What's the best 1 CR123A Luxeon flashlight?

What\'s the best 1 CR123A Luxeon flashlight?

The only single CR123A flashlights I know about are the Nuwai Q3 and the Inova T1.

The T1 seems a little too long for only 1 small battery, but it has HAIII finish, and I suspect it's rock solid reliable.

The Q3 has HAII finish, and I'm concerned about it's reliability, especially in the long term.

What are your thoughts on this matter?
PS - Don't mention about Arc.

Re: What\'s the best 1 CR123A Luxeon flashlight?

Peak has a 1 cell light. You could put a KL1 on an E1E from Surefire.

What are you looking for out of this light?

Re: What\'s the best 1 CR123A Luxeon flashlight?

[ QUOTE ]
LightScene said:
The Q3 has HAII finish, and I'm concerned about it's reliability, especially in the long term.


[/ QUOTE ]

You're concerned about it's reliability. Why? I have owned this light for months, and it has given me zero reason to think it won't last a long time.

Re: What\'s the best 1 CR123A Luxeon flashlight?

Fire~Fly. Once you get past the price, it's small, bright, versitile, and if anything goes wrong parts are readily available.

Re: What\'s the best 1 CR123A Luxeon flashlight?

[ QUOTE ]
WallaceD said:
[ QUOTE ]
LightScene said:
The Q3 has HAII finish, and I'm concerned about it's reliability, especially in the long term.


[/ QUOTE ]

You're concerned about it's reliability. Why?

[/ QUOTE ]
Is Nuwai known for making reliable flashlights?
Do they have a track record?

Re: What\'s the best 1 CR123A Luxeon flashlight?

[ QUOTE ]
ACMarina said:
What are you looking for out of this light?

[/ QUOTE ]
Reliability, in the sense that I want to buy one that will last for many years.

Efficency - 1.5 hour burn time minimum. More would be better (like the T1).

Brightness - Not much of an issue, since they are all bright enough for everyday use.

Beam quality is probably a minor issue, but I don't want one with a green tint.

Finish - not that important.

Price - no desire to spend more than necessary to meet the other goals.

Re: What\'s the best 1 CR123A Luxeon flashlight?

Nuwai doesn't make flashlights, they are just an exporter. The flashlights are made in either China or Taiwan by other manufacturers. This is why you can find the same so-called "Nuwai" lights under other brands like Ledwave/Ombu, NexxTech, XenErgy, Sharper Image, and Streamlight. Are they reliable? Well, they wouldn't be so popular if they weren't.

Re: What\'s the best 1 CR123A Luxeon flashlight?

Well, an hour and a half runtime kinda sorta kills the QIII. If I wanted solid construction, which seems to be what you want, I'd go with a Peak, which would pretty much clean up on everything but brightness, which wouldn't even be close. .

Re: What\'s the best 1 CR123A Luxeon flashlight?

I get very nearly an hour and a half of full brightness from my Q3.

The Q1, a little bit cheaper (a lot cheaper if you caught the sale at Amondotech) should run twice as long as the Q3. The Q1 is definitely less bright, and my two samples have a not unpleasant faint green tint (the one I've opened has a QV1K star in it) but it will be perfect for reading a newspaper in the dark like I sometimes have to do. And if I lose it - did I mention it was pretty cheap?

Re: What\'s the best 1 CR123A Luxeon flashlight?

[ QUOTE ]
ACMarina said:
I'd go with a Peak

[/ QUOTE ]
I'd like to look it up on Candlepowerforums - could you give me a name or model number.

Re: What\'s the best 1 CR123A Luxeon flashlight?

[ QUOTE ]
ACMarina said:
Well, an hour and a half runtime kinda sorta kills the QIII.

[/ QUOTE ]
What's the runtime for the Q3?

Re: What\'s the best 1 CR123A Luxeon flashlight?

LightScene, seems to me we just had a thread like this. You didn't specify that you wanted a metal light. Check out the Tektite Splashlite LS, which is probably in the 10 lumen range with maybe 4 hours of runtime. It's made of plastic and very tough and lightweight. I haven't seen any measurements though. I will try to measure mine (current consumption) when I get a chance.

If you want something high end, try an Aleph, with the 2 stage switch. In low mode it should run for many hours.

Re: What\'s the best 1 CR123A Luxeon flashlight?

[ QUOTE ]
Blinded said:
I get very nearly an hour and a half of full brightness from my Q3.

