The problem with getting decent throw with a led flashlight, is that leds not yet have reached the surface brightness of incans like halogen.. But they already come close.
No doubt that in the comming years they will surpass halogen on surface brightness, steaming towards HID as the next target..
With the surface brightness of todays led's (Cree) a 4D mag would give up to about 13,000 cp (Beam candlepower,, not lumens!)
Unmodified, the 4D mag has about 17,000 cp. A 4D mag with a halogen-projection bulb would give close to 30,000 cp. With a HID-bulb, it would give about 100,000 cp!
Ofcource, todays emitters give much more lumens compared to the stock- mag-bulbs.
For longer runtimes you need efficiency: Here the HID still is the king !! But for how long ??
The most efficient Cree's have surpassed halogen powered at specs, and are very close to HID. You can already read about 130 lumens/watt emitters on the web.
Led's definitely are the fastest growing lightsource right now.
It won't be long before the leds surpass incans on all fields !
Regards,
Ra.