Headlamp / Flashlight / Miscellaneous - Recommendations 2024

[SubLunar]

I recently re-evaluated/updated my whole "kit" so I figured I'd make a thread to share/discuss the tools of the trade while this is all fresh in my mind and browser history. Feel free to post up your own recommendations and assorted useless commentary.

Before I go any further with my own: Here's a useful site where you can use filters to sort readily available head/flashlights by criteria such as battery type. For some reason, most manufacturers don't allow you to sort their products by battery type which is frustrating.

The Parametrek Flashlight Finder:
http://flashlights.parametrek.com/index.html

<---Useless commentary you have to scroll past to find the actual recommendations--->

There are a few things I hate shopping for: Flashlights, Headlights and cell phones. My contributions to this thread will focus on the former two and ignore the latter since it's entirely unrelated and I only mentioned it because I really fucking hate shopping for cell phones. They're all the same overpriced and easily broken pieces of shit with no noticeable differences except incrementally better cameras and they've never been worth paying more than $100-200 for a used one. But I digress.

I recently suffered through this tedious shopping chore and figured I'd share what I found/like. My not-so-hidden agenda for creating this thread is to promote uniformity in power sources for the aforementioned head/flashlights. In particular, I want to spread the gospel and superiority of AA powered light sources.

I am a notoriously cheap bastard. Back in the day, the only flashlights I explored with were these cheap hand-crank ones. Unfortunately, hand-crank lights have always been so poorly made that the cranks break after a while and woops! Now you're fucked. I've never been able to find a decent/rugged hand crank light. I often relied on my comrades to have good lights and so I would just follow closely enough in dark places to not actually have to invest in my own.. lol. I came to my senses and realized that good lights (and other safety equipment) is the most important thing you can invest in. If you're deep underground, for example, your life can truly depend on having enough light to see your way out.

Once I was forced to find new light sources and inevitably carry/maintain multiple battery types. I quickly realized how annoying that shit is. So I made a pact right then and there with Lord Satan that I would never deviate from AA powered lights as my primary if I could just find some that were good.

With something so critical as light, I don't want to rely on specialty/harder to find batteries. In a pinch, you can find AA's just about anywhere. Years ago, I stumbled onto the Fenix HL30 AA powered headlamp (300 Lumens) and I decided that was *the one* for me. But unfortunately the hinge breaks pretty easily on those if you drop em and then those bastards at Fenix discontinued it without a suitable AA replacement. I've also had to solder one when the battery cables broke for some reason. I also realized that 300 lumens is fine for "most" things, but once you get into larger/darker areas, it just ain't quite enough. Those things did, however, last all day long with regular Eneloops, so I would still recommend them if they were available. I got down to the last one of my HL30 headlamps and realized I need to go shopping.

Goddamnit.

As a cheap bastard/minimalist I say: screw having to support/carry around multiple types of batteries and chargers. And especially fuck the rechargeable integrated units with no removable battery at all.

Aside from my camera*, I want everything else I carry to use AA batteries**. Standard, uniform, easily replaceable sources of power or BUST. Not compatible with AA batteries? Then you're not compatible with me, bitch.

<---Recommendations--->

Disclaimer: None of these links are affiliate/sponsored etc. I don't gain anything by making these recommendations. I was just bored and decided to try to convince everyone to buy AA powered lights so that companies to continue making them forever so I don't have to go shopping around ever again because fuck that shit.

Batteries
Panasonic Eneloop rechargeable AA's are the tits. Go rechargeable and save money vs regular alkalines.

One thing I never realized before until this recent shopping excursion is that you need to be careful when using rechargeable batteries like this in airtight/waterproof flashlights. To paraphrase (and I admit I know nothing about electricity) When using two or more batteries together, if one becomes discharged while the other has juice, it can flip the polarity and cause a dangerous buildup of gasses which could lead to an explosion. Based on everything I read, this is not a problem in single AA battery devices. But ALSO, this isn't limited to AA's. Many of today's high performance batteries are fire/explosion hazards so just be aware of the risks and how you use/store/charge your batteries.

AA Powered Headlamps

LedLenser MH8 is the current best AA Powered Headlamp that I can find anywhere (there's not many out there really). 600 Lumens on highest setting. At $75, it's borderline too expensive for my tastes, but still cheaper than most of the fancy integrated headlamps. ALSO, these come WITH A RECHARGEABLE BATTERY that's like 2 AA's in one enclosure, but you can use regular AA's in its place. This is awesome because that means I don't have to use the AA's in my pack until these run out, essentially increasing the battery power I'm carrying. The light is focusable, which is often useful. My only gripe is that the white and red lights don't have their own separate buttons like the discontinued Fenix HL30 did, but this one is twice as bright so I'd say that makes up for it. Weird name and made in China, but designed/developed in Germany so maybe that still counts for something. Quality seems up there.
https://www.ledlenserusa.com/products/mh8

Nitecore HA-20 is the runner-up AA headlamp but it was recently discontinued. Still available in a few places. On the cheaper side, but also only 300 lumens which again, is good enough for "most" things, but not all. OH HEY IT'S ONLY $20 ON AMAZON RIGHT NOW. I'm guessing this is a clearance sale or something. I highly recommend buying a few just so you have some spare/emergency headlamps: https://www.amazon.com/Nitecore-HA20-En ... K6SCBRPKD2

AA Powered Flashlights

Ever since I came to my senses many years ago and started exploring more underground/dangerous stuff, I always carry 3 separate light sources: a small flashlight in my pocket, a headlamp and another light source in my camera bag. Because "two is one and one is none".

