Monday, July 30, 2012

Tam writes of lights, so I'll pile in(on?)

I’m a big fan of flashlights. Besides the ‘see what you might have to shoot/blind the bad guy’ options, I’ve been caught in the dark with no artificial means of light a few times, and it sucks. So I’ve got a bunch of them around. Here's the various 'carry around' stuff

Rundown, top to bottom:
My first high-performance light was a Surefire G2. Blinding-bright, tough, a good light. I would up buying one for each kid for Christmas that year so they’d have a good light. Of course, then came the LED lamps that produced actual white light, and I picked up one of those for the light. Which stayed in the truck, until a Surefire dealer at Dealer Days had a deal, and I got a yellow one(easier to find when I dropped it) for the truck and the green one went into the house.

Then, at a gun show, a guy had a sale on Fenix lights and I got a P3D: LED lamp, two CR123 batteries, four modes: low(9 lumens), medium, high(123 lumens) and SOS in extra-bright. Memory, so it stays in whatever mode you left it when last turned off. That one stays in the pocket of my winter jacket, generally.

A while after that, stopped at Cabela’s when in Texas visiting folks and they had a very nice LED light for twenty bucks: uses two AA batteries and about 60 lumens. Got one for a lady I was seeing, too, as her car had no flashlight. Next time I was down was going to pick up one for a lady I worked with, and the price had doubled(Yeah, she’s nice, but damn). No idea what they're running now.

Next one's a personal 'I just wanted' which I got from Lighthound. Company called Solar Force makes parts you can buy; I got this body and this lamp. So I had a tacticool light that’s held up very well.

At Tulsa the next year a light & water filter dealer had these little ITP lights on sale and I got one. Uses one AAA, low-medium-high modes. It stays in my bike jacket pocket. It hasn’t been used a lot, but it’s still on the original battery after three or four years.

And last, the actual keyring light. ‘Lights’ actually, as I’ve got one on the house keyring and the bike keyring, and I’ve given a couple of them as gifts. I like it because, like Tam’s Photon, you turn it on and it stays on until you squeeze again to turn it off. They're inexpensive, and if you get more than $20 of stuff, they throw one in.

I'll throw in this as well: The Larry worklight
Flashlight dealer at a show had these and I got one for the house. Now it's the light that stays on the bike in case of trouble. 60 lumens, three AAA batteries, lots of light and it'll run for hours. Damn good for finding things you dropped, as it's a floodlight instead of a narrow beam.

Yeah, there're more lights around the house, but these are the ones that get carried(keyring, pocket, jacket pocket, etc.)

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