Luxeon/AA rechargable recommendation

List,

I am a new guy who is looking to make the jump from incandescent flashlights to LEDs. I am looking for:

1) something BRIGHT with good sidespill for walking, hiking, general use (i.e. no spot beams),
2) a Luxeon bulb (I hear about 1 or 3 watt, low/high dome "bulbs" but I don't understand the advantages of one or the other),
3) the ability to use AA rechargeables in case I don't have Lithium batteries in an emergency,
4) clickie or twist switch...no preference,
5) max price $125.

I saw the ARC LSH-H, and would really like to have one with the AA conversion...but I cannot afford $180-200. The SF L2 looks nice, but I don't think it can take rechargeables.

Any recommendations from more knowledgeable folks would be much appreciated.

Thanks for the great site and all the info.

ray

Welcome, WYlightGUY! I'm not sure if you're looking for a boutique item or just something that will get the job done. If you're just looking for something that will serve 95% of all your uses, I would recommend the Streamlight Jr. Luxeon. It's a 2AA 1W Luxeon that comes in way under your budget, but has good brightness and runtime. You can get them for under $30 at Brightguy (for example) and if you pick up some NiMH AA's, you've got hours and hours of "free" light.

If you really want to spend $100+, there are lots of other ideas, but with a sub $30 light, you can afford to try it out to see if you like it or not. If you find another ~$30 light (like the brighter Pelican M6) that you like, you can afford to buy them both (the flashaholic motto) and some spare batteries!

SL Jr Luxeon is a good choice.

Some alternatives are:

The always recommended Underwater Kinetics 4AA eLED (Brightguy still sells them for intro price of $20, not super-bright, but keeps her fairly high brightness for ~11 hrs on alkalines/~18 hrs on lithiums)

Elektrolumens XM-3 (~$40)

Get the SL Jr Luxeon pick up a cheap NiMH/NiCAD Charger a 4 pack of 2500mAH NiMH's and you will have a well made regulated light with 3 hours or so of constant brightness before it drops out of regulation. I use mine nightly for cutting through the wooded trails and rotate the batteries out every three days whether they need it or not...

Welcome to CPF!


[ QUOTE ]
Dukester said:
Get the SL Jr Luxeon pick up a cheap NiMH/NiCAD Charger a 4 pack of 2500mAH NiMH's and you will have a well made regulated light with 3 hours or so of constant brightness before it drops out of regulation. I use mine nightly for cutting through the wooded trails and rotate the batteries out every three days whether they need it or not...

[/ QUOTE ]

This is good advice, except the capacity of the batteries doesn't matter all that much to me.

BrightGuy has the Streamlight Junior Luxeon.

I also like Sandwiches from The Sandwich Shoppe.

Yep. What they said. The Lux Jr. is a fantastic light for it's price point. Expect two hours on NiMh.

The next step would be a Surefire L4 running on Pila Lion batts for around $150.+

Gerber LX 3.0
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here's CPF member Quickbeam's review - Gerber LX 3.0 review
and here's Quickbeam's review of the SL Jr luxeon - Streamlight Jr luxeon review

Yeah... if you're not wanting to carry it in a pocket all the time, the Gerber 3.0 (and the 1.0 for that matter) is a nice light... Has a very high quality feel to it but the Jr Luxeon is more carryable.