Best clustered LED light (1 x AA or 2 x AA) + long battery life

Here is what I am looking for:

- A flashlight.
- Single powerful LED (Cree prefered) or clustered LEDs.
- Running on 1 x AA or 2 x AA (3 x AA can be ok).
- Long battery life (10h +).
- Regulated !!!
- With or without modes (low, med, high, turbo...)
- Flood light: because I will use it for camping I need to see large and somewhat far.
- A great amount of light.
- Illimited budget.

Thanks !

Visiting the www.Fenix-Store.com would be a nice place to start...

Regarding your requirements for "Flood light: because I will use it for camping I need to see large and somewhat far" and "- A great amount of light" -- I find those to be somewhat contradictory requirements--because:

1. Bright flood lights light everything with a very wide and even beam. At night, lighting things close to you brightly quickly destroys your night vision and prevents you seeing any distance.

2. Your eyes have limited ability to see very bright and very dim objects at the same time--bright flood lights ground/object near you and makes it very difficult to see anything at a distance--even if the light throws well.

3. Extremely bright lights kill your night vision and your ability to see any distance outside of the light (think of the old camp lantern--bright glaring light and can't see past 15' in any direction at night). Also, you have to bring "tons" of batteries to feed a bright light. It takes a good 1/2 hour for your night vision to begin to return after using a brilliant light.

I have not gone camping in years (oh well...) but I would agree with others that a nice LED head lamp would be a good place to start. Just enough light to see where you are looking--and not too "floody" so that you can see in the distance. And you don't blind those around you.

Using a flashlight with variable output, a good throwing beam, and a simple plastic diffuser (see other threads here--some manufacturers like SureFire make diffusers for their lamps. Other folks just find a plastic bottle cap, get some frosted plastic, or take a tooth brush travel case and jam that on their flashlights) can address most of your needs (watch running plastic diffuser with a very bright light--or light on high--can overheat the flashlight and/or melt the diffuser).

The P3D-CE from Fenix is darn bright when you want it (roughly equal to the standard tactical 2 cell Halogen/Xenon lithium flashlights)--but on low can comfortably read a map (actually, it is still a brighter than I would want if I was out hiking at night and needing to read a map--still washes out night vision). On turbo, lasts something like 1.8 hours, but on low will last ~65 hours--Much better than a insanely bright flood light that (typically) goes through batteries every 1-2 hours.

-Bill

The only turn-off with the P3D-CE is the batteries.
I would like to use AA (3 maximum).

I understand what you are saying with the nightvision and all and it's true.

So:
LONG batteries life
AA powered
Bright
Cree LED or clustered LEDs
Regulated.

What about the Fenix L2P 2.0 ?

If you are car camping, the streamlight propolymer 7 led midght do. It puts out a flood of light for medium distance tasks (30 to 50 feet maybe). There were some issues reported on cpf about one or more leds burning out but streamlight is reputable and may have fixed this by now. Mine works fine though I don't run it hours at a time.
Aurora headlamp by Princeton Tec (3 led's) is inexpensive, light weight, multilevel and runs forever on 3 AAA's. Leaves hands free for tasks but again is not a thower.
If you are backpacking or want something small and lightweight, my preference is fenix. p3d for throw and runtime, p1dce or p2d for min weight, max throw. These are not multiled's but, combined with an aurora,an Lodce or Photon Freedom for camp chores, they fill all my camping needs.

Fenix does have AA versions too (and, I believe that some folks are buying extra Fenix tubes so they can run one CR123 or two AA cells).

The AA lights are a bit less bright than the P3D-CE... I like AA cells (cheap primaries and there are many different rechargeable AA's which work great too). I just like the shorter CR123's and since I use mine on low most of the time--65 hours between battery changes is fine with me (still keep an old Arc 1xAAA with a couple of spare cells in my wallet as backup).

With the new Cree's and other very efficient LED's coming out now--I would think twice about clustered 5mm LED and other LED lights. The new Cree's are almost twice as efficient (twice the light at same battery power, or 1/2 the battery power at the same light levels). The added light and savings in batteries (costs, weight, recharge time) more than make up (IMHO) the added costs of the new Cree+ LED's.

Remember, when looking for bright lights--remember your eyes are not linear devices... For example, there is a big difference between a 3' child and a 6' adult in size and strength.

But with our eyes the difference between a 160 lumen P3D-CE and an 135 lumen P2D-CE is almost unnoticeable. Basically, you can just notice a 2x change in light output with the two flashlights next to each other--believe it or not, you may not even notice the difference in light level between a taking a P2D one night and a P3D the next night. (I have a two level UK 4AA eLED light and have to really pay attention to make sure that I have it in full or 1/2 power mode when using it--so I don't waste batteries ~5 hours vs ~12 hours).

However, you will notice that the batteries last much longer at the lower power settings.

And, on the other side, a flashlight that is 10x the lumen output will bury the dimmer light. The 2x and 10x lumen comparisons are two benchmarks that I keep in my mind as I compare the written specs. of a light. And I very much check out the battery usage between the lights.

Note too, batteries/electronics are typically less efficient as the drain goes up--so setting a light to 1/2 lumens will frequently result in a run time increase beyond that expected of a 1/2 power drop in light generated. For example, the P3D-CE in Turbo mode:

160 lumen (rated) * 1.8 hours = 288 lumen*hours

whereas at minimum mode:

9 lumen for 65 hours = 585 lumen*hours

is about twice as efficient at generating light at lower power levels. Again--saving you more batteries.

-Bill

Maybe it would be smart to wait for the new Cree's.

Edit:
This one look nice ! The Cree XLamp XR-E LED.

All the latest Fenix lights are cree. The L2D CE would meet your requirements with long burn time on low/medium and able to blast on high if needed. 40 lumens for 10 hours on medium ain't bad. Uses 2AA.

http://www.flashlightreviews.com/reviews/nuwai_x-1.htm
branded riverrock at target, about 22dollars. ok pocket light

easiest to find is the mag 3aa led.
10 hours is a lot to ask. some petzl headlamps have very long battery life with a more gradual drop

Learjet said:

All the latest Fenix lights are cree. The L2D CE would meet your requirements with long burn time on low/medium and able to blast on high if needed. 40 lumens for 10 hours on medium ain't bad. Uses 2AA.

Click to expand...

+1 for L2D-CE good output, long runtimes, and well regulated on multiple modes. If it's too throwy for you, you can always put a little Glad press 'n seal or opaque scotch tape over the lens as a diffuser.

+ another one for the L2D-CE. The family of Fenix lights which use that head (L1D-CE, L2D-CE, and L2D) are in a class for performance and efficiency, and can be Lego'd together with available spare bodies.

frasera said:

http://www.flashlightreviews.com/reviews/nuwai_x-1.htm
branded riverrock at target, about 22dollars. ok pocket light

Click to expand...

Picked one up last Friday. I give it... :twothumbs

The L2D-CE would do great

The Limited edition L2D CE with MOP reflector would fit your needs perfectly:
http://fenix-store.com/product_info.php?cPath=22_65&products_id=270