What lights would you take on... ?

I am going on a 5 day camping trip in the back country the weekend coming.
Is it bad when i have so many lights i don’t know what to take and how many ? :tired:
i can take probally up to 10 of them and not look like a crazy light-addicted para-military dude. J)

- - Here is the list of a fiew condenders that i was thinking of selecting out of my collection i would like to bring along, but have to limit it to no more than 10:

- Generic 1W EDC
-Coast G10
-Uniquefire G10

- Modded Sipik SK68 ( 3 mode, XR-E EZ900)

- Modded “2-AA” Sipik SK68-side-switch
-Thrunite Ti2
-Tank007 E09
-Trustfire Z2
-MXDL 2W pen light
-Hugsby XP-G3 penlight
-Olight S20 Baton
-Ultrafire PD32 (modded)

- Nitecore MT2T
-Ultrafire SK90 XM-L
-MiniMaglite LED
-Roche F12 ( modded)
-Skyeye F13 ( modded)
-Nitecore P25 Smilodon ( Modded)
-Fenix TK35

- Nitecore EA4W

- Fandyfire Rook

- Skyray King - WarmWhite
-Skyray Kung M4 ( 4 XM-L )

- The Trustfire X6/200mwLaser/SK98/UVPepperbox weapon light

  • Olight SR90 Intimidator
    -Defiant Super Thrower 3D
    -The modded 55 watt DC-HID Cyclops-X
    -The new secret ” BARRETT100 ” Experimental Multi-emitter, 30-AMP, 3-Kilometer thrower light/Zombie-burner. (Only if it was completed in time.)
    -a candle

I don’t think you need 10, just take lots of batteries
I’m not familiar with many of those lights, but a lumen monster, a thrower, a nice low and a lamp is all you need, and an edc would be nice.

Take an extra light you don’t care if it gets scuffed up or dented or ano scratched to loan. If someone can accidentally damage a light they will, never forget that

Edit: When i can only take one light, i reach for a Convoy M1

10 lights doesn't look para military, it looks like someone trying to be tacticool. Whatever. Since you're camping, bring them all. Since I'm a backpacker and would have to carry all those, I'd carry one light. The oLight S20 looks good. I'd combine that with the Nitecore headband from Intl-Outdoor.

I live off-grid, so I have my own answers to this. They may or may not suit you, but here goes.

I reckon you need 2 torches: a headlight and an EDC.

Headlight. Hands-free light is worth more than any number of torches. When you are camping, a lot of the times you need a light are when you also need your hands. Cooking, eating, pitching camp, urinating after dark, rummaging around looking for whatever you lost? In any of those cases, any headlight is better than any torch. I mean that; a cheapo headlight is better than an SR90 or an SRK or EDC or whatever. I use either a low-power XPG cheapy ($8) or a better XML light ($17), and they have replaced most of torches for most jobs. The torches are now rarely-used (I keep them as toys, or for a few specialist purposes)

EDC. Most of the times you will want a hand-held torch are when you didn’t think you will need it. When you wake in the middle of the night, an everyday-carry torch can be right beside you in bed, but the headlight will have been placed somewhere safe. If you roll over in your sleep, the EDC won’t hurt you the way a headlight will, and it won’t get damaged. OTOH, if you drop something and need to find it, then the torch which is actually in your pocket is a lot more useful than a much more powerful one back at base or buried in your rucksack.

Other torches may get some use depending on what you are doing, but will be much much less use than the two above. I would restrict myself to two others: a flooder such as the SRK, and a thrower (SR90?). The flooder is good for identifying a place to camp, and thrower for locating the bounty hunter who is on your trail :wink:

Bring more if you like, but the others will be for fun. And lots of batteries.

As a fellow lover and sometimes denizen of the near north woods, I can sympathize…

I now knock around +’s, -’s of each of a dozen lights that I am presently enjoying, down to usually about 6 (along w batteries, holsters, 12v or solar power chargers etc) depending on whether the trip involves car camping (the more the merrier) or kayak/canoe backwoods camping…where you might regret carrying too many illumination tools.

And often an old but neglected favorite gets thrown in the gear box just because…

For my next trip WAY north, I already have planned my choices. Two EDC (in this case two p60 styles for redundancy, one big flooder and one big thrower…such that I have in my collection…so far.

My non-light loving neighbors will no doubt wonder what happened to me while i am gone…

Bean darach’s comment on headlights makes a lot of sense — just consider urinating after dark :slight_smile:

The S20 for sure. If I had one light for camping that would be it. Perfect EDC also. Next I'd have something with a little more throw like the TK35 that will also have great run time with the 2 cells. I'd also want a flooder like the King for wider searches.

