What’s the best flashlight for under $100 that a person shouldn’t be without?
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.
I recently learned from @jerv@lemmy.world that everyone needs a ts10: https://lemmy.world/comment/1591059
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.
I second this. I like my Noctigon KR4 with a boost driver… which is more or less the D4V2 with a tailswitch.
If I were doing it over, though, I’d probably get the D4K instead. Only a little larger than the D4V2 and KR4 with longer battery life since it has a larger battery. Not that I’ve ever needed more battery life…
I love my copper D4V2. The only down sides are at full brightness it will get hot and it can deplete a battery fast.
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.
The best flashlight is the one that you will use instead of using your cellphone.
I got my lady a Convoy S2+ for her to use at work. Come to find out a few months later she still always uses her phones light even when out in pastures after dark 😮💨.
So even a cheap AA light is better than the brightest D4S if the former is in your pocket and the latter stays in a bag or purse all the time.
I love my Nitecore T4k. $90, very compact, USB-C rechargeable, OLED display to show mode and time remaining. 1, 15, 65, and 200 lumen modes, plus a 4000 lumen turbo mode (runs for up to 10 seconds then drops back to high while it dumps the excess heat through the pocket clip). It’s honestly fantastic.
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
