I would like to ask your suggestions and recommendations for flashlights which can fit the following requirements:
1. Able to sustain 1500 - 2000+ lumens (high mode)
2. Light throw distance of 300 - 400+ meters for around 1.5 hours to 2 hours (in high mode).
3. Single battery or multiple battery setup.
The practical use for this light would be for night-time hiking or camping trips that could flood the area with reasonable amount of illumination without having to change batteries after every hour or so.
For now, I’m thinking AstroLux FT03 SST40W, but I understand its High mode won’t last for long.
You’ve pretty much limited yourself to multi-battery lights. This is for two reasons: such high outputs require a large light to be able to sustain the output without overheating, and the power requirements of such high sustained outputs exceed the capacity of single cells (even the larger 21700s and 26650s).
For example, the Zebralight sc700d (reviewed here ) is one of the most efficient lights in the single-cell format, due to its driver technology and the emitter chosen. As you can see from the graphs in the review, output at 3000>1800 lumens (step=down due to temperature) does not last a full hour.
Also, the throw requirement combined with the lumen output requirement will necessitate a larger light. The most efficient combination would probably be XHP35-Hi to achieve “1500-2000” lumens as well as the require throw, but you’ll be looking at ~1.25A at 12V to achieve that, which will again drain single cells in about an hour. More efficient for lumens per watt gets XHP50/70, but then you need larger optics for the same throw…
A good option might be the Astrolux MF02. Other lights like Convoy L2/L6, Sofirn SP70 come to mind. If the throw is sufficient, you could try the multi-cell multi-emitter “soda can” lights like the BLF Q8, Sofirn SP36, Emisar D18, etc.
Edit: forgot to address the SBT90.2. I would avoid it for this purpose: it’s less efficient than other options at the lumens you’re talking about, and it’s a $40 emitter so you’ll be spending that much extra on the light to begin with.