First time you became aware of "high end" flashlights?

I am in my early 50's and can first remember commercials for the D cell Maglights I believe in the early 1980's. They immediately caught my attention at the time as it was the first time I can remember thinking that what I considered an "ordinary household item" could be elevated to another level. I then began noticing police officers carrying Maglights on their duty belts and in their cruisers.

Anyone else have similar experience?

Welcome to the site GSY.

Here at the home of flashaholic was where I discovered what folks here consider high end flashlights like McGizmo's $500+ Haiku or some other exotics like that.

But like you I remember when Maglite and ones like it changed how the consumer flashlight was made. Yup, from the wack-a-palm Royovac fridge magnet type to something sturdy enough to use as a hammer in some cases was quite the experience as a kid.

I also remember when I was honored enough to hold one of those beasts for my pop while he fixed something. Sheesh were they heavy!!

Another game changer was SureFire who made things reliably brighter for military uses.

The first time I became aware of real/custom lights...well...it was a LONG night here on CPF many years ago. I didn't have much money at the time, so I knew I better not join. Then a few years later, when I got a decent income, I signed up and became fully enlightened. The rest is history.
It helps that I was born a flashaholic. In all this time, I still haven't lost my love for a Hot Wire!

Ahhhh, the memories!!! Yeah, I too am 50. I had those Duracell lights. Maglites were a big deal, back in the day. Then I discovered Sure Fire!!! OMG!! I found Nirvana!! The intro. to SF was a gateway into McGizmo's...............:welcome:

The Surefire 6P was my gateway drug...

Maglites were cool, but SF took flashaholism to the next level.

First time I became aware of "high end" flashlights?

I was saddled with the usual junk that my forbears were saddled with. Mechanical switches that failed, reflectors that caused garbled beam patterns, deep purple tint, (but no smoke on the water) so searched the internet for the most expensive, most powerful flashlight I could get. Liberated from the downward death spiral of junk flashlights, my life has had the fullest meaning ever since.

55 (almost). Streamlight (?) scorpion and then streamlight poly stinger, xenon bulbs. Okay, not super high end, but not something you generally bought in a store. ~1995?

But - on this site I saw a light for sale (posted this storey before) and the light was resting on...... a McGizmo oil-slick mule, none were available at that time & I bought the EN plated mule, which I used to light a bar at an airport hotel bar ~2 months later when the power was out (but they could still pour beer). It rested upside down on top of a beer tap most of the night, probably got too hot.

Then more McGizmos, drop-ins, Mac, then the pre-curser to Oveready with the triple drop-ins and and and....

Finally, settled on some custom lights, Oveready, some Vinh lights and my McGizmos (all customized or up-graded, love the PDs).

Re: First time you became aware of "high end" flashlights?

I'm in my mid-sixties, so my early lights consisted of rags soaked in whale oil. (just kidding).

The first time I became aware of high end flashlights, was when I ordered one from @Vinhnguyen54 and pointed it at my face to make sure it worked! YIKES!

Re: First time you became aware of "high end" flashlights?

Spring chicken here at 22, so early lights were Maglites which never worked due to batteries, the purple/blue LEDs, then probably some Maratacs were my introduction. Then I found the McGizmos, Peaks, and triples....

Re: First time you became aware of "high end" flashlights?

Interesting replies here guys and thank you. It looks like Maglite and Surefire were early inspirations. So far I am starting with McGizmos and Muyschondts with an eye towards Cool Fall as my next purchase.

Re: First time you became aware of "high end" flashlights?

I'm sure if some of the contemporary high-end lights were around back then, the answers would vary somewhat.

My gateway was deploying in the Army with a couple of LED flashlights I bought on a whim and a Surefire C2 incan. After having most of my LED lights die in Iraq and discovering a Surefire M600 Scout LED light, it was all over for me.

So far, my fascination with high end lights is capped at practical applications - I haven't gone off the deep end for limited release Queens.

Re: First time you became aware of "high end" flashlights?

I don't get to far into the high end custom lights but I do get into the high end lights you can buy easily from the bigger dealers like olight, fenix,streamlight,etc....

