Howdy folks new to the forums and feature rich flashlights in general, but I have a question / request for suggestions.
I am looking for an flashlight that can fit in a pocket so I can EDC it. But here comes the one ring flashlight to rule them all moment - I want it to feature a main white light and supplementary red light and UV light.
The thing is that I can’t seem find such a light anywhere, does it even exist and why not?
I did find the Wurkkos TS10 with its Anduril 2 software and aux lights (the red version and rgb version) rather appealing. However the complexity to access the aux lights on demand (not constant on) is slightly off-putting for me, but maybe I just don’t understand all the features of Anduril2.
Honorable mention BORUiT V10 UV - Unfortunately has a funny speaker(wtf? + poor IPX4 rating), and red/blue flashing lights which I personally find useless.
What I am NOT looking for: The brightest / longest reaching / longest battery life flashlight.
Here are my wants in a bullet point format.
Required:
Thank you for this suggestion!
Although the Aurora A8(4th gen) would probably be the more modern replacement of the A6 imho, especially that bigger metal button.
While the WK30 matches 99% of the requirements it being barely pocketable and discontinued is a big hurdle . The GD11 looks interesting but of course the size is an issue.
As for the Trustfire Minix - I did see it while doing my research, perfect size and as such is something I am considering but having to choose UV or RED is a bummer aswell as the poor IP rating, then again its very cheap for what it offers.
Out of curiosity, why do you need red? If it’s to preserve night vision moonlight / low will do that, and it’s much easier to find a light that’s white plus UV than all three.
Yes, its mostly for night vision purposes. It is my belief that even a moonlight will stick out as a sore thumb from far away in the dark in any say camping scenarios - compared to the same intensity/lumens red light. There are other cases where I could think a red light will be better than a white one tho I am not sure how relevant they will be.
I’ll bow to superior knowledge when it comes to critters when you’re camping, I live in the UK and we don’t really have dangerous wildlife here, but from my experience of general usage with dark-adjusted eyes moonlight works really well for seeing stuff and not affecting my night vision at all. On my Anduril lights moonlight is so low that it’s pretty much useless unless you have dark-adjusted eyes, although you can of course configure it to be higher if you wish. I certainly wouldn’t have any concerns about disturbing other campers.
I don’t have a TS10, but my D4K has similar aux LEDs and having tried the red on high I personally find it to be less useful that just using moonlight mode, especially as with moonlight I get to see things with accurate colours. The aux lights are nice on the low setting for finding the light in the dark, but the light coming off them isn’t a clean beam so it’s not great to see by. The TS10 also doesn’t have the UV you wanted. It has a lot going for it, but it’s not really meeting the red and UV parts of your requirements.
Why not? Probably because it would be the worst EDC light ever. I have a UV light and it works good all by itself. I have a white and red light and it works good, but I don’t like the red. I got it simply to use the red during certain buggy conditions. I would not ever carry it unless I expected those conditions to exist. And even then I disliked the red so much that I bought a light that has white and green to use in buggy conditions but I haven’t had it long enough to go through a bug season yet. Again I wouldn’t carry it everyday unless I expect those bugs to be out and about when I’m out and about at night. Trying to cram everything including the kitchen sink into one light is just a recipe for disaster. It’s going to either end up too big, too complex, or lacking in many areas. Some do the white and red, and white and green okay, but to add a third LED and the associated buttons and ui and space is not going to end up as a good EDC light. You’ve got more pockets, use them.
Yeah, I went through the same decision making process recently. I wanted something with white, UV, and red.
I ended up going with an Emisar D2 Dual with white (519A 4500K) and UV emitters, and a Convoy T3 with the SST-20-DR 660 nm emitter.
