What is the least important/most disliked feature for you in flashlights?

[bloo]

Hi all I'm new, but not new new. Couldn't recover my account after a brief hiatus.

Anyway, I dislike lights that turn on and its on the next mode as someone mention. No memory and no reset, annoys me to no end. Thank goodness I only made the mistake of buying 1 light like that.

Strobe I like as I have a need for it, but only if there is a special button or hidden button manipulation to access it, otherwise it's a no go.

 

[jon_slider]

In order of most disliked:

Lights that come on in my pocket
Low CRI, even if tint is below the BBL
Green tint, even if High CRI
lack of firefly levels
Stepped ramping,
Clickies and twisties, even if programmable
Memory
Lights with no pocket clip option, if they can roll off a table
Long press for off
Magnets
lack of strobe
lack of LVP

 

[Fireclaw18]

...
Lights that come on in my pocket
...

Even worse is "Lights that come on in my pocket and burn a hole through my pants"

 

[jon_slider]

Even worse is "Lights that come on in my pocket and burn a hole through my pants"

LOL! totally agree
one of several reasons I dont own a D4

none of my lights make more than 600 lumens
my lifestyle does not require a barn burner atm
I also dont need a single mode light, nor am I in the tactical niche ;-)

different strokes

 

[CREEXHP70LED]

Strobe, I used it a few times in my life. Once to slow down cars with the light pointed at the ground for trick or treaters to cross the road, and to flag down people picking me up from hidden locations once I saw them in sight. Other than that strobe is stupid. One light with strobe is enough.

More than 2 modes. I prefer one mode and can accept more if I have to, but I prefer one single mode. I even turned down a free HI LOW ring from Malkoff on a MD2.

USB charging- sucks so bad I never owned one and have no plans to.

I am really getting tired of EDCing my D4. The reason is to many stupid button pushes, I am not playing a video game here, I am trying to get light out of a tube. Here is a typical day in the life of a person (me) who currently EDC's a D4 for 24 hours. Step one, wake up in the morning and look away from where you are pointing your D4 so you don't blind yourself clicking it 4 times to get it out of momentary. Step 2, click it 6 times to lock it out so you can safely put it in your pocket. Step 3, during the day whenever you need some light click it 6 more times to have the privilege to begin selecting the amount of light you want or need. Repeat step 2 and 3 any time you would like to use your light throughout the day. Before bed click 6 times to unlock then 4 times for momentary. (Obviously this is if you carry no other light which has happened before on accident).

Most of the other stuff people listed above.

 

[rickypanecatyl]

I personally don't like/use and "special modes" and have found that when lights get wet, humidity... not sure, that those hidden modes come to the front if they are there. Some of my lights even unlock those hidden modes accidently just from a battery change.

 

[Mr. LED]

Lack of a real moonlight mode (0.07 or preferably lower), it's a deal breaker for any EDC light for me. On top of that, accessible from "off" without having to cycle any other higher mode to reach it.

On the other hand, I find that a hidden low Hz strobe mode is useful in emergencies, I had a car accident once and it helped me signal other vehicles coming over, so they could slow down and not cause another accident. It was middle of the night, snowing on a narrow, busy road, without cell reception.

 

[alphaBRAVO]

This should be required reading for newbies like me. Great thread.

I have only one light, and for now am annoyed there's no way to attach a wrist lanyard without tying something like a constrictor knot around the tube. For me, a lanyard would be helpful to retrieve my light from a pocket or bag, prevent drops, and free my hands to grab a doorknob in the middle of the night, lift my kid from her crib in an emergency, move someone out of harms way and the like.

Separately, and for the life of me, I can't wrap my head around how a forward clicky works to better understand the strong preferences some here have for that or a reverse. My light has five modes (moonlight to high) and I understand it to be a reverse clicky.

 

[archimedes]

.... I can't wrap my head around how a forward clicky works to better understand the strong preferences some here have for that or a reverse....

An over-simplified summary ...

