Newbie LED flashlight advice

Hello, new forum member here. Can you guys suggest witch LED light would be the best for my needs?

Needs:
1. Uses AA batteries, so that I can use my rechargeable nimh's.
2. Must use LED's, for longggg bulb life. This flashlight will be used everyday at work.
3. Small enough that it can be worn on my belt.
4. Must be a readily available flashlight. Right now I don't have the knowledge to do mods.
5. Dependable, gets dropped and banged around alot.

Currently I carry a AA Mini Mag light. Thank you in advance.

Edit: Oh yeah, I'm not ready for a $100 light YET. ) So keep the lights under $50 please.

Well 2 options spring to mind...

Oh wait, before I get to that, welcome to CPF and I think I speak for all of us when I say we're glad to see you're ditching the minimag...ok, onto the answers.

Arc AAA. This, I believe, would be your best option. It's much smaller than a Minimag but much brighter!

Get the Arc AAA premium package from Berkeleypoint, it comes with a SS Clip, and you can clip that thing to a belt loop or something, or make a lanyard for it, or get a holster...the options are endless..

It uses AAAs not AAs but it's excellent on batteries. A $12 24 package of AAAs from Lowes or Wal-Mart could easily run it for half a year or better under heavy useage conditions--you can use batteries in it from things around your house that are dead as well.

Arc AAA premium package from Berkeleypoint, shipped to my house (Since you didn't put in a location) $32.60

The other option is a Opalec New beam conversion. You basically take the bulb out of your Minimag and put the Opalec in. Easy as pie. Since I'm already at their page, you could get one from Berkeleypoint for $29.30 shipped to my house.

In fact you said keep it under $50. Well, based on shipping from California to Utah you could get BOTH for the low low price of $62. Now that's not too bad!

If you're willing to go to AAAs instead of AAs, I'd say go for the Arc.

Thank you for the reply. I have been reading about how popular the arc AAA is, but I never realized it was "that" bright. I thought it was only so popular because of it's size to fit on a key ring. Now that I think about it, that might actually be too small. I work on arcade games for a living so if i were to accidentally sit that down inside of a game I might not find it easily. Oh, one more thing, I would like for the light to be brighter/better than a Princeton Tec Impact. A coworker of mine has one of thoose. ) Keep the ideas coming guys.

Well there's an easy solution for that--carry 2 lights then when you set Mr.Arc down you can find it with another light, or put a tracer on it (Radioactive keychain, perfectly safe) or some glow tape...



If you really are worried about loosing it though, the Opalec might be a better option--assuming you don't loose many maglights.

Originally posted by Saaby:
[QB]Well 2 options spring to mind...
Arc AAA premium package from Berkeleypoint, shipped to my house (Since you didn't put in a location) $32.60
Since I'm already at their page, you could get one from Berkeleypoint for $29.30 shipped to my house.
QB]

Click to expand...

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Saaby I think electronics4life wanted to use them himself. But mabe he'll ship one to you

Back on Topic--I would agree with the Opalec as it meets your parameters well. The other option that I don't have YET would be the Streamlight 4AA 7 LED light. It would be brighter than the Opalec but isn't regulated. Or as the total for both would be about $50 you could "get them both".
In case you haven't noticed a common saying is Get them both. Welcome to CPF

I read the thread about the Streamlight 4AA 7 LED light last night. I like how they are saying that one is REALLY bright. I guess that could be a fair trade off for no regulation. Okay, here comes another newbie question. Where can I buy belt holsters for the streamlight 7 led, or the arc AAA?

Talk to Normark, he is the moderator in Knives Multi Tools and other Gadgets section of this forum. he makes Kydex holsters for the Arc AAA. I'm sure he can make one for anything else. Here is his web site. www.mnsi.net/~nbtnoel

enjoy

Don't forget about silviron. He makes holders also. darksbane Here's a link.

You might be able to find a used Arc SLS for around $50 if you're lucky. With the 2xAA battery pack it is roughly the same size as a minimag, but will be far more useful. You can run it with a single AA battery for longer runtime (at reduced brightness) or on both AA's for great brightness and a still reasonable 2+ hour runtime. If you need miniscule and bright, you get to also run it on a single 123 cell. My guess is that you'll be happiest running it on a single AA cell though. Talk about thrift battery use!

The Arc AAA is a light you should have on your keychain - but if I were using a light for a living doing what you do, I'd want something brighter as well. Except for your price limit, the LS series of Arc lights will fit the bill perfectly, I think.

Welcome to the madness!

hhmmm? i may need a new light. thanks revolvergeek, the light you describe sounds like a nice a addition to my pt attitude and impact. brighter flood than the attitude and hopefully doesn't run as hot as my streamlight 4aa/7?

I think the Arc LS is about 85 bucks. I also heard the Arc LE (limited edition) had HA III anodizing = better and better LED selection = better light than just the garden variety Arc AAA
But I'm new to all this too.
--Ðøug

I agreee with Darell. You want an Arc-LS. I've never lost mine in a game cabinet (though I only have one to work on), it can take being dropped and having tools dropped on it, and it's plenty bright enough to check wiring harnesses or looking for that stray quarter that fell in a power supply chassis and blew the fuse. Just don't bury it in your Wells-Gardner.

Ahh..someone that knows his arcade games. ) I will indeed have to look into the arc LS. The streamlight 7 LED isn't looking so good anymore with the reports of the grossly overdriven LED's. Anyone with the personal experience to know if an arc LS with the 2 AA battery pack would fit into a mini mag holster?

The LS with 2xAA fits great in a Mag holster. That's where mine is now at this very minute. The Arc is about 1/2" shorter than the Mag.

I would look at picking up a Tec40 and having jbetcho set you up a 4led cluster bulb of white leds set up to run on 4.8 volts. I run one of his bulbs in a Tec40 set up for 6 volts on alkalines and have been very impressed with it.

electronics4life,

You mentioned that you currently carry a AA Mini Maglite. Have you considered the Opalec NewBeam? It is an LED conversion module for your Mini Maglite that takes less than three minutes without any tools. The NewBeam has double the battery life of your stock Mini Maglite.

Another option is the CMG Infinity Ultra. This LED flashlight is super tough, as bright as the Arc AAA, has a battery run-time of 25 hours and takes a single AA battery.

I would second (third?, fourth?) the Opalec minimag LED module. Flat regulation (constant output/brightness) even with your rechargables. $25-$30. Here's my review:

http://thelightsite.cruxial.com/reviews/opalec_newbeam.htm

I was considering an ARC LS but I think the price is still out of my league. Is the opalec brighter than a PT Impact?

The Opalec is brighter than the PT Attitude (another 3 LED light - 41 vs 37 LUX at one meter). Does anyone else have a LUX reading for the Impact at one meter?

I normally don't measure in Lux because I didn't have a meter for that until fairly recently. If I can find an Impact and a metric yardstick around here that isn't broken, I'll try it.