runtime is very misleading, that does not mean an hour at the initial brightness, it means an hour by which time brightness fell to 10% of initial value. Nobody in their right batteries would actually call that kind of dim output a High.
background reading, click the links for more detailP.S.:
Despite the above, I continue to recommend that people do NOT focus on max lumens estimates at the rather arbitrary time point of 30 secs post-activation (i.e. the ANSI FL-1 standard). It is far more important to pay attention to the actual output/runtime graphs, as these show you how the relative output changes over time. On max, a lot of Iights tend to drop off rapidly in output, or step-down after a couple of minutes. As such, you risk being misled if you simply look at ANSI FL-1 output and runtime values for a given light. I discuss the importance of comparing runtime graphs visually on my
Testing Methods - Runtimes page on flashlightreviews.ca.
here is an
old maratac test (click that link for more details) that shows it took about 34 minutes on an alkaline to get to a 50% drop in brightness (Im reading from the legend box)
here is the same light but using an Ultimate Lithium, 1 hour 37 minutes to 50%
note the two tests above are different by 1 full hour of runtime, based on different battery types
now for the punchline, here is a Lumintop Tool, that ran for pretty much exactly the same amount of time as the Maratac (when both use the same battery type):
here is his test of an
old Lumintop Tool, 1 hour 34 minutes to 50%
Moral of the story, there is only so much energy in a AAA battery. No matter what light you put it in, it will only last as long as any other light, assuming the same brightness, and the same battery.
in practical terms, and imho, an AAA battery cannot sustain 100+ lumens for more than about 30 minutes. But it can go for several hours at 30 lumens. For me, the AAA format is most suited to run on Medium for long periods. The High is mostly for short periods, less than 5 minutes at a time mostly.. just my opinions, others may differ
note I give links to back up my opinions, I invite others to do the same
bottom line, any single AAA light will perform similar to any other in terms of runtime, for me what matters more than runtime is tint and CRI, which is why I avoid most XPG2 lights, and get really excited about the Nichia 219 being offered as an option (I usually have to pay someone to swap out a Cool White LED when I want High CRI)
