What is Your Favorite 1xAAA Light?

LED Flashlights – General Info 1 x AAA Flashlights
1

Hello everyone, I am a new member here on BLF though I have often relied on the vast knowledge and information found here for some time before I signed up. So first of all I would like to say thank you to all the members for your contributions.

I've recently come to own the Lumintop AAA Osram+tir, edc01, and the Sofirn C01s (High > Low). I couldn't resist as I got them all on sale + coupons so I've only spent about $18 between the 3. I also have my trusty Fenix e01 that lived on my keychain for 3 years with an alkaline inside. My favorite is definitely the C01s due to its perfect balance between throw and flood as well as its tint and high CRI. I attached a runtime chart for these for those who care, but I imagine most have seen one already for these lights. It was simply a ceiling bounce test taken with my phone measuring exposure value (EV), as I don't have proper equipment for lumen measurement. I was more interested in stabilization anyway. The first two digits are minutes. They all performed to my liking; the Tool and C01s dropped out of regulation around 26-27 minutes. the edc01 exceeded my expectations, staying flat until about 45 minutes, and I'm not quite sure why its runtime is longer. Performance stinks with alkalines; no surprise there - No stabilization and they were almost completely drained and dim around 28 min.

So what is your favorite 1 x AAA light? What would the perfect 1 x AAA light look like to you?

My perfect AAA light would be a shorter version of the C01s (think Olight i3e EOS) with ramping controlled by twisting (twist to turn on low, continue twisting to ramp up to high) although I'm not sure how feasible that actually would be.

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Sofirn/BLF C01.

What’s the unit on your time scale?

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ah so sorry. The first two digits are minutes.

4

Lumintop IYP07

5

maybe a peak eiger w qtc

6

When dressed informally (99.99% of the time) I carry a 14500 or even an 18650 light.
When formally fressed, size matters. And in comes the puny Ultrafire UF-T1 (AAA).
That is connected to a lanyard neck strap (under my shirt).

In real life AAA lights are not powerful enough to be really useful.
However, they can be wonderful and attractive gems or grateful gifts.

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Jetbeam JET - u.

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Olight I3T is a good light —- It holds 165- 175 lumens for close to 30 minutes —pretty amazing —- too bad I can’t get it open to put a better tint in it

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Not sure if it is my favourite, but it is the one I use the most as I carry it in my Arc wallet everyday: Olight i3T EOS. The tint is not the best but I won’t attempt modding it.

The favourite beam is, for sure, the one of Sofirn C01 3200K.
And the also like the 1 mode light similar to BLF 348 from “hc-lights.fi .

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Brass UltraTac K18 w/10440

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My Peak Eiger would be my favourite if I bought Ultra X instead of Ultra. It’s expensive light. And the process of purchasing it wasn’t as smooth as I could wish. But I really consider buying another because output-aside it blows away all my other small lights.

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1- Jetusolis (Jetbeam Jet-u modified by clemence with optisolis 5000K)
2- Sofirn C01 5600K and C01 3200K
3- DQG AAA titanium

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“Useful” is a wonderfully ambiguous metric. :innocent:

The light I carry the most and does almost all of what I need is the diminutive Thrunite Ti3. More light to read a menu, just enough to find a dropped screw, can show you what’s under a couch, etc.

I’ve compared it against a nice list - Tool AAA, Wuben E01, Astrolux A01, Nitefox K3, Glareee something or the other, and a few more I can’t place right now. All have their strong points. The Ti3 is the one that keeps finding its way into that little gap next to my wallet.

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Tank007 ES12

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I’m not sure I have a singular favorite. I currently use a Fenix E05 as my EDC, but the mode spacing is not great and there is no moonlight. The Fenix E01 and Sofirn C01 both share a simple ruggedness and efficiency that really resonates with me, but the low output limits their versatility, and I adore the beam of the C01.

The Lumintop clickies look interesting, but I wouldn’t want the MLH mode order, and some of the past runtime tests have shown poor efficiency.

The Olight i3e is charming for its size, but they went with a low CRI emitter that is not easily replaced, since it is mounted on the driver board and has an uncommon footprint.

The Lumintop IYP07 with a UI like Bistro would be really appealing to me, even if it were based on a variation of existing drivers that would require a 10440.

I actually have a Sofirn C01s in my Amazon cart waiting for my next order, because I decided work use is one case where coming on in high is a good feature for me, but I don’t need to do this kind kind of task regularly enough that I want to carry a larger light. This will be a dedicated light my job. Otherwise I wouldn’t want it to start on high.

The AAA light I drool over the most is the Balaton (10440 only), but I’d never be able to justify that, and it’s as large as some AA lights.

At some point in the future I might make myself a couple Jet-u E21A mods, but don’t have time to do so right now.

It depends on how much light you need. Even when I’m using my D4, it spends the overwhelming majority of its time below 100 lumens.

The higher outputs are certainly useful to me on a fairly regular basis, but for simply walking around comfortably at night or doing arms-length inspection tasks at work, a AAA is fine for me.

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Right now I carry the BLF 348 clipped into my right pocket for easy access - and I use it alot! It also makes a nice gift.

FWIW, my normal EDC light is the 14500 Thorfire TG06S that I carry in a belt pouch. For good measure, I keep one of these on my keychain.

17

best bang for buck… c01S
nicest beam but limited use… c01 3200k
brightest and nice tint… ultratac k18 2019 219c

I also like the ti3 and astrolux a01 for their great firefly modes. too bad they messed up the interfaces with next mode memory on both. easily fixed though.

18

AAA- Thrunite Ti - Original with perfect firefly mode for the night
AA/14500 - Wuben E05 - my favorite, this packs serious punch for the size

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I like the Frelux Synergy 1. Expensive but, nice.

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Olight i3e
Small size - one mode. Perfect.