New light advice - newbie here

[alexcc]

Hi all,

Long time lurker, new poster.

I am interested and probably will order the new Olight M30 within the next day or two, just have some quick questions that some more experienced guys will know.

I know there will be a difference in runtime but will the power output be different between 2 18650's instead of 4 CR123's or 2 18500's instead of 3 CR123's ??

Also - what is the quality of the cheaper lights compared to brands like Olight? An example is this: http://www.shiningbeam.com/servlet/the-125/**NEW**-MG-RX-dsh-1-Cree/Detail

Obviously the price and advertised "700 lumens" is appealing - but it seems a bit dodgy. Are the cheaper lights really 700 lumens? As a matter of fact - is the Olight also definitely 700+ lumens as advertised or are these claims mostly hype?

Sorry for the long post - just quite new to all of this. Any info much appreciated!

 

[alexcc]

bump

 

[carrot]

Lumens, on the other hand, has its own problems. Lumen ratings across manufacturers can vary wildly across brands. Many manufacturers give a rating for emitter output, which is highly optimistic because you can factor in about 30% light loss due to the reflector and window. Others make up wild claims and numbers just to look good. Precious few, give accurate lumen ratings. HDS/Ra is known to give exact lumen ratings. Surefire is known to underrate their lights. Maglite and Inova are known to make wild and outrageous claims. And as far as I know, McGizmo doesn't even make output claims, he just says how hard the LED is being driven. We usually call the amount of light coming out of a flashlight "torch lumens" in order to specify that we have taken the losses from the optics into account.

http://cpf.carrot.googlepages.com/flashlight_guide#lumens

 

[Gunner12]

Persuming a good buck circuit for 3.7v to the LED, then those battery options should all have the same output.

Here's a review of the light in question. Seems pretty capable but I'm not sure about the stated output. It's probably at the LED output.

6% off coupon at shiningbeam is "cpfuser".