Night walks in Ubin can be unsettling a first timer. After hearing spooky stories, imagination runs amok when one see moving shadows among leaves caused by slight breeze and moonlight. Flashlights are reassuring. Great toys if you are a flashaholic. Best tool when looking for durians.
Shopping for your first flashlight can be a bewildering experience. There are many considerations choosing the right one for you.
1. Throw. Lights that shine far are heavier as they require extra batteries. Before the latest LEDs flashlights arrived, incandescent lights such as Surefire M6 would hold as many as six expensive CR123 batteries. Such lights tends to have large reflectors which make them bulky also. That said, powerful throw lights are useful for shock and awe value but not much else. Users’ vision is reduced due to bright reflection from nearby objects. Views at longer distance are hampered by night mist and fog. New LED lights are being made that are good throwers. One of our favorites is 4sevens Quark Turbo. They are bright enough for us to count durians or spot wildlife high up in the trees.
Durians illuminated by throw lights.
2. Flood. Floody lights are great for lighting up the forest floor or close range illumination. Headlamps are also in this category and Zebralight LED headlamps are my favorites.
3. Throw and flood lights. Most LED lights come with bright hotspot for throw with side spill for flood. Deeper reflectors have greater amount of throw while dimpled or orange peel reflectors give better floods. Newer designs come with TIR optics that bend the light beams just right. The trick is to get one just right for you by trusting your own eyes. Avoid lights which allows throw to flood by zooming. Maglite is one bad case with its plastic reflector and lens, ringly beams and projected artifacts.
4. EDC (every day carry) lights . These are small and pocketable one-cell lights designed for daily use while working reliably. It should not switch on accidently or have its threads come loose easily. Besides sufficiently bright, it should also include a low brightness mode for better runtime and preserving night vision. Our current favorites include Surefire LX2 and L1, Ra clicky.
5. Multiple stage lights. Early models include Surefire U2 using a dial knob to adjust brightness settings. It’s a expensive 2 cell light currently selling for $250 at Amazon. Since then there are many more brands coming out with different UI, awkward ones included. Cheap ones even come with 5-8 stages including strobe functions, but you have to cycle to the right setting which is slow and impractical. Get the best if you can afford it. Recommended lights include 4sevens Quark lights.
6. Incandescent lights. Incands are ideal for jungle use as it differentiate greens better. Unfortunately it uses up batteries quickly due to heat and get uncomfortably hot. Although becoming obsolete, they are fun to use besides being handy for relieving insect bites. You can also buy cheap drop-ins (see point 11 below) from DealExtreme for one cell or two cells lights.
7. LED lights. Cree LEDs are now very common with every chinese manufacturer stamping “CREE” on their brands including cheap soldered ones. There are versions such as XR-E R2, XP-E, MC-E. XP-G is the latest and is said to be the brightest and most energy efficient. LEDs tend to give an unnatural color cast in jungle environment so our preference are for LEDs with warm white tint or high CRI LED.
8. Construction. Good quality flashlights are usually built tough and durable with hard coated aluminum (HA III) with “O” rings waterproofing and tempered glass lens.
Many Chinese made lights come standard with strike bezels that tears up jeans pockets. Their thick aluminum tubes make them heavy on the pockets or neck wearing. Reverse clicky switches come mostly standard and are often cheaply made and unreliable with screw threads that easily come loose.
9. Mix and match parts. This is another way of getting lights that is cheap, reliable and fun. You start by ordering cheap Surefire flashlight (6p or G2) or Chinese made surefire clones online. Your purchase is future proof by ordering the latest “drop-ins”. Both sku 32953 and sku 17593 are recommended options. You can also order a UV drop in for scorpion watching.
10. Batteries. The batteries of choice are usually Lithium CR123 which can be expensive. Flashlights enthusiasts are turning to rechargeable li-on batteries with advantages of lower running costs. These batteries can set itself on fire if carelessly handled.
I have at least 3 different flashlights when camping. My current favorite is one CR123 battery, dual brightness Surefire L1.. The cheaper Zebralight HC50 is also another favorite.
Anatomy of a good flashlight.
- Top notch quality HA III construction with well machined threads.
- Low battery warning to avoid over discharge and damage to li-ion cells. (Shorter run time due to safety margin feature so carry additional spare cells).
- 3 programmable brightness levels using simple single, double, triple clicks. (Click & hold possible but you may accidentally reprogram the light.)
- Brightness levels down to the lowest moon mode (great nightlight for restful sleep).
- Lock feature to prevent accidental programming. (Tricky to do however).
- Faithful color rendition (high CRI) with sufficient flood for better detail definition in forest settings and photography application. (I prefer Zebra headlights color output though)
- Option for 170 lumen output for throw (limited flood however)
- Potted for resistance to shock and vibration, and for exclusion of moisture and corrosive agents.
- Allow use of single cell rechargeable li-ion battery in addition to stock CR123 batteries.
- Lego option including 17670 battery tube for extended runtime
- Cryptic and confusing instruction leaflet. You need to be a geek or have patience of Job to learn how to program it.
- Expensive express shipping from USA.
Minus points
Surefire flashlights are super reliable but expensive. You can buy cheaper Chinese made CREE LED flashlights on-line (make sure you check user reviews as quality control are often sub par).
Buying Surefire lights. Surefire lights are built for combat situation so its designed to be simple to operate. The manufacturer recommends only disposable CR123 (expensive) cells to be used. Do careful research on their high end lights as you may find them too specialized for EDC use. You should definitely try them first by visiting Sheares marketing who is their local agent. Look out for faithful color rendition (some beams are puke green like my L4) and by asking if you can test them on surrounding dark areas at night. Sheares is also local dealer for better brands like Fenix, Thrunite btw.
Updated: 13 August 2010. Surefire will soon be releasing 4 new models (G2X, 6PX). The new models are brighter and cheaper than the current ones. They should retail for around S$100 or less. Here is a youtube report.
Brands I have used and liked.
Surefires
Jetbeam
Fenix
Quark lights
ZebraLight
Brands with mixed results.
Streamlight, Princeton Tec (breakable plastics); Nitecore lights, Quark lights (intermittent failures).
Online-stores I bought from that ship to Singapore
Lighthound
4sevens
bugoutgear
zebralight
dealextreme
