Spot Beam

I am new to this forum ... so please excuse if I ask a question that may have been answered already in the past.

Quite often I am hiking at night. I am also doing 100 mile running races which go non-stop for 24-48 hours.

Now I am trying to find an LED flashlight with the following criteria:
- Spot beam (or focusable), able to search for things 50 yards away (similar to 2C Maglite)
- Full battery power at least 12 hours; reduced power for 50 hours
- Not more than 13 ounces (400 grams)
- White LED

Now what? Pelican "M6 Lithium LED"? Tektite "Expedition Star"? Ledcorp "Our Best Aluminum"? Or?

Please help.

Thank you,
Ulli

The issue is the combination of a long spot beam and long runtime. There are some excellent long-throw spot-beam lights (Pelican LED Super Saberlite) for example, or the Pelican PM6 LED, but the kind of runtime you are asking for only comes with the low-power lights like ARC AA or similar. There's no light I know of which will provide a beam that can pick out features at 150 feet for 10 hours.

I think you can achieve most of your goals with an ArcAA with Lithium AA battery and a Pelican PM6 - the pair should even come in under your weight limit, while providing an hour's worth of excellent high beam (PM6), and 10 hours of good low beam and some very soft light for a long time after (ArcAA).

However, there's no (at least to me) obvious candidate for both long spot and super-long runtime. Some lights (like the upcoming Surefire U2) will provide either long runtime OR bright light in a single light, but nobody can do super-bright for a long time.

The UK e4AA might work for you. It has a very bright small spot that could probably handle a 50 yard spotting chore. It also has a good main beam with nice spill- just the ticket for running or hiking at night. Also a 11-12 hour regulated runtime on 4 AA batteries.

See Brightguy for this light on sale.

Yesterday I talked to a technical guy at Streamlight. He said that they don't have any LED flashlight that has a pretty focused beam which goes as far as what I am looking for (50 yards).

The impression I got so far is that the Tektite "Expedition Star" comes closest to my requirements. But I am not an expert and didn't have a chance to test it yet ...

Have you considered the Petzl Myo5 headlamp? It's a compromise in terms of what you are looking for but probably not to far of. It runs a Xenon bulb or 5 regulated LEDs powered by 4AA cells. The brochure says the focusable Xenon beam goes for 100m for 4hours and on the LEDs from 10hrs to 90hrs depending which of the 3 brightness levels you use. I got one myself and always take it hiking. The LEDs are more than bright enough to see the trail and if you need a bit of throw just switch to the Xenon. Even when the power was too low for the Xenon the LEDS were still very bright, because of the regulation. Dont know wether the 4hrs for the Xenon are realistic. Never tested it for that long.

Nighthiker - I took a look at the Expedition Star, and while I've never laid hands on the light, the differences between it and the Pelican SuperSaber LED are intriguing. Both run on 3C batteries, but the Pelican uses a 1-watt LED, and the Tektite claims 2-watts off a Q-binned light, so I'm not sure if it's just really overdriven, or what. Tektite claims 10 hours runtime, Pelican 6. Perhaps Tektite actually has found a way to run the light at twice the power and get 80% more runtime also - but I'd be surprised.

Not meaning to be negative on the Tektite - they have a sterling reputation, but it seems like something's missing - perhaps somebody here with both lights can clear up the lumens/runtime discrepancy.