
Maybe it is for you, but not for me. Period, and no need to dispute.
Cheers
—
The Light I am
Deleting a post and redoing it causes the forum thread answer notifications to become invalid. Thus, if you need to change your just published post, edit it. Thanks.
Please avoid quoting lenghty posts, namely with nested quotes. Trim the quote down to the essential. Helps with forum neatness and legibility. Thanks.
Localized AliExpress links mess up with the language setting of whoever clicks or taps on them. While this is a fault of the AliExpress system, turning localized links into global links helps and is easy; just change the locale letters in the url for www. Example:
Textured reflectors are worth the efficiency loss and reduced throw in all cases except a dedicated thrower for the reduction in artifacts and overall smoother beam profile.
—
Ceilingbounce – flashlight testing and runtime graphs for Android
Textured reflectors are worth the efficiency loss and reduced throw in all cases except a dedicated thrower for the reduction in artifacts and overall smoother beam profile.
Ow wow, that was the topic which lead me to BLF 3 years ago!
I remember a topic which said exactly the same, don’t know anymore which topic is was
Textured reflectors are worth the efficiency loss and reduced throw in all cases except a dedicated thrower for the reduction in artifacts and overall smoother beam profile.
Yeah I’ve seen a couple tests posted and the throw loss was VERY minimal, like max 3-4% IIRC. Textured all the way.
Textured reflectors are worth the efficiency loss and reduced throw in all cases except a dedicated thrower for the reduction in artifacts and overall smoother beam profile.
Yeah I’ve seen a couple tests posted and the throw loss was VERY minimal, like max 3-4% IIRC. Textured all the way.
I’ve had an OP reflector on my C8 since I got it, and the beam profile is excellent at any distance. Though I wish I knew what the M1’s beam on a smooth looks like.
About using exotic colour leds in flashlights: any wavelength over 640nm will look virtually the same colour (own observation backed up by biological/physical knowledge), your eyes just get less and less sensitive to it so you are wasting efficiency.
(this is not about night vision stuff but illumination seen by human eyes)
“High end” custom flashlights like Okluma, Hanko, Deadwood,and Oveready look amateurish and cheap compared to those from more mainstream manufacturers.
\
Those look “amateurish and cheap” to you?
Go figure?
Chris
Yes.
I like Damascus, timascus, mokeme… but not for large parts. anything more than inlays and it starts to look like a plastic painted gas station find with a glossy finish.
“High end” custom flashlights like Okluma, Hanko, Deadwood,and Oveready look amateurish and cheap compared to those from more mainstream manufacturers.
\
Those look “amateurish and cheap” to you?
Go figure?
Chris
No, those do not look cheap to me, to us.
Because we kinda know what it takes to build such lights. And they don’t come cheap.
But what about the muggle that says: my 5y old daughter got one of those plastic lights.
And he/she talks about a crazy colored incandescent 1*AA light he/she has won at the local county fair.
—
You are a flashaholic if you are forced to come out of the closet, to make room for more flashlights.
\
Those look “amateurish and cheap” to you?
Go figure?
Chris
My sensible side knows the effort that went into them, but at the same time they really do look like toys from the 90s to me too.
I can appreciate the effort and skill but yeah, not my style either.
-
......reminds me of an acid flashback from the Fillmore West in the '60s....
Maybe IRL they are immediately impressive, but certainly in the photo my first impression is they look like plastic toys, garish and glitzy.
Everyone has different tastes, of course, and certainly I am sure the workmanship and effort involved is impressive, but imagine that look in a car, for e.g. It would be laughed at as tasteless by everyone outside very specific niche interest groups.
Beam me up!
I have never claimed to have normal eyes or vision.
Now for an unpopular opinion !
Daylight as terminology is near impossible to pin down, changing temperature, composition, and hue during the day, depending on time, geographic location and weather.
As panacea regarding goals for emitter preferences it proves to be as elusive and illusionary as the word beauty.
Pentagon lives on a budget too!
Chargers: 1xBasen BD01 5/5, 1x Gyrfalcon All-88 4/5, LiitoKala: 3x100 3/5, 2x202 3/5, 1x402 3/5., MiBoxer C4-12 3/5.
Flashlights: DQG Tiny III 26650 5/5, FiTorch MR35 3/5, Haikelite SC26 HD 3/5, Lumintop Tool AA/AAA 4/5, Nitecore LA10, Sofirn C01 BLF 3200k/5600k 2/5, Zebralight H600Fc 3/5.
