When it comes to picking out flashlights a few aspects come to find that need to fit the bill in order for me to shell out some cash: environmental impact, build quality, brightness, battery longevity, quality of light, battery type, comfort, flexibility of light/beam and perhaps some extra fun features I am not even aware of.
I don’t have a problem spending money on a light that I know is good quality and will last a long time, perform perfectly etc etc, but such a light would really need to check ALL the boxes. Most of these I am referring to use odd, high capacity types of batteries; this annoys me.
If I’m not in the parking lot of my local specialty battery store when I reach for my light, only to find the battery has died, what good is a $150 flash light? Thus, I have ruled these out as being ‘less-than-practical’. I narrowed my search to lights using conventional batteries that are eco-friendly. LED technology has done some serious evolving recently in terms of lumen output as well as power draw, so anything but this bulb type has also been ruled out.
Then I got my paws on a Dorcy 41-0902 ZX Series flashlight. It has a nice feel in the hand, uses 3 AA batteries housed in the handle in a triangular formation, meaning that the handle has a nice amount of girth to it; not too dinky this Dorcy. Fire it up by pressing the rubber button on the rear end and the single CREE LED throws out a surprisingly piercing, uniform circle of light. I was impressed.
Then I dropped it, by ‘accident’. The thud the all-aluminium body made when it hit my hardwood floor left a nice little ding. In the floor, not the light. Note to self: don’t do that again. Picked it up, and it continued shining like a crazy diamond.
What’s that in the distance? Push out the bezel and the perfect circle of uniform light narrows to a finer beam. It’s a bear! Greaaaaat.
A few soft touches of the ‘on’ button toggles the light dimmer, to a rave-like strobe light (I can actually see this coming in handy on some future camping trips), SOS strobe and back again…FUN!
Make them more eco-friendly by using rechargeable batteries.
Basically, this thing has all the features I need, and it feels, looks and actually is really well thought out and built. I’ve been using it regularly (I live in the woods) for a couple months and can honestly say its my favorite so far, and I’m a gadget person, I’ve tried LOTS of others. This is the one I keep at the ready. And for around 50 bucks you owe it to yourself to light up your life a little better.
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