Posted: 8/15/2010 8:54:50 PM EDT
I picked up a coleman max 137 lumens, 6 AA LED flashlight at wally world for 24 bucks tonight. Thing is friggen amazing. I think I might start collecting flashlights now. Up until now, I only owned 1 flashlight, which was a 2 D-cell mag light. I decided to pick up another one because I lost power during a storm for 2 and a half hours the other night and the mag light was the only flashlight I had. It served well, but it made me think that just owning one flashlight isn't enough. The coleman I bought today makes my mag light look like a complete joke. So what are some other really awesome flaghlights?
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Ok noob... Have a look at 4sevens.com single cr123 quark. Fully programmable, over 200 lumens out the front, fit in your pocket next to your keys never leave home without it for $59. 6 AA's? Holy crap! 4Sevens FTW!!! OP, my 4Sevens AA2 Quark takes 1/3 the batteries of that Coleman, and puts out 206 lumens. $59 w/ free shipping and a 10 years warranty. Add some Sanyo Eneloop batteries, and you're GTG. Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile |
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I have a bunch of streamlights, surfires, and maglights.
Brightest light i have, and my favorite. Ultra-stinger 295 lumens 
This is the one I regret buying the most. For what i paid, I could have 3 or 4 of the ultra stingers. Its a good light, I just dont think it is worth $200. Impluse buy failure. 
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Quoted: Quoted: Ok noob... Have a look at 4sevens.com single cr123 quark. Fully programmable, over 200 lumens out the front, fit in your pocket next to your keys never leave home without it for $59. 6 AA's? Holy crap! 4Sevens FTW!!! Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile Crap now i need a new flashlight! |
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To start with, you can give you Mag-Lite some balls by adding one of these: I've got a Malkoff drop-in in my Surefire 6P. Brightest flashlight I currently own. I completely understand how flashlights can become addicting to some people. I've been able to avoid getting sucked in too deep so far.
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It gets dangerous... next thing you know you have a Surefire LX2 in your pocket. I LOVE my LX2 Yeah, there OK and *severely* overpriced. I am ok with paying for Made in the USA, no hassle warranty/customer service which I have used, and the ability to not have to baby my flashlight. anyways, 200 Surefire lumens is like 320 chinese lumens. |
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Ok noob... Have a look at 4sevens.com single cr123 quark. Fully programmable, over 200 lumens out the front, fit in your pocket next to your keys never leave home without it for $59. 6 AA's? Holy crap! 4Sevens FTW!!! Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile Crap now i need a new flashlight! I just checked CPF, and it looks like Home Depot is selling some 4Sevens lights now. Glee! Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile |
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my buddy has the same light. 3 sets of batteries have blown in it. This part confuses and enrages me ... what are you saying? Do you mean that 3 sets of batteries have "blown up" in it? How exactly does a set of batteries "blow"? Bulbs blow and fuses blow, unless there is a built in circuit breaker, I don't understand how a battery blows. Please educate me. (Long day at the ER and I guess I am just easily irritated right now). |
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Now that you've discovered how amazing LED lights are, don't forsake the old maglight. Get an LED conversion for it, and turn it into a retina burner. You can find all you need to know at candlepowerforums.
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Fenix lights are great lights for cheap prices. I love love love my TK10 with rechargeable batteries. It's singly responsible for being able to land my biggest steelhead to date. Fenix has come out with a couple newer models that are even better. |
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my buddy has the same light. 3 sets of batteries have blown in it. This part confuses and enrages me ... what are you saying? Do you mean that 3 sets of batteries have "blown up" in it? How exactly does a set of batteries "blow"? Bulbs blow and fuses blow, unless there is a built in circuit breaker, I don't understand how a battery blows. Please educate me. (Long day at the ER and I guess I am just easily irritated right now). He may have been mixing old or bad batteries, which would ruin all 6 of them. |
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I'll also praise fenix. Reliable, well-made, affordable lights.
I ditched my Surefire E2D Defender in favor of a (now discontinued) Fenix L1D. The Surefire blew 2 switches and a bulb, and the Fenix I bought (back in 2006-07 I believe) is still going strong. Surefire stuff is nice, but it's a bit behind the curve. While all of their competitors came out with high-powered LED lights for a little less than half the cost (in some cases) of their legacy Xenon units, they did nothing for something like 2-3 years. When they finally DID come out, they were expensive. I'm not knocking Surefire BTW, they're great lights (for the most part), but you are paying for the name.... |
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I've found that the Smith and Wesson Galaxy Cree LED that runs off 2 AA batteries is a great light, especially for $28. My professional hunter in Africa liked it better than his Surefire, so I left my first one with him. He says it is still on its first set of batteries a year later.
