Flashlight manufacturers - the cutting edge?

Hi all. Being new to the quality flashlight market I'm curious as to who are considered the leading manufacturers? Who would the experienced on the forum consider to be producing the best designs currently available - In terms of reliability, build quality, interface, battery use and of course light output? Any thoughts welcome

overall, i feel surefire stands on top.
quality, service, innovation.

there are also many custom, and semi-custom makers that have top-notch quality.

just my 2 cents...
i dont want to name names, because different people have different experiences with different brands, and the best way to find out is to use them.

I believe there is no single manufacturer producing the best lights, one manufacturer might produce really tough lights but another company makes brighter ones for example.

I'd say these manufacturers are the leaders, in no particular order:

Fenix, Eagletac, Olight, Nitecore, Sunwayman, Jetbeam, Zebralight, Dereelight, 4sevens, Klarus, Predator, Surefire, Arc.

These are just the ones I could think of off the top of my head, I know there are many others and if I think of some I'll edit this post.

And another reason for me not saying who I think is the leader is because I know this thread will turn into a war of biased favouritism like the "who makes the best light" threads usually do.

An impossible question to answer- There are so many lights that do different things better than others within the same levels of reliability and quality... and most often price.

Keep reading the forum-it's you best bet by far; you'll quickly see certain brands that stand out as favorites throughout the CPF community, there are reasons why.. quality, service, output, runtime, simplicity or complexity, you name it. Once you decide what you need the light to do, you'll quickly find a brand that suits your needs and is the best at what IT does compared to the others.

One of my favorite combinations- A Surefire (or Surefire like) C/P/Z series host, bored for 18mm batteries, a twisty switch and a Malkoff drop-in. Am I recommending you to buy it, or claiming it to be the best? No way. But it's an example of what I've come to like and trust over the years

Happy reading and welcome to CPF!

Is anyone at the 'cutting edge' at the moment? I am struggling to think of any of the big manufacturers that have come up with anything major recently (hopefully someone will prove me wrong). Nitecore just launched the T0 which is no more advanced than the Fenix E01; Jetbeam got rid of the interesting BK135 and replaced it with a much simpler PA01; Olights EOS i Series are rebranded iTP; have Fenix or 4Sevens done much lately?

It feels like we are going through a quiet period, which is surprising with Christmas on the horizon and stockings waiting to be filled with the latest and greatest lights.

At the cutting edge at the moment,
Well not one of the "old" manufacturers I think. Hopelessly behind in innovation.
Look for the "new" brands.
Sunwayman with the V60C is on the cutting edge at the moment.
Fenix is testing the new PD32.

Zebralight are doing impressive stuff at the moment in terms of output from a single AA eneloop, plus they give you lots of choices in form (conventional flashlight or headlamp), beam (pure flood, partial flood, flood/throw), and tint/CRI (cool/neutral/high CRI). And they have quite a few different lights listed for release in the not too distant future.

My current favorite is zebralight closely followed by Sunwayman. They both have a lot of great stuff and seem to be expanding on there lineups.

I would keep an eye out for Klarus too