The Photon Freedom comes with a neck lanyard clip that also protects the switch. Just remove the lanyard string and you've got a fool proof button guard.

im suprised no-one's mentioned, my persenol favorite... THE doug Ritter led. One of my coments is that the little black tube to prevent side-scatter can be both a blessing and a curse... One time I went impromptu cave exploring and after about a minute of use I decided to switch to my county comm led... the side scatter helps light up da walls better... I bumoed my head into the wall once or twice with the DR one.

Look at a Peak 3 LED Matterhorn AAA light. Twist on/twist off. About the same size ans a Mag Solitaire. Great little light, robust. If 1 of the 3 LED's quit, you still have 2 more. I EDC one, and love it.

It really depends on what size of a light you are looking for. If a AAA will do, look at the Fenix lights. Super bright but expensive.

If you want a pinch light and want to store it without it turning on when pinched, open it up and add something thin that won't tear in between the battery and the contact wire. Make sure it is large enough to stick out of the pinch light casing. Then pinch it back together. Now it won't turn on at all. When you want to use it, simply pull on the part extending from the light to pull it completely out. Then the wire will contact the battery and you can use it like normal. That is the way I store a pinch light in a modified version of Doug's PSP.

Good luck!

I am surprised no one mentioned the ARC AAA

The light has to be one of the most durable lights out there. It has a proven track record.

It is also the perfect survival light it is small and works on dead or poor quality batteries you can salvage.

Photon Freedom is a great choice and if I were going any bigger I would go with a Petzl E-Light.
By the way many low energy lights (voltage?) don't need to be waterproof. I have seen several Photon models stay on while in a glass of water.
I saw a lot of these at SHOT show;
http://www.streamlight.com/product/product.aspx?pid=141
they are very small.
Bill

Doug has his own design of photon. Click on the link to his knives on this sites home page to get you to the company that sells them.
The Sock

sorry climberslacker missed the fact you'd already mentioned Dougs design. I thought I was the only one on the site who refered people to Dougs designs and advice, (which makes me wonder why everyone else uses the site.

Is it true you can remove the side scatter barrier from Dougs light with a tug and then replace it?
The Sock

The photon used to be my favorite light, however after two incidents in the outdoors I switched to the ARC. One time while whitewater rafting the water killed the light and the other time when the battery went dead it was hard to find a replacement battery and when I did find them they cost a fortune and where a pain to replace. Nothing worse than a light crapping out on you when you need it the most.

wow! thanks for all the suggestions, i'll have to check them out. i have a pretty small psk, so the smaller the LED the better. the photon seems to get a lot of mixed reviews... but the ARC seems good too. swampdonkey's "light10" are along the lines of what i was looking for, but for only a buck a light, i tend to believe the "get what you pay for" philosophy. i'm willing to pay more for quality and durability. i want to be able to put in my kit and forget it, and not have to worry that it's broken when i need it. i'll let you know what i decide. thanks again for all the input