best 2xaa light???

well after i showed my dad my mag with my malkoff drop-in. he was amazed, but he said he would like to have a smaller light to use at work and carry on trips. so heres what im looking for: 2AA, either 1 or 2 modes prefferably 2, and hella bright since he's already been spoiled with my malkoff drop-in!! reason for the AA's and few modes is he wants something easy to use and he already has nimh AAs. also not to be a cheapy, but i really dont want to spend over 50-60bucks.
im considering the fenix l2t v2.0 q2 also looked at ultrafire wf606a any suggestions or comments on these lights would really help

would also consider 2C's or AAAs whatever just need to keep it in normal easy to find batteries

Interesting; I'm looking forward to CPFers thoughts. I haven't known any 2AA lights that push 1A through the LED. Malkoff 4-5-6 pushes 1.1A through SSC P4; so you should get more overal output from Cree R2 but probably less throw.

Fenix L2T is a great light and simple to operate with only 2 modes. Runs great on NiMh cells.

You may also want to check out Fenix's upcoming TK20, which is designed with the outdoors in mind. See Fenix Stores website for more details.

Not quite as bright as the upcoming TK20, but great regulation even with alkalines is the E20.

And it's a lot cheaper.

Might be an option.

If not, the L2D Q5, but used as a 2-mode.
Head tight, starts in turbo, head loosened, starts in low.

For a non-flashaholic junkie, the TaskForce 2C 3W is pretty good for the money and might be available locally (Lowes). Make sure it's the version that says "Xlamp" and 60X on the packaging.

This idea does not meet the AA requirement, as it uses C size cells, but I think it's worth a mention.

Eric

ROMISEN RC-N3 with a Q5 from SHINNINGBEAM.COM, Also the ULTRAFIRE WF606A is now available with a Q5 now at Dealextreme.

does anyone know if there is a way to put a dual mode tailcap on the ultrafire wf606a or the romisen rc-n3:thinking:

also dx is claiming 230lumens for 2 hours on the new wf606a q5 what do you guys think is a realistic lumen output and runtime for this light???

shining beam is claiming 215 on the romisen are these figures about right or how do they compare to like the fenix lights or malkoff??

b/c ive got a 240lumen malkoff and i cant imagine these lights even coming close to that??

230 lumens for two hours?

By eye I would guess that the new WF-606A Q2 has around 100 lumens, maybe little more (you can expect +20% more with Q5). I measured 1,5 hour runtime with sanyo 2700mAh and 70 minutes with eneloops. The runtime is not very good if we consider the brightness, but build quality is very good.

was this like 70 min until dead, 50%, or started to dim??

With two AAs the RC-N3-Q5 from shiningbeam is probably in the 90-110L ballpark. Nice tight throwey beam and a WONDERFUL color tint. But Lumen output by itself is not its strength IMHO.

djenkins said:

was this like 70 min until dead, 50%, or started to dim??

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The RC-N3 is nowhere near 215 lumens. As kramer5150 says output is not its strength but it has great runtime, decent regulation and does quite well on alkalines.

I think the new WF-606 has a different driver.

TONY M said:

I think the new WF-606 has a different driver.

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Probably yes, my one year old WF-606A with P4 had almost 3 hours runtime. But all recent wf-606As have shorter runtimes.

Why would you want a 2x AA lamp ???
Sooner or later one of your AA will be weaker than the other, leading to much shorter runtime.

Get an 1x AA lamp.

It's smaller and you can get the most out of each battery. And there are many great choices.

AlexLED said:

Why would you want a 2x AA lamp ???
Sooner or later one of your AA will be weaker than the other, leading to much shorter runtime.

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This will not happen with decent cells and good quality charger.

Hi Jirik,
you are pretty much correct (although all cells will age at some point in time).

But only IF decent cells and charger are used. Especially for non-techies unlike us, this is not always the case.

And even I appreciate the ability to utilize the various batteries I have flowing around individually, without having to match equal pairs.

I recommend the 115 lumen Coleman Max CREE 2AA LED flashlight. They are sold at Walmart for around $20. I have the 3AAA version of it which is exactly the same in light output and it is extremely bright for being so small and has a pretty good runtime.

so how does fenix stack up?? for example the 606a was claiming 215lumes and everyone says its like 100-120. is fenix on the money with their lumen claims or are they this far off??
also is there any way to put a dual mode tailcap on these lights(romisen &ultrafire)??

The first light i got when i was bitten was the Ultrafire C3 which is 1 x AA but i got the 2 x AA extension tube for longer runtimes. The one i got was a single mode but its more than bright enough and its really not expensive at all. That may be a good starter light for your dad

I think it comes in multimodes now.

Does anyone here know if the 1st generation single mode C3 can be upgrdaded to 2 mode or more with a replacement tailcap and if so, where is it available?

TONY M said:

The RC-N3 is nowhere near 215 lumens. As kramer5150 says output is not its strength but it has great runtime, decent regulation and does quite well on alkalines.

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Where does that 215 lumens value come from? Emitter lumens with a CR123A cell?