Choosing a first 18650 flashlight

LED Flashlights – General Info 18650 Flashlights
36

What makes size so important? If it’s for fitting in regular pockets daily, I would think the diameter of most cells would be annoying. I would think NiMH AAA would be better, or is there any smaller exotic rechargeable?

As for CRI, I don’t have any experience with it in flashlights, but folks here really seem to emphasize it. I did compare regular and “HD” CRI household LED bulbs at home and honestly unless viewing them back to back I couldn’t tell them apart. I’m sure nobody else at home even noticed the difference. Color temperature on the other hand got a lot of comments. 5000K got tons of complaints and it is relegated only to the garage. Even 3000K got some grumblings and 2700K was preferred. Tint is mildly noticeable as some b(“HD”) bulbs have a strange purplish hue. I suspect it’s mostly a question of the brain adapting to differences, or perhaps in some cases, not.

37

It’s tricky, I have a lot of good AAA lights, but still haven’t found the perfect “goldilocks” light yet.

Mode order isn’t a dealbreaker for me on these, but given the choice and my typical uses, I prefer lights that start on low in order to preserve night vision.

For instance, I always keep a light with a good moonlight mode on my nightstand and use it daily when I get up in the morning so I can get dressed, etc, without disturbing my wife.

Right now that light is a Reylight Pineapple Mini. Beautiful light, great modes, nice emitter with good temp, tint, and high cri. The downsides are that it’s fairly heavy and if you unsrew the head enough to prevent accidental activation, it tends to work it’s way completely off. So its home is on the nightstand and not in my pocket.

The Thorfire TK01 is my current keychain light, but last time I looked I couldn’t find them for sale anywhere, so they may be discontinued. Not really sure though. Lightweight, good beam, another great emitter for temp, tint, and cri. Cool feature is the captive head. Twist to turn on and off, but it doesn’t come off. You can when lightly “stick” it in the off position so it won’t turn itself on. Only sort of downside is that it one mode, no low or moonlight. High is ~85 lumens iirc. It’s about perfect for the keychain really, just the puzzling lack of availability.

I also bought a copper Lumintop Tool AAA a while ago. Seems well regarded here and it’s also available in an aluminum version. Again, nice emitter. In fact they might all be Nichia 219c, but there is some variation in them so I’m not 100% sure. Only problem with this one is that my daughter claimed it almost immediately so I never really got to use it to form an opinion. *looks like they’re using an Osram emitter now that I’m unfamiliar with.

So those are the ones that feel worth mentioning as benchmarks for my comments about the C01S. Sorry if it isn’t terribly helpful though.

Hope Thorfire makes more of the TK01. Bought 3 of them initially but gave 2 away to friends. Then when I finally went to get a new backup for it, they weren’t around anymore… That’s actually what prompted me to get the C01S. Which again is a nice light, but not quite in line with my ideal preferences.

-Note on cri. It’s not as important as getting a good temp and tint for your uses and preferences, but I notice the difference and prefer high cri when available. The difference between a good quality emitter in the 70-80 range and a 90+ cri light isn’t huge like it could be vs. some garbage light with low cri and horrible temp/tint, but I think for a lot of us here when you’re this far down the flashlight rabbit hole, why wouldn’t you want the best quality when it comes to the actual light coming out of them? For edc type use I want the light to be pleasing and colors to pop. For a long-range thrower or whatever I might care more about other things.

38

Yeah, if a light is nomem, I kinda insist it be l→h. My E03 is m/l/h, and for a good while I was using those Tenavolts in ’em to keep good mode-spacing, but just a few days ago I said screw it, I’m carrying it and using it pretty much as a 1-mode light (when I don’t want to unclip my MH20), so I’m back to using a 14500 for brighter levels even if they’re not spaced too well.

I was carrying my Wuben i332 for a while, too. Nice and Star Tracky look, but again, starts-on-high. Nice for a light when you want it to go full-tilt, eg, snooping around at night, etc., but don’t even think about night-vision.

All those lights, for me to get the most use from them and to use them, they either need to start on low, or have shortcuts to low/moonlight. Only lights where I’ll typically never need to preserve night-vision will go into rotation like that. All others are “special-use” lights.

39

Never had one of their headlamps. The SC64c is very slightly longer than my DQG. Few 5mm or so. I don’t have a way to super accurately measure the difference. The SC600 I have is probably 10mm or so larger than the DQG. Maybe a hair longer than that. They are all short enough to carry, for me, but, I don’t like carrying the 600 too much. Head size is a bit big for my pocket. Those two and a SC52w are the only ZL’s I have. I still don’t carry any of them more than the DQG. AA/14500, AAA, 16340, 18350 or any other oddball short cell doesn’t have the run time I need. I would have to carry around too many spare cells, at that point it becomes more problems that it’s worth to me.

