Here is an Anker 14watt panel as an example.This one will deliver 2amps at 5volts in good sun and is pretty capable of charging up batteries in standard chargers like many of us already have and use.(Image removed from quote.)(Image removed from quote.)Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I know the struggle of finding exactly the light to fit certain parameters. It can be a journey in and of itself.One light I THINK might be close to fulfilling your needs is the Lumintop EDC05C. One click for the front facing flashlight, two clicks for the side light. It has the other annoying modes, but only if you hold down the button to purposely cycle through the different modes. I figure you can set it to the light output you want, and never worry about cycling through the other stuff.http://www.lumintop.com/edc05c.html
Vertical caving, rope access and all that, a few hundred meters deep underground. We mostly have vertical caves around here. But I'd love to one day come ti NZ and go caving with you. All the photos and videos I've seen of your caves are amazing.
If anyone has any ideas of what I can look into, I would be glad to hear it.
Just give me plenty of notice so I can stop drinking beers in time, wouldn't want you to spend all day trying to kick me out of a squeeze.
Wow! thanks for the advice, you guys really seem to know what you're talking about. I'll scrap the solar lantern idea and get a solar panel. Is 28w instead of 21w worth it?To clarify - I should get solar panels, and a separate power bank? So it goes: panels to bank. disconnect... then bank to flashlight/phone Is that right?
For this scenario, let's say it is more than just a weekend camping trip. We will assume we are going to be camping for a week and you have the choice of two lights to take. Also, for this camping trip, you will be hiking to new campsites and need to be able to pack everything in your backpack.So what would your top two choices be?
Definitely, a headlamp, a full-sized light, and a small keyring-type light for backup. What mistake I won't make again is bringing a Xenon/incandescent bulb light. Too underpowered. So, in terms of best of the best of what I own, that would be my Coast, LED Lenser PX6, and Olight i3EOS. A big D-Cell Maglite would be a good choice, as an emergency self-defense tool, tertiary to your firearm and knife. My Sidewinder is a good light for its battery life, which is about 50 something hours on low.
You would actually carry all of that in a back pack for a week? A ounce at home weighs a pound on the trail.
That would likely be what I would carry for car camping or doing hiking on the farm. If weight was an issue (which it would definitely be, given 30 pounds was the limit for big hiking trips we were given in Scouts), probably just the headlamp or Sidewinder. Heck, I think even the i3EOS would even do well.
Many people that rarely get out in the woods do not understand what deep darkness really is. Where I camp there is no ambient light whatsoever. You cannot see any signs of humans in any direction. On a moonless or overcast night, one cannot even navigate to the "bathroom" without some kind of light. A few years ago we had a really bad dry spell here and I was not able to safely have a campfire. It was like being in a cave...I literally could not see my hand in front of my face. In those conditions, as the eyes get truly adjusted to the dark, a 1 lumen flashlight will eventually seem like it lights up a large area!
Good point, Spuds. I do wish more lights were available that had moonlight mode/a truly low low mode, which should correlate to ridiculously long run times. The lowest brightness on many lights is still painfully bright for dark-adjusted eyes, which seems particularly silly on modern lights that often have 3-5+ brightness levels.
It's nice to have so many bright options but I think light manufacturers have to make efforts to give the user as many levels as possible with easy-to-use interfaces.I think that every light should have at least 6 light levels (or even more) the ultralow levels and the strobe can be "hidden"The Zebralight system is very good and has many options and possibilities to customize but it is covered by a patent.The Armytek (Hedlamp) system used in the Wizard Base and the ELF mentioned by Spudley is also good, it has two hidden low levels and a Turbo that can be reached with a double click.Ultra-low lights are comfortable on EDC and Headlamp but I find them out of place on powerful or large torches (2000/3000 lumens and more) in those cases I would like that instead of a Firefly there was an extra light level to be exploited on the range medium/high