AAA vs AA

[Paul_in_Maryland]

AA's have 2.5x the capacity. i wouldn't call that "close"

Which is why the OP probably meant "a 1xAAA body and a 1xAA body are close in size."

 

[march.brown]

An AA Eneloop weighs 26.3 grams and an AAA weighs 12.1 grams ... An iTP A2 torch weighs 22 grams and an A3 weighs 9 grams.

So the A2 with battery weighs 48.3 grams and the A3 is 21.1 grams ... Both are light in weight but the A3 is tiny when placed beside the A2 ... Personal preference for me is the A2 size , though the A3 size is great for formal occasions when you just don't want to be without a torch in your pocket.

If you only want a "just-in-case" torch , then the AAA is great , particularly if you can find somewhere to carry a spare battery.

I personally prefer the gorgeous stainless iTPs , but they are a lot heavier.
.

Just looked on Google for the weights of Lithium batteries.

The AA Lithium is only 14.5 grams and the AAA is 7.7 grams ... So for a lightweight torch using Lithium batteries , the A2 would weigh 36.5 grams and the A3 would weigh a miniscule 16.7 grams ... Lithiums in the stainless torches would be lighter than with the Eneloops if you can put up with the additional cost.

My A2 stainless (empty) weighs 41.1 grams so with a lithium cell it would be 55.6 grams instead of 67.4 grams with the Eneloop ... I might just get a couple of Lithiums to try , particularly as they are very low self discharge and apparently retain 90% capacity even after 15 years.
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[cckw]

I got my woman a AAA for her keychain because it was available in red and the smallest possible size to be sure she kept it on the keyring, and she has for 3 years now. For me I want more light and runtime.

 

[red02]

Fenix LD01 can be drained to make 80 lumens, then 80 x 2.5 = 200 lumens. Since emitters in the X-lamp series are pretty much the same efficiency, thus the LD10 should be at least 200 lumens and the LD20 should be 400 lumens!

Thats been bugging me for a while, are there any lights that drive AAs to their limit?

 

[paulr]

Brightest AA lights I know of all use multiple cells (Quark 2AA etc). Eneloop and RC-style NiMH cells including AAA's can supply quite high current, so the battery current isn't really the factor in the LD01 and LD10 brightness being what they are. It's also that an efficient dc-dc converter able to run at 5+ watts with 1.2 volt input would have to be quite large. And do you really want a 1aa light with 15 minute runtime? It would not be able to run at full power on an alkaline cell for more than a few seconds.