Need advice - Lumapower M3 or other?

Hello,

i'm new to LED Flashlights and need a bit help:

I'm searching for a light that covers nearly every situation (indoor use, use to light the way home at night,....) and i found the lumapower m3 in the internet.

- Is this light really as universal and usefull as advertised? (useful as nearly edc (1xAA) and as powerful light at night (2xAA with the turbohead)?)
- Are the parts coming apart when you carry it in the trouser pocket?
- Is this light really as heavy as i heard in this forum? Has someone a comparison to other lights like minimag or a fenix?
- Is there a better alternative for me which i don't know (up to 80US$ and with AA-batteries/rechargeables)?

thanks.
herrlich1

herrlich1,
First welcome to CPF. As to the Lumapower M3 (a light which I did own) it is a good all around light. It will give you very long runtime on medium with a lithium aa or a decently bright light with a 14500 rechargable cell. The turbo head will give you good throw, and the small head will make the light fit decently in your front pocket. I carried mine with the 123a cell as an edc light for a while.

Their are brighter and smaller lights to be had, but the M3 does give you some options that the other lights out there do not. I believe it is a good light and worth the $$$. IMHO anyway.

Hi Herrlich1, :welcome:

I bought a Lumapower M3 as soon as it came out last year. I must say that I am pretty happy with it thanks to its excellent construction and nice white floody beam. The choice of batteries is of course its main appeal.

In real life however you end up choosing the configuration you like better (in my case 1 x CR123 battery) and leaving the flashlight nearly always in the same form. It is quite easy to change the components but let's not forget that nicely lubed threads and o-rings are not very nice to be handled often.

In my opinion M3 is an excellent starting point so you get a good idea of the sizes involved in the various battery configurations (1 x 123, 1 x AA, 2 x AA) as well as in the head diametre (normal VS. turbo). This will give you some experience before buying the next light....

Hello again,

in the meantime i bougt a Lumapower M3 and i'm very happy with it. :twothumbs
It's very bright (i don't have a comparison to better lights, and that's probably good for my purse ) and it's a great puzzle:



(All parts except the Turbohead up left are delivered in standard)

At the moment, i'm mostly using it with single AA and clickie and that seems to be my most used configuration....let's see how i think in some wekks about it.

thanks for your advice.

herrlich1

Congrats Herrlich! and Welcome to CPF

It's a great light, one of my favs. It's one light I don't feel
a need to mod, because you can do so many things with it
already! It's bright enough and I really like the run times,
I like the glow rings and tail clickie

Congratulations!

I think you can find a better light for any single purpose. But I sure don't know of any single light that covers so many uses. And like other folks have said, it does a very respectable job at just about all of them. I don't think you can beat it for a single-light solution.

c_c