Flashlight Goober reporting- something you might want to look into

[jladdsmith]

Lumen Goober?  Flashlight Geek?  I'm ok with that. 

It's a hobby for me as much as obsessing over little boats and gear.  You might remember a review on the Alien-flagger-downer Stanley HID spotlight here on TFTN.  At that time the closest competitor was about $400.  That Stanley was $80 at Walmart.  Candlepowerforums.com turned us on to that.  I couldn't even buy the bulb and ballast for that and try to build it myself. 

About 8 years ago I bought my first nice light- a Surefire 6P, with upgraded Xenon bulb, into it for about $125 and was just amazed at the output at a rated 120 lumens, and the outstanding build quality.  I still have it, unmodified as the one light I can trust to do it's job every time.  It's either momentary on, ON or OFF.  To this day, this is the most bulletproof design and build quality of any light I've owned.  Other flashlight goobers know what I'm raving on about here. 

Then on to LED's.  My next light was a Chinese Ultrafire with a Cree MC-E four die emitter claiming 800 lumens.  Holy shit.  Not 800 lumens (about 400) but it lasts "forever" compared to my Surefire. I'm just consistently amazed at the innovation in LED emitters and supporting electronics, batteries and flashlight bodies. 

50-60 new lights later, leaps and bounds of innovation, here's why I'm yapping on at you about flashlights again:

Santa brought me a Nitecore SRT7.  960 true lumens out the front digitally regulated down to a claimed .1 lumen.  Guys you can't go wrong with this one.  Nitecore/Jetbeam make exquisite hardware and have serious engineers backing up the functionality.  This is a perfect single cell (18650) flashlight.  Couldn't gush any more over this light.  I need a woman.

Here's a short video review: (not me.  this dude needs two or three women to get him straight). 

[youtube]954PgtJkg_k[/youtube]

[jarrod white]

I am a light geek too , I have many and they range from 100 to 1200 lumens. Some are small handhelds and some are weapon mounted lights

[grumpy]

I bought a Surefire knock off a few years ago that retailed for $55, it's not a Surefire, it has been very dependable though.
Don't get me started on headlamps, can't begin to say how many of them are around the house, vehicles, in the barn or sold in yard sales

[Steve H]

I am an admitted light geek as well and like Jarrod and Grumpy, I have them all around from small to big and weapon mounted as well.

This looks promising.

[MikeA]

Check

[jgray]

I've been using a standard Mag Light for years, but I like the idea of having something fairly inexpensive w/ red or green LEDs for better contrast when finding stuff in the back of the car or boat.  Any recommendations?

[Steve H]

I've been using a standard Mag Light for years, but I like the idea of having something fairly inexpensive w/ red or green LEDs for better contrast when finding stuff in the back of the car or boat.  Any recommendations?

Define fairly inexpensive.

[jgray]

$35 - $50

[jladdsmith]

I've been using a standard Mag Light for years, but I like the idea of having something fairly inexpensive w/ red or green LEDs for better contrast when finding stuff in the back of the car or boat.  Any recommendations?

TL;DR- jgray, start out with the Ultrafire 502b with battery, charger and maybe order the filters you need.   It's no Surefire, Nitecore, Fenix or Streamlight, but socks knocked off nonetheless. 

That's one of the features of the Nitecore SRT7.  It has Red/Green/Blue LEDs integrated into the head along with the primary emitter.  There are three LEDs that each LED outputs all three colors.  The "smart selector ring" along with the standby mode is what really sets this one apart.  You don't have to cycle through modes to get to what you need.  It's not cheap, but I don't think there's anything currently on the market at any price that's in the same league as this beast.  Since you're used to Maglites, any Goinggear.com review on Youtube will give you a reference as their control light is a Maglite. 

My suggestion as a very good starting point that won't break the bank is to order an Ultrafire 502B with XML-T6 emitter from Amazon or eBay, with 18650 battery and charger.  Know that the lumen ratings will be grossly exaggerated, but will still knock your socks off if you're coming from a Maglite.  You can also order slip on filters for the head to get your red/green contrast.  Basically for $25 or so, you're into these next generation lights. 

