Night walks in Pulau 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 and a larger reflector. Before the latest LEDs flashlights arrived, incandescent lights such as Surefire M6 would hold as many as six expensive CR123 batteries. Dedicated powerful throw lights are useful for shock and awe value but not much else. Users get tunnel vision due to extremely bright center spot. Views at longer distances are hampered by night mist and fog.
New LED lights are being made that are good throwers with broad beams. Our current favorite is SC600w XM-L 18650 Neutral White by Zebralight.
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. New Cree XM-L LED lights have arrived on the scene that provides a combination of throw and flood due to its high current draw but which requires high capacity batteries. Although there is a problem of heat build-up, they can be minimized by switching to lower output.
4. EDC (every day carry) lights . These are small and pocket-able one-cell lights designed for daily use while working reliably. They should not switch on accidentally or have its threads come loose easily inside your pockets. Type III anodizing is used to minimize wear. Besides sufficiently bright, it should also include a low brightness mode for better run-time and preserving night vision. Our current favorites include EDC Clicky flashlights (previously Ra clicky) by HDS Systems which is very reliable although pricey.
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 US$290 at Amazon. Since then there are many more brands coming out with different UI (user interface), awkward ones included. Cheap ones even come with 5-8 stages including strobe and SOS functions which you have to cycle to the right setting which is slow and impractical. Get the best if you can afford it. Flashlights made by Zebralight has proven to be highly reliable.
6. Incandescent lights. Incands are ideal for jungle use as it differentiate greens better. Unfortunately it uses up batteries quickly and get uncomfortably hot. Although becoming obsolete, they are fun to use and handy for relieving insect bites as heat source. You can also buy cheap drop-ins from DealExtreme for one cell or two cells lights. Lumensfactory.com also offers some high-end incand bulbs.
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 XM-L is the latest and is said to be the brightest and most energy efficient.
8. High CRI LEDs vs Cool-white and Neutral-white LEDs.
LEDs with cool white tints are brighter. Due to its blueish color cast, it gives an unnatural cast in jungle environment so LED with neutral white tints are more suitable. But not all neutral white LEDs have the same color characteristics as some are too yellow in output. High CRI LEDs are becoming popular due to its more faithful color rendition. Its light output is the weakest however. There are also no high CRI XML LEDs. Lumensfactory 3 stage warm white 90 CRI LEDs drop-in is worth checking out.
9. Construction. Good quality flashlights are usually built tough and durable with hard coated aluminum (HA III) with “O” rings waterproofing and tempered glass lens. Less visible are electronic components that fail due to heat, poor soldering, oxidized contacts. Cheap ones are most likely to fail due to poor quality control.
Many Chinese made lights come standard with strike bezels that tears up jeans pockets. Their thick aluminum tubes make them heavy on the pockets for neck wearing. Reverse clicky switches come mostly standard and are often cheaply made and unreliable with screw threads that easily come loose.
Size (Clubs vs portability). A 6 D-cell maglite can be used as a defensive club. We prefer lighter flashlights and carrying extra spare should the first fail or get overheated.
10. Mix and match parts. This is another way of getting lights that is cheap, reliable and fun. You start by ordering cheap Surefire flashlights (6p or G2) or Chinese made surefire clones online. Your purchase is future proof by ordering the latest “drop-ins”. The Cadillac of drop-ins are Malkoffs which can be ordered from www.illuminationsupply.com. Look for 3 modes configurations that switch between low, medium, high modes. Lumensfactory.com have several options available.
You can also order a UV drop in for scorpion watching.
11. 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. Rechargeable 18650 batteries are ideal with its higher capacity. Alternatively go for safe AA versions using Sanyo Eneloop batteries.
12. Rechargeable flashlights. It may sound convenient to have a light you can plug to a power socket, fully charged and always ready. But flashlights are failure prone and complex ones all the more so. Best is to get flashlights that use reliable AA rechargeable batteries like Sanyo Eneloop (see related posts on batteries).
I have at least 3 different flashlights when camping. My current favorites include HDS Systems high CRI light and Zebralight headlamps.
Zebra headlamps pleasing color rendition
Colorful picture using multiple led light source.
Anatomy of a good flashlight.
Update 20 June 2010. I have received a RA clicky which is becoming my new favorite. Although expensive at S$240 its pluses include:-
- Top notch quality HA III construction with well machined threads.
- Low battery warning to avoid over discharge and damage to li-ion cells
- 3 programmable brightness levels using simple single, double, triple clicks.
- Brightness levels down to the lowest moon mode (great nightlight for restful sleep when you travel overseas).
- Faithful color rendition (high CRI) with sufficient flood for better detail definition in forest settings and photography application.
- 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
Minus points
- Expensive express shipping from USA.
Chinese made and designed Zebralights.
Zebralights is getting attention from flashaholics for its efficient and well designed one cell AA lights. We tried out its 18650 SC600 Cree XM-L light and impressed by output and compact design. So much so that we went on an acquisition spree and bought more lights including a high-CRI H51Fc AA Floody headlamp.
There are many advantages with a high efficient AA power led light as you can use NIMH rechargeable batteries like Sanyo Eneloop which is safe and does not leak when depleted.
Another good news is Zebralight also ship to Singapore via DHL at very affordable cost. There is a good chance of receiving next day once it is shipped.
Based on our extensive experience with Singpost, Singapore Post service is abysmal and should be avoided if you can. Their customer service staff are totally indifferent and treat you like any snail mail user.
4sevens produces a wide range of affordable and high-quality lights. They include limited editions runs introducing lights fitted with newest LED technology. Their customer service and order fulfillment is one of the best, with free delivery and low cost insurance as optional extra, taking about 12 days to order and deliver from USA to Singapore.
4sevens Quark Tactical Series allows users to create different configurations with their lego heads, body tubes and tail caps. We are very impressed with the Quark “X” AA² with its bright XML led using 2 AA batteries. They have a neutral white version listed separately.
From top – Neutral-white Quark “X(XML)” Double AA Tactical, Double AAA High CRI Preon 2 Satin Titanium, Single AAA High CRI Preon 1
Buying Surefire lights. Surefire lights are built for combat situations so its designed to be reliable 100% and 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. You should definitely try them first by visiting Sheares marketing who is their local agent. Look out for faithful color rendition and by asking if you can test them on surrounding dark areas at night. Sheares is also local dealer for brands like Fenix, Thrunite.
Brands I have used and liked.
ZebraLight
HDS Systems
Surefire
Jetbeam
Fenix
Quark lights
Brands with mixed results.
Streamlight, Princeton Tec (breakable plastics); Nitecore lights (many failures), Quark lights (initial QC issues).
Do not ship with Singpost Vpost as batteries are banned. Use online-stores that ship to Singapore instead. You get full manufacturer support buying direct from on-line The ones we use include:-
4sevens
bugoutgear
oveready.com (for surefire parts)
illumination supply (for Malkoff dropins)
goinggear.com
hkequipment
zebralight
dealextreme
lumensfactory
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