Hi - I need a medium-sized flashlight. In the old incandescent days I’d get something like a 2 C-cell Maglite.
My requirements in order of priority are:
Not stupid bright. Ordinary bright is plenty. More bright than that is worse, not better.
Dead nuts reliable. Not some Chinese garbage sold from a $1 tub near the checkstand at Home Depot.
No fancy features. No integral laser pointer, no blinking. Just on/off.
Long term stability. It gets used for a couple minutes a month. But when I need it, I *need *it. Contact springs rusting or collapsing are not good. LEDs that quit after 6 months sitting unused in a vibrating environment are not good.
No “tactical” crap. No sharp edges, no belt clip, etc.
Ideally 6-8" long. Not really wanting a 2-3" shorty. Ideally about C-cell diameter or a bit smaller. Not wanting a single AA-diameter barrel.
Not rechargeable or solar. Runs on replaceable single-use batteries. Don’t really care what kinds / shapes.
Amazon has about 1 bazillion kinds of flashlights. Most of which are competing on brightness or scary-looking “tactical” styling. Which I don’t want. What I need is some way to trim the bazillion choices down to a couple dozen.
Any suggestions on brands, models, or sources? Ideally I’d play with them in person, but I don’t have any good idea of what sorts of stores would carry a selection. Suggestions?
I bought a package of them (maybe 3) cheap at Walgreens a few years sgo, all are standing up well. Silver barrel, no brand markings, takes 3xAAA. Ruubberized push-on-off at back end of barrell.
This is actually about flying. But I needed to set the scenario to something familiar to folks. The point is using the light in a small enclosed space with lots of reflective surfaces and a need to stay mostly dark-adapted, rather than dazzled.
Besides: you don’t need a flashlight to text; the phone screen lights up just fine on its own.
If it’s for the inside of a cockpit, why not get a high end name brand LED flashlight, but then get a red or yellow or blue (I’m sure there’s an industry standard) lens for it so you’re not blinded.
Googling ‘led flashlight for flying’ the first couple of hits came up with green and red LED flashlights.
As I recall from my days of being a Boy Scout, we used red if we needed to look at a map while hiking at night so we didn’t ruin our night vision.
Rayovac Indestructible is often recommended in response to similar requests on Candlepower Forums. Available in AA, C, and D sizes from Home Depot. My guess is that 130 lumens is on the high side for your application, and that 10-30 would be better.
I assume the OP is interested in reading some sort of map with information in color. For that purpose a red LED will be absolutely terrible. Anything that’s not red, maganta-ish, or white might as well be black.
A red filter on an incandescent flashlight is another matter, since there will be a broader spectrum of emitted light, probably including a bit even at the blue end of the spectrum. Blue pigmented things will be harder to see than with white light but they will still be visible to dark-adjusted eyes.
Many newer LED lights come up at medium or low brightness, and require another push of the button to get to high brightness. I recently bought a Nitecore keychain light which is pretty nice - push the button once and it turns on at 1-lumen brightness. Push again and it goes up to 45-lumen brightness. Or press and hold, and the output varies continuously.
Another example is the Lumintop AAA. Goes to medium brightness first (32 lm), then low, then high (110 lm).
Honestly, it sounds like maybe you might be better off with a cheaper flashlight rather than a super-spiffy high-tech one, since they’re sold with brightness as the main marketing factor.
