What was your first loved flashlight?

[Walterk]

Had a couple before I got me my 2D Maglite.
Respectable beam for those days, but still love the feeling and machining.
Have it about 20 years now.

 

[IlluminatedOne]

I have been racking my brains thinking what flash light i loved first i had a few different lights in the house that were my dads

6V lantern lights
2D lights
One of those Flashing roadside lights with two 6V batteries.

But the one i loved the most was a light my grandad gave me when i was about 5 or so, it was a plastic cased enclosure with a mounting bracket on the bottom which was meant for attaching it to a boat or something like that.

He added a large bolt through the bracket and made a handle out of about ten nuts on the threaded bolt so you could hold it in one hand, It looked similar style to a lightforce 240 with the handle just more crude.
It had a 12v 55w H3 and had a glass lens with a metal reflector about 9 inches in diameter and threw really well and was super bright, i dropped in a 12v 130w H3 bulb and made a battery pack out of 4x 8.4v Sub C RC packs with two parallel packs connected in series to get 16.8volts which rested in a plywood box with a shoulder strap that i originally made for when i ran it off a 12v 12Ah SLA battery.

There is also a few funny story's about that light.

One night about 3am i could here a police helicopter flying around my neighbourhood and decided to turn on my radio scanner, listening to the police talk about how they were looking for some guy on the run and they could not find him but thought he might be hiding in the gardens,
so i open my bedroom window and fired up my light to search my garden to see if there was anyone there i also lit up all the other gardens too see if i could see something.
Then i hear on the scanner that the heli could see someone lighting up the gardens with a powerful light and it flew over right above my garden which for a 6 year old is probably one of the coolest things ever, i was transfixed with the coolness of a helicopter hovering outside my window i still had the light on pointed down in the garden and they were so close i could see there faces and they had this look on there faces like WTF is a 6 year old doing with a light like that at 3am, i pointed to them and then to the ground and they fired up there heli searchlight and started to move the beam around on the floor and i was following the beam with my own light, they then were all laughing and gave me a thumbs up and i did the same then they flew off.
It still makes me smile to this day when i see a heli lighting things up with there cool lights.

There was also this time when i was older about 12-13 i would guess and i was over my friends house and we were playing in these big fields with my 6D maglite and a few other lights and a friend of my friend came out with his light his dad bought which cost a few hundred pounds IIRC and it had what looked like a hand held lamp with a 4 inch reflector connected to a 12v 7ah battery with a shoulder strap. I think IIRC is was called NightSearcher.
He was bragging that this was the brightest light in the world and you could not get anything brighter.
I told him to fire it up and lets see how bright it was, there were a few other kids about too playing with various there lights at night and they all were amazed by this light which was brighter than anything they had ever seen.

He was very happy about this and the attention he was getting, so when i said i had a light which i had made myself when i was 6 which would blow this away the kids ego just would not accept this and was laughing at me saying i was talking BS, so i said fine i will bring it tomorrow.
He carried on saying things like no cobbled together crappy home made light would beat his ultimate megalight and even said if my light is brighter he would give me his dads light.

Oh how they laughed...

So i go home and put the battery's on charge and get it ready make sure it works right.

The next day i bring it with me and i am walking down to the big field and there is a large hill which comes down into the field so you can see the whole area pretty well.
I could see him and a few others playing with his light in the distance about half a mile away so could not resist showing how bright my light was i stop and unpack my light, connect it up and fire it up lighting him and the whole crowd up across the field and i remember they all kinda panicked at the sudden light appearing and tried putting there hands over there faces to look at where the light was coming from, i was laughing my *** of at this point and turned off the light and walked towards them, everyone was amazed someone said it looked like they were being abducted by aliens lol, we played with the light until it went flat and everybody thought it was amazing that i could build my own light that was so much brighter than a high end light.

I guess that would be my most loved light although i don't have it any more as it got broken as it was put in a shed and someone dropped something onto the lens, i miss that light and i must build a new updated version.

