http://goinggear.com/flashlights/flashlights/olight-i3s-eos-80-lumen-xp-g2-aaa-led-flashlight.html
Is this guy flipping the bird...
or is it just me? :evil:
lol. Thanks so much!
Trustfire XP-E F23 10440/AAA
Tank 007
….
Olight i3s is my favorite light of all time.
Medium-high-moonlight modes, hidden strobe, 80 lumens, xpg2, coated lens, plastic box, tail stands, no clicky, $20.
I have a 500kcd btu shocker and I like my i3s more. Tells you something!
Chris
Lol, could you compare 2 even more different lights?
I tells me that u dont nees a 500kcd shocker, nothing else.
If you want performance on AAA alkaline, I can recommend the Ultrafire M5, it is small, it burns through your battery quickly with lousy efficiency, but it has one of the best outputs on alkalines I know of (1 mode though).
If you want performance on 10440 (Efest IMR recommended), again the Ultrafire M5 (360lumen OTF), I did a small review on it the other day, that is why I know. If you are into modding you can put in a XP-G2 led on a copper board and completely bypass the driver: connect the led directly to the battery, it will improve output even further. The M5 has (for such a small light) a fairly good heatpath to the body of the light, so it will handle the high current well.
There are some reported reliability issues with the M5, but I did not encounter them.
i'd go for a throwy 1xAAA, with a tight focused hotspot. XP-E R2/R3/R4 or sum thing.
i enjoy abusing my Thrunite Ti (XP-E), has good beam profile and tint and great UI and good runtime because it lacks brightness stabilization.
i keep my Tank007 e09 (XP-E) in mint condition. much brighter (up to ~95 Fenix lumens on Eneloop, over 1.6A draw) and as throwy, but too me to nice to abuse.
i never had an Olight i3s, i am a budgee :p
Not budget at all, but here’s the brightest AAA light:
Note that you need li-ions to run it at 500 lumens.
Part 1: http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?321289
Part 2: http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?329823
If you do a direct drive mod of a twisty with a XM-L2 on copper and a Efest 10440, I bet you will see close to 1000 lumens OTF (for only 4 minutes that is.. 
)
The Torpedo is about to be shipping. 
I have a feeling that a 10440, even with an IMR, would sag too much to keep an XM-L2 (especially with its higher Vf) at 1000 lumens, even for a few seconds. 
Direct drive XM-L or XM-L2 on an Efest 10440 pulls 3.04A for the first few seconds and plummets like a shot down helicopter. 500 lumens or so at start-up, 300 lumens within seconds, setling at around 177 lumens for the remaining minutes.
Sorry folks, just got my buzzer fixed and having way too much fun. 
Edit: I like the Xeno E03 in the slightly larger 14500 format, with a copper star and de-domed XP-G2 it’s making 414 lumens on an Efest 14500 cell.
Considering price and performance I vote for the Tank 007 EO9. At less than $13 on ebay it is my Best Buy. I am using an unprotected 10440 in mine. Of course it gets hot on high pretty fast.
Jerry
The most important part of all this is, get yourself some Efest 10440s…then all you have to do is find a light that can handle them. My fave so far is the Olight i3S.
ouch, getting buzzed hurts...
But thanks for some real life correction :-)
I based my assumption on HKJ's review on the Efest 10440 that shows that at 3A the battery stays above 3.4V for at least a few minutes, and my own (admittedly rough) measurements that say that the XM-L2 at 3A has a voltage of 3.4V and over 1000 lumens output "OTF". Electrical resistances and warming up in a real flashlight apparently have more impact than I thought. But (stubborn me) still I'm tempted to try a dd-mod that does better than 500 lumens for a few seconds :-)
"Need" is such a strong word! Is it a real "need" or just "I'm a flashaholic looking for the best/brightest AAA light which I've just gotta have in my collection"?
-Garry
Garry, isn’t it the same thing? As a flashaholic, want is need.
djozz, I have a few of the MBI HF lights that run direct drive on a custom made 10250 Nuke cells that can do over 3A for a short time. The lights come with 10440 tubes as well to allow longer run times. The Efest 10440 is THE best in that format that I have found. It mirrors the Nuke in it’s initial output, and of course will run longer. But in actual run time tests with my new lightbox, heat is the limiting factor…the small light doesn’t have mass to remove the heat from the emitter…even in a fully copper light with a copper star turned down to 10mm. I was as surprised as you, thought the initial output at least would be way up there, but it’s not.
Perhaps in a different light, with a different set up, direct drive on the 10440 would deliver more. I might just take a bigger lights head off, run it on the 10440 in the lightbox and see what happens.
Sorry for the buzz, got a little buzz-happy there. Can’t even blame it on the coffee, haven’t had any today…oo ooo that’s a good excuse! Need coffeee Nowww! lol
will the a3t handle a 10440? might invest if so.