Looking for a General purpose med sized light THAT MUST USE AA or AAA

Hello everyone, I must say What a GREAT site this is! Tons and tons of good info...

Long story short my fascination with flashlights goes way back to being a kid, I had to have the brightest flashlight on the street for when we played flashlight tag at night...

Up until a few years ago I have been completely happy with my old Streamlight SL-20. It has served household duty very well. I recently acquired a Streamlight Propolymer 4AA Xenon, I liked it very much, (IMO) it was very bright, had good Batt life, had good usable distance, and was small enough to toss in a bookbag and travel with. Unfortunately it has since been lost...

I am currently looking for a replacement...

Ive read pages of info here and found a lot of people LOVE Fenix and 4Sevens lights...

I am not biased towards xenon over led. My only requirements are,
1) It MUST take store bought, regularly available Batts.
2) Must be as bright or brighter than the Propolymer (Up to 11,000 Candela (peak beam intensity), 34 lumens (typical) )
3) Have a run time longer than just a few hours.

Some of the lights that have caught my eye include.
Maglite XL100
Mini Mini Mag LED
Fenix L2P V2
Pelican lights
Another Propolymer

I figure this would be a great site to ask for help on choosing a light...

Thanks everyone..

Let me start by saying :welcome:

Looking at your list of lights, here are my impressions on two of them:
Maglite XL100 - Gimicky user interface, uses AAA batteries
Mini Mini Mag LED - This one has visible PWM and that can get annoying

I have no experience with any Fenix lights, not because I don't like their products, but, because I've never bought one. Ever. Pelican and Streamlight make great products, though they're not even close to using cutting edge technologies that are available to us today. Having said that, I really like my 4Sevens lights. I would suggest that you take a serious look at the Quark Regular and Tactical series of lights, especially the 2 X AA versions. The main difference between the two is that the Tactical only has two modes that you program and has a forward-clicky tailcap while the Regular has all modes available to you and uses a reverse-clicky. These lights are modular so you can change tail caps, bodies, etc, to suit your needs. A spare body tube in 1 X AA configuration will give you a compact variation on the longer 2 X AA version. An even more compact CR123a body would make this light small enough to drop easily into a pants pocket.

Fenix makes great lights as does Jetbeam and other manufacturers. I've just never bought one of their products so I don't have any personal experience with any of them.

Oh, yeah, don't worry about finding a light that will make more than 35 lumens. There are plenty of lights out there where the medium mode beats that number.

For sheer endurance, and also very high output (760 lumens) when needed, I highly recommend the Fenix TK45. Runs on 8xAA. Forever.

If you want something smaller, say in 1AA or 2AA form factor, the Thrunite Neutron 1A and 2A are excellent. They use the Cree XM-L LED, which is the most efficient thing out there -- over 150 lm/W when driven gently, and still 100 lm/W at maximum drive (1000 lm = 10W = 3.3A).

I don't know of any truly svelte XM-L AA lights (yet), but there are tons of XP-G and XR-E options in the 1AA and 2AA size. Check out the Fenix and 4sevens offerings -- there are many styles to choose from, and you really can't go wrong with any of them. Both are excellent manufacturers.

I have just done a quick measurement (with a quite simple luxmeter) of my Mini Maglite LED AA (single mode version) with 2 fresh alkaline AAs and came to ca. 1100 cd only, with somewhat used alkalines even less.
It was my first (and so far my only) Maglite, and while it looks nice and robust, I was somewhat disappointed by its light, at various focus positions.

Thanks guys for all the fast replies...

keep them coming..

in the mean time i will defiantly look into the 4seven and Fenix lights...

Wow so many options...

I like...
Fenix LD20
Quark AA^2
ThruNite Neutron 2AA

I like the "save mode" feature of the Quark Tac. It makes it a no brainer, turn on/turn off light, but I think only having 2 save modes wouldn't work for me. 3 saves would be ideal, for example... Low mode to navigate through the house at night without disturbing wife or kid, Medium mode for pretty much everything, Bright mode for looking into the yard or stunning would be intruders.

I also like the flexibility of the Quark Reg, but honestly all the different available modes make it seem a little confusing and cumbersome to use, and I cannot foresee me ever using strobe, SOS, or beacon modes.



I notice on the specs that the CR123 versions have a considerable increase in output and runtime, and consequently price is higher also.