 

[Dances with Flashlight]

This thread brings back some great, but very, very distant memories. That first light had a dim, yellow bulb, a battery that leaked something nasty and didn't last too long, and it turned out to be exceedingly fragile - at least in my little four year old hands. Don't remember anyone telling me the brand... and I couldn't yet read... but it led me here.

 

[crizyal]

This was my first light also. I loved it... until leaked acid ate it.:mecry:

 

[qtaco]

Probably a 2xAA mag. I remember the solid feel in the hand, adjustable beam, and candle mode made it stand out to me at the time. Plus I was young and it was a gift, so I valued it doubly so.

At that time I really coveted a 1xAAA mag however, but never purchased one before I lost interest in lights for a while. Perhaps the reason 1xAAA lights are now my favourite goes back to that time when they captured my imagination.

 

[Flying Turtle]

Just did some catchup reading in this thread. Good to see pics of the 5D RS and the Durabeam. Used to have a 2AA Durabeam in each car. Still have one around here somewhere.

Geoff

 

[Lynx_Arc]

I used to have that white rechargeable light with a red/white head. Mine quit working and even though I sort of wish I had kept it as now I could probably get a replacement battery for it, the output of #222 bulbs is pathetic IMO and runtime was not that great. I have only a few incan flashlights left in service, one is in the coat closet as the 2D alkalines in it are still good no sense in putting it out of action till they die. One 2D incan was in my car and leaked finally ruining it and my favorite 2D incan I reamed out the bulb holder and dropped in a 2D magled and it has a beautiful pencil beam to it (adjustable focus rayovac roughneck) I love the side click switch on it.

 

[Closet_Flashaholic]

There were 2. These are from the early 70's. My dad purchased them for when we went camping, sadly I have neither and no pictures either.

The first one was an Eveready rechargeable flashlight that was like no other I had ever seen. It was black and oval shaped to fit your hand and it "broke apart" in the middle, the back end (the battery) had a 110v plug on it where it would just plug into the wall to recharge. When done, just push the two halves back together and ready to go. It was so cool.

The second one was called a "Big Jim". Basically it was a ~4" round sealed beam with a handle and a switch that just bolted on top of a 6v lantern battery. That thing was indestructible and gave many many years of service, before I couldn't get any more of the sealed beams for it.

edit: I just found both of them in the flashlightmuseum site! I was surprised to find the first one - it was called the "Eveready Black "Captain" Rechargeable Flashlight" - Isn't the Internet wonderful?

 

[flashfan]

These photos of "old" flashlights sure brings back some memories. Had forgotten that I grew up with lights like the Durabeam and the red/white pocket light posted by carbine15. Blast from the past...

 

[Lynx_Arc]

These photos of "old" flashlights sure brings back some memories. Had forgotten that I grew up with lights like the Durabeam and the red/white pocket light posted by carbine15. Blast from the past...

I had a 6v lantern that the rim of the light glowed in the dark and it had nearly a pencil beam. 6v lanterns were the bomb in the 70s but the batteries ate your pocketbook and my dad switched to 2D lights because someone kept leaving the lights on and draining the $5 batteries. I still have one of the lanterns left with a lantern battery but got rid of the other even though it had a 4D/6v battery adapter the 750ma bulbs no longer compete with LED technology. way too big and too weak to lug around with LED lights that use D cells and AA running longer and brighter I am somewhat surprised they still sell them in the stores.

 

[Tuikku]

One was a bit like this:

but it had green and red plastic pieces you could slide in front of the light. I can´t find a proper picture.


The other much much older was run bu 3R12 batteries and it had "aspheric" lens
It was metal cased, slide switch on the side. Could have been "Narva" brand, but not sure. Still searching a good picture...

 

[Ian2381]

This was my first light also. I loved it... until leaked acid ate it.:mecry:

Is this powered by 2 AA?

It surely looks like my first loved flashlight when I was a kid.
Wow, never thought I would be able to see someone post a picture of it.:twothumbs

I think Acid also ate mine.:mecry:

Never going to trust alkaline in my Flashlights.

