I would like to upgrade to something brighter

Hello everyone. I own a few quality flashlight but still consider myself a flashlight novice. Here is what I own:

Fenix E01
Fenix LD01
Preon 2
Quark 123 regular
Quark 2X123 tactical

I was out tonight with my wife and 2 year old daughter doing the "trunk or treat" thing at a local church. I had my Quark 123 with defuser with me. It simply was not enought light for me using the flood beam on uneven ground with dips, tree roots, etc. (I have a visual impairment and am legally blind). In a situation of total darkness or very low light I want something brighter. This would be a light that I would not be using for EDC, I use the Fenix LD01 for that. This is a light that I want when needed, for those times when I need to light up my world in a flood beam. I certainly want to stay under $100 or less if I can. Where should I start to look for a light like this? Thanks for the help. I am not sure how much light I need, I just know that 189 lumens was not enough tonight.

Welcome to CPF. Moving this to the LED Flashlight Discussion forum.

Bill

Fenix TK30, TK40 or TK45 would all be good flood lights.
Emitters to look for are sst-50, sst-90, P7 and MC-E
Are all superbright LED's


If you have an incandescent Maglight, buying a fusion 36 dropin is an easy wau to get 400+ lumens for cheap

Welcome to CPF :welcome:
Any other criteria, size, runtime, battery preference?

CarpentryHero said:

Welcome to CPF :welcome:
Any other criteria, size, runtime, battery preference?

Click to expand...

Well I am not sure about this. Here is what I have, I already have a two bay RCR123 charger and some RCR123 cells. I also have an old 2D and 5D cell maglite that I could use for a conversion. I looked into a ROP Maglite but that looks like a lot of money for outdated technology and more of a plaything than a useable light. This would be a "when needed" light so runtime is not that important. When I know that I will be in unfamiliar, totally dark, uneven ground situations such as camping, that is what this light is for. For my EDC I use a Fenix LD01 on my keychain and that works fine, however it was dark lastnight and I was putting hubcaps back on my car after painting and restoring them and a Quark 123 was not enough light in total darkness.

The Fusion 36 is only 26usd if I remember right.
Good runtime and lots of light. About 400 lumens in a 2D maglite, 500+ in your 5D maglite.
Something a little smaller, but pricy would be getting a Surefire (save a few and get a Solarforce)
and get a nailbender sst50 or MC-E. Splurge and get a 3 mode OverReady 1100 lumen TriV xpg.
Read up on the battery usage. The triV-xpg is 150usd but well worth is as it is really well made.
Shiningbeam has a few lights that are roughly 700 emitter lumens, not really regulated but well made for the price. MG P-rocket and MG thrower.

The really bright and well made light I want to get is ElectroLumens EDC-MCE, 700 lumens, runs on an 18650 and costs $130usd

how bout a p60 host such as a solarforce for under $20 and a sst-90 or sst-50, or linger special drop-in?

my sst-90 3000k floods! cant throw well, but it will light up everything in front of you with a very smooth, warm beam, perfect for outdoor uneven enviornments.

the sst-50 drop-in has a great beam, good mix of throw and flood. mine is the neutral tint. I use the sst-90 more because i prefer the tint, and my work doesnt require alot of throw.

the linger special has been described as the poor mans sst-90. very floody.

the only drawback with these are heat. not recommended using on high for over 10-15 minutes at a time. although, ive used mine up to 15 mins many times without any problems.

battery comsumption is another thing. 18650 would be best used with these.

i think you should give high cri or warm/neutral tints a try, they could make a difference. I certainly notice a difference, and would never buy another cool tint light again.

When we went trick-or-treating this year, I brought my Dereelight C2H which pumps out near 250 OTF lumens and my ITP A6. Many of the streets have no lighting at all and the C2H was fine with providing enough light to see what I needed to. However, with my 2yr old with us, I wanted to see everything, so I took out my ITP A6 and BAM came out 450 OTF lumens. It lit up the entire street and had enough throw for me to ID people/objects 150+ft down the street. The ITP A6 uses a MC-E LED, which for the most part is fairly floody relative to most other LEDs. To me, it provides a great balance between bright flood and adequate throw. 400+ OTF lumens is really a nice amount of light to light up what you need to see to be aware of everything around you. The ITP A6 is normally $80, but you can find it cheaper. A great light and runs off normal AAs. I run mine on 6x Eneloops and having walked for over an hour, it was still going strong on used Eneloops (they weren't fresh). Build quality is good and it's comfortable in the hand. I'd definitely recommend the ITP A6 for a low-cost super-bright light with good flood. And it got just barely warm the entire time, so no heat problems what-so-ever.
I can't think of a better 400+ OTF lumens (ITP A6 is about 700 LED lumens) light for under $100. The next ones I'm really interested in are the Sunway M40A and M40C, but both of those are over $100.

+1 on the ITP A6:thumbsuprobably the perfect candidate.

On a side note I have the M40C and absolutely love it!