Here's a little more to report.
With 2/3 A cells loaded in it I let it run 6 hours one night. I fell asleep so I can't tell you when it went below 50% brightness. I'm thinking 40 minutes and you'll probably notice some dimming. When I woke up it was maybe at 10% visually. Still plenty of light to navigate with.
I thought that some of you might find the current readings somewhat interesting. Hot off the OEM charger the OEM NiCad stick reads 1.28 A. The current drops fairly rapidly to 1.14 A in two or three minutes. Then the declination of current slows and seems to settle in at 1.10 A. I'm sure it's still dropping it's just so slow that I got board looking at it.
I wouldn't recommend 4 series 2/3 A hot off the charger but I use it that way. The NiMhs do something a little unusual. They start at 1.24 A and actually move up to 1.31 A within a minute. Then they begin to bounce in a 0.02 A range declining to 1.21 A within a couple of minutes. At about 5 minutes they were at 1.18 A and I got board watching the DMM.
Actually, I'm not recommending 4S 2/3 A at all. I'm just reporting that they work and my light doesn't seem to be degrading. I can tell the difference in brightness when the OEMs are down to .99 A and I drop in the fresh 4S 2/3 A cells. It could be that the thing we like the least about this light is what makes it a little special. NiCads handle trickle charging fairly well. It's kind of nice to grab something fully charged, know that it will be darned bright for an hour or so and keep running in a declining but useful output. Then, if you wish, you could carry a little tube of NiMhs for back up. Or like some, just another NiMh stick.
Beamshots anybody? Sorry, they'll have to be Fogshots at a suburban construction site. We are looking for a little orange bobcat with a ditch witch on it and his bud, a small yellow caterpillar front loader/back hoe.
What to compare it to? How about an incan spot with a tight beam? OK,
the Brinkman LED Halogen spotlight it is.
Dorcy 220 at tree 45 yds
Binkman Incan spot lite at tree 45 yds away.
Dorcy 220 looking for cats witches and hoes 80 yds away.
Brinkman incan spot lite looking for cats witches and hoes 80 yds away.
Dorcy 220 looking for cats witches and hoes 80 yds away. 4X Zoom.
Brinkman incan spot lite looking for cats witches and hoes 80 yds away. 4X Zoom.