who do ya think makes the best lights?

well im sure ya all know who ill pick for led lights. charlie aka mr bulk.i like every light he made and look forward to the ones comeing.his atn to detail amazes me.the perfect white beam ya get is what he prudueces with every light he makes and they throw so far. he realy cares about his lights.he rocks for incans i pick ginseng the man knows his stuff i always read his post ,he is the king of incans .

These would be my top 5 makers:

Surefire
Arc
Longbow
Pelican (M6 LED specifically)
Streamlight



Honorable mention:

LedXtreme (IMO, very well made, but rare and hard to find)
Elektro-Lumens (Good lights, not quite great)

I wouldn't classify modders as makers. I would only acknowledge companies doing mass production of lights as flashlight makers.

To me, the best so far is still Surefire for the built and finish.

Surefire's in a class all their own.
All others are up for debate. You aren't going to get many disagreements about surefire being the best. But you will get thousands of opinons on every other brand.

PJ and Sidespill: agreed.

Surefire - both in terms of products and customer service from my experience

Then Inova for product (I haven't had any contact with their Customer Service - which is a good thing /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif)


In terms of modders Raggie? Well from my very limited exposure to these, the main WOW ones I remember are from Hotbeam's creations!

How about Heliotek /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ooo.gif . "A light for extreme conditions"

my choices for the best lights would be Surefire and Longbow - they are all nicely machined and nicely finished
just waiting for a 5w longbow

I would add PILA in there, I find they are very close to any Surefire Type II anodized light.

Surefire, ARC, Pila, Longbow. Now if we can include the ModMen things change.

first : Surefire
second : all well known manufacturers & Nuwai ;-)

[ QUOTE ]
sidespill said:
Surefire's in a class all their own.
All others are up for debate. You aren't going to get many disagreements about surefire being the best. But you will get thousands of opinons on every other brand.

[/ QUOTE ]

In terms of fit and finish, sure I'd agree that Surefire is #1.

I'll also agree that they make the best incandescents. I'm very happy with every incandescent Surefire that I own.

However, I have some performance issues with the LED models and LED conversion heads that Surefire makes.

In terms of LED tint and LED beam quality, I wouldn't agree (especially on my L1 models) that Surefire is #1. The 1-watt Luxeon star that my L1s use have some of the worst LED tint I've ever seen from an LED flashlight. One is deep purple, the other has a purple-blue center with green corona. Plus, the optic that the L1 uses leaves a lot to be desired in beam quality. My LED KL3 1-watt conversion heads have bluish tint, and also below average beam quality. I'm convinced that Surefire did NOT use good tint grades in the 1-watt L1s and KL3s that I own. None of the tints in my L1s or KL3s are acceptable, but I don't see a point to sending them back to the factory if there is a good chance of getting more bad tints anyway.

The 5 watt LED Surefire models have better tint and beam quality, but its still far from perfect (my L2s have slight purple to pink tint, and the inner part of the beam is dimmer than the outer part--which might be due to the 5W bulb). For the price, I would have liked to see a little whiter tint in the L2--but as is its acceptable.

1. Surefire
2. ARC
3. Streamlight
4. Inova

Surefire is #1 without question, although I don't much care for my KL3 either...

I think I'd say Streamlight is number 2. The only two SL products I didn't like and don't still have are a 2AA Propoly (gone and I don't even know when or how and don't miss it at all!) and a 4AA early model Incandescent (had the worst beam I could imagine!)

I think I'd go with Pelican as number 3. If my M7 rechargable had my Mitylite 2AA beam quality and brightness (with two lithium AAs) it would be an AWESOME light!

For Joe Average consumer, I pick Rayovac as the winner. I marvel at the beam quality every time I light one up.