We all know that most of our friends aren't into flashlights :) I don't even try to interest them in lights for the most part. There is one light that most seem to like even when they're not especially interested in lights otherwise. The light of interest is always a 38 mm diameter aspheric XR-E R2 sing 18650 light.
I like it myself so I get the attractive. What seems to be the crowd pleaser among your lights and friends?
Maybe it's the bright one, the big one, whatever. List it!
The crowd pleaser among my non-flashaholic friends and family is invariably the Sipik SK68. I think its a combination of the fact that its small, its a single AA (a battery they are familiar with), the novelty of it being a zoomie and the incredible throw.
Oh ok. Yeah, that's an unusual reflector size on that one. I'd have to say the one that gets the most "Oooh"s & Ahhh"s is the Sipik SK68. So much light from a small package. I haven't had much opportunity to show my lights to non-flashies in quite a long time but the Trustfire F23 with a 10440 would be the other that amazes with an obscene amount of light from such a small, elegant torch.
Believe it or not, a $2.50 1xAA "Powerlight" is more than enough to impress most people around here. They still use 2x D-cell Rayovac or Eveready style flashlights (some of which are just now starting to arrive with an LED emitter), so when I pull out a tiny little 1xAA light of any style that puts out considerably more light than their big monstrosities, they are invariably impressed.
Also SK68(clone, that is. Not the real one). People always want me to order some for them, and I'm trying to always order two extra(not with every order, but so I have two extras myself when everyone has got theirs), just to keep down delivery times. Everyone wants the small AA zoomies :).
I also have a warm white XM-L P60, and usually people either loves it, or looks at them, shrugs and goes back to playing with the SK68. Perhaps it's because zoomies(without rotating zoom) reminds people of masturbation (what do I know...)
At first people want to play with the UF980L because it looks cool but it always ends up being the 200mW laser in the 502B flashlight body once that thing comes out forget it nothing else compares. Sometimes there are shootouts with the flood to throws the SK68 vs C78 vs EdiT vs 502B with the aspherical lens but the laser beets them all for showing off.
I've had the best responses with two stainless lights...UF C3 SS and my ITP EOS A2...they both put out a lot of light from such small packages, and they look nice.
The Romisen RC-29 was the 'gift flashlight' for last Christmas, and the recipients love theirs. One discovered 'tailstanding' on his own during a recent power outage, and had to call me later to tell me about it.
It's probably a good combination of novelty (zoom) and brightness, with some oddball appearance thrown in.
+1. this little light got more attention from non-aficionados than any other light i own. unfortunately one 1 meter drop onto linoleum killed it dead. have not had a chance to open it up and see if i can fix.