Flashlights are technology

they were really slow to adopt LEDs so for a few years there was a cottage industry making LED replacement bulbs for incandescent Maglites. Supposedly some of them were really nice and bright by early 2000s standards. RIP Elektro Lumens

i had one of these and every fuckin AA i put in it leaked and rotted the aluminium hard
very nice tho
then one time hiking there was a medical emergency and in the fuss someone who borrowed it lost it

after losing it i bought a convoy and have committed to 18650 torches since i have a bunch of 18650s and use them for other shit too

the high temperature neon bulbs and shit were good tho
and the spare bulb in the back was also great

the problem with LEDs is when they do go, because they have to be heatsunk to an aluminium PCB and thru that to the torch housing

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This. An incandescent AA one got me through my conscription decade ago. Swapped the bulbs with a led later and it's still in use alongside more modern led maglites. Also it's nice to actually have only one brightness and one button that turns it on or off. You shouldn't need to program or have a manual on flashlight operation.

i agree with the button operation. I hate SOS modes on flashlights.

i think you need selectable brightness on most LED torches because they blast so hard at full power you need a lower power for normal use. The maglite mini bulbs dont have this problem by just not being too bright in the first place.

>and have committed to 18650 torches since i have a bunch of 18650s and use them for other shit too
Can you recommend me some brands that produce 18650 that are good quality and affordable?

I use the flashlight on my phone.

i bought some recently off aliexpress, having had the miniature maglite previously until it was lost.

I can't give you recommendations based on a wide variety of products and years of usage, however I can tell you about the build quality of the flashlights I ordered, and I can also tell you what is and isn't bullshit.

When it comes to the chinese LED flashlights (and every LED flashlight you'd find in a store that is rebranded), you have the housing and the LED board. You essentially have the choice of:
- form factor (the name of the torch), this includes what battery it will hold
- colour of LED (the specific LED chip or chips used)
- power / modes / functions (driver on the board)

All the torches I purchased are single 18650 torches. If you want more battery life you can find ones that take two or ones that take a 21700. I have lots of 18650s lying around from other things and I wanted small torches similar to my miniature maglite. As such the ones I bought do not have a focusing head, they are just a fixed beam. I have strong opinions on the modes of a flashlight, I want it to be simple, I don't want to have to cycle through SOS mode and I don't want to start at the brightest setting and blind myself.

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The flashlight I have changes brightness by twisting the head, and strobe can be used by quickly double pressing the power button. Otherwise it functions more or less like an on/off flashlight. It was made by Eagletac if I remember correctly.

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In the end I purchased:
- Manker MC12II with a red LED. It comes at a premium cost for the chinese LED torches. I know nothing of the brand and was happy to risk the money with it not being any better than the rest, since I liked the simplicity - it has a good power red LED which is hard to find outside of signalling torches which also have green; and it has simply a low and high power with the button. It came with a complementary 18650 that had a usb-C charging board built into the end of it (whilst being a little longer than 65mm, maybe 68mm) - im sure its a poor quality 18650 though.
aliexpress.com/item/1005001499536997.html

- Convoy H1 with a 2700K warm white LED. In its default operation, it turns on at the last brightness setting, and if you hold the button it cycles through it brightnesses from low to high. So I leave it on low and come up when i need to. It comes with a headband for using as a head torch. I also 3d printed a mount and I use it as a bicycle headlight. You can also hook it on your shirt or backpack and have it point forward.
aliexpress.com/item/33021960068.html

- Convoy S2+ with a 2700K warm white LED. This has some omega complicated way of programming the functionality which I couldnt be bothered figuring out. In default it goes thru different power settings and an SOS.

My review of the products:
- The manker's build quality was marginally inferior to the convoys, i.e. the threads for the front and rear of the body are ACME threads with a coarse pitch on the convoy flashlights - and these threads are fully anodised. The manker's threads are cut with a standard machine bolt profile, at a finer pitch, and thus are easier to tear when starting the thread and produce dust from the anodising being worn etc. All of them have o-ring sealing and should be reasonably waterproof.

gonna need one more post.... 2/3

3/3 lol

The Convoy H1 is my favourite, I light the right angle form factor. The manker is also nice in red, but was not worth the premium price. I will be using the red torch when camping. The Convoy S2+ i ended up cutting the springs down a bit to fit the longer 18650 with a usb-c charge circuit that came with the manker; and i put it in the car which has a PD charger in it, so I dont have to worry about keeping batteries charged in the car flashlight.

some comments:
- i decided to standardise on 18650 torches after having my mini maglite literally get glued shut multiple times by AA batteries leaking and corroding the aluminium. The trip when it was lost I had put in some rechargeable NiMH AA's to solve this problem but yeah its gone now so RIP.
- i keep a xtar 2x18650 battery bank around as a portable charger, both for the batteries and 5V devices. I can swap one out of that and into a torch if a battery is running low
- there are a lot of memes in LED torches. An incandescent bulb and a neon bulb emit light in all directions, so a reflector is required to throw all that light forward. This is not the case with LED's. So you dont need something with a massive reflector. The quality of LEDs is important if you are running them at their maximum, but in the end heat kills LEDs and heatsinking is the most important thing. Osram makes the best LEDs. But if you aren't looking to have a super powerful light, just get something lower powered and enjoy the longer battery life. I hate when people whip out their portable sun torches with lenses when camping, like a lot of car LED headlights, they have a very sharp edge to the light (which is a bit of a sex factor thing) which is very bad for seeing anything that isnt directly in the beam, and is terrible for night vision (which is normally the purpose of a torch).

twisty stuff is class. that's probably a real brand thou and not a rebranded bog standard product.

I have flashlight cree 5 that works with one AA battery but it says that it supports li-ion 14500 instead of AA.
“14500 battery is a cylindrical li-ion cell classified by its roughly 49.2mm length and 13.5mm diameter, and is the rechargeable version of an AA battery“

I al looking to buy few 18650 and one 14500 (for that flashlight). Chink rechargeable 90% of case pretend that store more energy than they store in reality.
Which chink LI-ION brands are reliable?

Good thread. For lamps I only buy the good brand. My favorite is Fenix Light: very good build quality, reliable, powerful, versatile.