Ok, having had Fenix, Surefire and of course MAG, I have been poking around various threads looking at other brands. I see things like Ultra Fire, Romisen, Trust Fire I think and various other brands.
I am really interested to see what they are all about.
So, thinking 20 bucks, 1 or 2 AA. Needs to be bright enough, say 100 lumen minimum, brighter is obviously ok but does not need to be the brightest newest thing.
I want quality.
What would be the suggestions for a first buy of one of these lights. Romisen, UltraFire or other?
Links and pics would be great. I prefer to buy from a place with fairly quick shipping (not good with 30 day waits).
Your price point and ship time requirements make this kind of tough, but there's deals to be had. Here's one suggestion for you and take a look at other AA offerings there as well:
I'll give ya my two pfennigs...cheap, bright, reliable and fast shipping in the US? I use tmart, always had fast shipping...not everyone likes tmart. Here are a few options:
If you want to avoid the "direct from China" lottery, I would take BetweenRides advice and get something from Shiningbeam. That place is less about budget (cheap) and more about value.
Wow, Dave! Much better prices. So for Tmart, you just look for 'ships from: US warehouse' in the item description, eh? You've had pretty good luck with them? Any customer service experience? I've never even looked at their site.
BetweenRides, I've ordered from Tmart many times, often had the item in 3 days (they ship out of Brooklyn) and had one experience with CS...wasn't too bad...others would disagree. Hard to beat for the price and speed for Chinese lights. Shiningbeam is a different animal...prices aren't bad, selection isn't huge, but what he has is great, and you'll have it in a few days. Excellent CS. Langcjl is right on the money.
Not quite as user friendly as a Sipik 68 clone but more reliable qc. also, IMO, better quality overall. Problem is that coming from DX it's unlikely that your delivery time requirements will be fulfilled. In fact, you could die of old age before it arrives if they're on one of their 'go-slows' :\
Shiningbeam do their own exclusive version of this torch but I don't own it so can't recommend from personal experience. However, those at BLF who have one tend to speak very highly of it.
http://www.shiningbeam.com/servlet/the-180/Romisen-RC-dsh-29-II-R5/Detail
I beliieve that this version is only one mode(?) and won't run on 14500 batteries (confirmation needed here).
Well thanks for all the suggestions. The only drawback is that my plan of trying one is out the window. I see 3 of them that I cant wait to get my hands on. Should change forum name from "budgetlight" to "there-goes-my-budget"