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I don't know, but I hate that, too. Modern flashlights have every advantage over the ones of old, but they ALL seem to have stupid things like that.
Clicking through multiple brightness levels is one thing, but strobe, SOS, and 5 levels is ridiculous. Just give me on/high, low, and off.
Couldn't find one of the two bottles of doe piss and doe estrus piss I bought today. Went to my grandfather's car to look for it and sure as shit he hands me a flashlight with one button that turned it on and off as well as having a rotating head that was kind of threaded so as you turn it, it will move closer and further from then bulb making the light adjustable the same way a garden hose nozzle that only rotates works. All the way out = wide flood light style beam. All the way in and it produces a bright pin point wide beam of light. It looked brand new too. If I remember I'll ask him tomorrow what brand it is.
Sounds like you're describing a maglite
Maglites are perfectly fine flashlights for most people, maybe a little heavy but sometimes that's kind of the point (a lot of cops and security guards and such took to carrying them when their agencies started prohibiting nightsticks and batons, especially the bigger 4 or 6 cell models) for a long time they were basically the default flashlight, you had maglites, you had the big spotlight looking things that took a 6v battery, you had cheap plastic flashlights, and you had various small penlights and such (which were often mini maglites) and that was like 90% of what you'd ever encounter.
There's a good chance if you go rooting around in your dad or grandfather's car trunk, garage, basement, workshop, toolbox, etc. you'll find a maglite or 3 kicking around somewhere. I know I keep one in my car for emergencies and I'll probably inherit a half dozen more from my parents someday.
They still make them, pretty sure they switched over to LEDs (one of their selling points used to be they had a spare bulb stored in the tail cap) and I'm sure they're still perfectly reliable and rugged, you can probably still find them at most of the places you'd think to go buy a flashlight, and a standard 2 D cell maglite still costs in the neighborhood of $20-$30.
But there are a bunch of flashlight nerds out there these days, who want really specific form factors, battery types, features, led color temperatures, etc. and they'd probably pooh-pooh the humble maglite.
I get it to an extent, I have flashlights I like better, but I'm not about to nerd out about them, and if you someone sent me out with instructions to buy them a flashlight with no other requirements listed, I'd probably buy a maglite and feel pretty confident that it's going to be an acceptable flashlight.
My perfect flashlight:
If you've ever tried to read something off a label in the dark and outshined what you were looking at because the light was too bright, you know why.
You need flashlights with a better UI.
None of my flashlights strobe without making the effort to make it do that or require me to cycle through modes just to turn them on and off. The worst one I have has 9 modes you select with a detented twist ring(Fenix SRT9), but has an on/off button so you always start on the mode you used last unless you twist the ring.
Strobe is useful for firearms lights to disorient a target. For emergency use it prolongs the runtime, like if you were in a flash flood, your house was bombed in the middle of the night, or you got lost on a hike and needed to signal for help. Strobe is unlikely to be needed, but can be a life saver.
You need flashlights with a better UI.
I mean, yea, I think that's what OP is saying.
But it can be hard to find, with a high output/good battery.
Lights using a 18650 seem to be the rage these days, at crazy cheap prices, but they all use some UI with clicks, holds, etc. I feel like I'm doing a dance to use any of mine, definitely not what you want in a circumstance requiring a flashlight.
Even the simplest of lights require something most people would find unusual (and certainly never guess). Setting an Anduril light to "simple mode" is still more complex than I want in a light. It would be nice to have a simple click control, and be able to disable the strobe nonsense (never once in my life have I thought "ooh, a strobing light would be great right now!"). Nevermind the arguments for it are debatable (to confuse an attacker? Research has shown it affects you too).
Lights using a 18650 seem to be the rage these days, at crazy cheap prices, but they all use some UI with clicks, holds, etc.
I have an Olight Seeker Pro 4 and it’s pretty simple to use. The on/off button rotates and controls the intensity. You do have to either hold it for a few seconds to turn it on or rotate the button 90º and then click but that’s unavoidable with these kinds of flashlights.
These lights are very small and yet very powerful. That means you can easily pocket them, but because they are so powerful they also get very hot. You don’t want a flashlight like this to accidentally turn on while in your pocket. If you look at these lights, the head is almost always ribbed, it’s basically a heatsink. Even then when you run them at full strength they usually throttle themselves down after a few minutes to prevent overheating.
Rescued my daughter in the cliched flat tyre in the rain scenario, the flashing light was good to alert other drivers. I think it’s something that could be useful very rarely.
