Just use a high CRI Luxeon TX.
I agree regarding the Streamlight. I tried it and hated it. I returned mine within a week.
I haven’t tried the I3T EOS.
I like the C01S but greatly prefer it in Low-High. The color might seem a little yellow but take some time to see if you get used to it. I recently did some similar side-by-side testing on night walks including both suburban and wooded areas. The warmer tint and high CRI of the C01S ended up being awesome. I also noticed that in high mode, the C01S reaches out well in the woods. I don’t know if tint is the relevant factor but it seemed to give me clearer illumination at distance.
The C01S low mode was nicely usable and that matters to me. One factor I didn’t see mentioned in the comparison here is battery life. You never know when you’ll need a little extra!
That’s a thought. I didn’t realize a high CRI version of that emitter is readily available, but I also haven’t looked yet.
From the datasheet, it appears only in 2700K, 3000K, and 5700K?
I guess 5700K would work for the inspection purposes I’d like a compact, single mode light for.
* Edit - I’m not seeing them available from the usual places: Mountain, LED Supply, Kaidomain, Arrow.
The original Microstream (~20 yrs ago) was a nice light, but there were a lot of complaints about unwanted activation, so Streamlight changed to this tail switch, which many believe went too far in the other direction. Still, it’s a nice little light.
Given that the development and startup costs have been depreciated completely many years ago, I wonder what Streamlight’s profit margin is on this light currently.
I started an interest thread for a host version of the C01, in which you can solder in your own 5mm led.
Olight excels in the small flashlight space. The i3E EOS can often be had quite cheaply. Olight-Store ran a little deal for a short while where the light was free and you pay for shipping… so cost was like $5. While I applaud the Sofirn for its simplicity and tint, the Olight feels more solid. Plus, I just have a peeve about lights without a glass or TIR lens. My early run Sofirn C01 serves purely as a backup light. Kind of nutty to think the installed tritium vial plus magnet (image) doubled the overall cost of the light.
One light you didn’t include — the Jetbeam U. It’s a twisty AAA light with 3 modes. Lowest isn’t what I’d call a moonlight mode, but it’s OK. Very nice casing design and anodizing. Here’s a photo — it’s #3 from the left.
My Fenix L0D is still going strong. The CW tint is just not all that appealing to me. I may try to replace the emitter at some point if I can ever figure out what would be suitable.
What over 7 months on a keychain looks like 
This is my general complaint with aluminum. You can get a nice surface treatment on there. It will look pretty when new. The underlying metal will still be aluminum. Let it bounce around a hot pocket with coins, keys, etc. and this is what usually happens. Some people don’t mind but it bugs me. So I try to take steps to avoid the tumbler action with my aluminum lights.
You have to get over it. Life’s too short to be bugged by stuff like this. Buy a spare that you don’t let ride in your pocket next to hard metal objects. You can also find or make yourself a sleeve to stick the flashlight in, if anodizing wear is a major pet peeve.
I have an i1R EOS keychain flashlight by Olight that’s terrific. It looked so pristine on my key chain, but now the fluted grip section has major anodizing loss. But, I’m OK with it. It’s inevitable for keychain duty. However, my Jetbeam U still looks almost like new because I clip it to the outer corner of my front pants pocket. It doesn’t touch any metal. Despite the handling care, it did suffer a scrape on the front, so there’s some tiny anno loss on the front edge. But again… not a big deal. I have a pristine one sitting in a drawer at home. 
I streamlined my pocket carry a while back and that helped a lot. I cut down on carrying coins. I have fewer keys and more optimal ring spacing. My lighter and multitool moved to a pocket organizer so they no longer collide. My L10 also has better anodization than the last aluminum light I carried.
Really, I’d like to do some more exploration with other metals. Brass gets dinged up but it’s just more brass underneath. Of course, brass is heavy. (It can also contain a small amount of lead, which isn’t ideal.) I’ve had good results with stainless steel but I don’t see it used very often. My wife’s enormous key ring has a stainless AAA flashlight from Convoy that still looks great after years of tumbling in the death trap she calls a purse. I’ve been meaning to try something in titanium but I haven’t gotten around to it.
BTW, I was pretty good at Xevious back in the 80s.
Personally I like the beat up look. Adds character.
Copper i3T. Bigger but a great light.
Astrolux AO1 in Cree and Nichia.
Probably MY favourite.
LumintopAAA Still trying to make my mind up about that one.
VERY thin aluminium casing.
BLF/Singfire SF 348
Neither one thing nor the other?.
Plus several others.
When my BLF/Sofurn 5600 special arrives (30 days).
I’ll see if it any better. or worse than current ones.
The AO1 is the one it got to beat.
As long as it works, I don’t really care what it looks like.
I don’t mind aluminum. Its lighter than stainless steel. Conducts heat well if your driving a higher output LED. This is why I prefer natural/olive/etc colored ano, and strongly prefer HA/type3. Carried a Fenix L0D for many years with the olive finish, and while you could tell it was worn the wear didn’t JUMP out at you. Looked very nice.
Ah, but most ladies do. They think: now there’s a guy who takes not good care of his tools.
This always reminds on the following post:
Some alu lights last much longer than the others.
Yes, I am want 3000K too. Hope, Sorfin will done it.
I guess I should have searched for this before doing my own testing, but here it is. I put a 1.5 ish Volt alkileak cell in a C01 (neutral white output) yesterday. When I got home today, it was much dimmer. After taking the cell out, I measured 0.55V. A bit later I created a setup to measure the voltage and current out of the cell into my C01 with gravity, some props and a bit of tape. After running with this measurement setup for over an hour, the light seems to have stabilized (for now) by drawing about 6.5mA from the cell. The cell voltage is down around 0.3V. When my DVM measuring voltage shuts off the display, the light from the C01 flickers as the lead going to my DVM measuring current touches it, so it slightly disturbs the setup. After one such event the voltage of the cell is up to 0.39V and stable, with still 6.6mA of current. I’ll let it run overnight to see if its still running tomorrow. It been almost 2 hours since I started the test back up, with the cell at 1.0V or less the whole time. Certainly a vampire light if I’ve seen one.
Update 1:
good morning. 9h40m since I started this run, my 5000K C01 is still putting light out. 0.24V on the cell, 4.5mA being delivered, and the brightness is about the same, (slightly brighter) than moonlight on my Manker E01. I never imagined it would run all my sleeping hours on a cell down to 0.4V already.
Update 2:
Nighttime: 25h since the CO1 drained this cell below 0.6V, and started it on again. Still at 5mA level, I have seen the voltage as low as 0.24V, but typically its at 0.35V. Right now its at 0.4V and 5mA. How many more days like this? The light output is brighter than my Manker E01 on moonlight mode, maybe 3-4x lumens. Noticeably brighter.
Amazing.
Thanks for reviving thread with this interesting data. I always run Eneloops/Duraloops in my lights, which is not recommended for this experiment. It could damage the battery.
But I need to find some dead low voltage alkalines laying around the house (that I am ready to throw away) and try this in one of my C01’s.
This is great to know during a power outage that I can use any old dead battery laying around and still have some useful light! Think of how many alkalines we throw away when they decline to about only 1.0 volts!
Vampire!
But first try to sort out the almost-dead batteries from the really-really-dead batteries.
Just in case your family has to survive whatever disaster that’s waiting for you in the pitch dark.