LED Shootout

As far as i was concerned, the higher the MCD output the more light you get, am i wrong in assuming if you bought 8 LED's of the highest MCD known to man, would you not have the brightest hand held device?

if not, what does make the brightest handheld? and how far have you clever people at this forum been able to throw it? to me Distance has always been an important factor, i'm a Security Gaurd, i don't particually want to get that close to what i'm wanting to inspect incase of lurkers, people wanting to stab me, etc etc....

regular LEDs (designed to operate at around 20-30ma) are focused by their own built in lense type system- even the highest power LEDs in this class, aren't going to have the kind of throw needed for your duty work.. LEDs that can be made to throw well, are "high power" type.. and aren't generally rated in MCD... they are typically rated in lumens... (lumileds "bins" their high power leds into different categories, one of the categories is brightness in lumens).. Those high power LEDs, are not focused themselves- their beam pattern raw is that os a half sphere, slightly brighter in the middle than around the edges... They are great for use additional focusing methods (lense or reflector) and can be made to have tight beams that throw very far... What size flashlight are you looking for?

something that would fit in my pocket even something the size of a maglite 3 D Cell's would be fine to be honest, size is not that much of an issue.