Which light was a disappointment...

Which light did you wish that you had never bought.

That could be due to:
- Weak output.
- Uneven hotspot.
- Artifacts like rings, donut hole.
- Not neutral tint (too green, purple, blue).
- Bad mechanics that make normal use difficult.
- Outdated, an new, better version was available.

Which light did you wish that you had bought instead.

Probably none of them - not even the duds like the Aurora SH0030s. I'd avoid those if I wee you.

The 5 mode one can be persuaded to work if I can be bothered but it has the greenest "white" LED I've ever seen.

The single mode one is even more unreliable than the Ultrafire C3 and life is too short to get it to work when it doesn't feel like it.

DOA lights are an annoyance but hardly any of them were unfixable. I've destroyed more thn one trying.

Just this one: http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.32722

Ring festival, artifacts, output, workmanship...

I agree on the adjustable focus thing. To me it is just a gimmick with too many compromises. I wound up giving mine away. But it was neat to play around with, I mean, to evaluate.

And I wound up taking back my Quark 123-2 Tactical because of preflash recently. I burned out a Uniquefire S10 on a 14500 and I had no business getting a 6-mode light in the first place, let alone another XR-E since I already had a Fenix.

I have to include the Aurora SH-035 since it didn't work right either.

And although I don't regret the purchase, I was really disappointed with the output of the AKOray K-106 3-mode programmable. Even after I put in a XP-G R5 LED, that thing is still pretty weak. I love being able to program the levels and the memory works great, but the output was just never there, even on lithium ion batteries. Some of the 5-mode versions were supposed to be crazy bright, but they weren't programmable.

Thank's for the responses - making my wish-list shorter - which it needed!

Almost all my MXDL lights , only 1 is ok , a small CR123A twisty , and its only ok because I moded it to Q5 5 mode ...

Those small $1 AA lights , geez , give me my money back so I can buy another Black Cat .

My Small sun ZY-C41 , driver died after about 1 minute of use [ yeah , I had plenty of spare drivers , so now its 4.2v rather than AA ]

Mini Mags ... There just blown away by lights like the Trustfire F20 [ Sure you can mod it , but for the same $ you can have several F20's ]

I got Terralux upgrades for 3 Mini Mags. That was a waste. The tint is too blue, they're only 1 mode, and they still don't produce that much light. I don't even keep batteries in them anymore.

Mine would have to be the Aurora SH the AA version can not remember which one but don has the same light. The emitter was not centered causing the spot to be more on one side when the light was being used.

I tried the Terralux years ago , yep , a waste of money .. Even the LED mini mag is a waste of money .. I had to upgrade mine to XP-E Q5 to make it useful , now its still twice as big as a F20 , uses twice as many batteries , and is still not as bright ... I upgraded a standard Mini Mag to XR-E Q5 direct drive on CPF and then gave it away in a lucky dip draw .. That was a nice mod , and all you needed was a Q5 emitter , a small amount of wire , and a bit of DIY skill ... and ran really well on 2xAA ...

I still have 2 Mini Mags , my LED mini M , and an older one with a Q5 mod and runs 14500 on Direct Drive with a clicky ... and lensed .

It's the SH-035. Its real niche would seem to be as an extremely long running light on low with NiMH/Alkaline. Mine was OK apart from turning blue with a 14500. It's not a brightness monster, but it does run for as pretty much as long as any AA light I've got.

Solarforce L2 Stainless edition (original), that stupid thing is made out of lead! Useful for crusing rocks maybe, not for easy carry. Build Q is tops but the choosen steel will rust in a humid environment.

VersaTi ET10, massive cross threading issues!

Aurora SH-40, +$30 price tag compared to a P7/MCE light but with no extra output. It has got some more throw but is not really worth it considering that an XPG in a smooth p60 puts at least as much light in the spot.

Tank E07. Bought 4, one didn't work right out of the box, 2 work about 20% of the time, and only ONE of the four works decently. brutal for all of the great reviews they have had.

+1 Only deserves a hammer

I have this one http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.32722~r.43033281 but purchased at FocalPrice. Despite the very ineficient driver, and the bad contacts in the pill, is a good light. Mine has a cool white Osram GD LED. Only about 15 minutes of runtime with alkalines, and about 60 lumens max.....

+2

Piece of cr*p!

And the C78 copy is even worse! http://www.focalprice.com/detail_LF602B.html

(not to be confused with the "genuine" C78 which is a great little light in my opinion) http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.29095

Also this one:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rt=nc&nma=true&item=170554272275&si=BnzrlbouwEb%252Bk2DoclUe1HeB4iw%253D&viewitem=&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWNX%3AIT

Claimed 100 lumens. Would forgive 50lumens it is 20 lumens at best. Build quality bad for that price point.

By far it was the Romisen RC-N3 xpg r4 from Shiningbeam. I guess this was because I had such high expectations for this flashlight.

Rated at "up to 280 lumens" I had expected it to blow away all other 2 x AA battery lights. Instead it was way dimmer than my ITP C8T, which is rated at 190 lumens

(got it from Lightake). Btw, I later gave my C8T away as a gift as well, since it wasn't quite up to my expectations either. Am now using the ITP SA2, which for the price,

is actually quite good.

I love how every flashlight discussion can be affected by the ZOOM ..

Buying anything from merit line is a mistake .. they specialize in pure garbage

I bought a http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.18697 OR something exceedingly similar and loved it .. Best zoomable ever lovely white wall hunter ..buttery smooth .

The down side is you want to duplicate it and that lead to buying the worst one in the world off ebay A q2 with more rings than saturn and horrible color .

next stop .......edi-t 18650