Yeah, sometimes with a full moon, I don't even bother with a light. And conversely, if it's really dark, a light bit of light will get you a long way. It totally depends on ambient brightness and environment.

Most flashlights will work fine for most people in lots of situations. After all it’s just a flashlight, don’t make it more complicated then it is.

Ha! I dare you to post that on http://candlepowerforums.com.

If walking in the woods and you have a chemical light, tie or tape it to the end of a stick or walking pole and hold the stick with the light in front of you down by and in front of your feet. This way you can walk and see where you are stepping.

I don’t care what a bunch of flashlight Geeks think…

Flashlights should provide a few things.

They should be durable enough to work in the situation you use them in.

They should use an easily found power source.

They should last more then a short time on a set of batteries (many of what are called “tactical lights” fail this one, and fail miserably!) They run off the CR123 batteries (more expensive) and only run for 1 ½ hrs, this is a very poor choice of a light for a survival situation.

And they should provide enough light to see what you are doing.

All the flashlights I have provide enough light, some of them will light up the whole yard (60 feet wide and 200 feet back from the window) and the front of my garage (130-feet away from my window) like it’s daylight. While this is real manly and cool, it’s hardly needed in most situations. In fact it’s needed in very few, we just tell ourselves we need it.

I have to take issue with this. Flashlights are as variable as knives or any other piece of equipment.

If you're happy with a 2xAA Maglite as your survival light in the woods, more power to you :), but I'll take a regulated, variable output light that steps from 10-200 lumens, preferably with a strobe, 3 to 50 hours run time, with an aluminum reflector and UCL lens any time. I'm also very particular about the balance of throw to spill and the size and color of the hotspot in my lights. (Most white LEDs are anything but white.)

And it makes all the difference in the world if you're using it indoors, outdoors, in pure darkness, in mild illumination, in fog, under/near water, near hazardous fumes, etc.

If you think all flashlights are the same, you may not know enough about flashlights...

Fitz -- a flashlight geek

Never said they are not important (heck I carry one in the daytime)

Never said I use Mag lights (at least not for several years, mag lights are well behind the times in regard to the bulb)

I have fully embraced LED flashlights because of their greatly reduced power consumption.


I don’t need (as I would guess most people don’t) a variable power flashlight.


I'm also very particular about the balance of throw to spill and the size and color of the hotspot in my lights. (Most white LEDs are anything but white.)

So it’s color is different then an incandescent light bulb, how does this stop it from lighting up my yard or a room? It doesn’t!

If you think all flashlights are the same, you may not know enough about flashlights...

Never said that, I said most flashlights will work in most situations.

Try this for 2-weeks, go to a store and buy a normal LED flashlight with o-rings.
It will work if you are indoors, outdoors, when it’s dark, fishing (close to water), when it’s fogy out, and a whole lot of other places you can imagine.


Give it a try, and if you are honest with yourself, you will admit that it did the job just like the super light you have.

I bought one at Target for $19.00, it’s waterproof, explosion proof and I use it for probably an hour every 2-days. Its 2-months old still running on the original batteries and still bright enough to light up my garage from the house (130 feet away.) I use it for a headlight on my bike when riding it at night so it gets at least ½ hr of use a night.

You don't need an expensive sebenza to get a good folder. But some people who are into knives still wan't one. They know that 10 times the price isn't goeing to provide a knife witch is 10 times better.
The difference is in the details.

The same goes for flashlights. Fitzoid is very critical about flashlights, and so it seems he is also a flashaholic. Besides, fully regulated and variable output is definatly a nice feature to have. Not every situation calls for the maximum brightness.

What light are you talking about here? I am not up to date on a lot of lights and I am not sharpshooting here, but my SureFire with 120 watt bulb runs 20 minutes. What light runs 200 lumens for 3 hours? If what your describing fits the $$$, I'd probably get it.

In my current EDC I carry an old red maglite with a Nitize LED kit (great light BTW). I also carry a e+lite headlamp. I have another dozen or two headlamps, electric torches and lanterns around the house. The Surefire is just for show.

Well the thing is, regulated multi stage flashlights can be a pain to operate. Especially those with more than just a few modes. I really don't want to choose from 20 diffrent light outputs and i really hate to programme mine lights, with just one button.

But some manufacutures has multistage levels, without too many features like the Fenix range of flashlights. There P3D and L2D versions can put a huge amount of light with good battery life.