One of my favorite flashlight sources, Battery Junction, has a new product called the Titanium Innovations 12V Spotlight Vehicle Flashlight. Flashlights that charge off of a 12V outlet are not new, but one that looks like it is decent quality and actually fits itself into the outlet is pretty novel. This looks like the perfect option for a low output car flashlight when you need to root around in the car in the dark or change a tire at night. I haven’t gotten my grubby hands on one yet, but you can find a review here. It’s available in 10 colors, including the stereotypical womenz color, pink.

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Got a new toy a couple of weeks back, the Nitecore EX10 flashlight. It is an interesting concept, using a piston inside the flashlight for the switching mechanism, which supposedly increases switching reliability and durability and also makes the negative current flow inside the flashlight instead of outside like most flashlights. I don’t know enough about electronics to really know why that makes a difference, so maybe Ainsley can pipe up and enlighten us. The version I bought uses a CR123 battery, but there is also the D10, which uses a AA battery. The EX10 was extremely well made and a nice little light, but the short version is that I sold it last night.

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What happens when you really like the products you are selling? You get disappointed when you ask suppliers if they can get a lighter for you, and they tell you they can’t. But then disappointment turns to giddiness when they tell you they can get you a lighter/flashlight combo. A flashlighter if you will. And not only a lighter, but a peanut lighter looking little contraption.

Yes, I realize how wonderful it is. Yes, I am going to try to get some.

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I have been trying to get my grubby little hands on some large tritium vials for about a year now. For the uninitiated, tritium vials are glass tubes filled with tritium gas, a radioactive gas, that excites phosphorescent paint/powder in the tube for at least 10 years. They are like little glow sticks that never die. The amount of radioactivity is negligible, and is almost completely absorbed by the glass.

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By request, here are a couple of beamshots showing what a handheld HID flashlight can do. The first beamshot is a relatively common light, a Fenix L1D-CE (original, not new Q5 version) on turbo mode with a fresh Energizer lithium battery. The second is a Wolf-Eyes Boxer 123X, an HID flashlight that runs on 4 CR123 batteries. Both pictures were taken with the camera on a tripod, with a two second exposure at F3.5. The lights were shone at roughly the same spot in some trees about 50′ up in the air in my backyard. The Fenix did not really have a chance, it was just there to show how bright and floody the Boxer is in comparison.

If my flashlight nerdspeak is confusing and needs clarification, let me know.

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I was doing my weekly perusal of Target today when I wandered in the camping section. Imagine my surprise when I saw that they are stocking the new Coleman products, which make liberal use of the CREE LEDs. They had a large 8D lantern that was 175 lumens for $30 and a little 3AA lantern that was 60 lumens for $20. I did not see any flashlights or headlamps, but Target usually does not carry Coleman lighting products outside of their lanterns. Hopefully that policy will change.

In other Coleman news, we met with the Coleman rep at work yesterday, and placed an order with him today. We will start stocking Coleman’s higher end lighting stuff, their eXponent line on our site. I know I probably love flashlights a little too much, but I am really excited about their products. They have a couple of lights that have a CREE center LED with green and red LEDs set into the reflector. You turn the light on and change modes by a clicky on the tailcap. You change LED colors by rotating the bezel. They are definitely not up there in terms of brightness, but I was impressed with the build quality and features. They also have a little gas lantern that you can fill up with a fuel canister, remove the canister, and have the lantern go for five hours! Once we get some, I’ll purchase a few for myself and post some in-depth reviews.

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I have been slack in my CPF reading, especially the LED lights section. Imagine my surprise when I was perusing it today and saw that Costco is selling a CREE flashlight called the Leatherman Monarch. Reviews seem positive, especially with the light at $30 and available to the masses. Has anyone seen these in their store? Judging by the locations of the CPF posters, it is widely available in CA. I swing by the tool/flashlight aisle every time I visit Costco, and have never seen the Monarch there.

Oh, it also focuses! A CREE that focuses for $30 combined with Costco’s return policy seems like an awesome deal.

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Looks like the first CREE (that I have heard of, at least) has popped up on the American big box retailer market. For the uninitiated, the CREE LED is much brighter than the standard high-powered LED (Luxeon) you see in a retailer’s flashlight section, while retaining the same or better battery life. The Luxeons would generally have an output of around 50-60 lumens (measure of brightness) while this light does 150 lumens. Newer CREE LEDs are more in the range of 220 lumens, and still climbing.

Enough with the super nerdy stuff and on to the slightly nerdy stuff. The light is at Lowes and is a 2C Task Force (their house brand) flashlight with a CREE in it. It is the same shape as their old 2C Luxeon, which was the same as the Harbor Freight 2C Luxeon, both generally well liked flashlights. For those of you who are afraid of sending Paypal funds to random websites in China for your CREE fix, this is a good option.
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It has been well over a week since I last ordered a flashlight, so I starting shaking and going into withdrawal. Luckily, Kaidomain was there to the rescue with the new Ultrafire EMR1. I have seen what the new Rebel 100 LED can do, and was impressed. This light is rated at 200 Lumens (probably from the LED, not out the front). Ultrafire likes to exaggerate, so I am expecting something quite a bit lower than that. Either way, it should be ridiculously bright. KD usually does a decent job of QA before sending any lights, which is why I went with them over DX.

I almost pulled the trigger on one of the Fenix Rebel models, but Fenix has never really done it for me. Ultrafire is not exactly known for producing high quality circuits or machining, but early reviews of this light seem to say that it is fairly nice, and it is about 2/3 the price of a Fenix. KD is supposedly shipping all of these via an Express courier, so I should be able to let you all know if it is a smart purchase soon.

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Dealextreme has a new light that looks like it could be a winner. It is a multi-level light with a CREE LED that takes AAs and 14500s. The nice part is that it also comes with a diffuser cap and a 2xAA extension tube. The extension tube does not really interest me all that much, but the diffuser cap looks pretty great. I have used water bottle caps and chap stik caps as diffusers, so having one that is made for the flashlight and screws on to the flashlight threads will be very convenient. The diffuser cap turns the light into a little lantern, and if it is anything like the ghetto methods I have used, lights up an area surprisingly well.

I have one on the way and will post back with my thoughts when I receive it.

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