Help a noob to chose flashlight

Volny

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Jul 5, 2006
Messages
25
Hello, I am a wannabe flashaholic who wants a nice flashlight.

I own: some old luxeon 3x AAA battery lamps and lots of 5mm led lamps.

The use: I am often in the forests and in dark times a nice flashlight with great output and long lifetime would be nice.

I have looked quite much at dealextreme and kaidomain wich have lights in the right prices for me.

The best I found: I found the UltraFire Cree C3 with 2 extension tubes to be really nice. Only problems is that this flashlight use p4 and not q2 or better wich I would prefer. Also I would prefer some low modes. And it seems like not all rechargeable nimh's fits the body?

But the option to choose 1-3 AA's is perfect for me, makes the light very flexible.

Is there some other flashlight you can recomend me? I guess you know what I want by reading above...

Mayby you easily can modify UltraFire C3 with an cree q5? And mayby with a better step up? Though it will cost much more...
 
Scott_T- That flashlight seems to be pretty nice, though only 40 lumens. It looks alot like my old UnderwaterKinetics 4AA Xenon light. I guess the plastic body makes it hard to remove the heat from better diodes..
4AA is nice, only thing is I like more lumens and I like different modes =)

PocketBeam - I checked fenix store, but they didnt have what I wanted, and especially not at the right price :p
 
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Don't worry about price, the Fenix L2D-Rebel 100 is great for your needs, it will save you mone in the end because you would probably not need to buy many lights to see which one is the best for you. There is a 8% off code for CPFers at Fenix store, it is "CPF8". The Fenix lights are also pretty easy to use.

If you have to stay cheap and 2 AA, maybe the C-8 Cree, but I think two strobe mode is unecessory and annoying. Or the Candlepower light, it comes with a 2 AA adaptor and a diffuser.

The C3 seems to be a bit hard to mod, and most of the time you don't need a brighter light, the Q5 might make it 30% brighter, wait till the R4s come out.

Welcome to CPF!
 
@OP:

I've got an ultrafire C3 from DX and I love it. I bought the version with the extension tube, but I don't really use the tube. I carry the light with me pretty much everywhere and it's not cumbersome.. I've also used used it (again, just with 1xAA (Duracell 2650mAh rechargeables -- they fit fine)) in the woods/fields out at my buddy's house & it's VERY nice (plenty of light).

I love this little thing - of the 5+ LED lights I own, it's by far my favorite.. It's small, but not too small (not uncomfortable to hold like some of the AAA lights), and gets pretty decent life for the 1xAA configuration considering the output -- I think it gives pretty high/steady output for about 40m-1h before it starts dimming. I don't use 2xAA much, but it supposedly gives more like 3-4 hours of steady output. It's not a minimag (I've got a luxeon ("3w" // 2xAA) minimag) in terms of life, but it's definitely a lot brighter & has a smoother & superior beam/throw thanks to the orange peel reflector. Plus, the ultrafire feels/looks like it's a lot more expensive than it is.
 
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