The Q1, a little bit cheaper (a lot cheaper if you caught the sale at Amondotech) should run twice as long as the Q3. The Q1 is definitely less bright, and my two samples have a not unpleasant faint green tint (the one I've opened has a QV1K star in it) but it will be perfect for reading a newspaper in the dark like I sometimes have to do. And if I lose it - did I mention it was pretty cheap?

[/ QUOTE ]
Thanks for this Q1 suggestion. If the price is right, faint green would be acceptable. It looks like the Q1 has output and runtime very similar to the T1.

Re: What\'s the best 1 CR123A Luxeon flashlight?

[ QUOTE ]
Cosmic Superchunk said:
Nuwai doesn't make flashlights, they are just an exporter. The flashlights are made in either China or Taiwan by other manufacturers. This is why you can find the same so-called "Nuwai" lights under other brands like Ledwave/Ombu, NexxTech, XenErgy, Sharper Image, and Streamlight. Are they reliable?

[/ QUOTE ]
How can they be considered reliable if they are made by an anonymous Chinese company? I mean they wouldn't have any track record at all.

Re: What\'s the best 1 CR123A Luxeon flashlight?

I'd say from the overwhelming number of positive reviews/owner testimonials here on CPF that the QIII is pretty reliable. I've dropped mine several times without any problems.
The light is very good quality, is priced right and offers a nice clean, white beam, what more could you want?

Re: What\'s the best 1 CR123A Luxeon flashlight?

[ QUOTE ]
LightScene said:The only single CR123A flashlights I know about are the Nuwai Q3 and the Inova T1.

[/ QUOTE ]

cpf member stainless had a survey thread that might be useful -

2004 - Year of the Luxeon! (linked)

"Best" is such an emotive word -
but certainly right up there for value for money is the S1801 sold by GoldenGadgets.com - compact and bright - I may have been lucky getting one with a pretty good beam both in color as well as smoothness -

S1801 1w Luxeon 1xCR123 (link)



and a perhaps not such a "silly" comparison beamshot with the Streamlight Scorpion Xenon 2x CR123 -

Re: What\'s the best 1 CR123A Luxeon flashlight?

[ QUOTE ]
paulr said:
Check out the Tektite Splashlite LS, which is probably in the 10 lumen range with maybe 4 hours of runtime. It's made of plastic and very tough and lightweight. I haven't seen any measurements though.

If you want something high end, try an Aleph, with the 2 stage switch. In low mode it should run for many hours.

[/ QUOTE ]
Paul, thanks for these suggestions. The Splash-lite would be great if it had more output. Quickbeam's measurements show total output of 4.4 which seems too low, because it's not that much more than my Ultra-G. The Ultra-G is useful, but it's not quite bright enough for walking at night in my environment. Which is why I'm looking into this CR123A alternative.

The Aleph is totally out of my class.
I can get a T1 or a Q3 for under $45, so that's close to my upper limit.

Re: What\'s the best 1 CR123A Luxeon flashlight?

I use my QIII at work due to its low price. A few days ago I dropped it onto concrete from two stories up. Not only did it still work but hardly had a scratch on it. I would say it is durable.

Re: What\'s the best 1 CR123A Luxeon flashlight?

"Best" is such an emotive word
The Subject line is kind of short, so there's not enough room to be precise.

"but certainly right up there for value for money is the S1801 sold by GoldenGadgets.com - very compact and bright -"

It looks nice, and the price is right.

"I think I was lucky getting one with a pretty good beam both in color as well as smoothness -"

The fact that you think you were lucky worries me. It would help if i was confident that I would get pretty near the same thing you got.

The beam shot looks impressive.
Thanks for this suggestion. I need to find more comments on this light. I'm looking...

Re: What\'s the best 1 CR123A Luxeon flashlight?

[ QUOTE ]
LightScene said:The fact that you think you were lucky worries me. It would help if i was confident that I would get pretty near the same thing you got.

[/ QUOTE ]

Relative to the hi-tech company here, the S1801 would be considered a "cheap" flashlight -
so there may well be bigger quality variations -
that's why I consider myself "lucky".

However -

This may only be a long shot - but in the comments when placing an order I wrote this:
"Please check the flashlight -
as I would like to avoid the green tint beam color and flickering/bad contact as reported on CPF (CandlePower Forums). "
(you could add any other features important to you - like beam smoothness, ringyness etc.)

They may well have ignored it - but I can't see how it does any harm -
and since I am very pleased with my S1801 - they could well have taken note of it.

I thought it was worth taking a chance at the price,
and I could have always returned it if I was really unhappy....
but that's me - I understand if YMMV.