Sorry I haven't been keeping up with this thread, guys - frankly I thought it was dead! Just noticed the notification for it tonight...
I've seen a lotta people recommending small flashlights. Folks, that's not what I'm after - I've got plenty of tiny lights. I just want a modern solution to the Maglite question. Something roughly the same size as a 2D or 3D, and built just as tough, but with more modern performance, and rechargeable. I suppose that very well could be another Maglite - specification wise, an ML300 3D with (theoretically good) NiMH cells would be just about exactly what I want - but I heard on the grapevine that they aren't made to the same standards that they used to be, that stuff like the ML300 and Magcharger can't hold up to abuse, wear out fast, and suffer from bad parasitic drain. If that's not the case please by all means correct me, but the whole reason I bought the Maglite I have right now was precisely because it didn't have any of those problems.
My other concern was using Chinese NiMH cells in a D flashlight - again correct me if I'm wrong but I've heard horrible things about EBL, Tenergy, Powerex, and AmazonBasics rechargeables. Bad self-discharge, cycle life, quality control, capacity way under-spec... the works. Not confidence-inspiring. Again, correct me if I'm wrong. I could put Eneloops in a D adapter but even with a three-in-one adapter it's still coming in way under-capacity... what's the point of that, I figure. One of the things I like about my Maglite is that it'll run from sundown till sun up no problem, even in the dead of a Canadian winter.
Li-ion seems to be the way to go given all that, which circles back to the main question - what looks and quacks like a Maglite of yore, but isn't over a decade out of date and runs on Li-ion?
If, if, if. There's just a lot of things I've heard, but don't know definitively. I think the only things I know for sure are the size and runtime I want!
I had a look at the HL5-X, that's kinda closeish to what I want. Runtime isn't really as good as I'd like though, even on low... and what's the point of having 3,500 lumens if you can only use 'em for an hour and a quarter? Cool parlour trick but I'm not into those. 18650s seem to be the standard, but what's wrong with other cell sizes? There's stuff like the 32650, 32600, 26650, etc. that are about the size of a D, are there any good lights that use those?
I also had a look at the Malkoff stuff but it seems that's made for bringing old incandescent models up to speed, bit redundant since I already have an LED model. Unless I'm missing something?
Musing on upgrade features a little, I also would like a lens that doesn't have the "dead" spot in the middle of the beam when zoomed out like my Maglite has - I hate it, I rarely ever use it unfocused because of it. An orange peel reflector for softer spill would also be nice. Warm or neutral white colour would be nice too but now we're just getting wishful eh...
Bit of a long post but hey, it's been over half a month! Hope you guys will get the notification for this one, unlike me...