I picked up one of these at the store this past weekend:
Viatek Mini Dynamo flashlight
It's called the Viatek Mini Dynamo and calls itself the world's smallest dynamo flashlight. I'm quite impressed by it so far. It's the size of an egg (but flattened) and has 3 LEDs. It says that one minute of cranking provides up to one hour of light. I must say the light quality seems to be very good. With the small size and inexpensive price (I paid $7.99) this has earned a spot in my possibles bag.

Viatek makes some other sizes of dynamo flashlights as well. Reading the instructions for one it recommended charging at least once a month to maintain the batteries over the long term. Does anyone have any idea on whether this helps? It's easy enough to do so I'll give it a try. There seem to be dynamo versions of everything battery powered now!

Terry

http://www.equipped.org/ORSummer2007.htm

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Funny because we just had a thread bout this yesterday. Basically what happens is batteries self discharge due to their internal resistance. What can happen when a battery gets too low is it can leak or reverse its polarity. So you need a maintenance charge on anything battery powered to keep them from getting too low.

How robust does it feel? I looked at them in the summer sales show report, and my thought was "it's tiny". I'm not exactly known for a delicate touch.

forester, I came across these at the local Fred Meyer. I was pretty impressed for $8 and bought one to try out for awhile. If it holds up it could become my main flashlight in my daypack.

I picked mine up at Freddy's too. Time will tell about how robust it is. Mine has been banging around in my coat pocket since I got it. It has a rubbery grip to it and fits well in my hand without that cheap "Made in China" feel (although that's where it's made). The three LEDs really put out a good light. I come home to a dark house every evening and have been impressed by the intensity of light it has - even up to 25 or 30 feet. I do wonder how weather proof it will turn out to be. I moved back to "sunny" northwest Oregon several years ago (I really gotta change my user profile) and need something that will hold up in inclement weather.

I'm going to add a strip of velcro to the flat surface on top to be able to use with a headband or hat as a hands-free application.

Terry

I've got mine in my pocket right now as the power is likely to go out at anytime based on the winds we're having.

We get power outages at least once a month. My almost two year old who loves "light light light" has fun because I hand a small lantern from the pull chain on the living room ceiling fan and we pull out all the flashlights. I found this little plastic one for him to play with and put in some old rechargeable batteries since he leaves it laying around turned on all the time.