They make two models, one with a click switch and one with a push/twist that has a "crenelated strike bezel". I bought one of each, and switched some parts up to make 1 great light and one good light. |
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http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.16240 this cant be beat for $13 and some change only downside is the time it takes to ship OK whats the catch? The QC is shit. Not necessarily. I have at least 6 led flashlights from dealextreme that work perfectly. My keychain EDC t Read the reviews - when a lemon comes up someone will slam it. The only time I got burned by a bad light was when I didn't read the reviews - however they processed the RMA without hassle. Pros: cheap, good selection, decent quality Cons: long shipping times, off brands, occasional duds. Considering that you can buy 3 or 4 flashlights for what surefire charges for one, there's also no worry about buyer's remorse. |
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http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.16240 this cant be beat for $13 and some change only downside is the time it takes to ship OK whats the catch? The QC is shit. Let's face it: DealExtreme is a portal for all of the cheap shit manufactured in China, but without the US-based storefront you're used to. QC may in fact be an issue; but the shipping takes weeks because it's coming directly from... China. You are literally waiting on the cargo containers to set sail. With that said, if you're going to buy cheap chinese shit - and I understand that there is a place for that these days - then you can pay 4x as much via a US-based portal (store, website, etc), or go to the slum source directly and buy 2-3 at a time and take your chances. I've bought a few Cree light units and they both have been 100%, but other parts that have multiple sources (such as the flashlight linked) may be more suseptable. IMHO, the modern flashlights are horribly overpriced, and given my recreational use I might take a chance on the ones above. but instead of that $250 XXXX brand, I could buy 10 of these with a lifetime supply of batteries and break even. The only downside is that I contribute to our trade deficit. 
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It gets dangerous... next thing you know you have a Surefire LX2 in your pocket. I LOVE my LX2 Yeah, there OK and *severely* overpriced. I am ok with paying for Made in the USA, no hassle warranty/customer service which I have used, and the ability to not have to baby my flashlight. anyways, 200 Surefire lumens is like 320 chinese lumens. You have no clue. The OP should check out Fenix and Quark. I like Quarks better because they have moonlight mode. It doesn't look impressive during the day, but its great for discrete navigation at night. Defining a flashlights value is not just its high mode, but its low modes as well. Not just brightness, but longevity. Quarks single cell AA regular light will stomp the light in the op into the ground in every possible way. It will be just as or brighter, but have the ability to run 10 times longer on moon light mode, and still much longer on low. Quarks are rated for run time to half brightness. The light in the OP is most likely not. |
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On my hip right now. I love this thing!
http://www.batteryjunction.com/olight-t10-r5-v2010.html |
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Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.16240 this cant be beat for $13 and some change only downside is the time it takes to ship OK whats the catch? The QC is shit. Let's face it: DealExtreme is a portal for all of the cheap shit manufactured in China, but without the US-based storefront you're used to. QC may in fact be an issue; but the shipping takes weeks because it's coming directly from... China. You are literally waiting on the cargo containers to set sail. With that said, if you're going to buy cheap chinese shit - and I understand that there is a place for that these days - then you can pay 4x as much via a US-based portal (store, website, etc), or go to the slum source directly and buy 2-3 at a time and take your chances. I've bought a few Cree light units and they both have been 100%, but other parts that have multiple sources (such as the flashlight linked) may be more suseptable. IMHO, the modern flashlights are horribly overpriced, and given my recreational use I might take a chance on the ones above. but instead of that $250 XXXX brand, I could buy 10 of these with a lifetime supply of batteries and break even. The only downside is that I contribute to our trade deficit. That ain't true. DealExtreme simply doesn't keep shit in stock and isn't exactly fast about anything. I've bought plenty of shit directly from China and had it just as fast as anything domestic. 3-4 days and whatnot. There are occasionally delays, customs, holidays, etc... but by and large the blame is on the vendor dragging ass and nothing else. |
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Quoted: On my hip right now. I love this thing! http://www.batteryjunction.com/olight-t10-r5-v2010.html http://ep.yimg.com/ca/I/theshorelinemarket_2120_1600108 I have the Olight M20 Warrior and their Titanium AAA light, both are excellent. Wouldn't hesitate to buy Olight stuff again. |
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After spending hundreds of dollars on SureFire lights, the one that gets carried, day after day, is a NiteCore D10.
SureFire makes great lights, no doubt, but they don't make lights that are easily carried inside a pocket. Their momentary tail switches get activated too easily, and the twist "lock" makes it as convenient as those mini maglites. The other option is an E2D, with the tail switch somewhat protected, but it shreds clothing... |
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Quoted: Quoted: On my hip right now. I love this thing! http://www.batteryjunction.com/olight-t10-r5-v2010.html http://ep.yimg.com/ca/I/theshorelinemarket_2120_1600108 I have the Olight M20 Warrior and their Titanium AAA light, both are excellent. Wouldn't hesitate to buy Olight stuff again. I have 3 different Olights. One for work that runs on AAs because work will provide the AA cells. Triton M30 for my carbine M20 that was my 1st one |
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Quoted: I have a few surefires. http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47b6cc09b3127ccecfacbc7e41da00000010O09BZt27Ju4B7efAw/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D550/ry%3D400/ Holy hell man you got some issues! You scurred of the dark or something?!? |
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I have a few surefires. http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47b6cc09b3127ccecfacbc7e41da00000010O09BZt27Ju4B7efAw/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D550/ry%3D400/ Holy hell man you got some issues! You scurred of the dark or something?!? Some are infrared. 
Just a light addiction. 
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As for dealextreme, you are much better off going with shiningbeam.com
Same bodies, upgraded pills, much faster shipping (they are in the US), for a literally few dollars more. Fenix makes great flashlights.. My latest is a LumaPower Incendio XP-G. 370 lumens (a solid ~300 OTF). Great flashlight for the price. I chose it over the Quark for a couple of reasons. Only thing I miss that the Quark has is moonlight mode. If I want to go real bright, I'll just pull out my Stanley HID from my truck for 3200 lumens. :D |