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My perfect flashlight:
4D batteries just doesn't make sense in 2024. That was for incandescent lights, modern LEDs are brighter and use a small fraction of that power. You could still have the form factor if you really wanted a giant flashlight for self defense or something, but a pair of AA's if you really don't want rechargeables would be more than enough for a long life flashlight.
But any LiIon battery is going to far outperform alkaline batteries.
Oh man This post just awoke a REAL old memory for me. Growing up my dad had these two old beat up flashlights. I looked them up and found this https://www.etsy.com/listing/1027765511/eveready-no1359-safety-flashlight.
I always thought they had a cool design.
I have a two button flashlight. One button to change settings and one to turn on and off. It has memory so it uses the last setting used that's not strobe or the highest setting
Surprised not to see any posts referencing the Arbitrary List of Popular Lights or [email protected].
One of the requirements to make it on the list is:
A user interface where a single click turns the light on in a reasonable mode, and another single click turns it off.
I have never had strong opinions about my flashlights. My favourite is a blue one I found that had leds and lasts forever on AA batteries. Never had one with settings all the ones I've used are on/off
You're describing a UI that I've only seen in cheap hardware store flashlights. Yes it's infuriating when you can't just turn a light on or off, and choose the mode you want. I use strobe when crossing streets at night but my lights make it easy to access that feature when I want it.
Who is this "favorite flashlight manufacturer"? I find it odd that you both have a favorite, and buy lights that act like this. There are thousands that don't.
Fenix makes a few that are like what you're looking for, I have two, one has one big button on the back and one on the side, the back button is a simple on off and the side button cycles the power settings, if you hold down on the smaller side button it goes to strobe instantly. The other is basically the same but both buttons are on the back and the smaller button toggles strobe by pressing it when the flashlight is off vs cycles power settings when the flashlight is on. I only buy flashlights that are set up like this or similar. I need to be able to access strobe instantly and I need to be able to turn it on and off at a low power setting without turning on the fire of a thousand suns to get there.
Yeah, my grandpa's has like 3 of them for camping. They're rechargeable and made really solid. You control the brightness by pulling on the front which slides the glass thing making it wider and darker or blinding bright but narrow.
That’s the focus your adjusting.
If you've ever tried to read something off a label in the dark and outshined what you were looking at because the light was too bright, you know why.
I got an Acebeam EC35 Gen II a couple years back and while there are many settings you can use there's a big button onto he back that turns it on full blast and you click it again to turn it off. Done.
Streamlight makes some simple on/off models. Like the Streamlight Microstream 66323. Very bright for its small size.
you can build your own
Rescued my daughter in the cliched flat tyre in the rain scenario, the flashing light was good to alert other drivers. I think it’s something that could be useful very rarely.
They put them in all the flashlights because of a combination of minimum features required and cost savings.
To keep heat at a minimum and improve power usage, LEDs benefit from being run by a driver circuit.
If you're going to use a driver circuit you might as well allow for dimming if you're going to allow for dimming you need to have timed button presses.
There's only a couple of companies out there that make the circuitry that does the LED driver / lithium ion charging, so everybody just uses the same chipset.
If you want to flashlight that just turns on and off and doesn't have a lot of features try to find one that doesn't have lithium ion batteries. If you don't need the lithium ion charger they're more likely not to use one of them more extensive chipsets.
Couldn't find one of the two bottles of doe piss and doe estrus piss I bought today. Went to my grandfather's car to look for it and sure as shit he hands me a flashlight with one button that turned it on and off as well as having a rotating head that was kind of threaded so as you turn it, it will move closer and further from then bulb making the light adjustable the same way a garden hose nozzle that only rotates works. All the way out = wide flood light style beam. All the way in and it produces a bright pin point wide beam of light. It looked brand new too. If I remember I'll ask him tomorrow what brand it is.
Sounds like you're describing a maglite
Maglites are perfectly fine flashlights for most people, maybe a little heavy but sometimes that's kind of the point (a lot of cops and security guards and such took to carrying them when their agencies started prohibiting nightsticks and batons, especially the bigger 4 or 6 cell models) for a long time they were basically the default flashlight, you had maglites, you had the big spotlight looking things that took a 6v battery, you had cheap plastic flashlights, and you had various small penlights and such (which were often mini maglites) and that was like 90% of what you'd ever encounter.
There's a good chance if you go rooting around in your dad or grandfather's car trunk, garage, basement, workshop, toolbox, etc. you'll find a maglite or 3 kicking around somewhere. I know I keep one in my car for emergencies and I'll probably inherit a half dozen more from my parents someday.
They still make them, pretty sure they switched over to LEDs (one of their selling points used to be they had a spare bulb stored in the tail cap) and I'm sure they're still perfectly reliable and rugged, you can probably still find them at most of the places you'd think to go buy a flashlight, and a standard 2 D cell maglite still costs in the neighborhood of $20-$30.
But there are a bunch of flashlight nerds out there these days, who want really specific form factors, battery types, features, led color temperatures, etc. and they'd probably pooh-pooh the humble maglite.
I get it to an extent, I have flashlights I like better, but I'm not about to nerd out about them, and if you someone sent me out with instructions to buy them a flashlight with no other requirements listed, I'd probably buy a maglite and feel pretty confident that it's going to be an acceptable flashlight.
Peak power can only be maintained for a minute (if you are lucky) before it overheats. Peak power is the main advertised spec, so it has to be high and default mode so you don't feel cheated when you turn it on for the first time. The other modes you toggle through are settings that can be sustained for extended periods of time.
My Pretzel headlamp turns on and off in steady full beam. Can choose to cycle through low beam and flashing if I want to with quick depressions of button. Switch to red light and back by depressing and holding button. Sometimes use low beam to save battery, red light to keep from loosing night vision, flashing to be seen, not see with.
Yeah, I've used strobe a few times.
The anduril settings make it easy imo.
But, we use it they're at the house plenty, the strobe. If I'm out in the yard at night, doing some kind of crap in the rain (hello helene, the most recent event that I used it), flipping to the strobe is a quick and easy signal I need help. It lets everyone else stay dry (er, until I need them to come out lol), and means I don't have to fumble with my phone in the wet and dark.
It's not an every day thing, and it isn't meant to be afaik.
It's handy enough that my best friend and his husband now use the lights I bought them after they saw how well it worked and wanted the same thing.
We've also got a sort of awareness of it in the neighborhood now. My using it drew attention, and I explained why I was doing so. Everyone close enough to see the flash now knows that if it's only on for a minute or so, it's no big deal, and I know that after word spread, if I leave it going longer, they'll know I need help, or at least check.
One of the neighbors bought his own wurkkos as word spread. It's such a good signal at night that it's likely going to be a thing in the entire neighborhood rather than just our block.
There's even diffusers you can get for most lights that come in colors, so you could expand the signalling to have different meanings per color, if it became useful to do so.
Seriously, you have no idea how nice it is to not be fucking around in a storm either running back and forth for things, or having someone else just standing around miserable while you work just in case you need help.
It's kinda niche, but at this point, I've got those kind of lights for everyone in the house just in case we need to be coordinated when sound is difficult (like in a freak hurricane lol).