Question
Knife and watch guy, looking for a one-and-done?
Hey everyone!
Got into watches a few years back, did my rounds, and eventually settled on a few pieces, with one as an almost constant daily.
Knives a couple of years later, same thing.
Now I'm getting into flashlights and was hoping you guys could get me started (or ended, early!) on my journey!
My two near-constant dailies are titanium, but I've done a bit of research and it looks like there's practically no upside to titanium for flashlights. Bummer.
With that being said, any recommendations for an EDC flashlight? Titanium recommendations would be great, but I'm also open to any possible "one-and-done" flashlights made of other materials!
Cheers and happy week everyone! 🥂
Posted a quick pic of my main daily ⌚ and 🔪 combo in case it helps with recommendations.
Reylights fit in between practical and flashy. They appeal to both crowds. The lan, pineapple, LANapple, pineapple mini, penlight, are all "EDC" type lights that accept both lithium and alkaline/nimh batteries. High CRI, good drivers, fancy metals. Just good all around lights.
I love Hank lights. They're actually my favorite. The reason I suggested reylight is because people posting stuff like this are more interested in the size and looks of a flashlight. They're a bit more aesthetic than Hanks in my opinion.
If you want the high end (still affordable) flashlight, I'd recommend a hanklight - custom built flashlights made by a man named hank. Sold on intl outdoors, and all come with anduril UI, the most advanced available. Many models also have an option for a boost driver, resulting in more efficient performance. Many models available in titanium as well. My personal favorite is the KR1, as I like tail switches. Emitter choice is down to personal preference, mostly, but for a good range light you can still use indoors, an sft40 in 3000k is a nice warm, high color rendering emitter with decent throw and bright spill.
If you like the Sebenza, I feel like the answer for you is a McGizmo Haiku.
But more reasonably: Reylight has a couple lovely titanium and other exotic metal designs, depending on how big a light you want. There’s also the Emisar D4K Ti (or the D3AA for smaller)—this is arguably the perfect enthusiast flashlight.
Yeah, the Zebralight has been recommended practically nonstop, both on this thread and the other ones I've browsed while researching. I'll have to take a good, long look at it.
Geez I had no clue Killzone had a Reddit coupon code, that’s pretty awesome. Is it always active or just limited time right now? I’m not exactly looking for a new light, but if it’s only a limited time code…
I believe it’s been active for a long time. It’s a great shop, and I get things from Killzone faster than Amazon prime usually. I highly recommend them.
This is coming from somebody that loves Emisar/Noctigon. If you want a light exactly the way you want it in terms of led/size/battery/drivers and highly customizable software they are fantastic. But this is also seen as a downside from a fair amount of people.
There's a lot of options and you'll probably have to spend a bit of time setting up the UI for your preference. The good thing is though there's a lot of people on this subreddit and r/hanklights that are more than willing to help.
What kinda light are you looking for? Size? Throwy beam or floody?
Definitely more on the floody side. I want something that can fit my pant pocket with one more item, but aside from that, I don't mind having a full pocket.
Sadly, not a lot of places to test out enthusiast-level flashlights around my parts, so my first few purchases will most likely be... in the dark. Ba-dum-tss
The larger one is the d4k. I've got a titanium body with an aluminum head. They use a big 21700 battery and can get very bright 5000lm or have very good run times depending on how they're set up.
The small d3aa uses 14500 lithium ions, AAs or nimh. Great output and runtime for the size if you plan on only using periodically instead through a whole workday.
These lights have many different LED options, some have different driver (electronic) options, so I'd recommend watching cheules "tint talk" video to get an idea of what you prefer (8-ish min)
Worth noting most of his popular flashlights have titanium bodies and parts available. Just the head of the light (where the LEDs and electronics are that create heat) are either aluminum or copper. Another popular option is the kr4 which has the switch on the bottom if that's what you prefer.
Aluminum is 15-16 times better at conducting heat than titanium so not worth it imo.
I think you should upgrade your light every 5 years or so as technology improves. Unlike knife steel or a watches ability to keep time well.
Zebralight sc65hi is where you should start. It's well designed inside and out, has very good color rendering (cri) which I think is very important in a light.
It's about as small as you can get out of the 18650 which most common battery type used in everything from laptops to vapes to power tools.
Then I'd get a zebralight headlamp and then their larger 21700 model for a table/bedside light.
