Need #2 (I have #1 and 3) suggestions

Although I've got lots of flashlights, most of them are of the under $5.00 2-D variety.

My 2 "real" flashlights are an Arc AAA, and a Brinkman Legend-LX.

The AAA is good for little tasks like reading in bed (why don't we use bedside reading lamps like normal people?).

The LX is good for reading unlit billboards at 200 yards (just a guess, what is its real throw?).

What's a good in-between light? I'd really like something in the $20 to $30 price range. Not sure if I want incandescent or LED, I'll probably end up with both eventually.

I don't particularly like rechargables, alkaline is fine, but at $15 a dozen, lithiums are OK.

I'm sure if this thread goes long enough, every flashlight ever made will be mentioned, but I'll try to count the votes and see.

UKE 2L. Good emergency light.

I'd say get a PT40. Range of bulb options there. The stock is good for alkalines, but for NiMHs you can run my favorite, the Mag-Num Star 4 cell.
Cheaper is a Sea-Lite which might be at Wal-Mart, near the fishing stuff. $5 I think, 4AA halogen, tight focus, twist switch on rear, waterproof.
Or, the Energizer Arc-white (Home Depot, Sears). Less bright, using a standard Kr half-amp bulb (tho you could put a PT40 halogen in it) but good throw from the tight focus, and you get a great cold cathode fluorescent area light in the bargain.

LED? A 3-led Opalec newbeam in minimag ($30 or so), or sub $20 for a PT Attitude.

Be sure to check the review sites. Start with
http://ledmuseum.home.att.net/
http://thelightsite.cruxial.com/
check the links to other sites from those.

surefire recently dropped the price on the G2, you could score one for around $30. does the LX run on lithium? if it does, a G2 might be redundant.

If we are going to leave the Lithium SF123As out of it, I suggest the Princeton Tec Rage (4AAA) Incandescent flashlight.

Brock told me to get one and the P-Tec guy was standing there on his stand, he was so impressed he gave me one for free.

Perhaps I should explain more - last year I was convinced enough by the same P-Tec guy to order a Surge from The Prince. So he remembered what my expectations are. When he saw that I trust Brock's advice like I trust the Sun to rise each day, he gave me one for free.

It certainly looks a very neat little flashlight. No idea how much it costs but P-Tec are pretty cheap (but very good value in my experience of the Surge) It's performance from what I've played with it has been good. I'm kind of comparing it to the Pelican 2AAA, 2AA & 4AA models which I have and find that this Rage 4AAA can really hold it's own.

I hope this helps!

Al

Great first two lights. For your "in-betweener", I'd recommend something brighter and more grippable than the Arc AAA and less scorching than the Legend LX (or the G2). I'd go with an Opalec insert in a Maglite 2-AA.

I have to admit, despite all my "high-end" lights from all the brands we love around here, my MiniGag with Opalec is the light I reach for and use every day, more than any others. Probably because of its handy "grippable" size (too small can sometimes be just as unwieldy as too big), its decent output (yet not overkill; it doesn't overpower night-adjusted eyes) and its extraordinary battery life. Plus the geek in me loves the little red extra LED that warns when you're switching out of regulated mode.

Once you have that, and hang around here for awhile, then you'll get bitten by the Surefire bug, and then hang onto your checkbook! Its fun though, and less costly than most other hobbies you could have.

Good luck!

The Rage is like $12, Attitude $18, and Impact 2 $22 (roughly).

I had the first two and love 'em because you can swap the heads around. Now I'm having real fun swapping heads amongst all three!
The Impact 2 head is a bit longer, and the body a bit shorter, than the other two. With a Rage/Attitude head on the Impact 2 body, you have the smallest combo, which fits nicely in my bag. Pick a head for the day...do you feel like incandescent, or 3 LED? (Or 1 LED, the focused type is very different from an ARC AAA).

Only drawback for the Rage is that if I used it much, on alkalines, I'd hate to pay the extra for AAA's mAh vs AA's. But, I use NiMH.

In reference to tkl's question, yes the LX runs on two 123 lithium batteries with an hour runtime. Sound familiar?

georget,

In reference to your question, I would highly recomend one of the great minimag dropin mods available around here. An Opalec Newbeam might be ok, but I think that a luxeon mod would better fill the "middle ground" that you previously mentioned. The ones that come to mind are the MadMax and BadBoy dropins as well as the inretech adapter--the only one that falls within your quoted price range. The inretech will give you long runtimes with decent output (enhanced greatly by lithiums), while the MadMaxs and BadBoys will give you extreme brightness (for LEDs anyway). I highly reccomend the inretech, especially as I have heard that they have recently taken shipment of some really nice luxeons. IMHO, if you only need an hour runtime, you my as well use your LX.

Respectfully,
Dale

Thanks all. I think one of the MiniMods might be good since I own a totally ignored unmodified MM now.

Where can I find more information and places to order the inretech, MadMax, and BadBoy?

Wayne told me the MadMax has been backordered until mid March.

www.inretech.com

I cannot comment on the Inretech or the Madmax since I have no personal experience with either.

With that in mind, I suggest some combination of PT Tec40, Rage and/or Attitude next. I suspect the Rage would be a very good middle ground between the two while still being easily pocketable. Added benefit would be that your ARC AAA could feed on batteries that the Rage drained down.

A Tec40 would make a nice bigger light, and is just about as tough and versitile as they come. You could run a massive variety of incandescent and led bulbs in it on any matten of AAs that you can find.

If you watch BST and try to pick them up used you should be able to get an Attitude and a Tec 40 for well under your $30 point.

If you could push it up to the $50-60 range, I would look for a cheap/used Surfire E2 and pick up a MN02 25 lumen bulb. That would REALLY be a nice middle ground. Run time is much better than the LX, and most of the functional brightness is still there, but it is not quite as overpowering for closeup work.

I give a strong vote for a Madmax. Even if ya gotta wait for it!

I run mine with a Ram Tail Switch (reliable so far) Quest, Panasonic or Energizer NimHs from 1400MaH to 1800MaH, and with a Borofloat lense from flashlightlense.com

It will run an easy two hours, and while no one believes me I have seen nearly four hours out of 1600MaH NimHs. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif