We have all been there. It is pre-dawn at a landscape you’ve been waiting for weeks to shoot, or you’re packing up after a wedding reception has ended. You need to find that memory card you just dropped, but your phone flashlight just isn’t cutting it. While a phone flashlight is certainly convenient, it is rarely the right tool for the job.
Recently, I decided to add a couple of dedicated flashlights to my photography kit, after getting into high-performance flashlights for hiking and outdoor adventuring. A dedicated light isn’t tied to my phone’s battery, and it’s brighter, more durable, and offers far more versatility. After trying a few different options, I have settled on two small, affordable, and incredibly useful models from Wuben: the G5 and the PL01. I’ve got a few that now live permanently in my camera bags and have proven their worth repeatedly.
Versatile EDC
The Wuben G5 has become a permanent fixture in my hard-shell cases. It is about the size of a Zippo lighter or FZ100 battery and weighs just 52 grams, making it small enough to slip into any pocket of a camera bag, a case, or even just keep clipped to a camera strap. Despite its small size, it is packed with features that come in handy in the field.
The main white light is controlled by a very easy-to-understand user interface (a welcome change from some complicated UI setups on other enthusiast flashlights). A single click turns it on, and a rotary dial provides stepless dimming from a very gentle 2-lumen “moonlight” mode all the way up to a surprisingly bright 400 lumens.
This analog control is my favorite way to adjust brightness, as it gives precise control over the output without having to cycle through preset modes. If you need a quick blast of maximum power, a double-click instantly activates the 400-lumen turbo mode.
What sets the G5 apart from other compact lights is its physical design. The head of the flashlight rotates a full 180 degrees. It also has a rotating clip and a strong magnet in the base. This combo of features makes it perfect for hands-free lighting. I have clipped it to my backpack strap to light the path in front of me, hooked it into a belt loop, and magnetically adhered it to the top lid of a Nanuk case and angled the head to light up the compartments.
It even has a secondary RGB light mode, which can be useful for preserving night vision via the red light or for getting some creative long-exposure effects on foreground subjects (although this is quite a bit lower output).
It has a tough metal shell, IP68 waterproofing, and charges via the USB-C port. The port is hidden behind a sliding lockout switch. This prevents the light from accidentally turning on in your bag but can also make it easier to accidentally toggle the light off if you knock the switch. It also supports passthrough charging, so you can run it directly from a power bank if the internal battery is out.
Inspection Meets EDC
While the G5 is a fantastic all-rounder, the Wuben PL01 penlight serves a more specialized role. Its long and thin form factor is perfect for sliding in a pocket, while the focused beam excels at inspection tasks—think checking a lens for dust and scratches or examining the threads on a filter.
The key feature of the PL01 is its high-quality light source. It uses an emitter with a relatively high CRI of 90+. This means the light shows colors more accurately than many typical flashlight LEDs. This can make a surprising difference in scenarios where color discernment matters. The beam is a neutral 5000K, which is pleasant enough to work with and avoids the harsh blues of cheaper lights.
The PL01 has a boosted 650-lumen turbo mode for when you need a lot of light quickly, although this only lasts for about a minute. Its standard high setting of 150 lumens is more than enough for most work you’d be doing with the light.
As a travel light, I particularly appreciate its dual-fuel capability. It ships with a rechargeable 10880 battery that has a built-in USB-C port, but the light can also run on two standard AAA batteries. This is a huge advantage for fieldwork, as AAA batteries are available almost anywhere in the world and serve as a nice backup to the somewhat niche 10880 rechargeable cell.
Its aluminum body is IP68 waterproof and drop-resistant, and Wuben even points out you can clean the light with rubbing alcohol, a particularly nice option if the TSA makes you put the light in a grimy metal detector tray. The included two-way clip is useful, although the G5 offers significantly more mounting options.
Minor Flaws
No product is perfect, and there are a couple of trade-offs to keep in mind with these lights. The Wuben G5’s battery is integrated and not user-replaceable. This is understandable given its compact size and waterproofing, but it’s still something to be aware of, especially if you leave your bag in very hot or very cold conditions.
The PL01 has a similar sticking point: while the 10880 battery is removable and replaceable, finding a replacement in the U.S. from common vendors is very difficult. While the AAA fallback is a fantastic feature, you’ll end up locked out of the 650-lumen turbo mode.
If you don’t need something as tightly integrated, there’s a wealth of 18650 lights that’ll offer easy battery interchangeability, and I’m particularly a fan of right-angle form factor lights, which can serve as a headlamp, camera strap light, or task lighting. These might not have the same flexibility of the G5 and certainly aren’t as compact.
Adding a dedicated flashlight to your camera bag is one of the simplest, cheapest, and most effective upgrades you can make to your field kit. The convenience of having a bright, versatile, and reliable light source that doesn’t rely on your phone or its battery cannot be overstated. The Wuben G5 and PL01 are two examples that serve slightly different but complementary purposes. The G5 is a great pocketable or packable utility light, while the PL01 is a superb inspection light with an EDC-capable setup and even makes for a great inclusion in your camera cleaning kit. For their price, it is easy to justify putting a light in every bag.
The Wuben G5 and Wuben PL01 are both available from Amazon.