which battery do you prefer

which battery do you peeps prefer in your lights and why? AA AAA or cr123. I choose AA cause their cheap and easily found anywhere

I also prefer the AA AAA as they are standard I can get them anywhere,

AAs.
You can get them anywhere or poach them from many other applications in a pinch, and they are chep. And I like to standardize as much of my equipment as possible. Since I dont prefer very small lights, they are harder to handle, the more compact form of CR123 doesnt matter to me, I can get the same performance from a 2AA light, which is a more suitable size for me. And with lithium AAs you can get all the perks with lithium.

No primarys. Recheargables all the way, best 18650 LiIons.

Best regards

____
Tom

AA !!!!!!!!!

For some reason or another, for me it's the CR123 Lithiums, though I don't care much for the price. . .

please state the reason for battery choice. I'm curious as to why people would choose x over x. what are the benefits you find?

CR123's have some of the best wattage density but I am a real fan of 18650 rechargables.

my potato battery pwns all

I like cr123as, but mainly for the bonuses of lithium. I guess lithium AAs and AAAs would be fine for me too.

I prefer AA for flashlights, because it is a size common for most of my electronic stuff, you can get alkalines cheap, NiMH rechargables are readily available, you can splurge on lithium AAs for an application that needs it. AAAs cost as much as AAs, but have much less capacity, so I don't see a use for them, except for small form factor items [EDC pocket light]. CR123s are relatively expensive, I have nothing else that uses 123s, so I have no reason to buy a flashlight that uses "special" batteries.

EssLight

CR123. Most of the best flashlights use them for a reason. Compact, powerful, Lithium cold weather advantage (cheaper then Lithium AA on-line), great rechargeable option that maintains the cold advantages. I have to admit AA NiMH have it in rechargeable energy density, but their voltage is lower, which does cause problems sometimes, and they self discharge too much; they fail me too often in cameras so I don't want to risk it in flashlights.
In short, CR123's work in very compact, and larger flashlights. AA's will come into their own when a Gladius or L5 has the same performance with 2AA's without being longer.

AA, I can choose from several chemistries and have a decent capacity. With AA I can choose Carbon Zinc, Alkaline, Lithium, NiCd, and NiMH. AA cells are easy to find when you need them and are very common. Now if only we could get a laptop to run off AAs (yes I know the Apple eMate 300 does).

Where's the Li-Ion 18650 choice? (that's mine)

I don't so much mind any of the options. What I do very much prefer is to use rechargeable batts whenever possible. Most of the rechargeable batteries I use are rcr123s or other Li-Ions. With some AA and AAA when I have the need.

AA-cell. I prefer eneloops for my digital camera, remote controls, multimeter, etc. I am trying the Hybrid for my exercise flashlight (walking after dark).



Both my father's use AA-cell and D-cell, so if I find a product I like with AA-cells, I can recommend it. If the Fenix L2D-CE works out, I will be buying and loading it with L91 lithiums for the father in New England, and Hybrid (available at Walmart) for the aerospace father.

-wjb3

cr123A most of the time, but when I travel...its AA

18650!

(AA for my hazardous environment rated lights)

+1 for 18650 !

Hi there,

This is an interesting thread because i just posted something about liking
AA's over AAA's a minute ago too. Of course i voted for AA's because
they offer longer run time than AAA's, and i have two lights that take
three AAA's each and i hate them both because they run down too fast.

I saw several nice lights at Target one time but did not buy them because
they all used three AAA cells. They were 1 watters and 5 watters.
I bet the 5 watters last about 5 minutes with three AAA's in them (ha ha).