EDC Handheld Light - What's hot, what's not? Surefire preferred.

[newyork]

I wonder if Modlite has any plans of making a light with high and low for carry.

[TCB]

Maybe, but some reasons why I got modlite and cloud lights were because surefire not only had inferior performance, but their dual fuel lights have lots of reported issues with cr123's.

I think 18650s are superior to cr123's, and you can always carry more 18650s.

For performance, absolutely. For ease of dealing with over 4-5 pieces of equipment…nope. I already carry a crap ton of stuff and prepping for work is enough of a pain to add another battery type, chargers at home, in the rig (is my vehicle in available or am I in a pool ride? Does the charger work?). Having to retain the used cells and remembering to grab and recharge them at the end of a shift for tomorrow? Ugh…way simpler to just grab some 123s that everything I carry takes. I haven’t had issues with any of the 4-5 SF DF lights I use regularly? The only thing I’ve heard is the SF switches being not rated for the modern high output lights…

There is an easy trick to step down a single output light I was taught by my FTO many years ago when we were trying to be sneaky or needed less light to cut for tricky sign or didn’t want to blow out our vision using a high output light on detailed work up close…put your fingers over the bezel. Works like a charm. But I do like having a high / low light on my workbench for the convenience of using for that stuff too.

[LittleLebowski]

This is the best flashlight I’ve ever owned. Can use AA or CR123, can be carried in about any position, and the ease of use/comfort is amazing.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...e?ie=UTF8&th=1

[theJanitor]

I'm still solidly in the 123 camp, in spite of the cost. By design, I run as much things off the 123 as possible, and the container of spare batteries covers most things: EXPS, Dbal, XVL2, M300, M600, X300, handhelds, IR beacon, etc. I probably have 17-20 units that require 123 batteries, not including a pile of truly outdated lights.

[NH Shooter]

I’m often looking inside walls or behind things in darkness so I can fish out wires. 800 or more lumens is too much. 5 is often too little. Waiting for a Malkoff to step down to 100 is annoying. Both are fine for defense just not for my work.

M61L (200 lumens) - https://malkoffdevices.com/products/...re-and-malkoff

VME head - https://malkoffdevices.com/products/...-concepts-head

Body - https://malkoffdevices.com/products/...r123-body-only

Runs fine on either a pair of CR123s or a 16650 Li-ion cell. Or use a one cell body (shown below) and run it on a single CR123 (about 100 lumens) or a Li-ion 16340 (all 200 lumens).

[newyork]

Doesn’t do high AND low? Too high for fishing wires. Idk if 200 is high enough for large areas like attics etc. hasn’t been enough on the small 200 Malkoff I have already.

I have a small one sort of similar to the body one in your pic. Bone stock no parts swaps fyi

[APS-PF]

This is the best flashlight I’ve ever owned. Can use AA or CR123, can be carried in about any position, and the ease of use/comfort is amazing.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...e?ie=UTF8&th=1

You can run it on an AAA in a pinch too. Just be careful to center the battery as you're screwing the cap on.

[Magsz]

I wonder if Modlite has any plans of making a light with high and low for carry.

They've been very vocal in their dislike of multi mode lights. At least I think I recall reading an article with the CEO stating as such.

[BobLoblaw]

This is the kind of thing that makes me wonder about a lot of these one off oddball brands.

Are the “gains” really all that important or valuable when offset against the parts availability, general fiddle-fuck involved, general uncertainty around the brand…

I find myself less and less interested in “bespoke” anything. Ultimately I either wind up let down or having to invest more time and/or Money, or all three.

I totally agree with this which is why I don't have spare flashlight bodies or heads lying around. You'll be hard-pressed to convince me (over the internet anyways) that my time is worth the difference (in addition to the added cost). If I need to consult a forum or get somebody on the phone to talk me through my "build," you lost me before you had me. I don't care if you can hot rod it or if it can also transform into some other light. I just want a reasonably tough and bright light with decent controls and a good pocket clip. The more involvement required, the less I want it.

I've also used the same coyote USB microstream for most EDC/casual stuff over the last 3 years and I haven't seen a convincing reason to replace it other than "China" (which, yeah obviously not ideal).

[pastaslinger]

They've been very vocal in their dislike of multi mode lights. At least I think I recall reading an article with the CEO stating as such.

I would like a light with two switches for high and low or an AUG trigger type switch with low for shallow and high for deep press