Your perfect light.

Describe what would be your perfect flashlight. I’ll give you mine:

1 AA

Neutral white/natural light tint.

Flood vs throw: 60/40% (may change in future).

Circuitry and regulation: something capable of really maximizing the range of output and runtime akin to Zebralight.

UI: Totally defined by user - able to interface with a pc (via usb cable and socket head can be screwed into and included packaged software) and have all output levels possible to the led and battery of choice be set, number of modes and mode sequences be tested and set by user and estimated runtimes be available for battery of choice.

I know, too Star Treky right? Maybe some day. So, what’s yours?

Start with a Zebralight H52w. Add 90+ CRI XM-L2 while maintaining output and efficiency. Swap switch for infinite level output control ring and add a lanyard hole without adding weight. Swap the harness for an ultralight version with inspiration drawn from the Petzl Zipka.

My #2 dream light would use multiple protected 26650's, run a MT-G2 (or similar) hard, maybe several of them, have an infinitely variable output control ring with acceleration sensitivity (like a mouse) to allow both fine and fast adjustments, the low would start at a level lower than someone with great eyes could see, have a digital display showing output to the thousandth lumen, 100k kcd while having very wide spill, it'd have tailcap lockout, it'd have a direct thermal path, could be run at max indefinitely, it'd be solid contiguous billet from behind the bezel to the tailcap, it'd be made out of diamond, it could be controlled remotely, and have a power port to allow charging and operation simultaneously.

My Trustfire X9 with a side switch, reverse-clicky tail, SOS-mode-delete, and a copper-sunk XM-L2

If you ever get #2 can I borrow it for testing? It’s not like I’d keep it and sell it for the diamond’s worth or anything. I promise!

  1. is flashporn

XIAOZHI !

My perfect light doesn’t exist. ;_; What I want changes too often - variable output, two mode twisty (low and high), sub-lumen mode, red filter, something powerful and large in the hand, something small and cute, different metals and finishes, neutral tint, warm tint…

SC52 size with FFIV output (as an LED of course :wink: )

I remember writing this in another forum……

- p60 sized body in excellent build quality and fins for cooling (maybe like shining beam blaze)

- a thick/massive copper pill/slug

- Cree MT-G2 direct mount to copper

- driver that is capable of producing the 6V the MT-G2 needs with only one 18650

- two modes - high - low (2000 - 200 lumens) no nonsense here

  • neutral white tint

- budget price of course

Perhaps four swappable emitter modules like the BlackShadow Terminator to mix and match the tint.
2 x XM-L2 U2 1C cool white and 2 x XM-L2 T3 6A1 warm white. Or a mix of Nichia high CRIs.

OMG I’m becoming a tint snob…

My ideal torch is fairly simple and I’m amazed that you can’t seem to buy anything quite like it.

I’d like something like the EagleTac D25LC2 size and shape, but with a clicky. I know EagleTac offer one, but for some reason they removed the deep carry pocket clip :frowning: and seem to make the torch bigger than needed.

Emitter wise I’m not fussed, I think an XP-G2 or an XM-L2 would be fine, maybe offer both even. But NW tint please and high CRI.

UI wise, well I’d like something a bit more clever than we usually get.

I’d like an intelligent UI consisting of 4 modes.

High - This should push the LED as hard as the body mass can take and it should auto ramp down to regulate temperature. But always remain the brightest output.

Med - This should be as bright as you can use in doors, so that you can point it at a wall and not blind yourself.

Low - This should be as bright as possible, but not so bright that if you shine it at your hand that you blind yourself. i.e. it should be a close quarters output. To dim and it defeats this use.

Moonlight - very low. But the clever bit should be you can access it from off.

So here’s the clever bit.

Head tight should give you H-M-L but there should be a little toggle switch on the side of the driver (maybe between the + and - parts of the driver board, this switch could be tiny and need a little screwdriver to flick. What it does is reverse the mode order to L-M-H. This way everyone can be happy and you simply set it to the order that suits you the most. I don’t think it needs memory as the switch allows you to set 2 of the modes as the default.

The next clever bit is allowing you to access moonlight from off, as that’s the time you want to access it most often. Loosening the head should put the torch in moonlight, this way you can access it at any time from any mode and do it all by feel.