Best AA flashlight Option

Glad I found this forum. I have been having trouble finding a good place to get recomendations on where to buy the best flashlight for my needs.

Here is what I and several of my fellow soldiers need. Most of us already have Surefire G2s. The problem we have however is Being that we are in Iraq the availibility of battteries and bulbs can be non existant. We have 3 and 4 cell mags in our vehicles that work really well for when we need a larger flashlight.

We have come up wit a list of needs in a flashlight. Here they are

Must be Small and compact

Easy to fit in a standard belt holster or holster than can be attached to our LBA.

Must be Bright enough to light up something up to 150 feet away and hopefully temporarily Blind a suspected terrorist.

Economical and easy too replace. $20 price range. We put our lights through hell and they do end up lost quite often.

Durable as said before we put our flashlights through hell.

Push button switch on the tail cap is preferred. The important thing is one handed operation.

Focused beam. We need to be able to point directly to an object or area specifically and light it up. An adjustable flood option would be good too.

AA 2 cell seems to be the most convienient size. We all carry Mini Maglights and enjoy them but they lack some of the features that we have mentioned.

It is relatively easy to get AA batteries here. They are also much less expensive.

Thank you for your help in suggestions.

SHOman

***** Update ***** (19 Jan 2007)

This thread is continued because I have ordered a few lights. They are llisted at the end of this thread. I will post a review and photos as best I can when I have used each lighe extensively in this Thread. I appreciate everyones help and advise. Rest assured if we need something in addition or better we will go with the more expensive options that are mentioned in this thread. So far these lighta after a couple of nights use have been great and adequate for our needs.

SHOman

Can't think of any AA light with that kind of throw in the $20 range. I think the closest you're going to get is the MiniMag LED 3AA but that's going to lack a tailcap switch. It might reach 50 yards if you're not in an urban area.

The only one that comes stock with a tailcap switch would be the Streamlight Jr Luxeon, but I don't think it's going to reach 50 yards. And that's going to retail for more than $20

In total darkness, I suppose either light might be able to impact the night vision of an enemy, prisoner, or detainee, momentarily.

Best thing I can come up with for your needs might be the 2 AA Rock River or like BE mentioned the Minimag LED in your price range.

The RR has a much more focused beam but the Minimag is brighter. You may wish to look at Flashlight reviews.

Hello and welcome to CPForums! :wave:

I agree with brighteyez on the minimag 2AA led
heres a review: http://www.flashlightreviews.com/reviews/maglite_minimagled.htm

at the 20$ range, the inova radiant may also be a consideration, but the throw of the light is not as good as the minimag led
http://www.flashlightreviews.com/reviews/inova_radiant_aa.htm

Personally, I believe before the invention of minimag led, the jr luxeons probably the best bet on 2AA led lights to replace a minimag, now that the minimag led is made, the jr luxeons basically obsolete.
I have one [version II] and I cant blind myself in the mirror with it, its a perfect area light, not much on spot.
http://www.flashlightreviews.com/reviews/streamlight_jr_luxeon.htm

I hope this helps, btw, the only concerning constraint in the criteria would be the "$20 range", that leaves us with very little to work with. If you want to do a little research for yourself, click on the quickbeam's review link [down here in blue] and browse around.
Save the G2s for the momentarily blinding part, thats provided you duct tape two lights together for a one hand operation:laughing:
Im sure you'll find what your looking for as others will chime in with suggestions.

Enjoy your stay
cheers.

for 30 bucks you can get the Strreamlight propolymer luxeon, lots of throw and uses 4 AAs and is pretty small.

I think the other factor that has to be taken into consideration here is whether or not the OP was looking for an incandescent or an LED light. Much as LEDs, and especially Luxeons have seem like the second coming of the Messiah, they don't necessarily work well in some applications.

Thanks for all your insite. If we need to we can bump up the price a bit if the company that we order from has them readily avilable and ships to APO addresses. I realize that I may have been limiting my options along the lines of price. I had not realized untill recently when we were looking for an adequate light how extensive the selection and prices were for higher quality lights. Again Thanks for your help all suggestions are being considered.

Andre

Fenix L2T is a nice 2 x AA LED light w tailcap switch, 2 stages and HAIII Aluminium casinng. Goes for about $45.00.

