I spent a few years trying out small flashlight after small flashlight, trying to find something that would work as a good general purpose light. I started off with a Streamlight Stylus, which was alright, but the exposed LED at the end didn't throw much light and it lit (very small) areas better than objects. The batteries were kind of hard to find, because they were AAAA.
Went through a couple more and now I'm to this (.45 ACP for scale).
The Streamlight Microstream. It's a small LED light with a good pocket clip, a reflector and it uses a AAA battery that you can buy at any HEB. The switch is on the tail cap, press lightly for temporary on/off, press until it clicks for constant on. Constant run time is about 2 hours according to Streamlight. That stretches out to several months of use for me, and I use it almost daily.
Now, this isn't a tactical light. It's not a "hide behind it" kind of light, it's definitely in the "makes a good target" category, so if you're looking for a tactical EDC, you need something bigger. However... When you're in the theater with your wife or girlfriend (or both!) and she drops her cell phone or keys and you need to find them, nobody (including you) is going to appreciate it when you bust out that billion candlepower spotlight and give everybody in the place a tan. This light is great for general tasks because it's bright enough to identify an object at a reasonable distance (20-30 feet), but not so bright that it's going to light an entire room up. The other good thing is that this will fit easily into a pocket without taking up much room. It didn't take long for me to stop noticing that this light is with me.
Here's how it looks in the dark:
I've got the light on in the room behind me, but this landing is fairly dark. The Microstream throws a pretty well-focused beam that's bright enough for most of the things you'll want a flashlight for.
One trick I learned early was because the light is so small, I can choke up on the light and partially cover the lens. This is really useful in situations like a dark theater where you don't want to piss everybody off, and/or you want to preserve your own night vision. Being an LED light, the lens doesn't get hot or noticeably warm, and you can cut the light down like this for as long as you need. It's also nice when your eyes have really adjusted to the dark and popping that light on full blast is going to dazzle you a bit. You can "ease into it" so that your eyes don't suffer.
Using that method looks like this from the business end of the light. Looks goofy because I have to turn my hand back toward myself for the picture, but you get the idea:
Normally held something like this:
And like this in the dark:
During my shoot for the review, the battery actually died on me. To change it, you just unscrew the tail cap, drop the old battery in the trash and drop the new battery into the light. Keep an eye on that o-ring at the back, Streamlight says you should lube it from time to time with some silicone grease. I did once, and it's stayed slippery. The o-ring can go bad, stretch out and make it harder to put the cap back on. You can run the light without it, but it won't be very water tight.
The obligatory "ZOMG, it works in a glass of water!" shot.
I pick these lights up for $20 as cheap gifts for friends (cheap gifts for cheap friends?
), and they all seem to really like the lights. Streamlight has a lifetime warranty against defects. I don't remember ever collecting on it, and I've owned a few of their products.
These sell in several different anodized colors including a flat black. I like the shiny red. Why? You ever tried to find your flashlight in the dark (if only I had a flashlight!) when it's flat black?
There's a larger version called the Stylus Pro that's pretty nice. The same diameter, all the same features at a similar price, but about twice the length to take two AAA batteries. It's slightly brighter and run time is better, but overall I think the Microstream is the better balance of size and light output for something that's going to sit in your pocket 99% of its life.
Went through a couple more and now I'm to this (.45 ACP for scale).
The Streamlight Microstream. It's a small LED light with a good pocket clip, a reflector and it uses a AAA battery that you can buy at any HEB. The switch is on the tail cap, press lightly for temporary on/off, press until it clicks for constant on. Constant run time is about 2 hours according to Streamlight. That stretches out to several months of use for me, and I use it almost daily.
Now, this isn't a tactical light. It's not a "hide behind it" kind of light, it's definitely in the "makes a good target" category, so if you're looking for a tactical EDC, you need something bigger. However... When you're in the theater with your wife or girlfriend (or both!) and she drops her cell phone or keys and you need to find them, nobody (including you) is going to appreciate it when you bust out that billion candlepower spotlight and give everybody in the place a tan. This light is great for general tasks because it's bright enough to identify an object at a reasonable distance (20-30 feet), but not so bright that it's going to light an entire room up. The other good thing is that this will fit easily into a pocket without taking up much room. It didn't take long for me to stop noticing that this light is with me.
Here's how it looks in the dark:
I've got the light on in the room behind me, but this landing is fairly dark. The Microstream throws a pretty well-focused beam that's bright enough for most of the things you'll want a flashlight for.
One trick I learned early was because the light is so small, I can choke up on the light and partially cover the lens. This is really useful in situations like a dark theater where you don't want to piss everybody off, and/or you want to preserve your own night vision. Being an LED light, the lens doesn't get hot or noticeably warm, and you can cut the light down like this for as long as you need. It's also nice when your eyes have really adjusted to the dark and popping that light on full blast is going to dazzle you a bit. You can "ease into it" so that your eyes don't suffer.
Using that method looks like this from the business end of the light. Looks goofy because I have to turn my hand back toward myself for the picture, but you get the idea:
Normally held something like this:
And like this in the dark:
During my shoot for the review, the battery actually died on me. To change it, you just unscrew the tail cap, drop the old battery in the trash and drop the new battery into the light. Keep an eye on that o-ring at the back, Streamlight says you should lube it from time to time with some silicone grease. I did once, and it's stayed slippery. The o-ring can go bad, stretch out and make it harder to put the cap back on. You can run the light without it, but it won't be very water tight.
The obligatory "ZOMG, it works in a glass of water!" shot.
I pick these lights up for $20 as cheap gifts for friends (cheap gifts for cheap friends?
), and they all seem to really like the lights. Streamlight has a lifetime warranty against defects. I don't remember ever collecting on it, and I've owned a few of their products.These sell in several different anodized colors including a flat black. I like the shiny red. Why? You ever tried to find your flashlight in the dark (if only I had a flashlight!) when it's flat black?
There's a larger version called the Stylus Pro that's pretty nice. The same diameter, all the same features at a similar price, but about twice the length to take two AAA batteries. It's slightly brighter and run time is better, but overall I think the Microstream is the better balance of size and light output for something that's going to sit in your pocket 99% of its life.
On-truck credit is another plus, but if you buy something more expensive (about a grand), they wind up doing an official line of credit. 
