Najjar, Lawrence (2008).  Gear Guy - A Really Good Flashlight. Texas Caver, 54(3) (pp. 8-9). Texas Speleological Association.

Gear Guy

A Really Good Flashlight

Lawrence Najjar

Flashlights can be very helpful to cavers. We should carry a good flashlight in our cars if we get a flat or have engine trouble on the drive to a cave. At the campsite, we can use a flashlight to illuminate our tents or to get to the latrine area in the dark. And, although I prefer hands-free lights, some cavers use flashlights as backup caving lights. I've even seen Mini Mag Lights attached to the sides of some cavers' helmets.

A good flashlight is hard to find because it needs to have a lot of different, sometimes conflicting, features. I believe a good flashlight should be:

• Bright -- Allow you to see objects that are reasonably far away.
• Light -- The flashlight should not be a burden to carry, which generally rules out powerful but heavy D-cell flashlights.
• Able to use common batteries -- Although many small, bright flashlights use powerful and long-lasting coin-shaped lithium batteries, lithium coin-shaped batteries are hard to find, especially when you are on the road.
• Water resistant -- The flashlight should work in challenging conditions, like in the mist from an underground waterfall or in the rain at night as you walk out of a cave or change a flat tire.
• Long-lasting -- A good flashlight should provide bright, useful light for several hours.
• Easy to operate -- You should be able to turn the flashlight on and off quickly and easily with one hand.

It is very hard to find a flashlight that includes these features. The combination of bright, long-lasting, and water resistant was especially challenging.

After hours and hours trying to find a very good flashlight, I finally found one -- the Fenix L2D CE Premium Q5.

Side view.

Angled side view showing recessed lens and textured sides.

Rear view showing tail cap.

The Fenix is bright because it uses a new, powerful, 3-Watt, Cree XR-E LED that is brighter than some 5-Watt flashlights. In the brightest mode, the flashlight is absolutely blinding.

The flashlight is light because it uses 2 AA batteries and weighs only 105 grams (3.7 ounces).

Since it includes a digital regulator circuit, you can use easy-to-find alkaline, rechargeable NiMH, or powerful lithium AA batteries. I like using the rechargeable NiMH batteries so I can reduce battery pollution. To replace the batteries, you simply unscrew the tail cap, take out the old batteries, and slide in the new batteries facing the same direction as the old batteries.

To keep water out, the Fenix has O-rings at each end, a rubber on-off switch, and a sealed bezel. The manufacturer does not provide the depth at which the Fenix is waterproof, but it should be fine in the rain or even a quick dunk in a shallow underground stream.

The flashlight has several brightness levels. With alkaline batteries, low lasts 59 hours at 12 lumens, medium lasts seven hours at 53 lumens, high lasts 1.5 hours at 107 lumens, and turbo lasts 41 minutes at 180 lumens. NiMH and lithium batteries last even longer. The regulator keeps the beam consistently bright until the batteries start giving out and the brightness drops to 50% at the end of these times. Due to heat build-up and the possibility of damaging the flashlight, only run it in turbo for 10 minutes or less at a time.

There are a total of six lighting levels, four in regular mode and two in turbo mode. The regular mode lighting levels are available when you leave the flashlight head loosened about a half turn. To turn the Fenix on, you press the tail cap button all the way down until you hear a loud click. The flashlight turns on in low, which is good for tents and crawls. To cycle between the regular mode brightness levels, you press the tail cap button halfway in on a series of soft, quiet clicks. You move from low to medium (narrow walking passageways), high (wide passageways), an annoying SOS blink mode, then repeat the cycle. To get to the blindingly bright and short-lasting turbo modes, you tighten the head of the flashlight about a half turn until it stops. If the flashlight is off, one hard click turns it on in turbo (domes, pits, and leads). A soft click puts the flashlight in an annoying and blinding strobe. Another soft click repeats the turbo mode cycle by putting the flashlight back in turbo. To turn the flashlight off, you do a hard click.

The beam is fixed so you cannot focus it like a Mag Lite. But the incredible brightness means you don't really need to focus the beam.

The Fenix L2D CE Premium Q5 has lots of other great features.

• Rugged aircraft grade aluminum with an anodized finish
• Toughened, slightly recessed, very clear glass lens with antireflective coating
• Convenient wrist lanyard (to figure out how to tie it onto the flashlight go to http://www.fenixlight.com/info/index.htm)
• Textured grip areas
• Accidental activation lock-out by loosening the tail cap a half turn
• Spare accessories such as extra O-rings, a rubber switch boot, plus the wrist lanyard and a belt holster

There are a few features I don't like about the flashlight.

• Body -- The body is round, so when you place it on a hard, flat surface it rolls away. If you attach the wrist lanyard, though, it stops most of the rolling.
• Modes -- There are too many modes and they are a bit challenging to figure out. You certainly don't need the SOS and strobe modes and turning the head to change from the four regular modes to the two turbo modes is not obvious. Plus, you have to use two hands to change from the regular modes to the turbo modes.
• Button - The on-off and mode button is on the tail cap at the end of the flashlight. When you are using the flashlight, you have to shift the flashlight awkwardly in your hand to press the button on the tail cap. This awkward movement also makes it more likely you will drop the flashlight.

I would like to see Fenix add a couple of square edges on the body to reduce rolling. And I would like them to remove the SOS and strobe lighting levels and the need to turn the head to change modes. Instead, I would make all four lighting levels available in a single mode. However, these suggestions are pretty minor and would only make the excellent Fenix flashlight even better.

The Fenix L2D CE Premium Q5 is very bright and light, uses common batteries, is water-resistant, and provides very good light for a very long time.

This is a really good flashlight.

You can get it for $59.50 at BrightGuy.com or $62.50 at Fenix-Store.com. Also, you can get powerful, slow draining, Sanyo Eneloop rechargeable AA NiMH batteries at Fry's, Circuit City, or Amazon.com.

Great gear. Great caving.

I'll see you underground.