I own, and often carry, a lot of lights. The i1R2 probably hasn’t got the most hours on it, but in terms of the number of times it gets turned on, it’s by far the winner.
By far my Lumintop Tool 2.0 AA. I like it so much, I bought a second one that’s sitting in the little tchotchke tray on top of my PC tower, unused, in case something happens to my EDC one so I can put it into service right away.
This light isn’t super powerful or fancy, it doesn’t run a firmware with a million modes, and it can’t cast in a bunch of colors. But it’s never, ever failed me and it’s got enough high and low range that I basically never use anything else. Much to the disappointment of everything else in my Drawer O’ Flashlights, which continue to go unused.
OLight Arkfield been my EDC for about a year now. Gotten me out of countless jams has modes for just about every use case including a super useful “moonlight mode” which is just bright enough to see in really dark places without being blinding. I’ve used it under water, magnetized to various objects, I use it often at my IT job it has been a real trooper. I’m not crazy about the charger for it because it’s a bit proprietary but it does kinda solve the waterproofing issue.
Hard to say, because both are constantly used for low light illumination in the house at night: SP36 BLF and Emisar D4V2 Ti (E21A mule @2000K).
I absolutely love the D4V2 and constantly think about buying another non-mule version with as low color temp as available.
Not an answer, but a question.
OP, what do you use the 5 lumen mode on that flashlight for? Isn’t that like half a candle?
Embarrassingly, a common use is reading small print when I don’t have, or can’t be bothered putting on, my reading glasses - so I guess the answer is to illuminate close up things. The second most common use is finding a keyhole in the dark.
The most common use of the high mode is when people say ‘oh wow, is that a torch?’ and I immediately blind them with it because I’m cool like that.