I have a two button flashlight. One button to change settings and one to turn on and off. It has memory so it uses the last setting used that's not strobe or the highest setting
I picked up some stranded skaters in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night because they flashed SOS with their headlights after I drove past them. They had been there for like 8 hours. I'm sure they would've rather had a flashlight to do the work for them.
But I agree that there should be another UI for getting to the emergency flashing. Like hold for 5 seconds or something unlikely to be used during normal operation.
I have a flashlight that has multiple flashy settings, but they are disabled after like 5 or 10 seconds of idle power on time. So the first click turns it on, and if you wait a while, the next click turns it off.
Flashlights that use the open source Anduril v2 interface are... tolerable, I'd say. It's not good, it's not intuitive, but it does at least make it easy to just turn the damn flashlight on and off.
The interface gets way more complicated after that, but I don't bother with any of that shit. Luckily, it's hard to accidentally activate the crazy bullshit.
There are also lights that mimic this pattern, but differ in a few key ways. The Wurkkos FC11 is a great option that's relatively cheap. The 4000 K version is $35 and is bright with a nice neutral color temperature (I find it much easier on the eyes.) It follows the interface rules I outlined above except that it's missing number 3 and the strobe is of the flashy hold-a-rave variety. Still, you have to specifically press the button 3 times in a row pretty quickly to trigger it. I never have accidental raves with mine.
Can confirm point 5, melted through a pocket with my Emisar D4, i just twist the cap off slightly when not in use rather than shutdown mode.
I like the shutdown mode because the moonlight mode thing it does is great at night. Like, I use it if I need to find something in my nightstand and want to avoid waking up my partner.
EDIT: also, hello fellow flashlight nerd. I'm writing this with an Emisar D4K in my pocket.
Oh man This post just awoke a REAL old memory for me. Growing up my dad had these two old beat up flashlights. I looked them up and found this https://www.etsy.com/listing/1027765511/eveready-no1359-safety-flashlight.
I always thought they had a cool design.
Streamlight makes some simple on/off models. Like the Streamlight Microstream 66323. Very bright for its small size.
......am I living in a different world? Every flashlight I've ever known takes D batteries, has a slider, and only has 2 settings. On or off. Like......literally NO flashlight I've ever seen has settings. Why would you need settings, besides MAYBE an S.O.S flash in morse code. Even that seems like a niche use thing.
Same man, where do these people get their flashlights
Edit: Thank you for the countless tips on where you guys buy flashlights. But neither am I in the USA nor do I actually ever need a flashlight. I have two at home and I don't think I ever actually used them for other than fun. I guess the follow up question is what do you do with all those flashlights?
You might be in another world, or the 90s perhaps?
Different settings are useful because modern flashlights use LEDs and get absurdly bright. Dimming them lets the user select an amount of light appropriate to a task, and preserve battery life. If you're in the dark you'd want to start dim to avoid blinding yourself or annoying others (in a campground for instance). Strobes are good for getting attention.
Many of my lights use a common firmware called Anduril, which has some other nice features like a simulated candle flicker, or lightning storm (I use this for Halloween). It also allows me to turn it on directly to the lowest or highest settings, otherwise it defaults to the last level I used. There's even an auto-shutoff feature which is nice for a night light.
Man I WISH I was in the 90s. Our biggest political scandal was that the president was getting laid.
You want a light that’s a light? Ridiculous.
The maglights I have in my emergency kit only have 2 settings: On and off. It's a switch not a button. If they ever put goofy ass strobe lights or whatever in maglights, I will stop buying them. I just need light; not an epileptic seizure.
I got an Acebeam EC35 Gen II a couple years back and while there are many settings you can use there's a big button onto he back that turns it on full blast and you click it again to turn it off. Done.
Fenix makes a few that are like what you're looking for, I have two, one has one big button on the back and one on the side, the back button is a simple on off and the side button cycles the power settings, if you hold down on the smaller side button it goes to strobe instantly. The other is basically the same but both buttons are on the back and the smaller button toggles strobe by pressing it when the flashlight is off vs cycles power settings when the flashlight is on. I only buy flashlights that are set up like this or similar. I need to be able to access strobe instantly and I need to be able to turn it on and off at a low power setting without turning on the fire of a thousand suns to get there.
I have never had strong opinions about my flashlights. My favourite is a blue one I found that had leds and lasts forever on AA batteries. Never had one with settings all the ones I've used are on/off
I have a really good bright quality flashlight, USB rechargeable that turns on and off with no bullshit in between. It lasts a long time between recharges too. O'Reilly Auto parts. Found it among all the fun stuff they sell at the front counter.
Maglite, the last one I bought has twist on and off. No flashing or buttons.