Hello all!
Long time reader, new member 
and I have read many great reviews and opinions over the years and hope to provide reviews, feedback, and personal insight of my own for lights I find interesting as I have owned many, Many, MANY lights since I was a kid.
My interest in handheld illumination began way back, more than a decade before Robert Conrad even, with my first ‘cat-nine’ 6volt hanger (if you know what that is you know where I am coming from) even though at such a young age I was not sure what it was upon first glance. However once my grandfather threw the switch (literally - a single arm throw switch, lol) and provided me the visceral primal gratification of wielding the power of the gods! (ok, a little dramatic) I was forever hooked. To which I have never been more than a rocks throw from the grid without a flashlight ever since.
It saddens me however to be witness of how frivolous and disposable the design and implementation of lighting devices have become in the industry, and the reason so few reasonably priced functional capable lights are available. It is as if new companies feel the only way they can compete is to candy-coat their product just to be seen as something different, all the while without providing anything actually useful or purposeful in function or design - and without providing any real competition to keep prices of the ‘big-brands’ low. The irony is that the older established companies are still in business and still turning profits from functional straightforward devices - the same devices the fly-by-night companies think they are ‘improving’ with their glow-in-the-dark bejeweled treatments and unnecessarily cheap components.
That is not to say there is no room for evolution of course… I would welcome a modern high intensity led emitter driven by a high capacitance power source stuffed inside my old and trusted MagLite 1D (yes they made them, but only through contracted production runs…) and even though we can modify/fabricate such a device on our own, why the heck do we have to, why aren’t manufacturers doing it… Has production of flashlights, unlike every other industry in the world, gotten less cost effective over the years?? No, to the contrary, production costs have gotten so low that even the smallest companies can purchase/contract CNC runs and turn a profit from something they will knowingly not sell more than a thousand units of. It is simply the uninspired strategy-dujour business model of marketing the least common denominator - because it takes the least effort - and it is producing the ever less purposeful, less functional, less durable, and less desirable.
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I apologize for the unsolicited commentary, it is just my observations - and the context in which I have always viewed and assessed handheld illumination.
For example here are the ‘models’ for how I have assessed flashlight purchases over the years::
(the technology specifics have obviously evolved over time )
Perfect field/work light::
- Maglite 1D size/shape
- Side switch (Full click OnHigh/Off - Soft click while on brightness/long runtime low/hidden strobe - Double click SOS, it is useful for S&R)
- No tail switch! (It is impractical to carry/operate anything C-cell or bigger through a tail switch, especially one handed…)
- 1x32650/1x26650/P3x18650 power source
- ~1000lm
- Decent throw, but wide even peripheral spill
- Rough/Aggressive texture
- Lots of copper guts for reliable current, dissipation, and durability
- Waterproof
*(Doesn’t sound too obscure does it… but no manufacturers make such a tool - not inexpensively anyway. Which I guess is why many of us are here isn’t it, heh… :bigsmile: )
Perfect tactical light::
- 1x18650/1xAA/2xC123A size/source tube
- 5” Minimum body length (has to easily extend fully across palm)
- Tail switch (Firm-stop momentary High/memory - Full click continuous - Soft click while on for brightness/memory - Double click Strobe/SOS)
- 500-750lm
- Wide/bright flood (little to no hotspot, but at least 30m illumination)
- Easily adaptable mountable shape/contour
- Internals non-specific (as design allows - such a light is not for extended use by design)
- Weather resistant (shallow submersion)
*(Reasonably available, but illogical UIs on what is available)
Perfect pocket/purse carry::
- 1xAAA/1xC123A size/source tube
- Body/Head switch (Full click On/Off - Soft click while on High/Low - Double click Emergency/Strobe)
- <=300lm (~Turbo for emergency/strobe maybe)
- Straight tube contour, recessed switch
- Internals need to be reliable, but can otherwise be of disposable quality as one will most likely lose small lights anyway
- Weather resistant
*(Quite a variety of lights in this category, however most are so cheaply made you might want to keep a box of matches as backup…)
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I hope to offer reviews and commentary of lights in this context in the future, and hopefully it will be of interest to some readers. I have a tendency for the dramatic and I am very direct (sometimes through excessive metaphors :bigsmile:) but it is not my intent to offend nor insult anyone.
If anyone else would like to share their ‘perfect’ illumination device I would enjoy hearing about them.
