When you think of custom flashlights you probably have some heavily machined, kilobuck and kilolumen design pop into your head—a McGizmo glittering jewel or some micro marvel by Gyorgy Kemenes—a simple aluminum bodied 1xAA format light is probably not your first mental image. But the Focusworks F2 is a custom (or small batch) light that is definitely worth consideration. If you want a custom light that is not precious or a piece of jewelry, but instead an easy-to-use tool, this is a light you should consider.

Here is the product page. Here is a review of the F2 from ZeroAir (which spurred me to purchase this light). Here is a video review. Here is my F2 review sample (purchased with my own money):

Quick Review Summary: Restrained and simple—the most muggle friendly custom torch ever.

Design: 2

Some of the custom torches out there seem to be more objet d’art than actual flashlights with gills, vents, and slits that make them look like they are an accessory to the latest (and most hideous) new Lamborghini. Color me not interested. The F2 is clean, simple, and elegant with only the most spare of accents. An elongated hourglass, the shape is easy in the hand, readily identifiable and operable in total darkness, and pleasing to the eye. There is no excess here, nothing on the light is overdone or gauche from its appearance to the UI to the very functional clip. This is just a solid light that flashlight enthusiasts can appreciate and flashlight muggles can use with ease.

Fit and Finish: 2

Jordy from Focusworks is an excellent machinist and the F2 is a testament to that. The body tube is absolutely error free with excellent, tight threads, nicely chamfered edges (including a beautiful micro chamfer on the head), and a robust build quality. The review sample is aluminum but I can imagine that the brass or copper versions are real chunks.

Grip: 2

At over 4 inches long with the ideal hourglass shape, the F2 works well in every hand. As you may know during the fall and winter we regular do hikes in the woods on Friday night and even in the gloved hands of a person that dislikes complex flashlights (my wife) it worked exceptionally well. I am not a huge fan of big lights for EDC reasons, so this is about as big as I would go, but the grip is excellent.

Carry: 1

Well, this is the flip side of excellent grip—poor carry. Its not BAD, but compared to lights that really focus on being compact it seems like I am carrying a cigar in my pocket. Look at it compared the Zebralight (which is decidedly NOT flashlight muggle friendly). The F2 is just big and there is no way around that. Its not as big as a Mini Mag, but it is getting close. A great clip design does help, but unless your pocket is actually a pocket dimension you will notice that this is your EDC torch the entire day.

Output: 1

Highs in flashlights are so high that they never really matter anymore. Pretty much every torch is BRIGHT enough. Not all of them are DIM enough and the F2 is one of them. Every light needs a moonlight low, an output that is bright enough to illuminate a room but not so bright as to rob you of your night vision. While I can’t find the output for the F2 on low it is clearly too bright to be a moonlight low. I’d guess it is around 30 lumens or so, which is 6 to 10 times too much light to preserve night vision. You need something like a 1-5 lumen low for that. If Jordy would drop the low down a bit, it would be very useful.

Runtime: 2

The 900 lumen high has no 90 second stepdown like most new torches and will roar passed a half hour at around 350-300 lumens. On medium you get double digit output for more than an hour. Jordy has clearly set the light to prioritize output over runtime, but both numbers are respectable. I couldn’t find data for the low, but it is also quite good, having had a child leave the light on during a blackout for 6 or so hours.

Beam Type: 2

This is not a light designed for throw, but it is also not terrible bad at it either. The hotspot is tight and thanks to the non-triple, pretty coherent even up close. This reminds me of a Surefire in terms of its beam pattern and I like Surefires in that respect. Overall, this is pretty good at balancing close up and throw.

Beam Quality: 2

The tint is nice here and there are no artifacts. The shape is perfect. Its worth noting that this light is a traditional reflector, a single, and made in small batches. If you want good output that’s a pretty simple formula. Its kind of like knives with thin blade stock—you want a slicey knife it is also a simple formula.

UI: 2

Guess what? You don’t need party mode, lightning storm mode, or sub levels. You need low, medium, and high. And while I like mode memory, it too is unnecessary. With just three modes and no mode memory the F2 is a perfect torch for flashlight muggles. Oh, and Jordy did it right and started the light out on low.

Hands Free: 2

With a good body tube that both won’t roll and tailstands with ease the F2 is great without hands. Two black outs in a winter proved the value of both of these things.

Other Considerations

Fidget Factor: Low

While the clicky is nice, there is not much to fidget with here because the F2 is so clean and simple.

Fett Effect: Very Low

Stonewashed aluminum is the flashlight equivalent of a darkwashed blade for a knife—they have beat it up for you.

Value: Moderate

I’d never say $180 is a good value, especially when most people think their cellphone’s flashlight is “free”, but for a custom this an extraordinarily good value.

Overall Score: 18 out of 20

If you are looking for a simple, ultra high quality light that works well and is bright, the F2 is great. If you are looking for a light that you can hand to a flashlight Muggle, the F2 is great. If you are looking for an entry into the custom light market, the F2 is great. Over and over again, the F2 comes up as a very capable and very strong performer. It is a light that does illumination really, really well. I am not a huge fan of the AA form factor, given that you can get basically the same performance out of rechargeable AAA, but setting that aside there is nothing I would change about the F2 (noting, of course, the smaller battery would make the light better in the pocket).

Competition

The light is quite simple and so the lights that are competition are some of the other high end, small batch lights. One that screams as a comp is the CWF Micro Arcadian. The battery format is better in the CWF, but the F2 can tailstand. The LauLima Ion is another competitor, this time in the same form factor, but it is much more expensive—starting at $285 and going all the way up to $2,400. I also think the OKLuma DC0 is a good comp, but, again, like the Ion, it is much more expensive, coming in at $249 in aluminum. The Frelux Synergy2 is a bit more in terms of money and size, but it sports a double barreled battery configuration with increased runtime. Its roughly the same size as the Surefire EDCL-1T but it can tailstand, runs on a 14500 cell, and is nearly twice as bright for the exact same cost. As you can see with the comps though—nothing is the same form factor or price and so the F2 stands out as bit of a unicorn. That’s why it is worth your consideration.