Hi all,
I'm new here (from bladeforums) and am looking for a LED flashlight for under 35$. Here's who I am: My name is Phil and I'm a sophomore in Lighting Design at Kent State. My last flashlight was one of those Chinese LED 3-in-1 laser, blacklight and White L.E.D. lights, my only complaint with that was, the circuitry and on switch were crappy made and I often had to fix things there and the whole fixture and general Fit and Finish were pretty crappy, however it's beam reach was perfect for what I needed. The real kicker of problems was, everyone who saw it wanted one, and got one and now everyone has one, and mine was recently lent out and lost somewhere along the line/stolen.
Physical criteria: It must be able to be used for backstage use, if it's too bright it will be seen onstage and/or is distracting to people working around me. Weight is not a criteria. I want this thing to be TOUGH. I would also like to have this thing running on some conventional simple batteries (AA preferably). Preferably over 4.5 inches long and thickness doesn't matter. I like my flashlight to light everything around me as well, as reach doesn't matter to me as much as being able to see everything around me.
<you deserve a medal if you read all that>
What I was thinking that I liked: Inova X1 or X5 (can someone please explain all the color differences to me?) but I'm unsure what is the 'new' flood style or the spotlight style...
To revamp: Spread over throw. Weight and thickness are a non-issue, longer than 4" preferably, Run time over brightness, AA and AAAs are preferred but not a deal breaker if it has to run on 123s, many of the things we have to wear while running a show is black, preferably this flashlight will be as well...
Thank you all for your help...
Phil