Recently, I became interested in lights. My brother purchased a CMG Reactor and I liked, but I wanted something brighter so I went and bought the most expensive light at Galyan’s. That ended up being a PolyStinger, but the PolyStinger isn’t as white as the Reactor. Now I’m looking for a LED light that is brighter than the Reactor. The one thing I noticed about the Reactor was that when I used rechargeable NiMH batteries, the light was VERY dim. I asked one of the employees at Galyan’s about it, since I’m new to this flashlight thing, and he told me that LED lights were very sensitive to voltage and rechargeable AA only give off 1.2 volts.
I searched around the web for more information and came across here, and I must say, this is by far the most useful website I came across. Everyone seems to be incredibly knowledgeable and it seems like I can purchase things from people here that I wouldn’t be able to get anywhere else. After reading for hours and days on end about almost everything related to LED lights, I learned a whole lot. But with all that new knowledge, I now have new questions.
First, I am looking for a LED light that uses rechargeable batteries. I do not like the idea of purchasing an incredibly bright flashlight, only for it to consume $5 an hour because of batteries. From what I see, one of the best choices is to go with either a Badboy or a Madmax. Is the Badboy 500 noticeable brighter than the Madmax? And with these two, I need to purchase a separate housing, and the main thing I notice is that most people use a Mini Maglite or Brinkman Legend. Are there any other models that I would be able to use? I like sleek designs like the Inova X5 or several of the Surefire models, but the Inova doesn’t use LS and the Surefire and X5 models use CR123A batteries… which leads to my next question. Do they have rechargeable CR123A batteries? I’ve looked around the web, but couldn’t find any information on it.
Then of course, when I think the brightest light possible is the Badboy, I stumble across posts mentioning 5W LS. Are there any 5W LS out there that use AA? I then read about 5W LS coming from Surefire soon and I don’t know if I want to wait 5W to hit the mainstream market. Are the 5W models out there much more expensive compared to the 1W LS?
When I first started looking for a LED light, I was thinking about spending only around $40. I thought that the Inova X5 was the brightest one out there, since that was all I had seen. I was wrong. Now I’m all confused. Any help would be much appreciated, thanks. I think flashlights may become my new secret hobby. My girlfriend already thinks I'm crazy for spending more than an hour reading about flashlights, haha. I keep telling myself that after I get a second light, that's all... somehow I doubt it.
I searched around the web for more information and came across here, and I must say, this is by far the most useful website I came across. Everyone seems to be incredibly knowledgeable and it seems like I can purchase things from people here that I wouldn’t be able to get anywhere else. After reading for hours and days on end about almost everything related to LED lights, I learned a whole lot. But with all that new knowledge, I now have new questions.
First, I am looking for a LED light that uses rechargeable batteries. I do not like the idea of purchasing an incredibly bright flashlight, only for it to consume $5 an hour because of batteries. From what I see, one of the best choices is to go with either a Badboy or a Madmax. Is the Badboy 500 noticeable brighter than the Madmax? And with these two, I need to purchase a separate housing, and the main thing I notice is that most people use a Mini Maglite or Brinkman Legend. Are there any other models that I would be able to use? I like sleek designs like the Inova X5 or several of the Surefire models, but the Inova doesn’t use LS and the Surefire and X5 models use CR123A batteries… which leads to my next question. Do they have rechargeable CR123A batteries? I’ve looked around the web, but couldn’t find any information on it.
Then of course, when I think the brightest light possible is the Badboy, I stumble across posts mentioning 5W LS. Are there any 5W LS out there that use AA? I then read about 5W LS coming from Surefire soon and I don’t know if I want to wait 5W to hit the mainstream market. Are the 5W models out there much more expensive compared to the 1W LS?
When I first started looking for a LED light, I was thinking about spending only around $40. I thought that the Inova X5 was the brightest one out there, since that was all I had seen. I was wrong. Now I’m all confused. Any help would be much appreciated, thanks. I think flashlights may become my new secret hobby. My girlfriend already thinks I'm crazy for spending more than an hour reading about flashlights, haha. I keep telling myself that after I get a second light, that's all... somehow I doubt it.
