We all have our every day carry (EDC) items. It is usually wallet, mobile phone, documents, often even a knife or other weapon. If we want our EDC to be as universal as possible, it should also include flashlight. We can carry small keychain flashlight, but this one will never be as powerful as proper pocket flashlight. How does such flashlight look like ? Well, much like standard flashlight. But what it is so special about it so it can be called pocket flashlight ? Let´s reveal that.
Small yet priceless
What comes to your mind first ? Of course it should have the right size to fit in the pocket. There are pockets of different sizes, but in general, pocket flashlights have no more than 15 cm. It also depends on the pockets themselves. Carrying 15 cm flashlight in tight jeans will not be comfortable at all. That is why we should choose our flashlight according to what we wear on daily basis (or at least most often). Tactical clothing offers many possibilities. Tactical pants often have special pockets for such equipment so you can carry even larger pocket flashlight which is not possible in case of jeans. We may have different opinions, however, first criteria is size. This leads us to next thing, which is power source.
AA or AAA
With pocket flashlights we should think of their bulkiness too. Most of us will think that such flashlights are not that bulky and in this case the power source will be either AAA or AA type batteries. The problem, however, might be their length. We can also see CR123 type batteries. This could be considered as the best choice for these types of flashlights - it is small, powerful, but unfortunately also quite expensive. It can be bulkier too, but there are more pros than cons. The most important criteria, however, is the luminous flux (illumination).
Small flashlight can be powerful
For normal situations we should be alright with 30-50 lumens. It is ok for shorter distances and we don´t need that much powerful battery. Most of us, however, requires little more. Simply, more lumens we want, the more powerful battery we will need. The more powerful flashlight should feature different light modes so we can adjust it to our needs. For example, with 200 lumens flashlight we may not necessarily need 200 lumens all the time. For shorter distance illumination we will only use 50 or 30 lumens and that is why to have more lighting modes is important as it also helps to save battery. To set these light modes we use tail switch. It is important, especially for tactical operations, that this switch is on the tail of the flashlight.
Let´s make a selection
If we stick to above mentioned, we will certainly choose the right flashlight. However, there are other criteria such as material for example. We could think that in terms of weight it is important to use plastic. But that is not true. Although the aluminum is little heavier, it is also more solid and durable and that is why we choose aluminium flashlights. Another important feature is pocket clip so we can attach our flashlight where we want it for quick access. Last but not least, it is the light source type and we should focus only on LED flashlights as they offer the best features. Such a flashlights can be of course found on our website, just pick the right one ;)