What is the ultimate AA flashlight?

I'm looking for an all purpose AA flashlight. I already have a AA Mini-Maglite, but I'm not to impressed with its brightness.

Proabably a MiniM@g with a sandwitch. Cheap to run, MUCH brighter then stock, better battery life, no bulbs to replace.

Need to know what you intend to do with it....for walking the dog, looking in mouths? Do you want throw, flood, or a combination of both? Incandescent or LED? How big?

There are some great flashlights around...Streamlight Junior in either Luxeon or incan; the XM-3, which is a great AA LED light; the UK 4AA LED, which will give you good flood for a really long time; and lots of others. Depends on what you want it for.

IMHO Streamlight JR LUXEON is a good all around flashlight putting out a nice flood of light with modest throw. It is regulated with a very flat runtime until it drops out of regulation. It can be bought for as low as $25 and did I mention that it can be run on NiMH Rechargable batt's?

Thanx for your replies

thesurefire wrote:
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Proabably a MiniM@g with a sandwitch. Cheap to run, MUCH brighter then stock, better battery life, no bulbs to replace.

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Are you talking about some kind of aftermarket add-on for the MiniMag? Both the bulbs on mine are broken, so I would be interseted in alternative replacements. Do you have any links?

davidra wrote:
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Need to know what you intend to do with it....for walking the dog, looking in mouths? Do you want throw, flood, or a combination of both? Incandescent or LED? How big?

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About MiniMag size (could be a bit bigger too), for walking the dog and working up close on the car, washing machine etc. Could be both Incandescent or LED.

Dukester wrote:
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IMHO Streamlight JR LUXEON is a good all around flashlight putting out a nice flood of light with modest throw. It is regulated with a very flat runtime until it drops out of regulation. It can be bought for as low as $25 and did I mention that it can be run on NiMH Rechargable batt's?

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Sounds like a good deal. Do you have links to any good online stores?

IMHO the ARC LSH-P with a AA pack is the ultimate AA light, but since ARC has gone out of business the prices have gone into the range "collector" lights.

I like the Streamlight Junior Luxeon and the MiniMag with Sandwich

I've seen several posts where people were confused about which Sandwich to buy. I think I've had all of the Sandwiches except the BB650. I recommend a MadMax Lite because they have less heat and more runtime, but any af them are great. If you get a Sandwich, I also recommend you get a glass lens and a Kroll switch.

I'd go for the Streamlight Jr.

Here's Quickbeam's review of the Streamlight Junior Luxeon

and here's Quickbeam's review of Dat2zip's Sandwiches

Thanx guys, you've given me a lot to think about. I didn't know there were so many modifications available for the MiniMag.
The Streamlight Junior Luxeon sounds very tempting. BTW when it says regulated, does it mean that the light emission is regulated for maximum output for a given period of time?

i guess i'm alone on this, but i think either the Gerber LX 3.0, or the Elektrolumens Blaster Jr would be the ultimate AA light(s).

I just purchased a Terralux for my MiniMag. Here's a link to the review:

Bulb Replacement Reviews.

Just scroll down to the bottom and click on the link for the TerraLux Ministar2 TLE-5. I paid around $25 for mine from Brightguy.com. It uses a side emitting Luxeon Star that allows you to retain the adjustable focusing. Some of the other replacement "bulbs" only allow a fixed focus.

The BadBoy sandwiches are great but I think they cost around $55(!). For that kind of money I'd junk the Mini-Mag and buy a better flashlight.

Another vote for a sandiwch in a mag. MadMax+ in a Minimag=great light

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Stream said:
Thanx guys, you've given me a lot to think about. I didn't know there were so many modifications available for the MiniMag.
The Streamlight Junior Luxeon sounds very tempting. BTW when it says regulated, does it mean that the light emission is regulated for maximum output for a given period of time?

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Yes
The Streamlight Junior Luxeon has a runtime of 1 hour 16 minutes to half brightness according to Roy's runtime plot. This is with alkaline batteries. I've read that the Streamlight Junior Luxeon runs for about 3 hours on NiMH rechargeables. The runtime plot should be much flatter with NiMH or lithium batteries.

If you look in the Review Forum, you'll find Roy's runtime plots for some of the sandwiches too. The MadMax Lite runs bright for about three hours on alkaline batteries. It is still a bright light.

The Streamlight Jr Luxeon is cheaper and has a warantee.

The Sandwiches give you more options. You can replace the host (MiniMag) when it gets damaged. You can get a glass lens that won't scratch easily. You can to some extent pick your Luxeon and the drive level you want.

PS: Welcome to CPF /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink2.gif

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when it says regulated, does it mean that the light emission is regulated for maximum output for a given period of time?

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Regulated means that the flashlight has circuitry to keep the light output constant until the batteries are almost completely used up, then the output drops off to almost nothing when it falls out of regulation.

It sounds like the SL Jr. Lux has pretty good regulation keeping almost the same output for about 1 hour and 20 min before going into moon mode. I really like my UK eLED's regulation (thanks again Keith!). It has drop dead constant output for about 12 hours on 4 AAs. It's not quite as bright as the SL Jr., but I've found that the nice wide smooth beam is great for finding your way around indoors or on night walks. I'm even thinking of getting the UK 2L to put the eLED head on making it smaller and lighter.

Cheers,
Ken

Only light to consider that hasn't been mentioned is the SL Twin Task 3AA. It has both an incan and 3 leds. It won't throw like the SL Jr. Incan, but it's not far off. It's a little long, but it gives you both options in one light. But face it, you're screwed now. You'll need to replace those bulbs with sandwiches, and then of course you'll have to get a new light....if you have any sense, run screaming out the door and erase this URL from your favorites.

Most folks, myself included, speak well of the SL Jr. Lux. A similar thread is here.

73
dim

The Gerber Trio sounds like would be useful too. Not as bright as the Luxeon-based sandwiches (sammies), or the SL-JR, but much longer runtime. If you are going to use it for closeup tasks, like you mention, you may not need a super-bright light.

I like the Dorcy 2AA. It doesnt have the brightness of price $$$$ of luxeons but it has great runtime, takes liths , alks or nimh's, is great for close to medium tasks and is cheap. If i need bright i use my SF's

let me add the Gerber Trio for good runtime. The Streamlight 3AA Luxeon and 3AA Twintask are also interesting.

does anyone know where i could purchase a MadMax+ R2H?