I don't know much about CR123 as far as power supply goes, but I notice with AA batts there is a wide range of "quality". From "Dollar Store" specials all the way to Energizer Lithiums. I have even noticed in my kids toys some last longer than others. My guess is that these very high tech, super efficient flashlights are sensitive to this. I am guessing if you put good batts in you get good results.

With that in mind, Is it worth the extra trouble of the inconvenience of CR123 batts? How is the across the board quality of CR123's? I am sure they can be purchased in bulk on places like ebay and it would cut down on the inconvenience.

Again thanks everyone...

Sorry if I am OVER analyzing this... I know some of you are probably thinking, "Dude, just shut up and buy... its just a flashlight"

I guess its just the engineer in me... and to be truthful $70 is a bit much for a "flashlight" and i want to make sure i get the one that is right for me, and serve me well for years to come.

Jetbeam also has a new line of AA lights that looks great. Most AA lights work great with rechargeable batteries. The eneloops are favorites. Don't be afraid of the cr123 lights. With several levels- these lights go from just barely on to amazingly bright. The new AA lights are around the 200 to 250 lumens range. THe 123 lights can easily hit 350 lumens.

I just ordered a Romisen off of Shining Beam for $24 that can use either CR123 or 2xAA batteries with an extension. Looks to be a decent budget light, but definitely not a TK35 or 45!
Way better than a maglite though, in a much smaller package.

mparker said:

Thanks guys for all the fast replies...

keep them coming..

in the mean time i will defiantly look into the 4seven and Fenix lights...

Click to expand...

Oh yeah? Why don't you come over here and say that?

mparker said:

Sorry if I am OVER analyzing this...

Click to expand...

THAT'S WHAT WE DO HERE!

Welcome to the club...

hahahaha thats great.. oopps... auto spell correction...

Kind of makes sense in a way...

Tell the wife your spending $70 on a flashlight and you will definitely be shopping defiantly

Thank you Paypal for being the only money account she doesn't keep tabs on...

Well I think Ive stuck the ThruNite Neutron 2AA off my list...

The more and more I compare the Quark AA^2 Reg to the Fenix LD20 they seem very similar...

I think that the Thrunite is the most useable of all three of those lights, even though I have neither of them. (My lights are either bigger or smaller) It has an even lower "moonlight" mode than the quark, and a nice, floody "wall of light" beam, which is much more useful than throw for general around the house/outside usage. More lumens than either the Fenix or the Quark.

Just posting this to keep all info in one area...

Quark AA^2 ($60)
Typical Output Levels and Runtimes + (LED drive current)

Moonlight: 0.6 lumens for 1277 hours (1ma)
Low: 4 lumens for 120 hours (10ma)
Medium: 19 lumens for 24 hours (50ma)
High: 83 lumens for 5 hours (250ma)
Max: 180 lumens for 42 minutes (700ma)


Fenix LD20 ($55)
Low: 5 lumens (100hrs)
Medium: 30 lumens (15hrs)
High: 81 lumens (5hrs 57min)
Max: 180 lumens (2hrs 16min)


ThurNite Neutron ($70)
Moonlight: 0.1lumens-> (260hrs)
Low: 9 lumens (33hrs)
Medium: 50 lumens (6hrs)
High: 120 lumens (2.1hrs)
Max: 260 Lumens (xx hrs)

All 3 appear to be GREAT choices...

I think its going to come down to features...

The Quarks Modular design Vs Fenix accessories (Flip up diffuser and tent/camp light)

Selfbuilt tested the Quark at 190 Lumens, the Neutron at 320 on turbo, 170 on high. On high, it runs 2 hours 18 minutes to 50%, the LD20 does an hour and 27 minutes. (The fenix are rated to 10% by ansi standards)

mparker said:

All 3 appear to be GREAT choices...

I think its going to come down to features...

The Quarks Modular design Vs Fenix accessories (Flip up diffuser and tent/camp light)

Click to expand...

The Fenix will make a good light but my pick would go to the Quark - I like the moonlight mode and the modular design.I am hoping 4Sevens will do another batch with neutral LEDs soon.Don't forget that Quark has the Prism kit.I believe the Fenix diffusers can be modified to fit the Quark as well.

Moving this to the LED Flashlights forum.

Bill

Bullzeyebill said:

Moving this to the LED Flashlights forum.

Bill

Click to expand...

Thank You, I didn't plan for this to go to al all out LED discussion...

If you like the 4AA format, why don't you consider the sunwayman m40a. Or the fenix ld40. The sunwayman should be brighter and has a rotary switch. It would be my 4AA light of choice.