New keyring flashlight...

For the past four years, I've been carrying a Photon Micro-Light® II on my keyring. It's an incredibly useful light and has come in handy on hundreds of occasions. The batteries are replaceable (unlike many of these lights) and it takes two batteries that usually cost me $3 each at Radio Shack. Recently, it has gotten dim, so I know that the batteries need to be replaced again.

Last night, I went to pick up some things at Target and saw that they had the INOVA Microlight for $5.99. Since that's the same price as getting batteries for my Photon, I went ahead and picked one up.

It offers a couple of advantages over the Photon II. The Photon has a momentary squeeze switch and an actual on/off slider. The light is either on or off. The INOVA offers a multi-mode switch and offers multiple modes (high power, low power, strobe and signal mode). There's only one switch and it's pretty ingenious. Here's the operation guide:

Operation Guide.
Press the button one time for high power.
Press the button two times for low power.
Press the button three times for strobe.

If you leave your Microlight on any setting for more than 2 seconds the next press of the button will turn it off and not go to the next function. In the high power setting your Microlight will automatically shut off after 4 minutes. Low power and strobe settings will run as long as they are active.

To reset your Microlight into signal mode:
Press the button three times for strobe mode.
While the light is strobing, press and hold the button for 5 seconds.
In signal mode your light will only works as a squeeze light. To activate normal operating modes press and hold down the button for 15 seconds until the light goes out.