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
BLF A6. Fits well in the bang for your buck and best flashlight ever categories.
Where to even begin... I thought I knew my way around what a good flashlight should cost until I stumbled upon these. The standard light guys (jetbeam, nitecore, etc.) have now lost my business until they become competitive with them. I have never come across a more versatile, powerful, or durable light than these things. And they sell for around $20US.
The bad news is that they advertise 1600lm, but as anticipated, they don't get there. They do get to at least 1200lm with crappy batteries which still makes it the most powerful light that I know of for its size/form factor, granted since I discovered these a few years ago, I haven't shopped around much. I haven't done brick drop tests on them, but I have dropped them in plenty of water and wrecked bikes on them and they keep right on going.