LEDs have changed lighting forever, it looks like.
There seem to be 3 bulbs, I mean “emitters,” that are rocking the world. Cree, Seoul and Luxeon Star Rebel.
I saw a report that said in 10 years that light bulbs—in houses and everywhere—will all be Crees—and that electricity usage will drop by half and lighting durability will greatly improve as well. Amazing!
Now, the flashlight world is a crazy and confusing place, full of geeks. The goal is to use their expertise to quickly and simply uplift the normal people. I admit that I haven’t found a clear path thru the geekery quite yet, but! I did find the Mother Lode. And so I pass it on to you.
I studied this stuff in depth maybe 5 years ago, and reported on it here. (The links are still up.) But the whole scene has TOTALLY changed since then!
At Deal Extreme (“DX” for short, to the geeks) you can easily buy a wide variety of hugely powerful and very small flashlights for, like, $15 with free shipping.
I also note many other cheap goodies on this site. Most from China, I suppose. I see the DC-529, a no-name 5mp digital camera with many features for $50—its blankness looks pretty good, actually. But no reviews for it anywhere online, other than the mixed review at DX. I did see they’re made by Winait, of China, but again no reviews of anything by Winait. I like buying local, but it’s not possible with a lot of things. Buying a global brand name like “Canon” is probably no different from buying globally from China. Aren’t many global brands made in China as it is, but with the fancy name attached and the cost greatly multiplied to cover corporate overhead?
Search for the “Romisen Cree” brand. Or Ultrafire. Well, you can’t help running into them.
It used to be that you had to spend $30-$50 for an “EDC” everyday-carry light or headlamp. And that the best bike lights cost $200. No more!
It also used to be that LED’s had a blue-ish light. Now they’re white. However, they still wash out shadow detail for some reason. (And they don’t show blood sign for tracking deer at night. However, there are some bulbs which really make blood stand out—they might be black-lights—a great help for night-time tracking—and maybe even better than daytime.)
I usually just use a headlamp—but that really washes out shadow. I think it’s because my eyes are right in line with the beam. It’s really bad when biking. The trick is to combine a headlamp with a hand-held or with a light on your handlebar…or even on your fork—a low-mounted light makes the depth of everything stand out.
Now, I don’t understand the illumination ranking terms. There’s lumens and luxes and watts…and more. So how to compare what’s going down? It turns out that none of these numbers really tells a whole story. The shape of the reflector determines how much light power does what you want it to. And that depends on your mission! You need to see pics of how a light works at the range(s) you desire. Some are “throwers,” putting a spot out far. Usually the geeks prefer a good spot with plenty of “spill”—but some uses don’t need spill. The numbers are helpful, but a good expert review gives the real scoop. However, often the experts are so into each type of light that they’ll rave about a weak light if it gives good results from, say, 1 AA battery.
I find that I use a headlight/headlamp (what’s the best term?) every day, so that’s my preferred unit.
The Cree emitter does seem to be the popular champ.
But here’s the weird thing: a Cree headlamp has been hard to find and a long time coming. Yet right now a few seem to be out there…and in the $20 range, no less. And one is even at WalMart now! (I see one at DX for $10…3 watts. Compare to the top Petzl 3W for $80!)
Offhand, it seems like a 2-mode light is the way to go, but this seems to bump up a $15 “stick” light up to $25 in Cree-land.
At a store, it seems like the best, brightest headlamp is a top Petzl, at 3 watts and 85 lumens, for $80. It uses a “new bulb,” they say. Such vagueness can’t impress the geeks.
This kind of set-up in multi-mode goes for $25 on Deal Extreme.
But for $15 you can get non-headlamps, regular “stick” lights that use, like one AAA battery, 1/2-diameter, 3″ long—that are, like, 150 lumens and 5 watts. Crazy!
So you can get a headlamp, stick-light and bike-mount for $26 that puts out probably three times as much light, with good depth-detail, as a $80 Petzl headlamp alone.
Now…these cheapy lights probably aren’t so very robustly built. Some are, but some aren’t. Then there’s waterproofing. The geeks do comment, though, on how some are built unglued so that they can easily be dismantled and fixed or sealed with silicone or souped-up.
Yes, Deal Extreme sells cheap kits and parts. You can throw together your own light easily for even cheaper—and with superhero powers and brightness. (The pic I’m showing is of a Cree emitter and star — not sure how it all works, though.)
I’ll let you try to sort it out. But it’s a rockin’ website!
Here are a couple other resources well worth checking out:
CandlepowerForums.com — for the max geekery — it’s the “must read” — especially the “budget cree” reviews I link to below.
FlashlightReviews.com — mothballed but full of good info, including Cree, as of 2005, say…
Here are some more tips: Lithium batteries last a long time in the cold and are very lightweight. At least certain TYPES of Li-ion batt last long in cold… There’s so much out there! It gets confusing. I have a 2900mAh Li-Fe-Se AA batt that did great last winter—but I can’t find more, even at DX.
Also, these DX folks sell a couple popular bike accessories that let you clamp a flashlight to handlebars, for, like $1 for one and $8 for the other. They probably have headlamp adapters for stick-lights, too.
I’ve gotten myself lost in DXville and at CandlePowerForums for long enough to start to sort things out. So I’ll pass along what I’ve picked up, to save you time and remind myself again someday.
Here are some basics: the AAA and AA batt’s are common but not so powerful and don’t last very long. They’re 1.7 v, but are often combined. There are a couple/few other battery sizes that come with the big-time power territory. With AA’s you stop at 150 lumens. You hop up to 230 lumens with RCR123A’s and 18650’s and 14500. These are all 3.7 v each and are sometimes combined in series. One Romisen light seems to be able to use most any battery, which seems sweet.
Another “big thing” is that DX sells great batteries for cheap, too. 14500’s are like hi-power AA’s, $5 for 2. 18650 are $10 for 2. I guess this is way less than half price of brick’n’mortar. Chargers are $10.
Still, getting a sweet 230-lumen light and some 18650’s and a charger do add up to a $30 investment. One where you can’t swap batt’s with your other household stuff.
Here’s a great CPF thread for light reviews to get you REALLY psyched AND confused: www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=202032.
So…you’re welcome! Tell ’em I sent ya!
https://www.dealextreme.com