The Fenix L2S or L2T is not as powerful as you need but would be more powerful than the MagLED 2AA (you did say you had the MagLEDs, right?). They are fixed focus (like the G2) and with clickie tailcaps. I have never had a durability problem with Fenix flashlights and I am pretty rough on my lights. You can get 'em for $35-45 from Fenix-Store.com, with free shipping.

carrot said:

The Fenix L2S or L2T is not as powerful as you need but would be more powerful than the MagLED 2AA (you did say you had the MagLEDs, right?). They are fixed focus (like the G2) and with clickie tailcaps. I have never had a durability problem with Fenix flashlights and I am pretty rough on my lights. You can get 'em for $35-45 from Fenix-Store.com, with free shipping.

Click to expand...

review of L2S and L2T
http://www.flashlightreviews.com/reviews/fenix_l1s-l2s.htm
http://www.flashlightreviews.com/reviews/fenix_l1t-l2t.htm

L2T!!!!! would be perfect with the future creeeeeee edition!

http://contents.fifthunit.com/html/products.5th/sku.1087.html

http://contents.fifthunit.com/html/products.5th/sku.889.html

http://contents.fifthunit.com/html/products.5th/sku.926.html SVEPA

These look promising. I like the Svepa for most throw.

Maybe not the answer you want, but since you already have SF G2's, you might be better off with a rechargeable LI-ion battery and some 3.7v lamp assemblies or LED conversions. I say this because I really don't think a 2AA solution exists that would meet your needs, none are bright enough for your needs, and most are well over your price range. At least with a 3.7v LA, from either Wolf-Eyes or AW, it's at least as bright as G2's are normally, and using a 17670 LI-ion rechargeable battery will save money in the long run. If you can give away some brightness, then instead of the 3.7v bulbs, you could get a Wolf-Eyes or a BugOutGear LED conversion. But all of these solutions cost more than $ 20.

270winchester said:

for 30 bucks you can get the Strreamlight propolymer luxeon, lots of throw and uses 4 AAs and is pretty small.

Click to expand...

Second that. I don't think there is any 2AA light that has that much throw that you seem to require (depending what you mean on light up, and if in urban setting with ambient light or pitch black settings), and the SL Propoly 4AA Luxeon is not that much bigger than a Maglite 2AA and has incredible throw for a AA driven LED.

review here
http://www.flashlightreviews.com/reviews/streamlight_propolyluxeon.htm

Another option is the Blimp from fifthunit, incredible performance on 3AAA, identical with Surefire G2 in throw and output and runtime-numbers but with LED and for under 20USD!But theese numbers are with NiMH batteries, not sure how good it is with regular alkalines, which I'm guessing what the threadstarter is going to use.

I agree with several of the previous post about the Streamlight ProPoly 4AA. It has a great narrow through and is built very tuff.
Does our Army/Marines supply you with batteries?

270winchester said:

for 30 bucks you can get the Strreamlight propolymer luxeon, lots of throw and uses 4 AAs and is pretty small.

Click to expand...

That would be my choice. A little bigger, perhaps, but a really good light. It is polymer, which may be an issue.

Youo guys have been awesome. The Review site is great. Never knew that there was so much involved in the design and operation of a quality flashlight. It is apparent that we will have to look at spending more money. Worth it if it helps us complete the mission.

We have regular Mini Mags no Led. I didn't even realize that Mag had an LED light out until just the other day.

I have looked at the reviews for many of the lights.

The streamlight twin tasks look like nice versitile lights and more powerful than the Mags that we are using right now. They are however a bit longer. Considering exploring the bulkyness of the 3c.

The Fenix lights look like great lights as well.

Thanks for all your suggestions. Looking at them all as I get the chance.

SHOman

If you're willing to go the C battery route, you might consder the 2C Inova Radiant which is polymer construction or the metal Victorinox/Swiss Army variation. I have the Radiant 2C, but I only have the 2AA version of the Victorinox. I like the 2AA version, but the 2C version might better suit your needs.

The radiant 2 C has a side switch. Assuming that the Victorinox 2C uses the same twist mechanism as the Victorinox 2AA, a quick flick of the thumb turns it on or off. I believe that it is as quick as a tactical switch.

for 3 C cells batteries, i would strongly recommend the Streamlight 3C Luxeon Propolymer. about $40

for 4AA cells side by side, i would strongly recommend the Streamlight 4AA Luxeon Propolymer. about $30

both has a tail momentary switch and will throw more than 150 feet in the dark. comes with hand lanyard, rugged polymer construction, water resistant and non reflective surface.

just my 2 cents.
khoo