John Galt,
I tested my Olight i1 EOS on 2 Surefire CR123's. On both medium and high it maintained its brightness without dimming at at all. I did not do it on low which is rated at 72hrs on 4 lumens. But I willdo that next. I am very pleased with this little lights performance in maintaining its brightness. But this is about HDS lol..
Perhaps not visually, but then, the human eye is quite poor at telling you what is actually going on. But the fact remains, if you look at the run time graphs for 99% of th eother lights out there, you will see they all have a period of initially high output [which can, and often does last for 45+ minutes], followed by a steady drop-off to a much lower output as the batteries fail to deliver the juice necessary ot maintain that original level of output.
To the contrary, HDS's [after their initial burst output] maintain a steady output for as long as is possible, then drop to a level that is able to be maintained at a steady output, and so on and so-forth until the battery is no longer capable of powering the light at all.
EDIT:
To the OP. I own currently, 3 HDS's, a 100 High CRI, a 170 tactical and my B42XR replacement, my 140n [with XP-E].
I have tried other lights. I even recently branched into the custon lights, discussing with our resident modder and genius Milkyspit. I talked back and forth with him for weeks, hammered out exactly the light I was looking for... More output, more runtime, more throw, durable, simple and easy to use... And I got all of that in an excellent, wonderful light. But even with a 1 cell body, my Expurgator cannot even now replace my EDC... My 140n. It is THE best light ever designed. The pinnacle, the peak, the one by which others are judged.
I still regularly use my Expurgator, and don't think I'll ever sell it or trade it... But my HDS is my go-anywhere, take-any-abuse light. You're right. There are lights in its class that have longer runtimes, more output, more throw, differing LED options, better clips, different user interfaces, equal customer service/warranty. But I have not yet found a light that has all of these in as effective and efficient combination.
IF your interest has been piqued, please feel free ot order one, any model, any output. Use it for a month, a week, a day. But use it. If at the end of that period, you still don't see the point, sell it... You will only lose a few dollars on your investment, which is much more than can be said of other brands. And you will have a chance to experience the genius of the lights.