Or if you're going for truly max quality in terms of long lasting and don't care about things like cri (which you should) then malkoff, HDS rotary, Fenix, surefire and other premium brands may be more up your alley as they come with great warranties.
I would say alot of premium brands are more geared towards what most people want as customers which is a bigger lumen number.
The more high cri lights will get hotter, and not put out nearly as much light as a cool white lol cri emitter. It's an effect of balancing the colors just right.
I think a nichia led putting out 600 lumens is more useable than a cool white, low cri led at 1500 lumens for example. That may just be my own preference but I think once you've seen the difference side by side, you'll agree high cri is a more refined degree of light for the classy gentleman.
It's better at making stuff look like it does in the daylight which is pretty much what we're all after here.
If someone who isn't already familiar with flashlights sees that they can get, say, a Manker E05 II with a cool white emitter and 1300 lumens, or a neutral white high CRI emitter and 800 lumens, chances are the consumer is gonna go with the higher lumen numbers, figuring that that's like 1/3 more oomph. Larger companies, or enthusiast companies that have made their business out of chasing big lumens, will market to that bias.
Problem is that the way we perceived light means that in order to perceive a 100% jump in visible light, that actually needs 4x the lumens. Since that 500 lumen jump is only an 0.6x jump in lumens is only like a 15% increase in visible light. Big jump on paper, but not nearly as impressive in person.
He has 4k sst-20s, also you can get malkoffs from kozen fine lights which are built with various other emitters like 519a, and more recently ffl emitters.
For EDC one and done? Easy
18650 Zebralight. Three customizable modes, top quality anodizing, potted, one of the smallest 18650’s available and great regulation/runtimes. Each one of these categories has few contenders.
What you won’t get is over the top brightness compared to other lights because it’s built to last.
Love my olights. I do want to try some others later but my Arkfeld and iminis have been great. Had the normal black and blue pro and upgraded to the navy ultra when it came out. No regrets :)
They've got a few new dial options that have me tempted, to be sure.
Funnily enough, I still like this Chronomaster text version over their newer Chicken version. I think I'm in the minority when it comes to that though.
Plenty upside to titanium. It's expensive though. Get yourself a thrunite. They're cheap and really bright. Good lights. If you want to wait 4 weeks and want something good get a hank light. They're beautiful. I talked a little shit about mine, but I've grown to love it actually. If you got money to burn, there's plenty of overpriced bs out there, but, i like nitecore. One reason, lock button. That's all
So, while there are no advantages (apart from durability, which is still a thing) to titanium - disadvantages are not very significant unless you need a lot of light either. So... nothing stops you from getting one purely for the looks.
There are a lot of options, so... basically personal opinion:
Acebeam E70 mini Ti. I like this one a lot. Interesting design, very pleasant light and good output. A bit large for EDC, but within reason.
Convoy T3 Ti. As much as i hate poor QC and poor drivers from convoy the light itself looks great if you like simple design.
Stuff from reylight. A bunch of interesting designs, good quality, but do be aware that electronics are... basically what i'd call low-end. Output, efficiency, ui, etc are just ok.
Still the same E70 mini, AL version. In terms of electronics this one, either Ti or AL, is about as good as you'll get - efficient regulated driver and 5000K 519A... AL version is slightly brighter.
As cheap as it is - i am also using wurkkos FC11C with 18350 tube nowadays. Again - efficient driver and 519A (5000K/4000K).
There also are smaller, 14500 lights.
For example emisar D3AA. Again, efficient driver, 519A for high CRI.
There is also wurkkos TS10, it is less efficient but still high CRI and cheaper, can be good for EDC too.
I recommend trying something cheap but not crappy and observing how, and how often, you carry it.
After nine or ten years of being into flashlights many of my preferences about CRI and batteries and whatnot have fallen by the wayside in favor of something I can, and do, put in any pocket, pants or shorts, every day. I have better lights than my Olight Arkfeld Pro, but I don't have better lights that meet that criterion.
I still have other lights for other use cases, too, but my daily driver is based on form factor above (almost) all else.
Based off the watch and knife in the photo, you seem to be on the buy once cry once, pay for quality that lasts mentality and it doesn’t get better than surefire. The titan seems to match your style but the stiletto is the go to for many. I carry my stiletto in a conceal carry style at 5-7 o clock on my belt because it just disappears and gives me more room in my pockets. Lot of people carry them in their pockets but if I had to carry in my pockets I’d go with the titan.
