What’s the best flashlight for under $100 that a person shouldn’t be without?
I recently learned from @jerv@lemmy.world that everyone needs a ts10: https://lemmy.world/comment/1591059
There’s no best. There are tradeoffs.
My favorite flashlight for everyday carry is the Zebralight SC64c LE. It’s compact for using an 18650 battery, it’s easy to find the switch, but hard to press by accident. It has decent color rendering. Its driver is relatively efficient.
Some people would hate it because it doesn’t have a charger built in or because the max output is under 1000 lumens. For a different use case like search and rescue where there’s a bit less emphasis on size, it’s not optimal compared to options with bigger batteries and optics.
Best is very subjective, but if I had to pick one then I’d say get the Emisar D4V2 with a boost driver
I can also highly recommend the D4K with a boost driver. And definitely pick high CRI emitters, I had no idea what I was missing with generic lights.
It’s tough for a newb to figure out all the potential combos of options, but yes that is an utterly excellent pocket light. The aluminum one is probably the best for EDC, with lighter weight and generally better thermal handling. The boost driver is a must, if you intend to use it regularly and not just have it be a show-off light.
It’s in no sense the latest and greatest or best performing quantitatively, but there’s a lot to be said for the Jetbeam RRT01 from a UI/usability standpoint. A rotary control plus tailswitch is kind of unbeatable for usability I think
