But what your saying is what i thought before I bought my solarforce ..maybe even what i heard ... now I need to see it and I need links ..You can say .."Bahh I've spent enough time explaining it to the idiot "..Now he wants photo's?? .Problem is I'm a smart guy who doesn't get it ..I blame solarforce not you..My original l6340 wouldn't take any part of an l8650 without being bored ..Never saw the short adapter I thought existed for the L2 ..I bought a full body for l8650 instead .But I resally wanted more parts to add instead of a totally different body so I could start legoing .. I never saw small extentions to add to my l6340 body , to make it a l8650.....l5 mm spacer ??where is that ??..I spent my l0 hours in the solarforce threads on cpf looking at peoples lights and then went to solarforces website and banged my head after trying to comprhend what they are up to .. ad infinium,and ad nauseum...Gave up frustrated and moved on with life .
I liked AA lights until I saw how bright lights could be with li-ion. But a 14500 doesn't last very long at 1000+ mA, so an 18650 has an advantage. Also I like the throw of a P60 host, but I don't like carrying them around in summer (no jacket pocket). So my summertime light is my compact 18650 (for now) and in winter I carry a P60 on dog walks. AA lights are nice indoors: not too much light and floody. I have a 2x18650 light and it gets very little use because it is just so big.
I think there were L2m and L2m special that were prepared for 18650 way back. They used an extender like this.
Update: Found it - http://www.sbflashlights.com/Solarforce-Lights-c5/ if you scroll down to the L2m it shows both versions.
I think he means a small "internal" spacer to make 1AA fit in a 18500 housing. Something like this.
Frankly, only three of my lights are CR123-powered, and only two of those accept 18650s as well. The rest - and that's quite a number - is mostly AAA and AA lights.
18650s sound tempting, but I am lacking a proper charger. Call me a chicken if you want to, but somehow I just don't trust the Chinese on the cheapo chargers. Well, at least I already have a couple of dropins well-suited for 18650s (and triple AAAs, for that matter)
By the time I find a safe (really safe!) controlled charger, I'm in. (hint, hint! ...or do I have to open another thread?)
Until then, I will feed my L2 a steady diet of Panasonic CR123. Finally found a source in Krautland that doesn't ask a fortune (in stores, they're usually around €7.99 EACH, which is like US$11.44, or AU$10.68, or GB£6.99 - on the internet, I pay like €1.39, which would be US$1.99, AU$1.86 or GB£1.21.... not exactly budget, but ya can't beat that for a price including shipping costs)
@brted: Yus, the P60's tend to be a bit bulky at times. My modified L2 is the only P60 host I carry on a regular basis (not EDC!) in a V70 quick-draw holster. Amazingly enough, that combo does not create a funny bulge when combined with a business suit. At least not more of a bulge than a Glock or SIG would make (and at work I meet quite a lot of federal close-protection officers packin' heat, so I think I can tell).
Vectrex: Yup - you found exactly what I had in mind when typing that up. I'm sorry if things turned out to be a little harder to find than I anticipated. The only one I expected some difficulty with was the 15mm spacer, which is why I mentioned lighthound as a source for this.
I don' t know if all of the newer 16340 sized extensions are as wide as an 18650. Mine is even though I didn't acquire it as part of an L2m bundle. I also don't know if all newer L2m models are as wide as an 18650 or if it was just a limited edition run. You can still find the L2m bundled with the necessary extension tube to go out to 18650 length at other places too, e.g., http://www.solarforce-usa.com/
Link-Man to the rescue ;-)