Like any man interested in being capable and functional in the modern age I am interested in Every Day Carry. The gear I select to augment my life and keep me not just prepared for the worst but actually able to more fully enjoy life is a serious matter. Most people reading this I’m sure, if they are being honest, have too much stuff. It’s not entirely our fault though, we’ve been looking for the perfect item. In this short series I want to highlight a few everday carry items that have truly caused me to stop looking. It might be of course I buy a new item or even rotate for another item dependent on circumstance – I’m taking a double stack 9mm on a cross country road trip not my snub nose for example. That being said these items to me represent as close to pocket perfection as I have found and I want to examine the why.

Flashlight

The why of a flashlight is perhaps the most obvious one of all EDC items. Human’s can’t see in the dark and the ability to provide light in darkness is infinitely useful. Combine that with a hands free functionality and the usefulness almost doubles. If you’ve ever had to fix a tire by the side of the road in the dark or look for lost items or navigate a power outage or just light up a dark path you know the usefulness. Most people are happy enough to rely on their phone, perhaps the most widely used functionality of a phone after its communication abilities is that normal people have a flashlight always available. I however wanted something more robust and what I settled on was the Emisar D3AA. It’s a Chinesium flashlight for better or worse and has been in my pocket since I bought it. It’s replaced my previous everyday carry which was a Manker so lets go over the key attributes that I think make it the perfect pocket flashlight.

Size and battery

In large part the size of a flashlight is determined by the battery and whilst for more long term and robust use I prefer the likes of 18650s I have come back to the humble AA format despite having tried to fatter shorter cousin of 18650 the 18350. There are other pocket friendly sizes as well, in the gun world the ubiquitous presence of the CR123 is hard to escape from and I’ve tried those short stubby pocket lights as well but they were just a bit too small. What the AA sized D3 gives the user is a compact thinner profile flashlight than other small competitors and crucially it is one of the most common battery types found in the wild.

This is also where the D3AA shines because it can handle both fancy lithium rechargeable AAs, slightly less fancy NiHM rechargeable AAs and also just bog standard AAs that you find anywhere. Of course there are performance step downs along the way with each battery but you have the relative freedom in knowing even if you can’t recharge the battery you can just pop an AA found in any gas station or supermarket the world over and be good to go.

Beam and Tint

This all gets a bit flashlight nerdy but in general I prefer the warm to neutral tints for an everyday use object. I don’t like the harsh flare of the cold whites that a lot of ‘tactical’ lights have. Emisar D3AA has a large number of options for the user to select and go with. For the nerdy out there mine is a Nichia 519a 4000k and there are three of them. This provides a nice floody output as most of what an EDC light does is within relative distance. This isn’t a thrower where I need to see what is off in the distance because that just generally isn’t a usecase I encounter and I don’t want a spotlight effect. The D3AA also has a warm white backlight on the button, I could take or leave this feature.

Operation and Button

This light uses an open source UI called Anduril. It’s got a bit of a reputation as being overly complex but once you learn the basics it’s actually quite straight forward and has a couple of critical key features for me in an EDC light.

Firstly the lockout is 4 clicks, that really prevents accidental activation in the pocket. The other nice thing though is that when in lockout mode a click and hold still gives you the weakest – think 5 lumen – amount of light so in pitch black scenarios and the light is locked out you can still get some degree of light when you need without having to fully unlock.

Secondly I appreciate the click and hold starts me at the bottom and then I can have a smooth ramp up in brightness. An immediate click and hold can ramp back down as well. Double click goes to turbo. There is a memory option as well. Honestly Anduril has a ton of other fun modes to play with (candle mode I like) and options but these basics are what I most appreciate about it. In the V2 of this light you also get color LEDs that indicate charge status of the battery which is another nice touch after you turn it off.

Larger tactical flashlights often have a tail switch but for an EDC light I don’t find that a useful way to hold the light. I much prefer this body mounted option as it reflects how I hold and use a light with more frequency.

Hands Free Use

This light also comes with the option to have a magnet in the tail cap. This has been very useful. In the right place this can give horizontal or vertical light. I added a pocket clip that is only used to attach the light to a cap. Note this isn’t an official one but one I had lying around at home, as such it isn’t a perfect fit but it works just fine. As someone who pretty much is always wearing a cap or what with a brim of some kind this really does increase the useability in a hands free capacity:

In Summary

This flashlight really has caused me to stop looking at other EDC options. It just has everything I want and need in a flashlight.

It’s surprisingly powerful for its size.

It isn’t too bulky in the pocket, nor is it too small and fiddly.

It has a UI system that I find easy to use with a lockout functionality that works.

It has a magnet in the tail and a clip to affix it as needed.

The beam is of a comfortable tint.

It uses the most common battery found and still gives options for rechargeables.

As I stated this short series of articles is intended to focus on what makes a piece of gear so great and well designed. The D3AA represents a perfect combination of factors one wants from a flashlight that is just an every day carry item. It isn’t a specialized piece of kit but rather a bit of everything and it remains always in my pocket.