Need powerful light on a budget.

[Lv51]

Hey everybody this is my first post so please bare with me.
I am looking for a bright flashlight for my son for when we go camping. I am looking for something around $80 and under (preferably $60 area.) I really need it to be bright because my son is terrified of the dark ( more then he should be I imagine.) I also have no knowledge of putting one together or modifying so I need it to be prebuilt. Something brighter than a maglite 3d incandescent would be nice. Also flood or throw doesn't really matter I imagine. Thank you so very much for any help.

 

[weez82]

4Sevens Quark X from goinggear, $40 shipped. Hard to beat that light at that price point

 

[enomosiki]

MG P-Rocket XM-L

Seriously, with your budget and requirement, you need not look any further. That thing rips out 700+ OTF lumens while costing about $40, which makes it one of the best bang for the buck out there.

Spend the rest of your money on batteries. BatteryJunction sells CR123A for a dollar per cell under the Titanium Innovations brand.

 

[roadkill1109]

Fenix E25 runs off two AA's

 

[Torpedo]

The E 25 is under forty bucks and very easy to use for a kid.

 

[glockboy]

JetBeam PA40 runs off four AA for $50 is good.

 

[Ian2381]

+1, the Fenix E25 seems to be a great option as it uses AA batteries, 180 lumens is more than He'll ever need at camp. Brighter than that is just overKill.:wave:

 

[Gunner12]

The Fenix E21 could also be nice, neutral white tint, easy to use, forward clickie, and easy to find batteries. The 4sevens lights at Goinggear are a great deal and could be your best choice.

Would you like similar throw to the Maglite?

:welcome:

 

[Lv51]

Thank you all so very much for the replies. I am very grateful for the help. With the price being about $40 for the fenix e25 would it be wise to get rechargeable batteries for it?

 

[Gunner12]

Yes, because you can use the batteries in other lights if you do get more and rechargeable don't usually leak. If you use the light often, the batteries would pay for themselves.

 

[blgentry]

Spend the rest of your money on batteries. BatteryJunction sells CR123A for a dollar per cell under the Titanium Innovations brand.

I think this is bad advice. Chinese CR123 primaries have been documented in a number of explosions in lights. I've owned a handful of Titanium CR123s and they were first class junk. VERY poor life. They failed very quickly in use. To be fair, I got them as a free gift from a retailer when I bought a light from them, so perhaps I didn't get fresh cells, but CR123s are supposed to have a 10 year shelf life so they'd have to be extremely old for that to be a factor.

Final point: My mind has changed completely away from primary batteries now. I see a reason to have a few on hand for emergency uses or unanticipated times when your recharageable batteries aren't available. But for every day use, I want rechargeable batteries only. There's no good reason to burn up primaries and put them in the landfill when you could be recharging and *always* have full power batteries to power your light. From a pure money standpoint alone rechargeables are a better idea. The fact that you get full power all the time *and* it's better for natural resources are two great bonuses. :)

Brian.

 

[enomosiki]

I think this is bad advice. Chinese CR123 primaries have been documented in a number of explosions in lights. I've owned a handful of Titanium CR123s and they were first class junk. VERY poor life. They failed very quickly in use. To be fair, I got them as a free gift from a retailer when I bought a light from them, so perhaps I didn't get fresh cells, but CR123s are supposed to have a 10 year shelf life so they'd have to be extremely old for that to be a factor.

Final point: My mind has changed completely away from primary batteries now. I see a reason to have a few on hand for emergency uses or unanticipated times when your recharageable batteries aren't available. But for every day use, I want rechargeable batteries only. There's no good reason to burn up primaries and put them in the landfill when you could be recharging and *always* have full power batteries to power your light. From a pure money standpoint alone rechargeables are a better idea. The fact that you get full power all the time *and* it's better for natural resources are two great bonuses. :)

Brian.

I have used the Titanium Innovations primary CR123A cells for more than three years and never had any problems with it. I regularly give away boxes containing dozens of them to my friends in the LE and EMT, and none of them ever had any problems, either.

As for the rechargeables, yes, I agree that they're environmentally and economically friendly, hence the reason why I use them.

BUT, as the OP has mentioned that he needs a BRIGHT light for a child, I would NOT trust a child with a rechargeable cell, even a protected one.

Seriously, rechargeable cells in the hands of uninitiated is like a ticking bomb.

 

[Torpedo]

As someone who had a problem with CR123s, I will not use them again.In fact it was researching that problem that brought me to cpf. I am sure that problems can happen with any batteries, but the only ones I have seen documented here is with 123s. I have been using rechargable AA in devices for years with no problems.

 

[nickdizonc]

Goinggear.com is having a huge sale on select 4sevens lights to get rid of old inventory with the old branding. I recently purchased the x10 and the s12 from them at over 50% off. The s12 is a great bargain!

 

[roadkill1109]

Rule of thumb: Lights that you use often, use rechargeables. Lights you want to store (with the battery outside the light of course) use CR123 primaries as these have long shelf life of about 10 years from manufacture date. Also, make sure to get good quality cells like those from Surefire, FourSevens, Nitecore/Jetbeam, etc.

Lithium Rechareables do have long shelf life too, but are more prone to LSD than CR123 primaries.

 

[roadkill1109]

Goinggear.com is having a huge sale on select 4sevens lights to get rid of old inventory with the old branding. I recently purchased the x10 and the s12 from them at over 50% off. The s12 is a great bargain!

Amen to that! I just scored a sweet Quark AA2 Turbo for a little over 30 bucks!