I am also looking for the brightest 1xAA light (not 2xAA) to use with NiMH,
only. I want something to compete with the Fenix P1D Premium Q5 at 180 lumens. I thought I had found it in the Jet-I PRO R2, advertised as 225 lumens.
But it looks like I was wrong.
In this thread,
https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/202436,
with all lights using NiMH, the Jet-I PRO R2 looks to have the (slightly) brightest hotspot from the beamshots. However when I look to buy it, the specs say it only reaches its 200-whatever-lumen-rating-super-brightness with LiIon rechargeables, rated only at 130 lumens With regular AAs, which doesn't sound all that hot, since I'm looking for something to compete with the Fenix P1D Premium Q5's 180 lumens.
Looks like there aren't any 1xAA lights that will compete with the top end P1D.
Still I want to bring up that this review
http://light-reviews.com/jetbeam_jet-1_pro/ says that the Jet-I PRO R2 is "the brightest AA powered light to date." To date being January 2008. What gets me is that the measurements taken with rechargeable 14500 LiIon vs. NiMH is only in the 14500's favor by ~500 lux, which seems contrary to the 225lm vs. 130lm in published specs.
I don't know whether it is underperforming with the 14500 or overperforming with the NiMH. Can anyone offer some clarity? :shrug: