By Forris Day Jr.
I guess I’m somewhat of a flashlight geek, but sorry, I need to carry a flashlight with me at all times. As a techie guy I’m always behind some piece of equipment hooking up or disconnecting wires. Even at night I use my flashlight to walk out to my truck. I live in a rural area and it is dark, plus we have a bear running around my neighborhood. Somehow my flashlight makes me feel safer. I just convince myself that if eaten the wild beast may choke on the light before he gets too far into chewing me to pieces. I feel almost naked without my light. This has been the case for many years.
My light of choice is Maglite’s Mini Maglite (2AA LED). I love the LED light way better than the older and less expensive Xenon bulbs version. The LED version stays bright till the battery dies. You get a little warning, as the light will shut off periodically letting you know that the battery is dying. The Xenon bulb, on the other hand, slowly gets dim going from bright white with new batteries to dull yellow/brown as the power supply dwindles. The LED light’s battery life is well over 5 times that of it is Xenon counterpart.
“But I can buy LED lights at a fraction of the cost at dollar stores and home supply stores” you say? Yes you can, but rest assured they are not the same quality as a Maglite. LEDs are created in many levels of quality. You can tell by the color usually. Cheap LEDs are generally very blue and duller while higher quality is very white and bright. Maglite uses nothing but the best LEDs in their lights. I recommend paying the extra few dollars to go LED over the Xenon bulb. You will save a ton of money in the long run on the cost of batteries.
Here is my collection of Mini-Maglites. Yes I use them all. The red, white, and blue one and the blue one are both Xenon bulbs. The other three are LEDs. I’ve had the blue one the longest now, I’d guess ten years now and it still works like a champ. The black one being the newest. Even the black one has a noticeable difference in its LED over the older LED lights. It’s slightly brighter and has a setting where you can dim it to 25 percent power to save the battery. It also can be set to flash SOS or steady blinking. There are accessories you can order, such as special pouches and colored lens covers. For example there is a red lens cover, which is useful for people who need subdued lighting like stage hands at a theater, or a hunter in the pre-dawn hours.
Here’s a cool feature: If you need the light to stand on its own you can unscrew the cap then stick the end of the light into the cap and stand it up like a candle. Great for reading if you have no other light available.
Boy are they tough. I found this light on the side of the road a few years back. The head had been crushed from cars running it over. I took it with me thinking I can repair it. I squeezed the head portion of it using Channel Lock pliers till it was as close to round as I could get it. I replaced the bulb using the spare bulb that is stored in the back of every Xenon Mini-Mag. For a lens I used some of that sturdy clear packaging that everything comes in these days. I cut it round to fit and wallah! Good as new…well a little banged up, but it still works great and it has a cool story!
As a filmmaker I use my light on the set all the time. I need it to look at buttons on the camera, to find a fuse box at a location and sometimes just to find something in an equipment bag. Every filmmaker, crew member, and actor should carry a Mini-Mag in my opinion. But that’s just me. Maglite offers many different size lights from tiny to huge. I just happen to use the small 2AA battery size, but I guarantee any size flashlight you get from Maglite will be worth the money. They can be purchased most anywhere, but I’ve included some links so you can check out the features before you buy.