I inherited an old house in rural Greece. Unfortunately it sat empty for quite a while before I took it over, and at some point it was broken into. Most of my tools disappeared, a few things were damaged, and bringing the place back to life has been a much bigger project than expected.

The silver lining has been my neighbors. They've been absolutely fantastic. They've lent me tools, replaced a broken window, driven into town to help me get things I needed, and generally helped solve a thousand little problems that would have been very difficult for me as a foreigner who doesn't speak much Greek.

I'd love to get them a practical gift. I've already invited them over for dinner and things like that, but I'd also like to give them something useful that they'll hopefully use for years.

The other evening I saw my neighbor walking around the property with his phone flashlight while showing me something in the dark, and it made me think that a really good flashlight might be perfect.
What I'm looking for:
Pocketable

- Very simple to use
- USB-C rechargeable
- Battery can be replaced when it eventually wears out
- Reliable enough to last for years
- Useful around a rural property and olive grove

Ideally with a serious "wow, that's bright" factor the first time he turns it on

For context, this subreddit previously recommended the Sofirn HS21 headlamp to me, and I absolutely love it, so I figured I'd ask the experts again.

What would you recommend?
Thanks!

Behold! The 20D double ended Maglite!

🛠️ Test Equipment & Camera Settings

• Equipment Note: I am unable to provide my usual output, runtime, or tint charts for this light. Because of the pure monochrome red wavelength of the SBT90.2 Red emitter, my testing equipment cannot accurately capture or read the measurements correctly. This post focuses purely on beamshots!
• Beamshot Camera Settings (Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra Pro Mode)
  • ISO: 800
  • Focal Length: 23mm
  • Exposure Compensation: -1.0ev
  • Aperture: F1.8
  • Shutter Speed: 1/4 s
  • White Balance: Locked at 5000K

Loves flashlights. Truly my cat.

Have you guys seen this？ A Russian guy built what could be the brightest searchlight in the world. He used a 7-kilowatt xenon short-arc lamp and triggered it with a high-voltage discharge system built using a ZVS driver. I’d estimate the brightness is probably over 600,000 lumens？！

Hi everyone. Since I prefer cooler tints, I had to try the new SFT-70 High CRI 5700K.

What stood out to me immediately was the very clean cool white tint. It keeps that crisp cool-white look without appearing excessively green, while still maintaining nice CRI.

DUV stays close to neutral across different output levels and does not seem to shift dramatically.

Overall, I like this emitter quite a lot. It offers a nice combination of a clean cool-white tint, nice CRI, and solid throw.

Note: English is not my first language, so I used a translation tool.

Quite a professional job if I may say so myself

Edit:

/s - forgot the sign

Was initially hoping to do a nice non-destructive disassembly and fix whatever the power delivery issue to the LED was, but board was epoxied to the lamp head with no way to gently pop it out.

Anyways, if anyone wants any specific details about the inner workings of a Wurkkos DL03 head, lemme know

Emailed Neal about maybe releasing a 21700 tube and switch that worked with the L3 heads. I was told there was no plan for a 21700 mod for the L3 and that they would be releasing a 21700 900lm 2500m LEP next month. Looks to be grippier than the L3 and with a side switch. Looking forward to it 🍻

This swap was probably one of the easiest/quickest I’ve ever done. One reason for this is that there’s no thermal paste involved.

First I tried some FFL351a in 3700K. The beam hotspot is so very narrow on a domeless emitter paired with these optics. I just didn’t like it that much.

Second, and final, a pair of Nichia 519a’s in 4500K, dome on. Love it. It matches pretty well with the white side light.

The internals are in one piece and pop out easily once all the screws are undone. There’s a silver post with some notches for a flathead screwdriver to screw tight that securely holds the internal chassis in place.

I absolutely love how it turned out, I have a blue led tail switch, a warmer emitter and a brass bird skull bead (from coppertist wu) to put on the spring and then it’s done.

The steps to do this:

1. strip the protective coating with 0000 steal wool (takes about 20 minutes by hand)

2. in a container ball up a bunch of paper towels and soak them all in ammonia.

3. put salt on the paper towels where the light will be sitting.

4. put paper towels soaked in ammonia with salt on them on top of the light.

5. seal the container/jar.

6. I let this one for about 26 hours, the longer you leave it the more patina you’ll get.

7. Take it out and rinse it in cold water rubbing it gently with your fingers.

8. CAREFULLY go over it with the 0000 steel wool the remover any patina you don’t want and to shine up some seconds of the copper (to increase contrast)

9. Spray or paint it with a clear coat/lacquer/sealant to protect the paint as it can rub of quickly.

Edit: I edited this to add steps 7-9 but I’m on mobile so it may mess up my formatting a lot.

After seeing all the hype surrounding the LHP531, I decided to check it out for myself. I initially planned to take the easy route and order a Convoy S2+ with 10a driver but really wanted something with Anduril.

I ended up ordering the emitter in 4000k from Simon and a Sofirn SC31 Pro from AliExpress (roughly $14 with coupons).

Long story short, the SC31 Pro arrived in the mail today and I now have a very impressive budget light running Anduril.

I wasn’t able to lock the white balance on my phone when taking the pictures, but the photos aren’t far off. The fence at the far side of picture 3 was approximately 120 meters away.

Feels like holding a lightsaber. Has anyone else picked an LEP? Did you find a practical use for it?