Ultimately, I think this works better than a single light with all three emitters. Here’s my logic (which may not work for you, but makes sense for me): The only time I need the red light is when I’m at a star party or other astronomy event open to the public. If I’m relying on a second (or third) channel in a flashlight to protect dark-adjusted eyes, there is a nonzero risk that I’m going to (at least briefly) get one of the other channels when I turn on the light. Obviously a dedicated control button for the red channel would reduce the risk, but that’s only if I don’t accidentally press the wrong button. Having a light that ONLY has the red channel eliminates that risk.
Also, I’m genuinely surprised and impressed at the quality and quantity of red light I can get from the T3 with only a AA cell in it.
I mean, why take the whole toolbox when you can just take a compact Leatherman. :
Would such a theoretical all-in-one light exceed at being the smallest or brightest or best featured… No, but it probably beats carrying 3 different flashlights all the time.
As far as user interface complexity, I mean we have Anduril 2 and I’ll leave it at that.
We literally have watertight personal supercomputers in our pockets so We have the technology to not make such a light super bulky. The only considerations would be cost and demand - clearly the second is lacking in this case.
But do take a look at any cheap sites like aliexpress for v10, v15 or v5 flashlight. Those are cheap plastic lights with like 5 different color LEDs and no regard for UI, so clearly it can be done albeit poorly.
I’m not sure if this was meant to address my point about accidentally getting another channel when you want red (potentially ruining your own or others’ dark-adapted vision). The problem is that your light will either turn on to the same channel (1) every time you turn it on, or (if it has memory for previous state enabled) you’ll get whatever channel it is you used last. Neither is ideal for preventing the kind of accidents I refer to, and if you were to do it at a star party it might mean ejection. The best option if you had such a light would be to request the red emitter on channel 1 and then make sure you don’t have memory enabled.
If you use red light for other purposes – such as observing certain kinds of wildlife at night – a channel mixup could cause problems there too, such as scaring away the critters you’re trying to see.
These are the reasons why I’m glad my red lights are single-channel.
I usually don’t bother with answering an “I want X” question with “alternatives”, because I usually find those answers annoying. Like, maybe the person already thought of Y and Z but really wants only X instead.
Anyhoo, if the idea is to only have red be used when camping and other darksky events and doesn’t want even the possibility of accidentally blasting everyone with 1600 lemons of bright white, then carry a separate red light. An AAA twisty with red emitter pretty much makes sure that only that light is used when called for. Or a bigger donk with bigger cell and red emitter for way longer runtime and/or brightness.
Same with UV. Rock-hunting, checking for fake cash, whatever. You want a ZWB2 filter on it anyway to kill off stray VIS when you only want UV, and a multiemitter light likely won’t have it.
You do you, either way, but just tossing it out there…
I think all of the UV-capable dual-channel Hanklights (Emisar and Noctigon) ship with the ZWB2 filter on the UV channel; my D2 Dual has it. And there are other 2-channel Hanklights that offer the same option, though the D2 Dual is the smallest.
Sadly I have not had the opportunity to play around with any Anduril or Anduril 2 light, but I am looking forward to getting a TS10 (just waiting for a specific option to be available on their website).
In the meanwhile I have looked at the diagram and watched numerous videos explaining the functions and UI of both said flashlight and other Anduril 2 flashlights. And well… its complicated but for a good reason, after all it offers a really god feature set. My point was that complicated UI is not a problem as such exist (actually quite a few of them after looking at manuals on the forum here) and people want them due to the feature sets they offer.
Lightbringer and moondigger you are both right, accidental activation of the wrong led/mode would be an issue in such a light. And of course specialty lights designed to do one exact task will be better suited for said task than a multifunctional one, no doubt about it.
As for UV requiring a filter, thats something I have not considered.
But speaking about filters having a red one might solve some of the needs but introduces the risk of loosing it (after all my goal is to only have one “tool” I need to worry not forgetting). But I dont know, I haven’t really seen snap-on filter solutions tbh, any examples you can think of?
Ah, my misunderstanding. I was going to say not to let the diagram put you off, most of it you don’t need in daily use, it’s either stuff you can leave alone or set once and then never touch again.