Points when choosing your next flashlight.

Howdy guys, I would like to know what you concern when choosing your flashlight.

Normally I would look at the price and care about the performance, like max output, carry distance, run time, special modes like SOS and strobe. At this point, you still have a lot of options, after check out on Amazon, bunch of flashlights are there. Then what is your point in choosing your next flashlights? Please kindly share below. Thanks!

(Please copy and paste and add your points here.)
1. Price
2. Performance
3.
4.
5.

For me performance stands above the rest of a list. Then features. Anything else fits in those 2 boxes.
Price comes last. If it don't meet the first 2 I don't care what the price is.

Beam Pattern, User interface, Durability, Tint, Battery Options, Price. Probably in that order.

Before I learned about tints, candella, various interfaces, durability factors and a few things I learned here price was #1 on my list. Back then a typical $35-40 max price was firmly in place. Now that I understand all those things I still have a maximum I'll spend, but there are literally dozens of products that fall way below my adjusted maximum that was chosen to ensure I can use performance and features as deciding factors.

Example was an Elzetta Bones was below the number with enough coins left to buy some accessories to go with it, yet an HDS is well above that number. Yet if not for all those available options for less or if rotary was a required feature I'd pay what it took to own an HDS.

1. High CRI
2. Full regulation on maximum mode.
3. Warm tint, no tint shifts.
Mike

bykfixer said:

Before I learned about tints, candella, various interfaces, durability factors and a few things I learned here price was #1 on my list. Back then a typical $35-40 max price was firmly in place. Now that I understand all those things I still have a maximum I'll spend, but there are literally dozens of products that fall way below my adjusted maximum that was chosen to ensure I can use performance and features as deciding factors.
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Click to expand...

Ditto for me.

Most important to me is how the flashlight will be used. It's OK if a person wants Gee-Whiz.

If you want to describe how you expect to use it...

I think that everyone that has posted has extremely worthwhile input here. Since a flashlight is a lighting tool, think about how you are going to be using that tool. There are certain situations where throw distance can be important, especially in a potentially threatening evironment (regular walks across a large, dark campus, or having to habitually walk from a business late at night through a sketchy parking lot or neighborhood, for example). I have throwers, but I normally default to wanting a more moderate amount of light, and a longer battery runtime. My 1xAAA Peak LED Solutions keychain light was ordered with the dimmest possible output option, because an AAA cell does not have much energy storage capacity, and it is mainly an emergency redundant I-need-enough-light-to-change-the-battery-on-my-main-pocket-EDC-light. All of my Malkoff drop-ins are not as bright as other, current options on the market, but they are rock-solid dependable, have perfect beam patterns, and don't "step-down", because they don't get too hot. I don't know what your intended uses are, but try not to get too swayed by total output if it isn't necessary, and think about battery runtime, and battery versatility. If you are going to be traveling out of the country often, get something that runs off of AA cells. I have also, over time, become biased towards a strong preference for warm and neutral tints, but many current lights do not offer that as an option.

I have one point when choosing my next flashlight: Bigger, more performance than the ones I have now. Bigger than the TN42vn, and bigger than the X65vn. Run time and portability are least important for me when choosing my next flashlight, because I have plenty of flashlights that do those well. Modified Lumintop GT is probably going to be my next light.


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Normal people walk around with big dogs. They look normal. I walk around with big flashlights. My flashlights have bitten less people then Teds' dog.