LED vs Standard Flashlights

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dragonjbynight

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With more and more lights being converted to LED, which do you guys prefer to carry. I have a standard minimag and a Dorcy 1w led and I prefer the led in most areas. minimag burns through bulbs like no tommorrow!

Whats your preference?
 
As long as it puts out enough light for what I need... I could care less. An LED with the right mirror/lens system can blind people REALLY well... so be careful with them.
 
Flashlights the new knives and punches? Naw.

[FONT="Courier New]IMPORANT CRITERION FOR ANY FLASHLIGHT: can you change batteries and/or bulb in the dark?
Minimag bulbs with tiny wires are impossible.
Reloading AAA cells into a three battery cartridge for small LED's is impossible (although you could just get more than one cartridge, preload it, and mark it with a palpable "this end first" mark).
Spend some dough and try them out first.
Me, I go cheap and small, or used.[/FONT]
 
My big flashlight is a Streamlight Stinger LED that has an extremely bright, focused stream of light. It has a strobe mode, which is good for getting attention. It's also rechargeable.

My smaller flashlight is a Streamlight Night Com. I'm still not entirely sure how I feel about it, as I much prefer LED lights and this one is a Xenon bulb. It also has two green LEDs, which are good to preserve your night vision. It also has a very dim LED which is good for signaling although I don't have much use for it... I might just buy another small flashlight - this time with a C4 LED bulb like what's in my Stinger LED.
 
nomofica said:
My big flashlight is a Streamlight Stinger LED that has an extremely bright, focused stream of light. It has a strobe mode, which is good for getting attention. It's also rechargeable.

My smaller flashlight is a Streamlight Night Com. I'm still not entirely sure how I feel about it, as I much prefer LED lights and this one is a Xenon bulb. It also has two green LEDs, which are good to preserve your night vision. It also has a very dim LED which is good for signaling although I don't have much use for it... I might just buy another small flashlight - this time with a C4 LED bulb like what's in my Stinger LED.
Click to expand...

This is the one I use, it will light up any reflective surface at over 300 yards on the tight beam. I love it and it is on me at all times.
http://www.dorcy.com/products.aspx?p=414289
 
I like the SureFire 9P Original with the ultra high-output xenon lamp. I know that in terms of bulb/batt. life and savings, LED is the way to go, but I prefer the xenon bulbs in most cases. Also only one of the LEDs comes close to touching the 200 lumins that many of the xenon bulbs do. The LX2 LumaMax is a 200 lumin light, but it also costs nearly $200. Another thing is that xenon tends to cut through smoke better than LED. (Unless you use Pelican's recoil LED lights, which I love. I have the Little Ed on my turnout coat and that thing cuts smoke like nobodys buisness. I want to get the helmet mounted recoil LED that Pelican has also.)

Now for penlights, the cheeper the better. Why spend $20 on an LED penlight that you are going to loose soon anyhow. Never mind that it is way too bright to go around shining in pts eyes.
 
One thing to keep in mind is that incandescents give much more accurate color rendition than LEDs. Some of the warmer tint LEDs are almost as good as incandescents now but you have to make sure you are getting a warm tint. For most things you don't need accurate colors, but when checking patients I prefer to see what shade they are. I am currently trying to find a small light with good color rendition. I may just use an incandescent penlight for this purpose. My other 2 lights I carry all of the time are the Dereelight DBS V3 MC-E and the Fenix P1D for backup. Both are LED lights. The Dereelight can double as a room light if the power is out and works as a portable scene light.

Tom
 
Small, Light, powerful, durable, simple...

I like LED due to the reduced need for bulb change. But what ever works.
 
Tom, get a two AA cell Duracell with regular replaceable bulb.

The stronger your light the crummier your night vision.
 
I have a low mode on the Fenix if I needed to preserve my night vision that badly. My night vision isn't usually that finely honed after opening the door of the bus and having the interior lights come on and having the light bar reflecting off of everything in sight. 99% of the time, though I need light and lots of it to see what I'm doing and what everyone around me is doing.