Forward Clicky
when off
tap = momentary light (flash / signal / etc)
click = locked on
when on
tap = (no change)
click = off

Reverse Clicky
when off
tap = (no change)
click = on
when on
tap = momentary dark (blink / switch / etc)
click = locked off

 

[Legohaulic]

Personally, having adjustable levels. I do appreciate being able to dim some lights with the UI such as Andúril, but for what I do I much prefer my L2M with straight on/off.

 

[CREEXHP70LED]

Lack of a real moonlight mode (0.07 or preferably lower), it's a deal breaker for any EDC light for me. On top of that, accessible from "off" without having to cycle any other higher mode to reach it.

On the other hand, I find that a hidden low Hz strobe mode is useful in emergencies, I had a car accident once and it helped me signal other vehicles coming over, so they could slow down and not cause another accident. It was middle of the night, snowing on a narrow, busy road, without cell reception.

Now that you mention it, yes, I have used strobe for the same reason (or close to it). Several years ago I got a call from someone "I knew." They were a few miles away from me and they had mechanical issues with a 4 wheeler on a backstreet, and I went and used strobe again shining at the street so coming cars could see us, we were stuck in the street. Everyone slowed down pretty far back except one person I told everyone to watch out. Then he slammed on the brakes when he finally saw us and drove by slowly and asked if we we're okay. I said. "Yes we're fine". He didn't recognize me then and was embarrassed he almost killed us. (He was a certain type of LEO) A few days later I saw him again while we were both working, I walked over and asked him if he tried to kill me the other night? I explained when and where, and he said that was you? I said yep, he told me sorry man I was on my phone, and would have hit you guys without that strobe. So I guess for non-tactical applications strobe does work, still I hate it. lol.

The person "I knew" might have wished he was killed that night, because last I checked he was doing life in prison after his trial.

 

[rickypanecatyl]

Well... I must say that I didn't see the whole "life in prison" thing coming!

 

[CREEXHP70LED]

Well... I must say that I didn't see the whole "life in prison" thing coming!

I had a high risk job before.

 

[Rickajho]

Surprised no one mentioned it yet: BAD THREADS! No amount of thread grease can salvage some lights.

Strobe, SOS, fast blink, slow blink modes.

Double or triple button clicks requiring precise timing to access and change those modes.

Internal USB charging.

No memory: that requires you to cycle modes to get where you want to be every single time you turn it on.

No memory: and having to cycle through a strobe function before you can turn it off.

Nonsensical mode cycling: Was that Medium, Moonlight, High, Turbo? Or is it High, Moonlight, Medium, Turbo?

Tail caps too deep and with long throw switches that can only be turned on with a pinkie finger. Use your thumb? Forget it.

Other than that I like flashlights.

Rick

 

[Morelite]

I will not buy a twisty with more than the simple on and off , no multiple modes for me on a twisty anymore.

 

[spyderco monkey]

Strobe mode is absolute cancer, yet for some reason seems to be included as a default in most lights.

Also Throwers/Large flashlights that feature moonlight / low lumens modes are just dumb; no one is using a 1300lm 2x18650 flashlight with 60mm head at 1.5/28 lumens mode.

 

[the.Mtn.Man]

Flashlights that default to their brightest setting, and ones that require you to cycle through all brightness levels to turn them off.

 

[The-David]

I normally won't own a PWM light with exception of the photon freedom. That has served as my back up to my back up for 10ish years and still going.

Second least thing is having to cycle through modes to get to the setting I want, not doing that.

Third, how in the world are you suppose to carry that and actually use it? Looking at you UB3T. I love the light, hate trying to carry it around.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

 

[techwg]

For me the most important feature is the level of brightness it can achieve. The worst feature, in my opinion, is how the PD35 TAC had a mode of operation denoted as "Tactical" where you could not use the rear switch for signalling any more since it was sequestered into being part of the mode switching UI.

 

[mk2rocco]

I can't stand any type of mode memory or reverse clickies. I'm not a big fan of e-switches but I can deal if the UI is good.

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