So, finally there are plenty of multiple AA lights to chose from that are bright, well priced and well built!
Which light should I pick?
I want it to be max bright, with longest runtime on highest possible mode(I know about turbo and its stepdown to high in most lights) and with some good low/low-low modes and runtimes!
So far its close match between EA8, D40A NW and XinTD X3.
Ive checked all the pros and cons of all of them and realise that none of them will be perfect as far as lumen-holic’ism&runtime’ism goes, you cant have it all in one light :D!
EA8 - lots of throw, the throwiest of them all, only downside - questionable heatsinking that might burn the light when used on high/turbo extensively and the fact that it has older, XM-L, not the newest XM-L2 which would make it eve brighter. And theres no tailcap lock-out feature on this one due to its design, so it might drain the batteries when not in use and its 8 batteries, lots of charging ahead!
D40A NW - Sunwayman is known for high quality lights and this one looks to be no exception and it comes in neutraul white, which Im eager to try, besides cheap incans, I dont have any lights with warm/neutral tint, I think I might fall in love with WW/NW!
I also own R20A that I got for cheap from DD and love it, build quality is great, desing is slightly different, yet functional and I love their modes, especially police strobe 8) ! Im not a fan of its mode changing sequence/mechanism tho.
X3 - cheapest of the bunch, still no reviews around, people seem to love theirs, at least those, who received perfect lights without any quality issues! And Im not sure whether its going to be THAT good with NiMh’s?
EA4 clones - cheaper than the real thing, some speculations about at least one of them being Nitecores factory overstock/seconds sold as unbranded cheapies! Below 30$ for one and below 35$ for the other model with BLF coupon code. But since nobody owns them, there is no hard data and reviews are not available, so its still a wild guess what those lights really are like and whether they are worth their price or not.
All of them can be had around 40$-60$ shipped so Im wondering, should I wait till autumn in hope of even bigger discounts on these lights or, perhaps, better models coming out(perhaps D80A, if such thing is in plans?) or should I pull the trigger now and simply get myself super quality AA based thrower :D?
Another question, I have couple of cheapo C8 lights, both are running at slightly below 1A at the tail cap, how much brighter or dimmer the throw will be on high and turbo in those multi-AA based lights Ive mentioned? Even approximate estimates from those who have C8 and multi-AA throwers would be great!
Are there any other, sub 70$ AA based lights that are worth to consider?
My finger is itching, please help me :D!
