This forum dead or dying?

[PaladinNO]

Insofar as portable lighting tools are concerned, the product offerings have unquestionably matured. The level of knowledge among the community in general has also increased, making many of the discussions common in the earlier years unnecessary.

For example, if I want to describe a light, I can summarize by describing it's physical dimensions, it's weight in your pocket, adding info such as emitter type, color temperature, output levels, candela, cell configuration, and runtimes at various output levels. Most of you will readily form a mental image of the light and whether it's of interest or use to you. The overall level of knowledge in the community allows for this kind of shorthand, making the longer discussions of times past unnecessary.

Your example sums up the experience I have gained here over, I would say, the last 3 years. In my case, my personal economy changed to where I could actually buy the lights I wanted and got recommended. Before that, what good would the knowledge do me, if I couldn't act on it. Partly hence my hiatus here for a time. And I felt I couldn't recommend to others what I was recommended, without personal experience with the product.

But with the increased income a few years back (got a new and better paid job), I suddenly found a renewed interest and took back up my flashlight hobby. And by reading and googling and reading some more, I could make informed decisions on the lights I wanted to try, instead of spending a lot of money in the hopes of getting what I wanted. And following most of those recommendations, I have successfully found both favourite emitters and specific flashlight models - many of which I likely wouldn't have bought, because I couldn't even understand many of the terms and numbers on the charts I was looking at.

But the most important thing to me that I have learned here, though mostly through personal trial and error but based off of flashlight recommendations I have received here, is learning how important good light actually is. I recently replaced all the light bulbs in the house, and I haven't once since instinctively turned my eyes away from a bulb because it has felt simply like ugly light. And all the new ones are CRI 90. Before I had between whatever and CRI 80 at best. And an almost random mix of CCTs and CRI-values - back to not knowing what to look for, or being to afford what I should be having. Now it's 6 USD bulbs, instead of 1 USD ones.

And my current bedreading light, an Emisar DW4K, E21A 2000K (R9590 according to the stats), has been a bliss I didn't even know how much I had been missing. It is so beautiful and relaxing to be around before trying to sleep. As much as I am obsessed with hCRI lights, I will agree it is not often needed (depending on the usecase, obviously), but everyone should own one light with the best CRI possible. If you're not feeling well or feel really tired, you don't need your brain to work more by doing the automatic compensations and colour corrections for what the eyes see - if you have hCRI light around you, it is another button the brain can turn off, and add that energy to trying to relax and get better instead.

Based on everything I have learned here, particularly in the last 3 years, if I were to recommend 2 specific emitters, I would say Nichia 519A, 1800K, and Nichia E21A 4000K mix (4500K + 3500K). As for flashlight models, I would say Convoy S21E for the 519A (with diffuser), and Emisar D4K for the E21A. The former is only CRI 70, and the latter not very powerful (~1200 Lumen), but those 2 are the emitters I am very glad I have experienced and own.

 

[orbital]

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If your flashlight manufacture that you worship hasn't done anything interesting in years,, yeah CPF may be dying.

the fix:::: look to a manufacture who's doing new things /// taking lights to levels you'd say IMPOSSIBLE just 10 years ago.
alot of that is battery advancement allowing flashlight advancement

then, CPF is still going strong

 

[PaladinNO]

If your flashlight manufacture that you pray to hasn't done anything interesting in years,, yeah CPF may be dying.

True, true - where there is no innovation, there is also little need for discussion.

I am not following the emitter manufacturers at all though. So whether they innovate or not, I have no idea. Come to thnk of it, I haven't even checked when the 519A or E21A was released - or what the newest emitters on the market are.

I think that would and potentially can be much more interesting for me when / if I am able to make my own solutions, i.e. do flashlight modding, which I currently can't do at all.

 

[Monocrom]

Golden Age of Innovation came and went during the last 20 years.
Glad I was around to experience it.

 

[Schokokeks]

I stand firmly by my opinion that everyone should have a hobby. Doesn't matter it is, so long as they enjoy it. And every hobby I can think of, once it gets serious enough, is expensive. Whether it's stamps, pieces of art, cars or flashlights.

And that is fine, because if they can afford it, it suddenly becomes - I would say - an investment in personal health. A hobby is supposed to to give joy, and where there is joy, there is also relaxtion and reduced stress, and that is nothing but good for both the mind and body.

...Also, flashlights are more useful than stamps - they provide a much more reliable source of illumination than setting fire to a stack of tiny pieces of paper.

I strongly agree on the necessity of having a hobby. Just having something to read about, learn about, explore, etc. is really important for your sanity, mental acuity, growth, etc.

I don't know about you guys, but I essentially have a "dumb stuff" budget each month, which I spend on my assorted interests. It used to be cars, then guns - but those got WAY too expensive, so now it's flashlights. Music has been the only real stable interest for that budget, throughout, so it's usually a mix these days of Bandcamp purchases and flashlights. On the upside, I have a great soundtrack for when I'm reading flashlight stuff or tinkering with all my P60 LEGO parts, haha.