Tom
 
lightsandsirens5 said:
I like the SureFire 9P Original with the ultra high-output xenon lamp. I know that in terms of bulb/batt. life and savings, LED is the way to go, but I prefer the xenon bulbs in most cases. Also only one of the LEDs comes close to touching the 200 lumins that many of the xenon bulbs do. The LX2 LumaMax is a 200 lumin light, but it also costs nearly $200. Another thing is that xenon tends to cut through smoke better than LED. (Unless you use Pelican's recoil LED lights, which I love. I have the Little Ed on my turnout coat and that thing cuts smoke like nobodys buisness. I want to get the helmet mounted recoil LED that Pelican has also.)

Now for penlights, the cheeper the better. Why spend $20 on an LED penlight that you are going to loose soon anyhow. Never mind that it is way too bright to go around shining in pts eyes.
Click to expand...

Most quality LED lights are well past the 200 lumens mark. Anything newer than a Q4 should easily hit 200 lumens and you don't find many Q4s any more since they are several generations behind. Multi-die LEDs are pushing 1000 lumens at the emitter and the newer Phlatlights are capable of 1000+. Incandescents do seem to be better at cutting through smoke, but that may be mostly due to the color temperature of the light (the whiter light of cooler temperature LEDs reflects back off of smoke and soot particles more). Warmer tint LEDs should help minimize this.

Tom
 
I actually have one of those big police flashlights that doubles as a baseball bat that I have in my room... works real well. Takes 3 D batteries to power it, but last forever.
 
dragonjbynight said:
This is the one I use, it will light up any reflective surface at over 300 yards on the tight beam. I love it and it is on me at all times.
http://www.dorcy.com/products.aspx?p=414289
Click to expand...

Doesn't look too bad. I can imagine that thing lights up whatever is in front of the beam quite well, as it's 200 lumen... My Streamlight Stinger DS LED is only 160 lumen and that thing definitely lights up a room.

I was looking at the Streaming Strion LED mostly because of it's rechargeable battery and it's 4 light settings (high, medium, low beams and a strobe beam).

How much does that Dorcy set you back?
 
nomofica said:
Doesn't look too bad. I can imagine that thing lights up whatever is in front of the beam quite well, as it's 200 lumen... My Streamlight Stinger DS LED is only 160 lumen and that thing definitely lights up a room.

I was looking at the Streaming Strion LED mostly because of it's rechargeable battery and it's 4 light settings (high, medium, low beams and a strobe beam).

How much does that Dorcy set you back?
Click to expand...

....15$ sale...normally runs about 20-40 I think...It was on one of the pre-christmas sales last year.
 
dragonjbynight said:
....15$ sale...normally runs about 20-40 I think...It was on one of the pre-christmas sales last year.
Click to expand...

Oh wow, I was expecting something around $50-60 haha.

If I see any of these kicking around up here across the border, I might just pick it up.
 
pack of 5 powerful LED flashlights for $10 at Home Depot, or a 2 large LED pack for $10 also at Home Depot.

I do theatre lighting, I used to carry a small maglite to see up on the cat walks and in dimmer rooms, but these LED flashlights are 100 times better imo.
 
Here's a vote for the Pelican Little Ed LED. They have two versions, the LED "Recoil" seemed like a better fit for Fire/EMS combination. I find it cut through smoke/fog, with a relatively wide beam, to distances of 6-10m.
 
Shamrock said:
Here's a vote for the Pelican Little Ed LED. They have two versions, the LED "Recoil" seemed like a better fit for Fire/EMS combination. I find it cut through smoke/fog, with a relatively wide beam, to distances of 6-10m.
Click to expand...

Amen. Any of the Pelican Recoil LEDs are great. They also have a trditional streight handle design too. (As opposed to the right angle Big or Little Ed.)
 
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