I got my first LED light in 2005/6 can't remember which now. It was the Golston - the gateway light for many.
Ran it on two 16340's burnt out the resistor ("driver") found out how to fix it and didn't look back.
Still got it in the bag. You could get these claiming wattages of up to around 18. Mine has a Chinese clone of a Luxeon 3 which was the business at the time.
76 screaming lumens dropping by 20 lumens in two minutes. And that was fearsomely bright at the time - the sort of output we expect from a 10440 light these days was nutty (And rich) incan guys back then.
Used to really like the little Ray-O-Vac that had 2 AA and a magnified incan in brightly colored plastic housing with a slide switch. Always loved pen lights too. Like a candle on a stick, the beam was always horrible, intensity was not something that applied, and color tint was, well, like a match about to burn out. Got into MagLights from day one. Have had a 2D Mag since they were introduced. Got into trying to better the Mag sometime in the early 2000’s and found led drop-ins. Went from there I reckon.
I really started getting fanatical about em with the MBI HF, a 2” keychain sized light that is running an XM-L in direct drive off of a special made IMR 10250 for some 600+ start up lumens. Yowza! Then I had a custom Ti light made by Photon Fanatic, found that pretty pricey but love it. Started doing my own mods and it’s now an addiction that I am just about obsessed with! Did you know that a 45mm TIR will fit into the Solarforce K3 head over an MT-G2 emitter?
A humble Surefire G2L that I bought to put on my AR-15. And then I decided I needed more light, so I bought a drop-in. Then replaced it with a M951 and tried to sell the G2. I joined CPF, started researching rechargables for the 951. Found Lighthound. Saw the Ultrafire and Solarforce lights…joined BLF…saw the Trustfire X6…
You get the idea. Still only have the 951 and the G2. I have my eyes on some entry-level toys. And I put the X6 on my wishlist.
Maglite 4C then Maglite 6D then a TTS bulb replacement LED - 180 Lumens that was the start.
I realized that LED’s were the way forward and ordered a couple from Amazon. They arrived in boxes with 18650 battery and charging point in the flashlight, I did some research and saw that with no-name unprotected cells they were little more than pipe bombs waiting to happen so I stopped using them and bought a Nitecore MT2A.
I was still intrigued by the extra power that 18650’s promised so I decided (after a bit of research) to do it the safer way and bought a Nitecore i4v2 and four Nitecore 3100mAh 18650’s. 8) Along with a digital multi-meter.
I decided they were wasted in a very poor quality Police brand Flashlight so started looking around for options, I found the Flashaholics website and decided that Solarforce fit the bill nicely.
I then started looking to get stuff cheaper and found the Solarforce-sales H.K. website for bodies/heads/bezels etc. ant FastTech, Manafont, well you get the idea. I continue to be impressed by the value for money and performance of the Solarforce hosts and have collected 8 or 9 (all L2’s) and all the bits to go with them.
My main interest is probably still knives with a leaning towards the quality Chinese knives, there are some really good knives to be had from Chinese makers - as there are flashlights.
I’ve now got two habits to feed, oh and I like Glow In The Dark bits as well.
I’ll never be rich but I’ll never be bored. :bigsmile:
I also have a craving to learn about stuff so who knows what’s next. >)
I’ve always liked flashlights and have owned a few Mag Lights over the years, I was even blown away when the first LED ones came out. I had been waiting for white LED flashlights for years always wondering when they would be good enough. I found this world of CREE, XM-L, Li-Ion 18650’s and whatnot when I was reading over at laserpointerforums.com. When I found out how powerful and inexpensive (silly me) it all was I was hooked.
Biking !
in the search of a bright light on the road / trail at around 4am in the morning
currently into cheap Cree’s sooner or later I’ll probably spending a fortune on lights!
This thread jogged my memory. My first mod was in the mid-60s….I must have been about 13 years old. I took a 6v headlight and dimmer switch from a late 40s Chevy truck, mounted it in a wooden box with a 15v model train power supply. With a long extention cord I was the terror of the neighbor hood for about 2 nights, until I blew the headlight out. Good times.
I was camping about 5 years ago, carrying my 3D mag through the woods when the woods lit up, and from behind me a voice saying “dude, your flashlight sucks.” I turn around and it’s my sister carrying this tiny little AA flashlight that says “Cree” on it. As a survivalist and hoarder she had a couple to spare ones, and she gave me one. I carried it for about a year before I realized I was now so dependent on this thing, I needed a backup in case it failed. Then I discovered DealExtreme. Then I discovered ManaFont, and BatteryJunction, and it just went downhill from there.
