There Are Pandas, and Then There Are Pandas.
And this isn't either of them! The Pandas we're talking about here, are watches, not bears. And what got me thinking about them (again) was a link posted this morning by @cm.rook who pointed a few of us to the very attractive (and not terribly priced) Yema "Rallygraph" Panda which, in it's most traditional arrangement, looks like the one on the left, but can also be had in the version on the right: The model on the left is a true Panda, while the model on the right is called a reverse Panda. The reason for that distinction is clear--Panda bears, only come in the first arrangement. Now at this point, everyone should be thinking about the most well-know Panda, The Rolex Panda, which is actually a Daytona, and among Rolex Daytonas, the most famous of which is the Paul Newman Daytona, which was famous first, because it was Paul's, and second because it sold at auction for $17.8 million (US Dollars). The story of that auction is well-known so I'll only...
Nov 8, 2019
My EDC is an Olight S1 Baton. It's small, bright, has a good short to medium range beam pattern, decent battery life on a RCR123, and the magnetic tailcap is surprisingly useful. The S1 Mini Baton is basically the same, except in a smaller package. The only reason that isn't my top EDC pick is because the pocket clip is single-position (lots of accidental power-ons for me, carrying the light in my back pocket).
My general purpose outdoor light (camping, hiking) is the Zebralight SC600w. I like the UI and range of modes on the Zebralights a lot. It really is one of the most versatile lights I've used. Very bright, great beam pattern, good battery life on 18650, and about as compact as a 18650 light as I've seen.
Some honorable-mention lights for EDC are the Eagletac D25C and Zebralight SC53w. The D25C was a long-time EDC, but my preferences shifted towards side switches. If the SC53w had a magnetic tailcap, I'd very likely be carrying that over the S1 Baton. For a general purpose outdoor and work light, the Fenix PD35 and ThruNite TC12 were my go-to's before I got the SC600w. Both are great lights too, but I found I liked side switches more as I used them more.
My "tactical" lights are a Klarus XT11GT and one of those knock-offs of the Nitecore Tiny Monster lights w/ 7 XM-L LEDs in it. The Klarus has the instant access to the strobe mode, which can be very disorienting, and the TM clone is just so overwhelmingly bright that it could be used to blind a potential attacker. Honestly, I don't use this category of lights much, so I don't have any real applicable experience with what makes a good tactical light.