Haha! I have problems! I just bought a warm Aeon and took possession Friday and I'm already planning my next light purchase. With that said I want a custom AAA. Here are the contenders. First consideration is for a Peak Eiger with SS body (lug or keychain) and a #8 wide head. I'll source a neutral XP-G for this light and have Curt R. build it for me. The other consideration is for a McGizmo Sapphire 25 but I'd also like to have someone mod in a neutral LED for this light as well. I'm having a hard time deciding! With the Peak, obviously I won't spend as much. The quality is out of this world and the output from the #8 would be more than adequate but the wait time would probably be excruciating! The McGizmo option I could probably have in my pocket with-in a month. I'll pay the premium for Ti but McGizmo's are just so dang pretty! I'm kinda wondering what the output would be with say a neutral flavored XP-G on the Sapphire? What do you guys think? I don't really have any criteria, floody, adequately bright with neutral tinted light and decent runtimes is all.
Big differences between the Peak and the McGizmo (I have both, with stock emitters). Eiger #8 on an Eneloop is about 40 lumens (but can run a 10440, which puts out over 100 lumen !), while the Sapphire 25 puts out a whopping five lumens on a NiMH AAA. The Eiger narrow optic gives a nice tight hotspot, but lots of useable spill. The McGizmo beam shape is a beautiful round and smooth flood (though not a "wall of light" like my Peak ShastaX). Tint of my Eiger is decent, just a touch greenish, but not bad. My McGizmo is rather purple with ring-y green fringes, and I have been considering asking DaFAB to upgrade the emitter to a High CRI XP-G (but output would remain the same). The aesthetics are, of course, in the eye of the beholder and I like both very much, but for different reasons. The Eiger (mine is the brass lug-body, but the stainless is similar) seems like a well-crafted functional tool, while the titanium McGizmo seems like a tiny jewel-like work of art.
I saw that others have recommended the Photon Fanatic AAA, and I have been looking for one of the DLC versions for a while (no luck yet!). I have also been interested in an Aeon (CR2) with the new warm emitter. Another really nice CR2 is the JiL TWOJ that I recently got over on CPFMP.
One of my favorites right now, though, is my brass Peak ShastaX with a QTC dropped in for variable output, which I run on a rechargeable NiMH N-cell. Massively floody and mine has a great creamy-white tint.
Hope that info is helpful in your quest....