40

Sorry for the late reply, I work from home 100% of the time, so I am normally home all week. I only take a light with me when I leave the house and know I am going to be out for the evening. . I have been carrying the BLF A6 when I am out and I like it a lot. I did just get a Sofirn sc31b, which I will also be taking out of the house for a bit to see how I like that one. I think I will eventually get a decent 14500 and settle with that though. Again, I am new at all of this so I am just leearning. As to Biscotti, I wasn’t aware of the issues some of the lights have, I have it on my two C8+ and I like the options it provides better than the simple modes my S2+ came with. I have one more S2+ coming today (I think) but I don’t recall if that one has the Biscotti… We shall see. Good luck in whatever you choose, this hobby is certainly enlightening. :wink:

41

Lumitop Copper Tool w Nichia and eSwitch, from drop.com

I dont usually keep a light on my keys, Im a minimalist

buy I do like to use a jump ring with a quick release so I have the option to group my light with my keys, such as when traveling.
Here is a thread about AAA options, with pics:

I like the reversible pocket clip for use on a baseball cap as a hatlamp too

for those who do not yet appreciate High CRI… which chicken looks more appetizing?:

the main advantage of High CRI is that it shows Reds that Low CRI does not…

I suppose if you just want to see the Bear, it makes no difference what color it is…

42

ValuseekeR Thanks for the helpful comments and comparisons.The Thorfire TK01 is pretty neat, with the captive head being a distinguishing feature. I’ve been wondering what prevents the heads from falling of twist-type flashlights, and how common that is. The Lumintop Tool AAA looks nice too, but I wish it were smaller. In general I haven’t found exotic material flashlights overly interesting (yet) due to being worse in weight, cost, thermals, etc.

Lightbringer Interesting. I don’t have an actual EDC, but thinking about it I suspect most of my use would be on high/medium, while only rarely would I want low/moonlight for extended or dark use. But that’s just a guess. Goes to show the range of use-cases. At the moment I simply don’t have a strong opinion on light mode order.

withoutink Do you not find an 18650 flashlight too bulky to carry without having a specific reason for it? By carry I mean on your person. Perhaps some toss it into a bag, in which case that’s less of an issue. Yes, quite an enlightening hobby. :smiley:

jon_slider Nice pic! The top chicken looks more “normal” to me, though a bit overexposed and maybe a bit yellow/green, but still recognizable, while the bottom one looks like it’s under a heatlamp with unrepresentative coloring. Both make me hungry though! :wink: Thanks for that AAA thread, very useful with ideas. I tend to be minimalist too, and if it’s not on my keychain I won’t take it with me at all.

For an actual EDC, AAA feels like the upper limit or maybe even past it. Some interesting options include ThorFire TK01 (nice captive head, but no availability), Thrunite Ti3, Lumintop EDC01, Astrolux A01, Olight i3E EOS (maybe the shortest of the bunch), and of course the Sofirn C01S. They’re all about 70mm x 15mm, with some shorter by ~5mm.

Then I started seeing tiny keychain flashlights and the small size (40mm x 14mm) and weight (12g) are so appealing! The identical looking Olight I1R EOS and Lumintop EDC pico. There’s also the Manker TC02 but I’m not sold on touch control, and that shape is… well… different haha

43

If you need high CRI to eat chicken …

Well then thats definitely the epitome of some kind of privilege :wink:

Just pick a lamp and buy it, dont overthink it

Especially the sofirns, if you get tired of it then give it away or it becomes a beater lamp

Theres alot of overthinking on these forums

Its what you do with the lamp that matters, not what a spec sheet that might or might not be accurate says

44

Why do Low CRI people hate hearing about High CRI,
and become insulting and disrespectful,
calling it overthinking, and a privilege, to see real colors.

Maybe they are overinvested in Low CRI lights :wink:

Or maybe Im overinvested in High CRI… lol

Friends dont let uniformed friends buy lights with Low CRI.
Low CRI is so… yesterday… lol

45

Or maybe these high CRI folks use their nichia for dog walking and BBQ

And not much else :wink:

Interesting how the OP preferred the low CRI chicken in yr photo

Seems he needs to be sent to a high CRI re-education camp :stuck_out_tongue:

46

Or maybe the OP is looking for an EDC light. For most of what I use my EDC light for, high CRI helps. Some of us actually use our lights to help us see stuff.

Camping lights, emergency lights, fishing lights, bike lights, hunting lights, gun lights, etc. are all different things, and I don’t care as much about CRI for all of those. I’m not sure why you think it’s an insult to imply that people use every day carry lights for every-day things.

