Streamlight Nano! What a small light! UPDATE: Bought a Pico instead!

But it uses LR41 batteries, which, hmm doesn’t sound very common. The lumens output is suitable for a night light, or emergency light.

It’s so tiny I think I wanna try buying one! Recently caught the bug of small tiny flashlights… Now going smaller than AAA.

As always I like to hear your experience with this small little nano light or recommend a better one!

UPDATE on 20130412:
Bought an eGear Pico Light instead :smiley:

LR41s not so hard to find:

http://www.fasttech.com/products/0/10002356/1172900-huifeng-ag3-lr41-15v-cell-button-batteries-10-pack

I don't have the Nano but it seems like a decent 5mm-class LED keychain light. I've seen others using them and they appear to be a good sub-combact-edc option. I prefer something with a bit more horsepower myself...

:steve:

I have the Streamlight Keymate which is a upgrade to the Nano. Cost about $15. I never use it. I prefer my ITP Eos. It has 10x the power and is just as small really.

I don’t have one but they do seem popular. The alu is not very wear resistant though:

I reviewed the LifeGear version of it a while back: https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/8532

I have had the Streamlight Nano and eGear PICO light for about a year or so now. I have used both pretty much equally.

Surprisingly, both are still on their original button cells. (Now that I think of it, I might freshen them up.) They really only get used for a few seconds at a time here & there… I always have multiple lights on me, and the wife has her tank007 purse EDC for more serious use.

For what they are, both work pretty good. Output is pretty similar, but I think the e-gear has slightly more than the Streamlight.

Beam quality is poor. Lots of artifacts/rings - not at all surprising considering their design. My Streamlight has a worse beam than my e-gear. The Streamlight output is very purple. The e-gear is very cool blue white.

The [paint-like] glossy finish on my Streamlight Nano has worn more than the anodized eGear. Both live on keyrings and see similar abuse.

The Nano is smooth with no real knurling. The PICO has decent knurling on the bezel activation ring. This can be good and bad depending what you like.

The Nano is easier to turn on/off. The PICO is a little harder to turn. This is good & bad… The Nano could be turned-on inadvertently easier than the PICO. (If on a keyring, a swivel can help prevent this by allowing the entire unit to spin in your pocket.)

Having had both, I give the edge to the PICO. (I have gifted a few for this reason.) Overall it is just slightly better than the Nano in every way. That being said, the Nano is not a bad choice. Both are cheap, buy both! :slight_smile:

The Nano’s are crap! I went through three and they all unscrewed their heads in my pocket and left we with a lose pile of button cells. The eGear Pico has never done that to me in three years.

I know what you mean. The Nano is much “looser”.

Do you have it on a swivel?

Yes, on my keyring.

BTW, whatever color of either of these you get, it will be silver within a few months.

I hope it uses some kind of driver or at least a resistor to limit the current.

Cheap button cell keychain lights often use overdriven 5mm LEDs that will crap out on you really fast.

I quite like the look of the eGear Pico. I didn’t know Doug Ritter helped design it.

Fair enuf.

FWIW, my blue PICO ano has held up pretty well on the barrel. All the raised bits are silver though. :slight_smile:

Should be expected that any light on your keys will get pretty beat up eventually… some quicker than others…

Mine had unscrewed in my pocket also and the beam from the nichia led was a blotchy white that badly shifted towards blue/purple. Teflon tape on the threads helped for a month but then the batteries leaked and caused some corrosion.
You get what you pay for.

I use a nickel Wee on one keychain and a red MBI HF-R on another. Not low in cost but trouble free in use.

truth

Woah. Very friggin nice man. S)

Do you use the chargers on this page? I need something for 10180 that dual mode w/ display looks sweet.

Can’t go wrong with a Peak Eiger IMO. :beer:

Thanks guys for all the replies! Really appreciate them :slight_smile:

Now I’m presented with these options:

  • Streamlight Nano
  • Streamlight Keymate
  • Life Gear LG515 (not much information about this, seems discontinued)
  • eGear PICO light
  • MBI HF-R (not budget at all!)
  • Peak Eiger 10180? (not budget also!)

Now my most favourite of them all is the eGear, in terms of design.

Don’t forget Peak Eiger 10180 for the not-so-budget list. :wink:

For quite a while I used one of my hobby chargers, an older Triton dialed down to 100 milliamps charge rate to charge ICR 10180 cells. Now I use one of cottonpickers chargers that are featured in the MBI link.
They are excellent low current chargers and worth every penny.

Update!

Bought an eGear Pico Light instead! :smiley:

It’s really very very tiny! :bigsmile:

Placed a Ultrafire UF-T1 to the left for the size comparison.

That is small!! :bigsmile: Beam shots? :stuck_out_tongue:

Just buy one and you can get as many beam shots as you want :stuck_out_tongue: