Thread: Budget torches

I've been reading the night navigation thread and realise I may be tempting fate. When it comes to light, I cary one 450lm head torch. I realise if that failed or if I needed more light, eg: night time navigation, I'd probably be shit out of luck.

I was just wondering if anyone has tried the torches from Trade Depot, repco, or the hardware stores. Sure, I'd prefer an Olight or other premium product, but I'm restricted by budget.

Are these similar products at a quarter of the price, comparable in quality?

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Mate...a little dolphin from the stand in supermarket will be plenty good enough for walking around. It doesn't take much now in led,to beat even a good torch from 20 years ago.

I have the predecessor to these
https://www.furtherfaster.co.nz/coll...etzl-nz-e-lite
They are tiny.
You only have to need them once to make them worth it.
In our case if I ride our bike at night I chuck it in my pocket.
Ran into a mob of heifers 2 days before xmas a few years ago at about 10 pm.
It was all I needed to get the wife,bike off the road and sort ourselves out.

Best headtorch I've ever owned:
https://www.piercingthedarkness.co.n...e/cyansky-hs6r

Worth saving for one.

I bought a bunch of these a few months back for staff to use during calving time and they've been really good for the money, throw a good light, charge on a USB and last well
https://shop.farmlands.co.nz/grizzly...41.p?back=true

I run these little fella's: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006116003272.html
Get them without the battery and buy a decent 18650 battery here (from PiercingTheDarkness). They're small enough to use as a spare battery holder, or to give to your mate when they forget theirs - I think in have three bouncing around between my pack and daypack. They have nothing on the PiercingTheDarkness torches, but still pretty bloody good for the price.

If you are after a handhold these are pretty wicked https://a.aliexpress.com/_mKZpeCg

Around $50 including battery, real solid build, full beam good for spot lighting, lower settings good for general use. Only downer is b am is pretty tight.

Yeah i think a handheld would be the next torch as my headlight does alright for day to day. The torch would be for getting a decent beam for brief navigation while walking, looking upto the next bend in the river bed or looking up a face to check the best route.

Small enough to sit on the bino harness would be good, or on the belt. Peircing the darkness has a few good options.

If it's light enough to mount on my 22 for bunnies, thats a bonus.

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I'm not sure how this compares to the Trade Depot or hardware store offerings, but I have the predecessor of this model and it's brilliant for the size and price:
https://www.piercingthedarkness.co.n...ens-336m-range

I bought the Cyansky headlight that Pommy linked to above - this way I have two lights and two 18650 batteries for redundancy. Having been in a couple of spots where a decent light would be useful is what lead me to this combo. Grab the Convoy handheld now if you can afford it and either save up or check out the other head torch options on offer that use the same 18650. For just walking at night the Cyansky head torch is overkill, but as a general purpose hunting head light it's fantastic.

As above, ideally, as much of your gear as possible would allow interchanging the batteries.

If you run aa batteries in gps get something that runs the same in a touch.

Originally Posted by The bomb

If you run aa batteries in gps get something that runs the same in a touch.

Yeah i was thinking along those lines. I wanted a head torch that ran 18650s so i could add a torch to match. I couldnt fi d one i liked and ended up getting one which uses 14500s. But im not sure the peircing the darkness torch which runs that will be up to the job. I may just have to change batteries more often.

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