Since those 3 were specially chosen since they all use the same cells I'd load up on fully charged 18650 cells along with a charger that can run from a vehicle 12v socket.

I wear a cord around my neck and clip my light to it. A headlight makes it easier.

I would think about which of those lights had the longest run times and least weight. Do you have many Ni-MH cells to take with you too?

I hardly think weight matters is he's willing to carry up to 10 lights. It sounds like he's car camping where weight doesn't matter. I'd probably bring most of my lights if I were car camping....maybe...depends who else is there.

its a family group thing so likely other family will be looking to “borrow” a light or two, and were towing an RV so lots of space is availiable.

I have lots of 14500s and 18650s im bringing along.

Car and RV camping??? Bring them all along with a charger and have a blast! Don't even think about it. :bigsmile:

Even if he’s car camping, he won’t be staying near the car all the time, surely??

+1

I thought that by “camping” you meant taking a tent. But if you got an RV, then you got room for them all. Might as well bring em all play with them.
But do bring plenty of batteries and 12v chargers. You’ll need them.

Maybe you can see it as an opportunity to review all of these lights from a camping perspective.

bring a headlamp, your king or kung, sr 90, a powerful zoomie (zoom mode is fun so there is no spill) and you can point things out like animals or whatevers, a edc with a moonlight or low low and with decent output and throw and flood.

I dont have anything from your list, but I will put in my 2 cents worth.

After a number of camping trips, I find a trend begins to appear. Initially I brought along about 6 torches, each with its own unique feature, however it was difficult bringing all on walks. Juggling too many for each use was fun initially, but over time only a few were really getting used once the novelty begins to wear off compared to the difficulty in handling all of them.

In the end, I end up bringing 3 to the trip.

1) 18650 Headlamp - One battery will last the whole two weeks for me. Mostly on the 30-100 lumen modes, plenty of light to do most tasks, and used almost all the time. This is the bread and butter light, the one that goes everwhere. Hands free operation is key for everything that you do, Cooking/eating/moving around. I find I use it less on the hiking trips than around camp itself.

2) A large high output. Multi task light for everything else, such as the spotting for your walks, and lighting up an area with ceiling bounce, or tree bounce. Its got the battery life to run for long periods too on lower levels, so it becomes the area light at camp. Again, I also only bring one set of batteries for this one for up to 2 weeks. I do however find that moonlight low is also very useful on this one when actually out in the bush. Generally most of these lights start at the 100 lumen mark and for everything close up, thats blindingly bright when you don’t have your headlamp handy.

3) A tent light. A light that hangs off the ceiling (in a low tent). Its got to be reachable in the night. Moonlight mode with long battery life is crucial for this one. Leave the torch on overnight so its easy to find. Or for something fancy… having tritium glow is another way to achieve this.

Batteries, I don’t bring spares for trips of one to two weeks. Even as a torchlight fanatic, I find I still don’t use up the batteries. On a recent 3 week trip, I only ever needed to change one set of batteries for the main torch. The EDC headlamp and tent light went on working for weeks after the trip!

So what are my picks for the 3 torches based on my inventory.

  1. Headlamp - H600 Zebralight. This one has the range of outputs, High efficiency, 18650 format in the smallest form factor available for its class. Size wize, with a proper strap this works wonderfully well. Moonlight option available too. Only complaint is the UI requires more than just a single press to use the lower modes that I use the most.

2) Big torch - TN30 - Output when you need it, medium throw range (sometimes could do with more), but where it excels is the wide spill. The wider than average spill gives you great visibility of your surroundings and prevents that feeling of claustrophobia. Deep reflector design also gives you great hotspot transition, which allows for nice even lighting of targets down the line and midrange. Perfect light with triple 18650 capacity. Electronically switched forward clicky gives you reliability when switching high powered lights.

Low level is where this torch really works well for me, with a 3 lumen low, its really the prefect light for anything at any time. UI is also dead simple, ring for selecting output, and switch for power. Allows pre-selection of output before firing, saving your eyes from retina searing outputs.

3) Tent light - V10R. Again, a variable output torch, pre-selectable output, rear switch, and loaded with tritium for that night time glow. In the tent pocket, or hanging off the strings in the tent, this is a torch that is easy to find and there when you need it.

Biggest factors for selection for me…

- Easy to use UI

  • Low Low output available on All torches

for spare batteries, maybe 1 set spare for all torches and thats a two week long trip covered.

Don’t forget, the S20 IS a headlight with a ball cap, :wink:

I wear a ball cap alot while outdoors so the S20 is usually my headlamp. :bigsmile: along with my Z2 in my Nitcore Head band.