Skilhunt E2A is now my pocket light of choice. It has an option for high CRI among other things. ~$20-30 depending on the option, one of which is an INCLUDED RECHARGEABLE AA size BATTERY. I really like that because you'll get arguably better performance until their battery runs out, then you can just swap in your own AA's and keep going.
https://www.skilhunt.com/product/e2a-14 ... battery%29

LUMINTOP Tool AA 2.0 is a good runner up single-AA flashlight and I like it. Extremely compact. ~$20.
https://lumintop.com/product/toolaa20/

Previously I was using the single-AA Coast HX-5 flashlight but have since moved on to the Skilhunt. These Coast lights have indeed been good reliable lights and the beam is focusable, but at 168 lumens it's comparatively weak, especially for lighting up large dark spaces. ~$20. One big plus going for it is that this is simply one click on/off. No multiple modes to click through. I like when I don't have to fiddle around with shit.
https://coastportland.com/collections/l ... oducts/hx5


Hand Crank Lights
I've never given up in the quest for hand-crank lights but they generally all seem to be bottom of the barrel cheap junk. I recently found the "American Red Cross Clipray Clip-on Flashlight and Charger". I haven't tested the USB charging ability of this device, but yeah the crank mechanism looks about as "temporarily reliable" as cranks I've used in the past and the light is ok as an emergency light source but pretty weak, so nothing special. It's only ~$10 though, so why not?
https://etoncorp.com/products/clipray

Fenix just came out with this thing which might be the first actually decent(?) hand-crank light. I'll buy one here soon and update the thread with my impressions of it. FENIX E-STAR. At $37 it better be more durable than all the other crank lights I've seen.
https://fenix-store.com/products/fenix- ... gJSAfD_BwE


Camera power
*Cameras don't take AA batteries. Right? Actually, yes they can. Now I'm only familiar with Canon but the "battery grips" actually used to come with AA battery trays. I used to have one back in the day on my XTI. Looks like they stopped doing that though. And they took 6 AA's, so... definitely not ideal.. But I kinda want to find a grip/tray for my current camera and just see how stupid it is. Here's an example.
https://www.amazon.com/Canon-Battery-Di ... B000B68LSG


AA Camera accessories
The Ulanzi W49 is a kickass cheap little hotshoe mounted light that weighs almost nothing and runs on 2-AA's.
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/ ... light.html

Before I discovered that Ulanzi device, I had engineered my own solution for a compact hotshoe mounted light: A rubbery micrpphone clip attached to a threaded adapter which was attached to a threaded hotshoe adapter. They're standard thread sizes and I don't recall them off-hand but it's easy enough to figure out. I'd just stick my Coast HX-5 in the mic clip and voila. I can use the pocket flashlight I already carry. But it takes up about as much space as the W49 in my bag and weighs more, so now I just use the W49 since it has a little better coverage than the HX-5. Haven't tried it out with the E2A yet, though. These new lights might be too small for the mic clip to hold. But anyway, now you know that's an option.


NON-AA Battery lights
**Alright, look... I know I said I will only use AA powered lights. But what I meant is I will only use AA powered lights as my primary. Sometimes you need a little extra juice and the AA's just aren't going to cut it when you need a SHITTON of light. Several years ago, I was exploring with microwave and trying to photograph this huge dark industrial shithole. I was struggling to capture it when he whipped out the FUCKING SUN from his pocket and everything dark was now illuminated. So I begged him and offered unspeakable favors if he would tell me what the fuck just happend. Turns out, it was a "TH-30" headlamp made by Thrunite which uses an 18650 battery. So yeah. That's been my backup 3rd source of light. I only use it when I need to fry some retinas or illuminate the depths of hell for a photo. They're discontinued now but yeah. Battery is removable and you can charge it in the light with a standard USB charger. I will definitely keep carrying a retina destroyer like this because it's useful to have.

That's all I got for now. I'll leave my first contribution in this thread limited to lights and batteries but feel free to share any other gear you like/recommend.

[lokiracer]

I know you're heavily on the AA-train, but you should consider 18650 powered flashlights. The jokers over a /r/flashlight gave me some recommendations for lights for my Search and Rescue kit, and all of them were 18650 powered. All my underwater photography equipment is 18650 also.

Zebra makes a killer headlamp and Emisar D4V2 is a crazy thrower.

[mindwaave]

This is a great overview, SubLunar. I'm a huge proponent of the Eneloop rechargeable AA and AAA cells for smaller and older lamps.

The only 18650 cell I use (for illumination) is in a small ThruNite L-shaped flashlight that floods up to 1.2k lumens. Larger, more power-dense cells are absolutely better for brighter lamps or longer-duration use. I do have a special 21700 LEP "flashlight" to portably illuminate disco balls and other things at distance, but these cells may impart different cooling/duty cycle limitations... and get fried more easily

The Zebras are cool. Do you like the white balance/color of yours, lokiracer?

[lokiracer]

The Zebras are cool. Do you like the white balance/color of yours, lokiracer?

I bought mine primarily for SAR (search and rescue) and exploring second. I love them for SAR. They aren't great for using with photography/urbex, but I carry other lights for that.

I would buy Zebra again. Zero complaints.