Thank you for your nice feedback and comment! Firstly to answer your questions.
“Ultimate, have you tried those lights on far away objects? Does your assessment still stand in that situation?” - Yes, I have done extensive testing and comparisons between these three lights, mainly throw tests of the DST and ArmorMax 3D because the two are so close and as far as practicality, they have basically the same beam range. That being said, in every test I have conducted ranging from 10 yards to 300 yards, the ArmorMax 3D consistenly beats the DST by a noticeable amount in hotspot/illumination brightness on every distant target I have tested them on. There is even a youtube video of some other person who owns these two Defiant lights and compares them, and it is clear that the ArmorMax edges out the DST in lux/throw/hotspot brightness by a barely noticeable amount, even though the DST has a more focused and smaller hotspot. Even with the DST’s lower beam divergence, my ArmorMax beats my DST in throw to the most distant of objects they can reach. Here is a link to the other person’s video I found on youtube. ArmorMax 3D starting at 1:03, DST at 1:34 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctYkc_P6kOI
“Can you tell me if the diameter of the 5C is larger?” - No, the 5C Tactical and DST have exactly the same battery tube diameter and are both barely wider than a C battery, making them as narrow as possible for any C light’s body, with the bulk of the lights being in front of the battery tubes at the switch/head areas where they have their big reflectors. So unfortunately you will not be able to fit 26650 cells into the 5C either. The seemingly best way to go would be to buy the Energizer rechargeable C’s and a family charger online as these two lights do consume a massive amount of power and need frequent expensive battery changes to remain at full brightness. Even fresh heavy duty/zinc batteries cannot even run these lights at more than 75% of their full brightness, so they require alkalines. I did take a pic of the battery tubes for you and will post the link here. 625 lumen tactical 5C right, DST middle, and ArmorMax 3D left as a bonus for reference.
http://imageshack.us/a/img541/4715/cam00439h.jpg
As far as the 5C light goes in comparison to the other two, it is always clearly beaten in throw by them, but not by a large amount like you might think, thanks to its overwhelming output. It can reach just about anything the other two can but simply puts a less concentrated, more wide and uniform circle of light on the desired target. In a practical situation, the 5C light would be the best out of these because for most lighting applications, it is just as important to have close-up flood capability as it is to have a long distance throw, and the 5C excells at both. It depends entirely on the needed application though, which light is the best choice. The ArmorMax 3D is definitely the toughest and best beater/work light out of these due to it having a low mode and such a thick heavy construction. The 5C is the brightest and will be the best in the field in many practical situations.
The DST is the most beautiful looking out of these and might be the most impressive to other people for its super focused laser like beam, so it is a great choice for an enthusiast of high powered LED lights as it will likely be visually the most impressive to most people. And I love the strobe on the ArmorMax 3D because it is extremely disorienting and may prove useful in some nighttime self defense situations (I do not encourage using this light for this instead of escaping to safety, just saying I like this feature).
I hope this answers your questions fully and please feel free to ask me for any more pics or comparisons you would like.
@ everyone, as far as any uncertainty concerning the throw difference between the DST and the ArmorMax 3D, I think very good evidence has been provided by my pics and the corroborating results in the video, showing the DST and ArmorMax 3D to be directly comparable in throw/lux and not the DST in the lead. Two different DST and ArmorMax 3D lights each have been compared now and posted on the internet and the results were exactly the same. This leads me to believe I do not have a defective DST or an over powered ArmorMax 3D. QC seems quite good on the Defiant line. All emitters are perfectly centered and the build quality is superb from the bezels to the tailcaps. If other people have experienced different results between these lights, then it would be interesting to see some pics because perhaps there might be some discrepancy/imperfection from model to model of the same light; i.e. some DST lights may be better than others in focus or tint, etc.