Need advice choosing flashlight

Hi everyone,

after reading the reviews in this forum i orderd the fantastic Hugsby P31 from DX. Now i'm a flashaholic because this was my first LED-Flashlite. I'm now convinced that LED is the future.

Now i want to give a flashlight as a present to a friend of mine who has his birthday next month.He likes to hunt with some friends in the woods. He is mostly on the lookouts and radios when deers travel into the direction of the hunter.

These lookouts are often deep in the woods. So i need a flashlight with good light output and moderate runtime (the Hugsby P31 runtime is too short, optimal 2-4 hours).

Here in Germany NIMH AA (2500mAh) are very common and i don't want him to by special cells. Price should be max 20-25$.

1 or 2 AA cells should be no problem.

Which flashlight would you recommend?

It depends a bit on how much light is needed. I'd take a look at the Ultrafire WF-606A which is still hard to beat. Perhaps the Solarforce L2R with an 0.8-4.2V dropin but that would be pushing the budget.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Solarforce-L2r-BLACK-AA-Battery-flashlight-Body-/280428612537

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Solarforce-300Lms-R2-Cree-Led-3Mode-0-8V-4-2V-Bulb-/280428612614

This will be about as bright as you are going to get with 2AAs but I'm not sure of the runtime. Having checked, it is taking 1A from the cells so that would be good for up to 2.5 hours without battery changes.

For 4 or more hours, and it is very cheap but doesn't produce an enormous amount of light

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270577987355

The 5W claim is simply nonsense - it draws 350mA so should be good for about 6-7 hours from a pair of 2500mAh cells. Its actual power consuption is therefore about 2.8 (A fully charged NiMH is about 1.4 volts) x 0.350 = which is less than 1 watt.

There is some discussion of it in here.

The MDXL Powerlight will run for a surprisingly long time and is less than 4 euros. Review here

The Ultrafire C3 stainless steel light will run for a very long time (12.5 hours) on the lowest level but recent ones have been of much lower quality ad aren't as bright as they use an older and less efficient LED. Review here.

This looks very good. I think 2.5 hours should be enough and it's in budget. I think i will get one.

Do you know the light output compares to the Hugsby P31 (my only reference )?

At this price i can't resist. I will order this one too. For the next birthday :)

The Ultrafire C3 also looks very tempting, but currently i can't spend much money on light.

Thank you Don.

If your really looking for a long running light you might have to look at lights that use 18650's or tell your friend to carry spares. I have a light that will run for 3.5 hours on one 18650 but its out of your noted price range.

I don't have the Hugsby any more, but I'd say it is probably brighter. But not by much. It is drawing 1A at 2.8V - call it 3W where the Hugsby is pulling 2.46A at 1.4V about 3.5W.

But the reflector on the Solarforce is deeper and wider so ought to send more light where it is wanted. There will not be a great difference I'd expect.

I know you really want to keep it simple for usage outdoors but any way you look at it he's going to have to bring spares, since he's going to be using the light basically for hunting something as Don suggested would be nice since around here He's the King of Throwers. I get good runtime out of my Romisen RC-N3 which is about 3hrs on a fully charged Eneloop. Shiningbeam also carries the 2 mode which should be good for longer runtimes on the low mode.

He has many AA Cells (camera, etc) so i think it will be no problem for him to take a few spare cell with him (jacket,pocket). He needs a bright light and i want to show him what a led flashlight can do, too. :) He uses a 3 D Maglite at the moment.

The Romisen RC-N3 looks good and has a nice price (at dx) too. I will keep this in mind, but i will stick with the Solarforce for now.

Thanks alfreddajero.

Cool, im glad you made a choice-- as a SF owner i know he will like love it, and he can always upgrade the dropin as he see's fit.

Just encouraging everyone to make sure they have no money left :-)

That way I don't feel bad about having no money left :-)

Lol.....you need to throw some my way.

absolutely, 18650's lights will be a better choice, you get what you paid, huh? your friend will appreciate that

as your friend has a 3Dmag the fusion 36 led is a good choice easy to fit and in your budget

A romisen rc-n3 would be a good choice at about 17 usd delivered.

My runtime is 3h+ at high using two sanyo 2700 nimh. But if you need more light i guess you have to change the led in it to a q5-r2 perhaps.

Has also a mildly usefull mid mode and a very annoying strobe which might be usefull to scare/stun some wild animal at night time.

It is a pretty bright thrower for the runtime.

Maybe the Hugsby P32 ? Haven't tested the runtime the low mode, but it could be up for 2-2.5 hours. On the other hand it could be too dark for his purposes. Anyway 2 reviews for the L2R in German is HERE and HERE.

Runtime on 123 (I have 80-90 mins on high with 2xAA Eneloops so the rest could also fit).

CR123A 3.0v or 3.7v
CR123A 3.0v or 3.7v
100% brightness – 1.5 hours
40% brightness – 4 hours
10% brightness – 15 hours

You must be loving your P32. Recommendations for everyone I do like my P31. It's a great light to own. I'm sure the low mode would be nice but I rarely use it on my other lights. The brighter the better for me

Everyone should have a P32.... your live is not complete without one... the 1xAA light with the best value/money ratio on this planet... at least until they bring out the P33 with H/M/L... one flashlight to rule them all. OK maybe I'm advertising it a little too much but I stand by my recommendation and it can be easily overlooked due to Kai's horrible web site and search engine.

My P31 and MXDL SA-28 looks like it might have came from the same factory. The o-rings look very similar and there's this gray stuff on the threads that's on both lights. I don't see the gray stuff on my other lights.

Really? What grey stuff? Like grease or rests of machining?

It's grease. I think it's just my imagination talking

Grease is a good thing... I like my lights pre-lubed..