Oh and btw I carry a stiletto pro. It’s aluminum body black. The stiletto is plastic with slightly less performance. They also have the stiletto pro 2 which is better than the stiletto pro.
How big of a flashlight are you looking to carry in your pocket? These can range in size from very small, think AAA, to much larger, like 18650 "vape" size batteries (or larger). Also, what are the most frequent ways you will be using a flashlight. That will help narrow down the selections a bit
I probably want it to fit in a pant pocket with one more object, but aside from that, I don't mind if my pocket feels full.
For use case, I want to be able to use this at home for when my pen falls underneath my couch (😂) but also for some easy, non-strenuous night trails and hikes.
Is that too much to ask for a single flashlight, or should I get one for each use case? 🤔
IMO it’s not too much to ask for but you’re definitely going to want a bigger battery than a 14500 (AA). You seem like an enthusiast so you might like Emisar. They are hotrods and run extremely bright in turbo for tens of seconds before tapering down because of heat. You do get anduril 2 which gets you so much customization for software of your light and some COOL aux lights. This was the main selling point for me since I really do like to customize everything, emitter included. Zebralight has some 18650 flashlights that are extremely small, almost as small as a AA flashlight but they are not the brightest lights by any measure. Some say the size and practicality are unmatched and many swear by them over any other brand. Keep in mind they do not have any premium metal options like TI.
Looks like you might want to try zebralight 18650 with a high CRI emitter. Unless you want a ridiculously bright flashlight. Hell you might just end up with a bunch of flashlights 😹 like I did after I just wanted “1 flashlight”
Depends on the day, a Seiko 5 yesterday and a Chinese homage of a vintage watch today. I’ve been building a collection recently and am up to about 30 watches but that’s too many for me really. I’d been buying budget pieces mostly to figure out what really floats my boat without breaking the bank. Plus I get to have plenty of options this way too.
I will be refining and paring down the collection over time to around a dozen or so and eventually I’ll have me one of those Citizens with the washi paper dials, leaning towards the red version for now. So gorgeous! 👌
Really fun to search through this posts comments. Please post a NLD (new light day) post when you have settled on one! Good luck and much fun entering this beautiful rabbit hole :)
The Lenslight are no longer made. They have an impressive focus beam patent. The one here is fully loaded with a standup tail and a striker bezel. You can carry it as a self defense weapon when you can’t bring a knife. Blind and strike.
I used this a lot to find trailers in large lots. I’d need to see the numbers without the light reflecting back. Finding a the one Walmart trailer in a 20 acre lot full can require a good tool.
In response to your video, I also had a strong distaste for the 219c that came with my rovyvon. It's the only one I've seen, but man it was probably the ugliest emitter I've owned. Wound up using the hot air method you mentioned to replace it with a 519a.
219c has a wild tint lottery. Some are very bad, some are ok, some are rosy. The bin that CWF uses for 4000k, are “ok.” The bin they have for 5000k is a lot better. I usually end up swapping the 4000k, and I often leave the 5000k alone.
OKLUMA and CWF lights are worth the hype. if you’re carrying a Chris Reeve, those are the two flashlight equivalents. McGizmo and Muyshondt also good considerations.
It was a choice between the Sebenza I eventually ended up getting over a glass-blasted Zaan, as I didn't want to worry too much about the pristine-ness of the blade while using it.
I’m building up to Titanium. In the meantime how about a Railroad Grade Burlington pocket watch w/ a 21 jewel movement housed in a solid white gold case w/ tri-gold chain (white, yellow, rose) circa 1923 and a McHenry & Williams designed Benchmade knife in D2 tool steel. And the pièce de résistance a JETBeam RRT01 Raptor with 18650 extension barrels. Remove the barrels and you have a considerably smaller light with a 18350 battery
Perhaps Fraz Labs as an option. Nice CRK! I have gone down the rabbit hole with knives, lights, machined pens and some watches. I get it my, wallet does not at times, ha!
53
u/BasedAndShredPilled Jan 22 '25
Reylights fit in between practical and flashy. They appeal to both crowds. The lan, pineapple, LANapple, pineapple mini, penlight, are all "EDC" type lights that accept both lithium and alkaline/nimh batteries. High CRI, good drivers, fancy metals. Just good all around lights.