47

If one cant see normal things without high CRI, then perhaps and optometrist appointment is in order

I mean 99% of the worlds population uses not so high CRI flashlights for everyday tasks, and these folks do more hands on work than many here

If you NEED high CRI you might just be a 1%er

Fear the person with one well used and well worn light, not the flashaholic with a dozen high CRI lights that barely get used

To paraphrase a knife guy :wink:

48

You’re quite the pyromaniac in a field of straw men.

49

Its literally a flaming high CRI chicken BBQ

Just dont pick the low CRI chicken like the OP

Its just like wine, cant pick the bottle of yellowtail without “re-education” :smiley:

50

It wouldn’t be the internet without some kind of flaming. :smiley:

Yes, I do overthink and I will plan far in advance of decisions. I know that’s not everyone’s preference.

For CRI, I’m sure it has it’s place. I don’t have a strong opinion yet as I haven’t experienced it myself. Being a generally picky person, I’ll probably form a view after some exposure.

Right now I’m obsessing about the tiny form factor lights that I would consider true EDCs for my purposes. My brain is turning to mush after looking at the Olight I1R, Wuben G series, Trustfire Mini2, Acebeam M50, and I keep finding more that are essentially variants of the same thing.

51

2 things no one has mentioned thats quite important for EDC

lockout … unless recessed a side switch is MUCH more likely to turn on inadvertently, especially with things like keys in the pocket

Will you lock it out every time you use it and then relock it after, or risk the 2000 lms burning a hole in ur pants

A mechanical tail switch when deep carry pocket clipped is much less likely to turn on

Which brings us to … pocket clip … if yr planning to pocket carry the light in yr pants then deep carry is the way to go, much less protrusion when when sitting down, more discreet

Some good lights have god awful clips, some can be remidied with an aftermarket part, etc

If you pocket carry every day instead of using a holster, these 2 issues probably trump any hand wringing over CRI or tint

You can tell if a person pocket carries their light daily as itll be full of scuff marks and bare metal where the anodizing came off

52

High CRI doesn’t matter to everybody, but it is something you should probably try at some point to see if it’s important to you. The reason I brought it up is your mention of electronics. If I’m trying to distinguish between the orange-on-white and the red-on-white in a 50-pair bundle, or read the value bands of an old-school resistor, color rendition matters.

My suggestion (which you can take for what it costs you) is not to do what I did: I collected a bunch of cool tints and low CRI lights before I discovered what I really liked. Now I’m stuck with torches I’ll never EDC again.

The saying in computer programming “Build one to throw away, because you’re going to anyway” applies here. You’re not likely to know exactly what you want until you’ve tried a few things.

53

Not my MH20. The clip chewed a hole on the edge of my jeans pocket where it normally sits, but it (the light, not the jeans) looks as good as new. And in fact I bought it used, too.

Dropped off my bike-seat onto hard concrete, still no dings or chips.

Color me impressed.

54

For me, generally CT/tint is more important than CRI, but I like higher CRI, too.

For the longest time, the generic 4C that came with S2+es looked absolutely beautiful behind a TIR lens that mixed the colors nicely. It’s like warm sunlight. Yeah, it’s above the BBL unlike, say, the 4A/4D, but it’s more “natural”, even if not as “rosy”.

So, frankly, if you want a great starter light to mod, get a S2+ with a 4C in the reflector, then throw in a nice TIR lens to replace the reflector. 5min mod, if that.

After you’re used to that, see if you prefer warmer/cooler. Get a high-CRI light and compare. Etc. Just like in that potato chip commercial, you can’t stop at just one, so go with it and don’t fight it.

55

Regarding a first 18650 light, a Convoy S2+ with a modern driver is a no brainer. Cheap, robust and powerful enough for much anything. Not the shortest though. However, i do prefer the BLF A6 for it’s driver and max output. Not much more expensive if you catch a deal. No USB charging though.

Eagle eye X2R is a safe choice too. Similar tube light, moderate output with USB. Their X1R headlamp is worth looking at too.

If you can spend a little more, I’m quite impressed with the new Astrolux EC01. There is a deal going on around $25. Can’t beat the feature/price ratio.

At a slightly higher price tag but without USB, the Lumintop FW3A is a remarkable light, and the Emisar D4V2 is a little jewel that is small enough to fit in a jacket pocket - especially in 18350 configuration.

There are quite some nice Sofirm lights too, but i’m getting lost into their names an versions…

About AAA lights, i consider the Ultratac K18 one of the all time best. Small, stylish (especially the SS version) and 10440 compatible. The Lumintop Ant and Tool Ti are some of my favorites too. Jetbeam Jet µ is a reliable,twisty i would recommend too.

So many lights… you have to start somewhere but don’t need to stop there. :smiley: