AMD64Brunette
Enlightened
Peak Eiger Ultra high CRI (in brass) is my AAA light of choice.
Let’s hear from the hard core AAA users!
- Thread starter gurdygurds
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kaichu dento
Flashaholic
Yes, and that's one of the reasons why I ended up going to the larger lights that I had absolutely no interest in at first. Hard to believe I don't even have any AAA Fenix lights or an LF2XT anymore.
kaichu dento
Flashaholic
It sure is! When I offered some lights to a couple of friends from Japan, he chose a stainless LD01 and she chose an Arc AAA.
A few of my friends are still carrying Fenix AAA lights that I gave them years ago, including a few L0D's and a couple stainless LD01's.
Schokokeks
Flashlight Enthusiast
I always get a chuckle when flashlight nerds give them as gifts, because I think a lot of use immediately go so some cool, super bright Li-ion things...but, in my experience, people just say, "Thanks," and it lives in a drawer. Meanwhile, AAA keychain lights? I'll see them being used YEARS later.
To my amusement, the 2xAA and 2xAAA Maglite Solitaires are maybe the most used gift lights. "Terrible" lights by enthusiast standards (I think they're actually okay), but man...people love a simple UI.
kaichu dento
Flashaholic
Yeah, I'm a practical thinker and have only ever gifted things people seemed interested in actually using. Hence, lots of AAA lights, and one Haiku.
Dark_Hater
Newly Enlightened
The more I use a flashlight and EDC one the more simple a UI I require. I may be roasted but Anduril is a novelty to me and so far one has not been offered in a size that I would consider an EDC. I think this is why out of all the light choices I have to EDC the D25A/D3A keep finding their way into my pocket. Which reminds me I really need to pick up a D25AAA soon to see if it has any chance of dethroning the Vinh modded Fenix E01.
Schokokeks
Flashlight Enthusiast
Same. I had an Anduril light once, and I'm looking into another, but honestly...it always felt like that was a light for people whose hobby is user interfaces, haha.
And same on the D25A and D3A. I have a D25A with a 519A and SST-20, and then a D3A with the SFT-40. That's really the best EDC AA light around. The twist UI is perfection.
Dark_Hater
Newly Enlightened
How is the beam pattern of the SFT-40 compared to the 519A in this light? I’m waiting for a restock of better emitters currently before purchasing and I’m strongly considering the SFT-40 in a D3A.
Schokokeks
Flashlight Enthusiast
It's about the same. The D3A has a slightly deeper reflector, so you get better throw. The 3000K SFT-40 is a favorite emitter of mine. But, it burns through batteries versus SST-20 or 519A, and it gets WAY hotter, way faster in the D3A. Ironically, I have the SST-20 and 519A in the D25A, haha.
I could NOT agree MORE
Anduril is absolutely, positively, the WORST POS flashlight UI
The ONLY people, that joke of a UI were made for, are white wall hunting, shining flashlights into fans to induce "PWM", do not actually use a flashlight for work, HOBBYISTS
Click it 100 times, do a rain dance on 1 leg, click it another 250 times while singing "singing in the rain", now click it 1,000 times while running in circles for an hour Anduril
Sorry, had to get that off my chest
Let's just say that I'm NOT a fan of Anduril
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I use my KR1AA and D3aa to do work on my house plumbing, address car engine issues, see when I change/pump tires at night, as a brighter trunk lighting, night hikes...
I think the biggest strength in Anduril is also its biggest flaw, the customizability can be too much. But like 3d printers, cnc mills, and other such mechanisms, the most time consuming and frustrating part is typically the setup and calibration phase...If there are un-needed features, they're hidden enough that the average user would likely never use them. The necessary actions for operation are:
1H (hold the first press) for moonlight/ramping, 1C (click and release) for last mode (or manually remembered) memory, 2c (double click and release) for max/turbo.
Then again, I also like the Novatac and HDS UI, and those are much more unintuitive than Anduril, lol...Out of all the Eswitch lights I own, my least favorite for UI customization is Zebralight, but mainly because of the way the timers seem to work.
Granted, my favorite UI for a beater EDC is twisty, if only QTC were less finicky...My favorite lights right now are the FrazLabs Lumenite IIP, the Peak El Capitan, followed closely by the KR1AA and D3AA. Simplicity is great, but sometimes I appreciate a self sustained beacon or bike flasher mode.
Schokokeks
Flashlight Enthusiast
Tied to that flaw, I got rid of my previous one Anduril light because I spent like an afternoon setting it up, and then something went goofy, and I had to reset it.
That was depressing.
Next month's budget, I am planning on trying an Anduril light, again, but I think I'm going to not invest so much time "trying to learn" as much as I can about Anduril. I'm going to just do a handful of settings, and call it a day. For me, investing so much time into setting it up, only to have to redo it is...not fun.
I get everyone is different, but man, I am not the person to want to keep a spreadsheet of my flashlight settings, haha. If I could connect it to my computer, and maybe have a text based or graphical UI adjustment, I think I'd maybe be okay with it, more. Honestly, being able to modify a notepad file and uploading it to a light would be slick. I'm surprised that doesn't exist.
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it KIND OF does, but not as conveniently...there's a 3 pin flashing tool
I agree, a single AAA provides plenty of output and runtime for my needs.
There's a reason I adopted, supported and was a very vocal advocate of the 1xAAA from the start, long before others jumped on the bandwagon (just check my post history from a couple decades ago).
For most of my needs, my Sofirn c01/c01s do what I need.
For most of my needs, my Sofirn c01/c01s do what I need.
Love my collection of Sofirn C01 and C01S lights !
(sadly, no longer produced)
Here are Reviews for those not familiar:
budgetlightforum.com
(sadly, no longer produced)
Here are Reviews for those not familiar:
Loading…
flashlightchart.com
[Available again! - BLF special edition light] new Sofirn AAA twisty high CRI 5mm LED
There is a runtime test of the 2018 Yuji version near the end of this review: It made it nearly 10 hours of regulated output on a 900mAh NiMH cell. Since it is the same driver, and the forward voltage of the Sophia is very similar to the Yuji, performance of the new batch should be very...
budgetlightforum.com
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Companies know how to take a good thing and erase it, lol...I suppose it could be because the 5mm Yujis aren't being made anymore, but tanky AA/AAA lights have a special place in my heart. One of these days I'll talk myself into trying a Sapphire...until then, I'm content with my El Cap and C01. I will say, after analyzing the c01, I believe it could've been a bit shorter with dual magnets instead.Love my collection of Sofirn C01 and C01S lights !
(sadly, no longer produced)
Here's are Reviews for those not familiar:
Loading…
flashlightchart.com
[Available again! - BLF special edition light] new Sofirn AAA twisty high CRI 5mm LED
There is a runtime test of the 2018 Yuji version near the end of this review: It made it nearly 10 hours of regulated output on a 900mAh NiMH cell. Since it is the same driver, and the forward voltage of the Sophia is very similar to the Yuji, performance of the new batch should be very...
- Joined
- Nov 22, 2011
- Messages
- 7,491
- City & State/Province
- On the east coast of the yoosah. In the place wher
Just a question of curiosity...what kind of changes or improvements would you have implemented to the c01 family? thicker threads, tighter tolerances, that kind of thing?
Schokokeks
Flashlight Enthusiast
I think I've mentioned it before, but the AA and AAA formats are WAY older than people think (1907 and 1911 respectively). The "Format wars" for batteries have already been fought, for the past century, and the AA and AAA formats are just kind of the perfect balance between size and capacity for small and portable electronics.
While today, we think of Li-ion as the standard cell, that's ONLY because of car battery packs. Had cars not started using packs full of dozens of 18650 cells, they'd never have gotten the economy of scale in their manufacturing to really make them a thing. As they got cheaper, flashlights started using them. They were the new gold standard in size.
But then cars switched to 21700, so those are now really cheap. Suddenly, flashlights start offering 21700 sizes, and flashlight people start pretending everyone is moving to that for some noble reason, haha.
Flashlights don't set the battery size trends for Li-ion. Cheap, plentiful, and available sizes of Li-ion cells in 18650 and 21700 is why those became "standards."
Ford just opened their joint venture for LFP cells in the U.S. Chinese cars, which are dominating the EV market, use LFP cells. Ironically, we're probably going to start seeing Li-ion cells sunsetting, and prices increasing. The 18650 and 21700 size format might stay, but it might not. Honestly, the more industrial usage shifts to LFP (or even sodium), we might see Li-ion cells become a hilarious historic relic. If car manufacturers aren't buying them by the millions, but ARE buying millions of LFP cells, I don't know if the niche electronics markets will have the demand to keep the development running. Likely, someone will keep running an old Li-ion factory until the machinery blows out, and then just close shop. Without massive, industrial demand, I don't think anyone would take on the dangers/risks of the Li-ion supply chain, especially if everyone is back to the LFP or even sodium supply chain.
And/or, we'll keep seeing the move towards square flashlights, as pouch Li-ion cells will likely remain for phones.
Than again, WW3 could kick off, and rare earth elements could become scarce, and we all just end up with lighter, more efficient phones that try and sip energy from LFP cells.
If lithium based cells for flashlights go back to being niche, specialty products, I think we'll see a return to AA and AAA cells because they make for REALLY compact lights, and NiMH cells are affordable, durable, accessible, and offer decent enough performance.
If we end up with some kind of graphite based battery cells, I think that could be real boon for the AA/AAA size, because capacities would be quite decent, and output can still be pretty good, and the small size is really compelling.
Also, I think a lot of the AAA naysayers probably haven't tried an AAA light since they were all those 5mm, sub-15 lumen things when LEDs first arrived.
Really, AAA (and even AA) lights can have shocking performance for their size, and since most tasks don't really require hundreds of lumens, their runtimes are lower outputs are actually perfectly fine.
Guns went through a similar thing. Magazine capacities had been limited by laws, so everything went into BIG, GIANT bullets...but now? 9mm (released in 1901) is back to being the absolute gold standard. .32 ACP (released in 1899) is making a comeback, as is .380 ACP (released in 1908). Why? They may not be the most powerful cartidges, but they offer good enough performance in smaller, more compact sizes, which then allow the guns to be smaller.
I can see flashlights coming full circle on this. I think a LOT of us started with maybe an AA or AAA light, then went all in on bigger, brighter, "better" lights, only to find ourselves back here, years later, talking about AAA lights, haha.
I can clip a single aluminum AAA light into my pocket and literally forget it's there, it's so small and lightweight. That means I can have it on my person every day, every moment. And, the flashlight you HAVE with you is infinitely better than the amazing, huge, high-capacity, brighter-than-the-sun light at home.
So long as EDC is a thing, these smaller size format items will always remain popular, and shifts away from them will always revert to the mean - because man is the measure of all things, and so certain sizes work really well for human tools.
