Hello everybody, I stumbled upon your fine site and decided to join.
I am very interested in budget lights and modding, I bought some stuff about a year ago and then not much happened because of work, etc. As I need good lighting at my current job I got interest back again and have thrown a few orders already tonight, didn't really think it through, hardly remember what I ordered.... =)
I need some help though. I work in a ski resort at night and am in need of a really strong light that can help me look at snow cannons without having to walk up to each and every one. I am currently using a light I ordered about a year ago, an XM-L listed as being 1000 lumens (may not be correct but it has a good oomph to it). I don't know what it is called but it looks like this one: http://www.kaidomain.com/product/details.S009982 .
This one does a fine job actually, but brighter is always better so I am looking for something similar but maybe with a xenon light, or a brighter diode? I have been off the forums for some time so I am not up to date on LED development. I would like something similar in size, not much bigger and able to illuminate spots on a great distance. Adjustable throw would be nice but not too important. Light should be bright white and suitable for dark snowy conditions, I don't own any xenon or halogen lights so it would be interesting to try that out.
I am a cheap bastard plus I tend to wreck stuff so I like my lights cheap. Cheap and sturdy does not always go hand in hand but it would be good of course, lumen output is my major concern though. I charge my batteries after every shift so I don't really need much time on maximum brightness setting, 20-30 mins is perfectly ok.
XMLs are still the latest and greatest, so you haven't missed much. If you want a light with max throw that's really on a different level than what you already have, you need a larger reflector. Word on the street is this light is hard to beat for <$50. Prices here.
Yes, it's a little larger than what you have, but when conditions are the most extreme you won't regret not having spent a little more on something brighter. Put it this way: the next best (or significantly better, at least) light would cost twice as much, and that's a VERY conservative estimate.
TJ, that does look appealing, I am trying to order one right now but dinodirect is not working well at the moment and I am a voucher junkie.... I also ordered an TANK007 TK-703 HA-III Cree Q3 from dealextreme, I want to try an adjustable light. It will at least be a good present for my brother at christmas... He is now the age when you can use strong light emitters responsibly but still think they are cool as hell.
An hour later while composing this message I have successfully ordered a clone seemingly equal: http://www.dinodirect.com/flashlights-1000lumens-5mode.html from dinodirect, had to use my card since paypal simply would not work on that site now.
Thanks for helping, guys. That modification you suggested also seems interesting, I might try that. Must put my expensive soldering station and hobby room to use anyway. =) So how about the xenon and HID lights? Any recommendations when it comes to those? I may be considered an old fart by now but I am still immature enough to be impressed by huge specification numbers. I even considered buying a Lifi emitter (http://www.luxim.com/dynamic/display.php/71) just to see if anything cool could be done with it but when I realised you would need a rather big microwave generator to light and run it I concluded it would be quite impractical for a flashlight.
I do a lot of snowmobiling at night and I notice that the cooler tint lights I own don't show depth as well as the warmer tint lights do on snow. This may be something you want to consider if you are going to wear this light while skiing.