Brightest 1xAA suggestions?

Are there any flame thowers in the single AA catagory? Throw is less important and runtime is least important (obviously). Max output is key as well as battery options. NiMh/Alks/Lithium. Thanks.

I would try the Fenix L1P or L1T. It's the brightest 1AA light I can think of... especially if you mod it with a better LED bin.

Maxlite?

http://www.lighthound.com/sales/arcmania_maxlite.htm

the choice widens up if yo uare willing to use AA-sized Li-Ions....

A Civictor fits the bill also. It's smaller than the L1 P & T and puts out a lot of light using a Lithium AA. Check out the comparison in output here between the Civictor and the L2P. And you can use the 3 battery types you mentioned.

[Edit] My Bad! I just realized that the comparison I referenced to above with the L2P, the L2P was running on a single AA battery. A battery spacer must have been used. I missed that when I read the review the first time. I may have given the wrong impression above.

I would like to stay with standard AA batts. As a Ham radio operator I use AA's for all of my handheld radios. I call it my "one size fits all" mentality.

I have a modified Fenix L1P by MillerMods. It runs a UWAJ LuxeonIII at 1.7 watts (500mA) and is bright as heck. Since it pulls 1.73 amps off the battery, alkaline is not an option! Actually, if I click it to the low level it will run an an alkaline in an emergency. Run time is a little over an hour on NiMH rechargable AA batteries.

For a primary single AA cell, IMHO, JET-I is the brightest one. :thinking:

has anyone bothered to look up the specs on the Maxlite?

270winchester said:

has anyone bothered to look up the specs on the Maxlite?

Click to expand...

Impressive... but so is the price...

270winchester said:

has anyone bothered to look up the specs on the Maxlite?

Click to expand...

....yup.....the most striking spec. is the price !......probably worth every penny..........nonetheless that's a STEEP commitment !

-Regards

So far, using quickbeam's chart the Jet-I leads with 25, Civictor in second with 22.2, L1P in third. I would love to see a few more columns added to quickbeam's chart! Batt size, batt qty, and bulb type. Then I could simply re-sort, take the top 3 and I'd be off to the races.

Let me think this one out. On one side of the scale is the Maxlite and on the other side of the scale is eight weeks (once per week) of pizza and beer. Hmm... Tough decision
:lolsign:

BigusLightus said:

So far, using quickbeam's chart the Jet-I leads with 25, Civictor in second with 22.2, L1P in third. I would love to see a few more columns added to quickbeam's chart! Batt size, batt qty, and bulb type. Then I could simply re-sort, take the top 3 and I'd be off to the races.

Click to expand...

The differences in lux can be attributed to LED variation. My L1P is brighter than my Civictor, for instance.

carrot said:

The differences in lux can be attributed to LED variation. My L1P is brighter than my Civictor, for instance.

Click to expand...

I measured the output (not lux brightness, relative lumens type output) of 3 L1Ps and 3 Civictors running off the same battery, switched between the lights. I got a very close grouping of output (within less than 5%) for 4 of the 6, with 2 of them measuring about 10% brighter than the pack of 4 (both about the same). One of the brighter 2 was a Civictor and the other was an L1P. The other 4 were basically the same.

Based on my sample of 6, the output distributions of Civictors and L1Ps appear to overlap, i.e. they are about the same.

Incidentally, I found that the lack of AR coating on the Civictor does NOT affect output, only central brightness. I believe the reflections from the Civictor glass go back into the reflector, bounce around some, and just come out again in a bounce or two, so very little is "lost" by absorption into the glass (which is clear) or into the LED hole (which is small compared to the reflector size). So the Civictor non-AR glass may siphon a few percent of the photons from the central hotspot, but then it just distributes them into the spill.

Also, if price counts, Civictor is a lot cheaper. If reliability counts, Civictor has a well designed front twisty which I think makes it the reliability champ...

How bright exactly is the Maxlite? I haven't heard much about it, but man is it expensive.
I have a modded L1P with an SXOH in it and it is very bright and has pretty good runtime on it as well.

carrot said:

Impressive... but so is the price...

Click to expand...

the poster asked for the brightest 1xAA light out there and didn't ask it to be affordable.

From what I know ArcMania hand picks these U-bin LEDs for the out-performers with super low Vfs. The result is a danged bright light.

Expensive? yes. But it will blows the doors off the cheap imports light such as the Fenix, Civictor, or whatever else the other manufactuers are cranking out the same thing in different shells.

I wouldn't be suprised if the Maxlite is twice as bright, if not more, than the next highest light mentioned here.

270winchester said:

the poster asked for the brightest 1xAA light out there and didn't ask it to be affordable.

From what I know ArcMania hand picks these U-bin LEDs for the out-performers with super low Vfs. The result is a danged bright light.

Expensive? yes. But it will blows the doors off the cheap imports light such as the Fenix, Civictor, or whatever else the other manufactuers are cranking out the same thing in different shells.

I wouldn't be surprised if the Maxlite is twice as bright, if not more, than the next highest light mentioned here.

Click to expand...

...I can hear the sound of thousands of Civictors and Fenix being tossed into the trash as I type this because their owners have suddenly come to their senses and discovered they have fallen "pray" to a "cheap import".....and now many of us are debating whether to skip this months mortgage payment, sell our first born..and buy a Maxlite !
Seriously.......it looks like nothing else comes close to it in quality and performance in the realm of AA's......I have no doubt even at that price it is worth every penny and then some ! Thanks for pointing it out......I for one had no idea this light existed.

-My best regards

Here's the major difference for me: form factor and weight.

Maxlight
• Size (length, diameter f/r) - 4.41 inches, 1.26 in/.83 inches
• Weight (With Batteries) - 4.2 oz

Fenix L1P
• Size (length, diameter f/r) – 3.61 inches, .79 inches
• Weight (With Batteries) – 2.4 oz

Thanks, but I'll stick with my Fenix, especially at roughly 1/7 the cost. However, if we go strictly with the original intent of the thread, the Maxlight still comes out as the winner.

- Mark

Maxlight has the longest throw due to its oversized reflector.

However, for the most overall output, no question it would be fenix L1P with MillerMod's 3 stage, and then having a great S rank or U ranked Luxeon replacing the stock luxeon. I believe it runs at least 40% more current than the Maxlite judging by the runtime. I know that Millermod has efficiency of over 80% using a single AA which is remarkable.

An added bonus is that it is way cheaper than the Maxlight.

Mo

My brightest 1xAA at this point is a Civictor. A lot of light for its size and price.

Geoff