After a while it was clear that this was some sort of hobby/obsession and not just wanting a flashlight. I thought maybe I wanted to resell some of these Chinese lights, but that just didn’t do it for me. Then it hit me. I just wanted to talk about flashlights and other EDC stuff like pocket knives, multi-tools, watches, etc. I wanted to share the new knowledge I had obtained with folks who still had 20 year old flashlights in their kitchens. So, I started a blog, and haven’t been able to shut up about it ever since.
Was fascinated with Light and Lasers as a kid. Getting coherent light out of a ruby rod was such a cool idea (60s). Transistors, diodes, semi-conductors, analog stuff, then digital stuff, photons. The Quantum Idea fascinated, one electron excited meant one photon (ghost image). But few toys on that concept except solar cells, and cool how could you manipulate the solar cell idea into a light or laser. So when pocket lasers and leds became available to the public, instant addiction, for me. So, next = white quantum wells, or a laser sun gun will do … J) J) J)
Was exploring some really dark and pitch black caves.
I had an AA and a 3D maglite, both incandescent. My mate had a Led Lenser L7 and bought X21R! This was less than 2 years ago. Needles to say, his lights blew my lights away. My lights could lit up close to nothing compared to his lights.
I was not willing to pay the price of X21R in order to get lots of lights, nor was I interested in it due to size/weight. Came across BLF and the rest is history..
Well put, Adled :bigsmile:
I love that part about being “the terror of the neighborhood”. Wish my story were as interesting.
Actually, in the late 70’s I bought my first “serious” flashlight, a 2AA maglite. Cost me something like $25, which seemed like a fortune to me then. Looking back now, the beam profile was terrible (lots of rings) and the light output, nothing to shout about.
Then in 2009 my brother asked me to follow him; he wanted to buy an Olight M20. I played with it for a bit and then started searching the web for more information about cree flashlights. You could say that “I had seen the light”. Ha ha
Strongly despise how online communities do this.
Really irks me in that it demonstrates an undesirable trait of humanity, namely intolerance.
Glad you found solace here and took up your hobby again
My father made a point of showing how well eyes adapt to the dark. He even drove by moonlight on a dirt road in Baja California to show it could be done safely. That is part of why my every day carry button light is red.
As for me, fed up with the drawbacks of incad’s saw me purchase a Fenix L2D Premium second hand and the rest, as they say in the classics, is history, inclusive corrupting other family members.
Might have a gene that triggers it since it’s all family members by blood, not marriage that share the same interest
Used to own a soft top sports car.
Used to do this with the top down upon dates 100km/h+ on nice straights to awaken the adrenaline in the date ;) Good times. Have done it upon a bike as well, yet with cloud cover and no moon and no light pollution through a winding valley 2am.
That was a freaky, yet exhilarating experience, as you would expect averaging 30-40km/h in almost complete darkness
Is why I’m developing a curiosity in UV and searching for a cheap good quality 365 wavelength led.
when maglite started to be available on local store (still incan) many years back (around 2000 i think), it distorted my mind, always make me wondering about how good this flashlight could be with price tag more than $15 for incan.
(equivalent in my ccy. for comparison purpose, one time meal here was less than $1 those day.)
and it was Ebay with its free shipping and low pricing hype from china mainland that make me purchased few first cheap light around 2010 and continued with high powered cree based led light up to now.
A 2 part answer to this question. It started on Friday, 1/13/1967, when I started my 2nd and last job, for an electric utility company in New Jersey. I mention the date because it was my wife’s 17th birthday, but we had not met yet. I was issued a Bright Star 2 D cell light and I tried replacing the bulbs with anything that would be brighter because of the nature of my job. I was an electric meter technician in Hudson County, NJ. Almost all of the meters were in basements. Dark, dirty and not always free of wildlife, dogs, cats, rodents, and fleas. Big and small rodents. Sometimes flooded and or with backed up sewers. This was Jersey City, Hoboken, Bayonne and Union City, to name a few. You want to test a light? Those basements would be ideal for that. Sure, some of the basements had lights, but not all did. I tried halogen bulbs, a 5 D cell plastic light from Radio Shack for $0.99, a Maglight and a few other bulbs and lights. This was years before LED’s were available. If I had only 1 of today’s lights that job would have been much more enjoyable.
After I retired in 2006, I moved to a retirement community with no sidewalks and 2 dogs to walk after dark. One day I decided to do an internet search for flashlights. I figured that I should buy one or two. Now I have more lights than I need.
Still only have the 951 and the G2. I have my eyes on some entry-level toys. And I put the X6 on my wishlist.