Let there be light!

I've talked about my toolbelt and tools I use everyday in an earlier post. During my day-to-day work, one of the indispensable tools is my trusty flashlight. Carrying a flashlight is a habit that started very early in my life - during my teenage years. I guess a decent flashlight is somewhat cool and accessible for a teenager on limited monthly allowances. My first flashlight was an Energizer water resistant unit with a halogen bulb. I bought this off the shelf from a local 'emporium'. At that time, the halogen type bulb was a relatively new innovation, giving greater output than regular tungsten type incandescent bulb. I used that flashlight for a good number of years, including trips to Tioman Island and Taman Negara, where is got covered with bat poo in a cave crawling adventure. It finally gave out years ago when the rubber membrane switch broke.

My next flashlight was a more 'professional' model - the much touted Mini Maglite AA. As I've mentioned before, this fella is almost indistructable! Great light output and durability meant that it was with me almost all the time and definitely on all of my little travel adventures. The only weakness was the bulb, but a spare bulb in the tail cap meant that a handy replacement was available. I used it for about 12 years before retiring it. I was looking for a unit with greater light output. After trying out a few different models, I found its successor - the Pelican M6 LED, which is much brighter and carries a lifetime warranty. Only weakness of the M6 is its high consumption of CR123 cells, but rechargeable batteries took care of that issue.


Recently, I took the opportunity to upgrade the old faithful Mini Maglite with a 1W LED upgrade. The result was pretty impressive and has given a new lease of life for the fella. In fact I like it so much that I've started carry it again! What so great about the rejunevated light? It's good a pretty decent light output, decent battery life and it's using the commonly available AA batteries. As a result of this, I get to put in 'used' AA batteries from my shaver, wireless packs, etc and still get some very usable light from this little beauty.

In my line of work, I am constantly amazed at how many people I've bumped into without a flashlight. We work a fair amount of time in darkness and low light conditions. For safety and ease of work, it's really not an option for not having a flashlight. It's singularly more important that a Leatherman or any other fancy tool out there. Cost is also not an excuse - when I first got the Mini Maglite AA, it cost me over SGD50.00, now, they are selling for less than SGD25.00 . There is also a proliferation of LED type flashlights in the market that range from less than SGD10.00 and upwards. I reckon at that price, a flashlight should be one of the first things any aspiring theatre technician should have on their belt.

Think about that, next time you're feeling your way in darkness backstage.....