People ask me often hey bro, why don’t you do light reviews much anymore. Good question-
I hate flashlights. Anyone else? Ok that’s not the real reason. The real reason is that
I already own the brightest production handheld light. The insanely stupid 60,000 lumen Acebeam
X70. Lights with some of the farthest throwing beams made- beams that are so ridiculous that
you need over half a mile of open unlit area and a spotting scope to appreciate. Not practical
is kind of the je ne sais quoi of this channel. And I also own many other boring lights with
just average 5-32,000 lumen outputs. Like most people. In all that bullshit there is
also some reliable every day carry lights, that are hard to improve upon. This quick
video will tell you what I look for in a light, and give you a list of lights I actually carry.
And I’m sure you may have others you carry… cheaper lights…. More expensive ones…
or ones that fit your tactical lifestyle or some with a spec you like and this isn’t
for you. This is for the people who have trouble making decisions about lights. Or just want
one good light.
So here’s a brief list of what I look for in an LED light, that also might alert you
that nothing in the rest of the video will be fun or interesting
. 1. Powered by a single battery. Either a lithium
ion or AA. I only use rechargeable, you can do whatever you want with your batteries.
2. Relatively compact. Jacket pocket sized to smaller. No massive reflectors or USB charging
like your cellular phone. 18650 battery size is my favorite. Buy a damn separate charger.
3. Good tint. I usually pick warm to daylight tinted LEDs 3000k to 5600k. Are all acceptable
color temperatures. 4. Intuitive operation with shortcuts. I prefer
electronic switches in lights, because they often allow you to access lows and highs easily
from the off mode. Luddites won’t find mechanical clicky switched lights here.
5. A moonlight mode. Anything over 1 lumen is kinda pushing a moonlight or firefly mode.
But I prefer a few options under a half lumen or even a 10th of a lumen. These are modes
for night adjusted eyes. 6. No visible PWM. I made a video about this
linked at the end if you don’t understand nerd acronyms.
7. Don’t get too caught up in the max output. Most of your usage will be under 300 lumens.
Alright. I generally stick to two main brands. If your light isn’t in here, feel free to
make a video about it. You won’t find expensive brands like HDS systems, or exotic materials
like titanium or plastic. All of these flashlights range from $35-$119. If you think those are
too expensive or not expensive enough- then you’ve probably spent too much time on the
internet today. Later. My list above excludes lights on the lower end- and there’s nothing
a light over $120 offers that I require in a flashlight.
First up Emisar lights. Emisar makes 5 or 6 lights, and 2 are ones I’d carry. I don’t
need a pocket thrower, or pretty and expressive titanium, so I stick with the D4, which is
a single 18650 battery sized light. Then the D4S which is a bulkier larger diameter version
of the D4 that uses a 26650 sized battery for brighter output and longer runtimes. The
The D4 is one of the most compact 18650 lights you can get, comes in 4 colors, with a range
of tint options. You see cool white to warm white. In flashlight nerd terms 3000k is close
to incandescent light bulbs, 4000k off whitish tint, 5000k neutral white, 5600k is daylight
tint. Those gross blue tints people idiots like or people hate in flashlights generally
are tints above 6000k. These lights offer an easily adjustable brightness scale and
very bright turbo modes. The negatives are, they are tiny for their size, so they heat
up quick. The highest output is only a wow mode and is only good for under a minute before
the lights temperature controls put on the breaks and pull it down. They are just fine
in use on the lower end… 300 lumens or less is what most people will ever need for indoor
and outdoor use. Another negative is that the brightness ramping moves a little too
quickly for my tastes. If you’re trying to access lower modes you often pass the mode
you want. The last negative is these lights do not a have a sub lumen mode as low as mode
as a zebralight or Armytek. These might not be negative for some people and thats fine,
because that’s your opinion. My two choices that I bought was the D4 in a 5000k Nichia
tint, and the D4S in a 3000k tint. If you’re new to tints don’t overthink the options
if there are several- just pick one that sounds nice to you, that I described earlier. The
D4S does not come with a pocket clip.
Ok the next brand is Zebralight. Zebralights are my favorite lights because of their size,
sub lumen modes, and their shortcut based UI. However, Zebralight’s kink is to confuse
people, so they to have a a lot of options in their lights. I’ll tell you what I look
for, to help you narrow it down- which is your kink. I look for a 3000-5000k tint. I
avoid the HI or High Intensity options because I like less BI or beam intensity in my every
day carry. Ok BI isn’t a real acronym. Frosted lenses from them often have the most diffused
beam, so that’s cool. From experience I tend to like an option under half a lumen,
and one under a tenth of a lumen. The user interface or mode operation gives easy access
to Low modes, medium modes, high modes, and the idiot’s favorite- the blinking ones.
A quick primer is press and hold from off is low. A quick press from off is high…
and a double click from lets you access to the medium modes. When in each of those modes
if it’s low medium or high you have a secondary mode you double click to access. It saves
whatever of these toggable modes you were using last in memory after you turn it off.
If that’s not programmable enough. Zebralights new UI in lithium ion since the mark IVs,
the 64s and the AA models since the 53 and the 5 mkII have completely reprogrammable
UIs that you can assign whatever light level to which ever button sequence I mentioned
to one of the 12 available modes. I hope you understood that, because I didn’t. My lights
are these. The 18650 powered SC600Fc MK IV plus in a 4000k tint. Not quite a low enough
moonlight for me. Then the AA powered SC5c Mk II High CRI in a 4000k tint. Runtimes on
AA are kind of short if you use the higher modes often. And now the newest sized Zebralight,
the SC700d 21700 Neutral White 5000k tinted lithium ion battery powered. This new Zebralight
has the highest output range of all my zebra lights with the lowest low and highest high.
There may be some zebra light with a lower low, but they’re too low for me. .04 lumen
is about as low as I can use with completely night adjusted eyes with no ambient light.
The SC700 comes with a pocket clip but it’s kind of big for anything other smaller than
jacket pocket carry. It’s getting rucksack, holster, or body cavity sized if you’re
not wearing a jacket.
Ok the next few lights are kind of outliers, because I tend to just carry zebralights or
Emisar lights. Armytek prime Pro A1. I have an older prime in a warm tint. They make good
lights, but make sure it’s the pro version, the non pro versions don’t have decent moonlights.
They also have a confusing amount of options in their flashlights. I have found Armyteks
warm tints pleasant. The C2 pros are the ones that feature 18650 battery compatibility I’d
get that over the A1 I have because of the larger battery. Olight make decent EDC lights
too. I still carry a limited edition copper S2. The tint is a little blue for my taste,
but I like the light even though it’s kind of Heavy. There are better tinted, non copper
versions of the S2 that you can still buy. Look for those.
Another honorable mention is the updated Jetbeam RRT01. This one was out of production for
a while, but it’s back and they’ve updated it with a brighter output, and a lower parasitic
drain. It features a simple operation via a dimming ring, which is about a letter off
from a really hot sex toy, but unfortunately has only a cool white output option. It’s
like Jetbeam still doesn’t understand that their core audience is the nerdy internet
EDC community that argues for pages about some shit called CRI. The variable output
gives you the lowest output level out of any of the every day carry lights seen in this
video. The RRT01 will set you back about $60-$70 and is powered by a runtime hating 16340 battery.
Anyway, if you need a sleep aid or further education on lumen output beam intensity,
lithium ion batteries, moonlight modes, and how I measure and test all my lights, check
out the video description for links to those videos, or wait for the end screen. They’re
super boring like this one, but hopefully they help you sort out flashlight bullshit.
So like, subscribe, comment, Patreon me, follow me on Instagram, and thanks for watching.