What is the brightest budget light?

That TR-1200 looks interesting, but if it's unattainable.

I like the idea of the ROP, which I've wanted to build anyway. I'm also looking at these or something similar, I don't care if they're led, incandescent, or hid.

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.20233

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.20231

http://kaidomain.com/ProductDetails.aspx?ProductId=8783

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270526998943&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

Thanks for the great suggestions

In the case of Maglite design, I'd have to say that the cloners beat Maglite in their own game. I really don't like the maglight switch, it's too small. I used to work outdoors at night in the cold and snow with a D-cell Maglite, and with gloves I just couldn't operate that switch. The chinese lights that have a big, bulging, tailcap clicky switch are far superior for access with a fat, gloved thumb.

Thanks for the nice pictures as usual, Don!

The first one is a WiseLED clone at a fraction of the price. Here's a CPF link to it. I suspect it'll have a beam like the romisen RC-T6, not a thrower, but pumping out so much light you won't notice. It will have quite a fat body to accommodate the 3x18650s in it but it is short.

the second one to me offers nothing that a well-sorted ROP won't for less money - you pays your money and you takes your choice. Using C lithium cells and a 2C Mag will make it slimmer than the 2D, and possibly slimmer, though longer than this incan light.

I've always fancied an Ostar light, though those 6 die LEDs are a couple of years old now and need about 20V to light up - battery life is likely to be short.

the last one, Costco in the US periodically clear out HID lights for less than $80. Worth looking through CPF Marketplace for a look.

There's several of those I'd fancy myself if I didn't already have comparable stuff. If the KD Ostar one were half the price I'd probably get one. Looks like it'd run off a car battery too.

Excellent list here guys. Want me to make it sticky at the top of the forum list?

These things are fun - just not necessarily the most practical of lights. Got a new one yesterday which has a small problem, the battery needs to be pushed the best part of a centimetre down into the tube, the spring loaded tail post is about 4mm long. Doesn't work very well...

Stickied...

I hope that wasn't a $40 - $50 model that arrived not working Don?

It's a Raidlight Spear clone. I ordered one with a Q5 emitter in it and got one with an MC-E in it. Multi-die emitters don't really make a lot of sense in a dedicated thrower. However, it was lighting up roofs brightly about 350m away last night as I took the dog round the local swamp park. Did a quick bodge with some magnets to push the cell deeper into the barrel.

Just been brazing some small coins together to add length to the contact post which should fix the flickering issues. Pity the torch ran out of gas. Plan was to braze the coins together then wrap heatshrink round the outside and use it as a spacer. Come to think of it I have some battery spacers for one of my chargers.

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=259443. CPF does have its uses.

Also has pics of an insanely expensive ROP which to me totally misses the point.

If I wanted to go down that road I'd go for Philips 5761 bulbs, soft start and silly, silly money. But rather a lot of light.

12V / 100W halogen spotlights are the most Lumens / $$.

They typically are in the ~1300L (bulb lumens) range. I got this one for $19.

http://img686.imageshack.us/img686/8782/dscn6146l.jpg

http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/5370/dscn6145.jpg

At $79, the Stanley HID is also a real bargain. It will out-throw an Olight ST90. I am not sure what its lumen output is though.

Where did you get that one for 19 bones.....those are not even at that price range.....I have a 55w BD light that my wife bought for me years ago and that only gets used once in awhile.

$19.? Now that's what I call a budgetlight! :D

This was used for long range.....but the only thing that i didnt like about it was that the continuous use was only 10m......

My wife picked it up at a Big Lots discount store. I replaced the 100W H4 bulb with a 55W bulb, its filament is aligned axially so it really THROWS.

its one of my brightest lights, even with the lower wattage lamp.

There are many good bright flashlight ,

TrustFire C8 3-mode High Power P7 900-Lumen LED Flashlight $36.54

TrustFire TR-650 4 Cree P4 3-Mode 650-Lumen LED Flashlight $40.99

TrustFire ST-50 LED Flashlight Black $79.99

TrustFire X2 SST-50 40-Mode 1300 Lumens LED Flashlight Black (3x18650) $128.99

you can have a look !

You could do a lot worse than the good old Ultrafire C3. Just the plain, poor quality aluminium one. When loaded with a 14500 they are crazy bright (and flaky but easy enough to sort out).

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.18305

Avoid the multi-mode ones and avoid the Aurora equivalents like the plague - they are really flaky.

Dang the wife and i shop there sometimes and all i see are the plastic cheap lights that all stores carrry.

Yeah it was a one in a million thing... right place at the right time. My brother went to 4-5 different stores before he finally found one.

I have the Pro Favorite 20 million cp model (120watt bulb), the Etek HID(4300k bulb) and Brinkmann Max III with a 100watt bulb, although they are a lot of fun they are also a pain to carry around. I was really referring to flashlights not spotlights.

The tr-1200 still seems to be the best deal, the Trustfire st-50 looks real interesting, and at the moment I'm waiting to see what Shiningbeam puts out with the new MG RX-1 st-50 model.

Nice try, none of these come even near to 1000 lumens.

That 5xCree may be close.

Unfortunately, the problem with chinese vendors/suppliers that they push out hundreds of products, all with confusing branding, and nobody guarentees specs on anything. Could be good, could be bad, but if no one can tell, why put any effort into a good product?

It hardly cost anything, and if anything cost less, to stick with a few quality products. It's a poor mentality they have that they'll put out 100 items, and even if they can fool a few people to buy each one, they can make at least a couple thousand dollars. Of course, that may be the last couple dollars they''ll make, but hey, get rich quick. They have absolutely no real business sense. That's why companies in the west can make millions and billions, and they fight over crumbs.