I haven't ordered anything from eBay in years and took a leap of faith with the sellers Andrew-Amanda.com out of Cary, NC.  Fantastic service and will order any lights that strike my fancy from them from now on.   Got a heck of a deal on the Nitecore SRT7, the Nitecore i4 charger and a Nitecore 3100mA battery for $109 shipped, no tax.  Kinda made buddies with Andrew, so pretty sure anyone that wants that package, we can get it at that price.  I have a bunch of 18650 chargers but this one is again, one of the next generation units.  It charges anything rechargeable, automatically detects the battery chemistry and capacity and whatever else.  No need for my big box of chargers.   

On batteries:  My Surefire eats $12 in CR123A (non rechargeable) batteries in about 10 minutes and is about 1/10th the output of the Nitecore.  With the latest generation batteries and emitters, we're talking 10,000 times the performance and longevity over older generation technology.  That's why I'm so goobered out over this stuff.  It's Moore's Law in action. 

The latest Tesla Model S (electric car) runs 6,000 Panasonic 18650 batteries in an array.  Your old laptop probably runs on Panasonic or Sony 18650 batteries.  I recently cracked open three old battery packs from Dell laptops.  Each laptop battery held 12 Panasonic 2250 mAh batteries.  These are expensive and very high quality Japanese-made batteries.  Better than most 18650s you'll find as sold for flashlights.  These are probably equivalent to the exaggerated rating on Chinese batteries of 3400 mAh.  Anyway, about $500 in batteries from three old laptops (I almost never used the laptop on battery power alone).  Put this in perspective of the equivalent in Surefire CR123A "primaries", and this would be like, I don't know, $10k in batteries that the US military still sources from Surefire?  Multiply that by the useful output and we're spending like $100k for freaking light for our boys that could cost $100, not even considering the flashlight host cost of 10x what it should be?  I don't get it.  Actually I do understand how that happens, but the root why is frustrating.  Told myself I wouldn't do it tonight but I did anyway. 

My next light will be the Nitecore TM26.  Now I just need a real reason to buy it.  Would probably need to own a farm to justify that. 

I'mma pull a Beuller on Jarrod to say you have the means and I highly recommend picking one up.  The Nitecore Tiny Monster 26...

[Steve H]

You are paying too much for CR123's 

[jladdsmith]

It won't fit in your pocket but I picked up a spotlight at Tractor Supply for $8 + tax and that thing will light up your world plus it's charged via an A/C adapter...no batteries.

Rusty's $8 spotlight runs on Magic and Nick Saban, all from a wall socket!

Sorry Yoda.

Rusty...glad you found something that fits your needs. 

There are deals to be found if you're looking for a high output light- I won't say high end, because you get what you pay for.  The UPS man delivered two Ultrafire C8's last week.  One is real Ultrafire XML-T6, one was a fake of a fake.  CPEE on the die?  Seriously?  When you venture into this addiction on the cheap you have to expect to get screwed. 

Now I'm done with buying bullshit, hence the reason for the original post- to help keep you from buying bullshit and get the most value for your dollar and to keep bullshit plastic and Magic out of the trash.  It took me 50 iterations of bullshit to get to this point of figuring this little thing out and that's the reason we're here, to share knowledge. 

Get with it Rusty! 

[Steve H]

charged via an A/C adapter...no batteries.

Charging means there are batteries to hold the charge, just sayin'. 

I have a similar spot light that has a battery that needs replacing. Heading to Batteries Plus to for the exchange, while they are not the least expensive, they are knowledgeable and they recycle for me.

[Steve H]

Comedians...don't quit your day jobs.

Rough crowd! Glad everyone has a sense of humor. 

[jladdsmith]

I was just funnin with ya Rusty.  Sorry to have rubbed you the wrong way.  FWIW, I'm a big fan of Mr. Saban.  Was bad humor at best. 

I have plenty of a/c rechargeables.  When the batteries go in those I will be cracking them open to replace the heavy and inefficient SLA or NiCad packs with 18650's.  I can't wait to hack the big Stanley HID.  It weighs over 5 lbs with the SLA battery, but it's the necessary ballast in that one that probably makes it so heavy, and only lasts about 5 minutes on battery power, so I've got it rigged to run directly from 12V.  Since the transformer in your spotlight probably outputs 12v, it might be possible to put a cigarette lighter plug in for using on the boat.