I'm a bit of a flashlight freak and have bought a bunch, some quite expensive. I am incredibly picky about my lights. I give away those that don't measure up.
My hands-down all time favorite flashlight is the Fenix LD22. I use them around the farm, house, shop, cars, crawl spaces, etc.
https://www.amazon.com/Fenix-LD22-20.../dp/B01418RAZY
I see from my Amazon orders I've bought eight of these so far.
A small thing, two AA batteries. Fits nicely in back pocket.
Extremely well built.
Comes with clip and lanyard and belt case.
The switch gets an A+ rating in my book:
- it's a simple ON/OFF switch
- has no annoying brain-damaged flashing modes to click through.
- a partial press turns the light on momentarily, press further to click on - perfect for occasional blips of light when walking at night.
- the light is shaped so I can hold it up between two fingers and press the switch on the back with my thumb
The light output gets an A+ rating. The reflector gives a very smooth light pattern.
There are four brightness settings controlled by a SEPARATE switch button on the side.
- the dimmest is perfect for walking around the farm at night (rated at 150 hours on one set of batteries)
- the brightest is like a spotlight - I can spot the horses across the pasture at night (only 2.5 hr battery life)
- you can set the desired brightness once and it never changes by itself, but the different levels are there if you ever need them
There is an SOS and strobe mode but they did it right - only activated by pressing and holding the side switch button
I don't know where they are made.
These lights have been incredibly reliable - never had a failure and I use one every day, carry them when traveling. Some have had a lot of abuse.
Claims waterproof to 10 ft. Machined aluminum, o-ring seals.
I do use the different brightness settings around the farm. I keep two by the door and don't go out at night without one.
Pressing the side button several times to cycle through the levels will tell you if the batteries are running down - when the brightest setting is not much brighter than the next brightest it's time to start thinking about replacing the batteries. The low setting will still work for a long time on nearly dead batteries.
In fact, just thinking about it I think I'll order another one...
JKJ