Powerbanks: EasyAcc 26800 mAh 3/5, Xtar PB2 4/5, Xtar PB2S 5/5
Waiting for: (DQG Tiny) 21700 EDCs.
Yep. It’s sort of like saying “I’m on a diet.” Uh, yeah, we’re all on a diet of one kind or another. What people fail to say is what they really mean, which is “I’m on a restricted diet.”
“Budget” in a title does imply a very controlled or reduced one. Generally, it’s better to say “low budget” if we’re talking about spending less. But of course, “LowBudgetLightForum” is a mouthful.
That’s a good point…
Living in a pretty far north I think has colored my idea of what “sunlight” would look like. We get maybe 4 months a year where the sun actually sits high in the sky, for most of fall and all of winter it can be 1pm and look like evening outside especially because of standard time (constant DST NEEDS to happen
)
To me something like 4000-4500K looks a lot more like what I’m used to seeing as “daylight” for a lot of the year, and since its dark so often you come to see incandescent/warm lighting as natural too.
If it has ramping how can I know what my runtime will be ?
you'll get used to Convoys 3/5 driver that flashes on low mode.
Buy brand X "if your life depends on it " !!!
καὶ τὸ φῶς ἐν τῇ σκοτίᾳ φαίνει καὶ ἡ σκοτία αὐτὸ οὐ κατέλαβεν
Dc-fix diffuser film >… http://budgetlightforum.com/node/42208
#1: More than 500 lumens on a flooder is unnecessary for practical purposes.
#2: Ramping UI is nothing but a novelty that quickly becomes a hassle in practical situations. Besides, as Boaz said, how will I know my runtimes?
#3: Li-ion cells smaller than 18650 aren’t worth bothering with nowadays with their laughable capacity.
#4: Holding a light underhanded doesn’t cut it, way too many shadows in the way.
#5: Mules without lenses seem very unreliable.
#6: I’m never buying an American-manufactured torch again.
#7: Copper/brass patina to me equals not taking good care of your stuff, like dull leather shoes.
#8: Non-homemade hosts that aren’t made of aluminium or stainless steel are a waste of money.
#9: The faster-tempo first batch Biscotti drivers are my favourite. Mode select on the “correct” ones is painfully slow.
#10: Convoy is every bit as solid as Surefire and better than Streamlight. Even without potting. If I had a rifle or shotgun, I’d stick a Convoy to it in a heatbeat.
#11: I much prefer a rosier or incandescent-warm emitter than a “like daylight” one. I’m not a big fan of sunlight anyway.
#12: Keychain lights work much better not attached to a keychain.
#13: A solid ring around the tailcap switch is better than the two divots.
#14: The Lumintop Tool AAA not tailstanding is perfectly fine.
#15: Belt holsters are more useful than pocket clips.
Get used to that firmware with the flash on low? Man, people have said some things in this thread, but that...
Mine also had an audible whine on low and medium modes. I didn't use it at all until I replaced the LED.
Old Lumens Contest 2020 - Hand-made light category
ZL SC62(w) | Jaxman E2L XP-G2 5A | Purple S2+ XPL-HI U6-3A | D4 w/ Luxeon V | RRT-01 | Purple FW3A, 4000K SST20 | Baton S1
Boruit D10 w/ Quadrupel Fet+1/Anduril | EagTac D25C Ti | DQG Slim AA Ti | Jaxman E3 | UF-T1 by CRX | Olight S15 Ti | Nitecore EX11.2
L6 XHP70.2 P2 4000K FET+7135 | Jaxman M8 | MF02 | Jaxman Z1 CULNM1.TG | Blue S2+ w/ ML Special | Thrunite T10Tv2
Supfire M6 3xXHP50.2, Sofirn C8F, Unfinished: Sofirn SP70, IYP07/Tool AAA hot-rods, Jetbeam E3S
Others: Nitecore EC23 | Nebo Twyst | Streamlight ProTac 1AA | TerraLux LightStar 100
Nice collection of opinions Jack.
link to djozz tests
Why thank you! Had to dig a bit to get all of these
Also taking this as my opportunity to bump this thread. It’s a fun one to read through. And to top it off…
#16: M@glite is hot garbage. I’ve had not-inconsequential problems with every single one I have wasted money on – the least of which is the 2AA Mini Mags denting the negative ends of my Eneloops.
strobe ready/rear mode switch type flashlight are supposedly a more practical design not just for practical tactical but EDC as well, proven by my buddies who carried Nitecores and Klarus’s, just bad switch design and pwm issues throw them off the appreciation list
You’re not wining, you’re surviving.
