Agro
(Agro)
104
Finally I can write down my highly subjective list.
These are the best lights I’ve got this year - the best for me rather than the best in general. And I’d like to list all portable lights rather than just flashlights.
Note that I got 2 lights delivered on the New Year’s Eve. But I already know they don’t make it to the list. 
#4
BLF LT1
A very good lantern. Large size and weight reduces its utility a lot for me - but for the cases where I don’t care it will be superb.
I use it as a nightlamp already and it’s very good in this task.
#3
Skywolfeye B16
A cheap AAA/10440 zoomie.
Some might be surprised to see Skywolfeye on the list…but it truly deserves its place.
It’s my main EDC recently. I use it way more than any other light - and it works much better than any other light I’ve got at its place.
That’s not because it’s such an excellent light (it’s not) but because it just matches my needs very well.
First and foremost, it’s aspheric flooder. The aspheric’s uniform hot-spot-free beam is the best thing for lighting stuff up close - and that’s what I do with my flashlights the most often. The sharp cutoff makes it easy to avoid shining at other people. Throw? I don’t use it much but it’s good enough to it make B16 a fair walking light.
Furthermore this light is nicely sized - could be a little smaller but it’s OK.
Physical UI is very good - it’s easy to find the switch, it’s easy to zoom with one hand.
Firmware is poor H-L-Strobe. Fortunately it forgets the last mode after short time, so I hardly ever see strobe.
Cheap AAA zoomie hosts tend to be of very bad quality. This one is not. I don’t have a reason to complain, it’s just fine.
The switch is too noisy though. And LED and driver are junk - they may get replaced this year…though I haven’t decided about that yet.
#2
Emisar D4SV2
I got mine with a LED swap by Bocian. It features Osram W2.
I wanted a not-very large hot rod thrower. I wanted to try the programming interface. I hoped it could replace my Utorch UT02 as a walking light.
It’s a true WOW light. Amazing thrower for the size, comfortable in the hand. It’s my secondary EDC now though it hasn’t seen much unplanned use. It’s clearly larger than ideal for the task but hey - it’s such a hottie.
The ability to customize UI to my needs has been a revelation. I still haven’t finished that but it’s already much better for me than any other UI that I tried.
The aux LEDs are something I didn’t regard as an useful feature, I thought it was mere bling - and I didn’t care about bling in this light.
But the ability to indicate battery level (with colour) and whether the light is locked out (with brightness) turned out great. And hey - I actually love the way it looks. 
It can’t replace my UTorch UT02 though - it’s a bad walking light.
I love UT02 for it’s perfect reflector depth. I point it forward and I see far. The spill lights the path shortly ahead of my feet so I can avoid obstacles.
Deeper reflectors don’t work well - the spill ends too far. If I point the light a little down to bring the spill closer - the spot hits the ground too close and disturbs my vision. There is light just ahead of me but I still can’t see anything.
I wondered whether TIRs more gradual and very wide beam would work well - it doesn’t, at least in this light.
In this case it’s actually not gradual at all. It’s 3-step. There’s the main beam. Fairly wide and very intense. There’s a secondary one, much wider but still quite narrow. Then there’s sharp intensity change and nearly 180° spill.
I can’t see anything in the spill - because the secondary beam hits the ground just ahead and distracts my vision.
If I try to point the light down to bring the secondary beam closer - the hotspot hits the ground and I still can’t see anything.
Furthermore it’s impossible to avoid blinding others with that wide spill. And occasionally it hits my eyes as well.
This nicely illustrates how beam shape means more than lumens. I’d rather remove all the lumens in the spill because they only do harm. It would still be a bad walking light, but it would be better despite looking worse on paper.
Actually except for very easy terrain I’d rather use the Skywolfeye for a walking light than this one…though I suspect it will do very well when accompanied by a headlamp. I’m yet to try this combo.
#1
String tent light
Vegas LED Fan has suggested to light up my tent with a string light.
It turned out amazingly well…
It creates extremely cosy atmosphere.
It requires minimal setup - I have the string mounted permanently and I fold my tent with it. I only need to connect it to a powerbank (usually Folomov EDC-C4) and it’s on.
It’s very lightweight.
It’s very cheap.
It puts out just enough light and is low CRI - it could see some improvement on both counts.
And I’m working on some upgrades…more light, brightness regulation, maybe higher CRI. That will cost more and require some modding though, killing the “just hang this cheap light” effect.