 

[Wilmette]

All purchased new ~35 years ago except the 2D Kel-Lite, because I never owned a small head Kel. The Yawara stick is not a flashlight, but thrown in for good measure since I purchased it during the same period. I carried the 3D daily for years. The 3C Kel-Lite was for going out to dinner and such, due to its smaller size, relatively. The red Smoke Cutters were just interesting and fun to play with on a foggy night, since I try not to charge into burning buildings. They can also be reconfigured into a 5 cell with nothing more than a lamp change to a PR12. The black 3D light by LA Screw Products (2nd from the left) has a fascinating reflector designed to produce flood only, as it is comprised of hundreds of discrete rectangles, like a disco mirror ball in reverse.

 

[kaichu dento]

That is a really nice looking collection and your personal history with them makes it all the more interesting to see.
I really like the red one with the cord coming out of the tail.

 

[Toohotruk]

Where's the pic? :thinking:

 

[Kraid]

As a kid I had a Fisher Price 4 cell light that I used all the time. Pictured below, it has a rotator switch on the other side that you can use to move red or green filters in front of the bulb.

I would say that this guy was my first light as well. And I had MANY after it before I discovered "REAL" flashlights. But the first light that I loved and carried all the time? That was my 4x AAA Energizer Double Barrel. Really helped out when I was in a car accident in the middle of an Indiana cornfield as a teenager and none of the paramedics had a flashlight!!

(Googling for an image, I could only find the AA version. And, of course, the image was located here! Lol!)

 

[nanomu]

The first light I remember having and actually using was a incan minimag. At the time, it seemed suitably bright for nearly all uses.

Then I upgraded to a 6P, which has continued to be my most reliable and solid light (except for the one time the batteries found their way in backwards :thinking.

I've been EDCing a E2L for a few years now. I have complaints about it, but it always works and I haven't found anything I like better, or am willing to wear err destroy in the same way. This would be my most loved light, given the scratches and dents it's acquired.

 

[Wilmette]

Found it! My lights are all over the house. My very first light that I could call my own, an Eveready Captain 2D, purchased for me after considerable whining to my folks when I was 11 or 12. But I didn't love it. However, it was first. Love came a few years later with the discovery of the Kel-Lites, posted above.

As a kid, I had to fight to keep control of this flashlight. Soon after I got it, most family members found many situations for which they "needed" it.

Sample conversation from my disfunctional past:
Dad: Where's the flashlight?
Me: Your flashlight is in the kitchen, storing those dead batteries you were saving.
Dad: No...you know which flashlight I mean.
Me: Which flashlight would that be, Dad?
Dad: The good flashlight.
Me: You mean *my* good flashlight?
Dad: Yeah, yeah, yeah. *YOUR* good flashlight that *I* paid for.
Me: What...so you can belly-flop under the house in the dirt with it again?
Dad: Watch it or you'll be the one crawling through there next time, funny boy...

 

[kito109654]

As a kid I had a Fisher Price 4 cell light that I used all the time. Pictured below, it has a rotator switch on the other side that you can use to move red or green filters in front of the bulb.

Wow, this one is it for me. Some of my earliest memories came flooding back when I saw this picture. I would turn that knob back and forth for quite a while before drifting off to sleep. So glad I found this thread!

 

[Kestrel]

Wow, just read through the entire thread, good stories here but I didn't read a single mention of the first light that did it for me.

Growing up in Alaska, I first started using the ubiquitous 2xAA Minimags, but always became frustrated with the unreliability of the switch contacts in the head. The first light that I really liked was the little Pelican Mitylite submersible plastic 2xAAA penlight – the 'switch' never failed me: it turned on & off via the rock-simple electrical contact in the head - there was no switch mechanism to speak of. I didn't miss the 'focusability' of the minimag, and I sure didn't miss that cold aluminum body in the -40F temperatures either.

So over 20 years later, I wasn't all that surprised to see essentially the same exact light in a retailer's flashlight display section. That's probably why I'm so attached to the SureFire Z41 tailcap, a brilliantly-simple mechanism and the only flashlight switch I've used heavily that has never failed to work for me.