I’d say XinTD C8 V3, and SkyRay King. Monster of balance, and monster of flood.
For EDC use - I’d say Xeno E03, but then again, I’m a little biased. 
Best Budget ?
Hd 2010, Thrunite Ti
HD2010
Keygos M10, Jacob A60, cheap C8 with XM-L from ebay
What a good question.
XinTD V3
HD2010
Mini-01
Hmm, just had a thought…
This costs <$2, has runtime of ~100 hours, and is very easy to fix and upgrade. Budget light 2012 winner!
Edit: proof of upgrade-ability: http://youtu.be/pgE8PhhR9Zg 
Thrunite deals…HOT DEALS…The Ti especially
DON…
Although I don’t have it (yet…?!) I vote for the small sun t08
That is some serious tint shifting going on there!
Seriously… how/why is it doing that?
HD2010 (Various)
Romisen RC-T602 II XM-L U2 z (Shinningbeam)
Jacob A60 (DX)
The SkyRay King brought compact triple goodness to the masses, completely unseating the DRY as reigning potentate.
The Thrunite Ti democratized firefly mode, cultivating a new generation of low-lumen snobs.
The HD2010 became the torch bearer for 26650-powered performance in an affordable package.
Runner-ups include the Jacob A60, Balder SE-1, and the Mini-01.
Wait, released in 2012 or just the best of the year? SE-1, E09, C8 are older.
Lumens per dollar,sky ray king flood monster wins for flood category.I think the sleeper thrower of the year is thesmall sun zy-t13,at $24 price tag it's hard to beat.
That’s color-changing LED which changes it’s color every 3-5 seconds
They can be easily found on eBay.
Edit: here’s vid of it doing same thing, but covered with piece of paper (this way camera fucks up color perception much less): http://youtu.be/PQzgwPKUSBk
Excellent post. Well put.
SkyRay King
HD2010 (all versions)
Thrunite Ti
TrustFire Mini-01
Small Sun ZY-T13
Lumatic: what’s the big deal with the rosefireboy C8s? Somehow different from the many other ebay C8s?
than me could explain it better, but essentially it’s their construction. Screw-in pills, EZ900 XRE’s, really nice aluminum reflectors, nice machining, anodizing, solid-brass flat machined surfaced tail-cap negative spring contacts, glass lenses, nice tight hot spot, throws plenty well, all in all for when they were at $7.69, well kinda an unbeatable thing. I hope they go back on sale again.
The only thing I don’t like about them is next memory 5-mode. But I just take care of that by solder-bridging the C1 Capacitor to make it just one-mode. I think Pulsar13 solders on a 1 megaohm resister over said C1 and he shortens the going back to high after shut off to the tune of just 3 secs.
Here’s one good thread on that general subject……
Good info. So how can one tell these C8s from others? Is this seller on ebay the only one with them?
Xintd c8 v3, there’s just something for everyone
Hd2010
Skyray king.
Also rans include the edc18650 from intl outdoor, the small sun zy-t08 which is a victim of its own popularity and the eagletac dc25 clicky seems to be gaining a lot of attention, at the prices I’ve seen though, its not budget to my mind.
Not busget but I would go with ThruNite TN30 and TN31.
Also Shadow JM-07 Pro and teh Apex 5T6.