I would love to get into the custom light scene but I just haven't made the jump....I tend to use my lights daily and I'm afraid if I dive into the custom light market I'll treat it like I do my custom knives....I will be afraid to use them. They will become a conversation piece instead of a useful item.

I'm sure I'll test the custom market soon enough.

There are plenty of high-end flashlights around here that see heavy duty and/or hard use ....

My first LED lights were some Photon IIs. Not high end, but they raised my awareness of better lights than the $3 specials at the Dollar Store. Next was a G2. I had heard about Surefire lights from some other forum I was on at the time (mid 90s). Streamlight TT 2L and 3C. Streamlight SuperTac X. You can see the trend here. Then I took the big jump. I had some money and found a good deal on the Nitecore TM11 soon after it came out. This was 2013/14. After that it was the standard BS/MS/PhD progression. I got off the bandwagon (or got ON the wagon, depending how you look at it) with the TM16GT. Since then I have only fallen once, for a Nitecore P30. Not as powerful as the TM16GT, but single cell and a lot smaller and easier to carry. If they would of had this back in the day I would never have started down the TM path.

I had a few SureFire, then after I joined here, I got a few "milky mods" ....

Not long after, my buddy @nbp talked me into a Sapphire, closely followed by a SunDrop ....

The rest, as they say, is history :huh:

I became aware of ' high end ' flashlights from CPF. To me high end flashlighs would be defined as polished flashlights that look like jewelry. More form than function. I became aware of Maglight and their Krypton bulbs as being more reliable. I guess some would say high end. I was drawn to the Maglight AA because the batteries would last and it gave off better light than regular D cell lights of the time. Then I bought what would become the Innova X5. I think it was made by emissive energy. I purchased it from Snap On tools. My first LED flashlight. High end ? I didn't think it was but to me it was high priced. It was the price you pay for a flashlight that worked very well.

Re: First time you became aware of "high end" flashlights?

I too remember when Maglight was the flashlight to have back in the 80's, and I was very excited to get my first Maglight. I thought it was the greatest light ever, and it was better than any light I had owned before it. The Mags served well until I transitioned to Surefire in the early 2000s with the purchase of a 6P, E1e, and G2. I didn't really discover the whole change over to LED technology until I got my first single cell CR123 Fenix in 2009. From there I bought a bunch of Fenix and 4Sevens CR123 & CR2 flashlights, and although they were okay for all I knew at the time, I was never really satisfied by their color rendition, mode settings, or battery types. Nowadays all of my flashlight needs are being met by neutral white Thrunites with rechargeable AA Eneloops, decidedly not "high-end" by the standards of most members here, but way better in terms of function (modes, runtimes, beam patterns, etc) than those Maglights & Surefires I used to think so much of.

Re: First time you became aware of "high end" flashlights?

My first quality light was an AA minimag, I was so proud of it and carried it everywhere (I was about 10+ years old)

Working upstate, a friend had the surefire 6p (early model) when I became an EMT and wanted something brighter, I found out about surefire on CPF and after a few years got their first 80 lumen led with metal head on the G2.

Next, I saw this amazing triple by MACs by the time I decided to buy one- he disappeared so I missed that. When Okluma started making triples, I bought one and it is my high end light. Still a user though!!

archimedes said:

There are plenty of high-end flashlights around here that see heavy duty and/or hard use ....

Click to expand...

Yeah, but that's more a state of mind. Like the poster, if I dropped $1,400 on a flashlight, I don't know that I'd ever take it out of the glass case long enough to know what the beam tint looked like.

Of course, if I win the lottery tomorrow, my perspective may change somewhat.

When compared to the plastic 2D Rayovac and large 6V lanterns I had here or there I had from early teen and onward, the Maglite 2D incan was high-end to me when I went looking seriously again in 1999. Its solid construction and proven reliability withdrew the $28 from my wallet...and still being pre-LED, I envisioned it being my last light I would ever need.

Since the advent of LED, fast forward to today and my ThruNite collections are high-end lighting performance...on a budget I choose to allocate.