Photon flashlights. Nice stuff
 

Photons are some of the brightest flashlights around.  They're tiny, roughly the size of a quarter, shine via a LED, so they last almost forever, have replaceable batteries, though it's hard to run one down, and are so good I don't even bother with my Maglights any more.  There are four kinds at the time of this writing, although of them my favorite is the Photon II.  And Photons come in almost every color, plus UV and IR.  (Yes, I have those, too!)
 
 

• Photon I:          Okay, I guess.  Underpowered compared to the P2, and no ON switch.  Only stays on as long as you can pinch it.  Not usually available these days.
• Photon II:         As far as I'm concerned, the best on the market.  You can find them for around $12, in any color you'd want.  Some claim the turquoise puts out more light than any others, including the white.  Has a switch on it, so you can have it stay on constantly without pinching it.  Puts out an *enormous* amount of light, and I've heard claims that some colors last as much as 60 hours on a set of batteries.
• Photon III:        The new kid on the block.  In theory, fantastic.  Has 4 speeds of strobing, 3 levels of steady beam.  Fast flasher can almost put you in a daze.  You could tape it to the back of a bike, put a string on it for what I'm told is killer poi spinning, pin it to your coat for nighttime collision control, or just use it to screw up others' heads at night.  And so on.  Love the idea.  Unfortunately, the whole thing's run by microprocessor, and isn't working as well as it should.  It's a pain to have to cycle through the 7 settings by squeezing and waiting 4 seconds per setting, and then finding the microprocessor isn't running correctly, so you have to do it all over again.  Or you find it didn't "remember" your last setting, so you have to start again.  And so on.  They're also supposed to be pretty much waterproof, but I've killed one by just drooling on it (holding in mouth a few times while doing hands-free work), so I've had a few disappointments with P3s.
• Photon Rav'n Light:       Absolutely cool, for about 5 minutes.  You tie one to a string, spin it, and get a solid spectrum-like blur in the air.  There are two models, one with a solid stream, one that has chunks of solid beam.  The solid beam only stays so for a while, so if you're spinning a circle much more than maybe 18 inches, it's not a full circle any more.  At the price (usually $18 - 30, depending on your dealer), not really fulfilling.  You find yourself putting it away pretty quickly.  They may be less boring if put to use in ways I haven't gotten to yet, like taped to a bike spoke, or to a car antenna.  Wonder how the antenna would look if you slowly drove by someone in the dark...

http://www.tripleaughtdesign.com/photon_microlights.htm
http://botachtactical.com/botach/micolights.html

If you want more info on colors, burn times, etc., try http://www.photonlight.com/main.htm
 
 

For more events Eros puts on, plus other general information about events, check out main events page at http://www.laughingbear.org