MattK said:
Admittedly I'm biased but the LumaPower M1 seems like the obvious answer here for a new flashlight or a TerraLUX TLE-6EX SSC P4 drop-in to upgrade the old mags.
L2D CE? U2? Both nice lights but neither is much of a thrower, especially compared to an M1.
I would throw in another reccomendation for the TerraLux SSC P4 if you want to upgrade your maglite. The Maglite LED module, Whcih I have, is a big improvement in brightness over the stock bulb, and does preserve throw and focusability, in additoin to providing more useful spill/flood at the same time. There is just more overall light output.
In the case of the module with SSC (for Seoul Semiconductor), it will cost a littlle bit more, but it uses an LED that is twice as efficient as the older one that was in the Maglite modules, so it will be very, very bright.
Runtime is also a big improvement for a number of reasons -- for one, the LEDs draw somewhat less power to begin with. Also, as batteries wear down, LEDs continue to produce light, but worn out batteries won't be able to power an incandescent bulb hard enough to cause it to glow, just to heat it up, while LEDs will produce useful light on a tiny trickle of power. If you like to keep some good incandescent around for other reasons (they still have an advantage for color rendering, and throw in foggy situations), LEDs might not be a bad idea to have either, as they can run fine off batteries that are too "dead" to run the incandescent flashlights.
As for buying a new flashlight outright, there are a lot of options, though I woudl recommend buying one with SSC, Cree, or Edison LEDs as those are the most efficient on the market.
i checked the l2d ce but i hear it cant compare to the trow of the mags.........i've got the 3d and 6d mags and i love their battery life! if i go for the bulb relacement,should i go terralux or the original mag led replacement bulb?
Throw entirely depends on the size of the reflector. If you compare the l2d against the minimag (2AA) category it can hold its own for throw, but not against the D maglites with much larger reflectors.
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