Led throw on a budget

Hello all, I am officially a forum lurker and have now emerged from the cave. I have an interesting problem. I am looking at getting a led flashlight with really good throw. Preferabley something for a mid - low range budget. No surefire M4's for me sadly. Any ideas? or am i looking to achieve the impossible. Also is it better to buy cr123's online or locally? Thanks for any help.

Lumapower MRV for the light? Buy 123s online. It'd be even better to buy RCR123s and a charger, as that would be very much cheaper and less polluting to operate.

Well I will leave the best throw for the buck recomendations to other CPF er's with more experience. that said the best price for 3 volt lithium's can be had at www.amondotech.com $1.00 each. he even sells 2&3 cell battery clusters for larger lights with no mis matched voltage issues.....hope this helps you will pay 3-5 times this price locally.

How much throw are we talking about?

I'm working at a camp this summer and am looking to get a light that will project across the field the cabins are situated around. As to actual distances. As for distance maybe 130-140 feet.

There are plenty of cree's that will throw that distance easily.
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.4424

This light from DX will take both battery types. Mine is very strong and has a high/low switch- so you can conserve power if wanted.

Only problem...2 week delivery.

cuester said:

I'm working at a camp this summer and am looking to get a light that will project across the field the cabins are situated around. As to actual distances. As for distance maybe 130-140 feet.

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You definitely don't need an MRV for that. Any of the Pelican Recoil LED series (among MANY other lights) would be quite adequate for your purposes.

With lights from DX/Kai, just remember, you get what you pay for.

Try the Streamlight Propolymer 4AA Luxeon. It uses old tech but is still a thrower. I'm also willing to bet that the Fenix L2D-CE or P3D-CE will work fine for your purposes too.

See this thread: https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/166077

Sorry to keep mentioning this one, but it really does have a lot of throw, and it's cheap. Here's the old thread that seems to have popped up again tonight. https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/139870

Geoff

carrot said:

Try the Streamlight Propolymer 4AA Luxeon. It uses old tech but is still a thrower. I'm also willing to bet that the Fenix L2D-CE or P3D-CE will work fine for your purposes too.

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+1 on all 3 choices.

(would that be +3 then? )

I'd agree with the Fenix l2d-ce. However, if you want to spend less the Eastwardly YJ (http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.4424) at Deal Extreme is a great thrower. It's only $27.13, shipping included. The only problem to me is that you need an 18650 or two cr123 batteries, which means batteries and charger.

You can find a review of it at Lightreviews.info:

http://www.lightreviews.info/

Harvey

The Ultrafire C2 is a pretty good thrower(about 6000Lux) at $22.35. One mode and runs on batteries form 3.7-9V. You can also run it on 18650 batteries but you will need a space for the + end to reach the + end of the circuit of the C2, charger.

Flying Turtle said:

Sorry to keep mentioning this one, but it really does have a lot of throw, and it's cheap. Here's the old thread that seems to have popped up again tonight. https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/139870

Geoff

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+1 :twothumbs It uses commonly available 2 C batteries (no chargers, "special batteries"), and is only $19.99 from your local Advance Auto Parts store.

If you have no Advance Auto Parts by you, you can get the "equivalent" the TaskForce 2C ($29.99) from you local Lowes store. It's the same light (internals), just slightly better materials. But, IMO not enough justification for the $10 premium.

Plus, when you get more "confident", you can upgrade the emitter to Seoul to make this light even brighter!

The LEDBEAM was once called "The Poor Man's Thrower". Here is a review for it: http://www.flashlightreviews.com/reviews/ledbeam_3c.htm

I had one for a few years and recently gave it away. When I realized that I just gave away one of my benchmark lights, I went and ordered another one.

It's currently $21.95 and can be found here:
http://www.ledbeam.com/

here is a thread I posted containing some beamshots of a few LED lights I have with fairly good throw, including the Ultrafire C2 (the one from Kai has a better outer coating, the one from DX has a better tint), a Maglite I modded to use a Seoul, optimized for long runtime (You might be able to pick one of these up in the B/S/T forum), and a lumapower M1 with aspheric lens. Sorry I couldn't set up a longer-range beamshot.

Even the stock M1 is one of the best general purpose lights for your purposes (it's a bit pricy, though) and would probably be perfect for your needs. With the lens, it becomes a monster -- blows away any other LED I've ever used for throw (larger lenses are actually too concentrated to be useful IMO, the 30mm x 15mm lens is perfect), it will out throw any reflector-based single-emitter LED light.

Thanks for all the replies. I greatly appreciate your help. I'm going ot look closer at the Fenix L2D-CE.

I don't know if you're still looking or have any size requirements, but when I was in Wal Mart yesterday I noticed they had the 2D MagLED (body + module) red stickered for $25. I don't know if it's just here or they're doing it in other Wal Marts, too, but you might want to check that out. As as added bonus, the large and heavy Maglites can be used to bludgeon any machete wielding monsters that try to disrupt your summer camp.

Here's a review: http://flashlightreviews.com/reviews/maglite_mag-led.htm

And here's a sortable throw (and output) measurement list: http://www.flashlightreviews.com/features/chart_manu.htm

+1 to the MagLED idea.I prefer the 2C but you will have to buy the module seperately.If you can spend more the Lumipower D-mini with a two stage switch runs around $60,it has great throw with the smooth reflector and is cheaper than the MRV.

If you are willing to modify, a MagLED with a Seoul LED will be very bright for the first few minutes before the driver supplies less energy to prevent the LED from overheating.

Welcome to CPF!