Side switches are so easy to screw up. My nitecore EC23 is impossible to carry. And my D4 was until I read a suggestion to lock out the head instead of the tail, now I carry it a lot (that and putting Luxeon V instead of green Nichias).
It helped a lot that my better half bought me my zebralight, or I might not have given side switches another chance. It's one of my most frequent carries and it's never activated accidentally.
Old Lumens Contest 2020 - Hand-made light category
ZL SC62(w) | Jaxman E2L XP-G2 5A | Purple S2+ XPL-HI U6-3A | D4 w/ Luxeon V | RRT-01 | Purple FW3A, 4000K SST20 | Baton S1
Boruit D10 w/ Quadrupel Fet+1/Anduril | EagTac D25C Ti | DQG Slim AA Ti | Jaxman E3 | UF-T1 by CRX | Olight S15 Ti | Nitecore EX11.2
L6 XHP70.2 P2 4000K FET+7135 | Jaxman M8 | MF02 | Jaxman Z1 CULNM1.TG | Blue S2+ w/ ML Special | Thrunite T10Tv2
Supfire M6 3xXHP50.2, Sofirn C8F, Unfinished: Sofirn SP70, IYP07/Tool AAA hot-rods, Jetbeam E3S
Others: Nitecore EC23 | Nebo Twyst | Streamlight ProTac 1AA | TerraLux LightStar 100
I find this bad habit with the attachable clips absolutely horrible, please again more flashlights with screwed on clip or a clip which sits under the tailcap.
And these two comments I absolutely agree with!
The flashlight industry is at least 15 years behind of modern user interface technologies.
Most owners of a “tactical” flashlight have never and will never be in a “tactical” situation
Yep but I would eat fried grasshoppers to have an FW3A with the HDS EDC clicky firmware.
It failed as soon as it stopped looking remotely like it was supposed to and became just another clone of what already exists.
The claim stainless steel is too heavy annoys me.
The feel and look of my s41s just makes the weight worthwhile. Bring on more steel!
Progress is overrated.
A couple people here could probably make a flashable version of something similar if you ask really nicely, I know I’d be interested in it too.
Edit: Another submission to the thread… High CRI is almost meaningless below 4000K/if you want high CRI 5000K+ should be the target CCT. I haven’t seen a comparison that would dispute this yet at least.
Maybe it is for you, but not for me. Period, and no need to dispute.
Cheers
The Light
I am
Deleting a post and redoing it causes the forum thread answer notifications to become invalid. Thus, if you need to change your just published post, edit it. Thanks.
Please avoid quoting lenghty posts, namely with nested quotes. Trim the quote down to the essential. Helps with forum neatness and legibility. Thanks.
Localized AliExpress links mess up with the language setting of whoever clicks or taps on them. While this is a fault of the AliExpress system, turning localized links into global links helps and is easy; just change the locale letters in the url for www. Example:
https://es.aliexpress.com/item/bla-bla-bla.html turns into https://www.aliexpress.com/item/bla-bla-bla.html.
Textured reflectors are worth the efficiency loss and reduced throw in all cases except a dedicated thrower for the reduction in artifacts and overall smoother beam profile.
Ceilingbounce – flashlight testing and runtime graphs for Android
Ow wow, that was the topic which lead me to BLF 3 years ago!
I remember a topic which said exactly the same, don’t know anymore which topic is was
Yeah I’ve seen a couple tests posted and the throw loss was VERY minimal, like max 3-4% IIRC. Textured all the way.
I’ve had an OP reflector on my C8 since I got it, and the beam profile is excellent at any distance. Though I wish I knew what the M1’s beam on a smooth looks like.
About using exotic colour leds in flashlights: any wavelength over 640nm will look virtually the same colour (own observation backed up by biological/physical knowledge), your eyes just get less and less sensitive to it so you are wasting efficiency.
(this is not about night vision stuff but illumination seen by human eyes)
link to djozz tests
Yes.
I like Damascus, timascus, mokeme… but not for large parts. anything more than inlays and it starts to look like a plastic painted gas station find with a glossy finish.
I like the Nichia 219c version of the D4S better than the SST-20 4000K 95 CRI version.
No, those do not look cheap to me, to us.
Because we kinda know what it takes to build such lights. And they don’t come cheap.
But what about the muggle that says: my 5y old daughter got one of those plastic lights.
And he/she talks about a crazy colored incandescent 1*AA light he/she has won at the local county fair.
You are a flashaholic if you are forced to come out of the closet, to make room for more flashlights.
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