Help me choose a good 1xAA/14500 flashlight

Greetings from Spain, BLF flashaholics!

Well, bought my first cree light 1 yeah ago from Bryan @ SB. Didn't know which to choose, so I bought Kingpower K2, 2xAA, Q5, because almost all my batteries are rechargeable ones (AA). Good light, no complains. But now I need something smaller, but without sacrifice power. I think 1xAA/14500 will be great decision, because I still want to use my AAs. Want to buy good light I can trust, I mean I can use AA and 14500 without thinking that the driver can be burned, I need good regulation and multimode also. Any suggestions for about $30? What about ITP C7?

Well, besides this good light, I need another one, but cheaper, for about $15-20 (same specs). I like Akoray K106/Trustfire F20 design, but new Ultrafire U20 with R5 for $21 could be a good light. Any help will be appreciated

BTW, as I don't want sacrifice power, I should go for lith batts (no remedy I think). Black Trustfires 14500? Are they good for the price?

To charge lith batts, I need a new charger. Want a multi batt charger, in case I want to buy 18500 light in the future. Shekor charger could be an option.

Thats all. Any help will be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Uniquefire AA-S1 for AA - Maybe a little too much on a 14500 since its single mode . Very nice on a AA though ..

ITP A2 AA , will run on 14500 , but a lot of power on High ...

Some new AA's on the way , such as the Mr.Lite [ J4 ? ]

Akoray

Relatively new is the Xtar 2 bay charger ..... http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=290210

Hey, old4570, thanks for the fast reply Yep, I like A2, but... will it be more powerful that C7? Both of them are relatively small, so size doesn't matter in this case, so prefer the powerful one.

I'll have to read that thread, didn't saw this charger before. Thanks.

I had an Uniquefire AA-S1 and a friend of mine has the K2. The K2 is way better than most of the lights you listed as choice. Build quality is above all lights I had/have, even better than the Hugsby's. I don't consider the K2 an expensive budget light (what was it, ~35$ ?), but a cheap high quality light with more similarities to Fenix's, Nitecores and Quarks. The Hugsby P32 (black) is great for the price, but it will be most likely a little less bright and build quality is a little less good, but for standard 1xAA's it's still my recommendation. It doesn't take 14500's though. There is a golden version of the Hugsby which is supposed to manage 14500s. I only own 3 Hugsby's in black (P32/P31) so I don't know how the golden one is. (but someone does... well kind of)

Most driver can't be good for AA/14500 equally, so you have to choose which is more important to you 14500 support, or high output with AA. If I had 14500s I would probably buy the K106 with programmable driver.(Review) Here are some of Don's measurements.

Update: ITP C7 Review, Kingpower K2 Review

My intuition tells me, by looking at the runtimes of the C7 that the Eastward, Hugsby's, new SS(from Manafont / LT )/grey Ultrafire C3 will be brighter on AA's.

Update 2: After reading some measurements... I would recommend the TrustFire R5-A3 for mixed use with 14500/AAs for near maximum output on both..

Hi there SashiX, a warm welcome to you, thanks for joining!

If you don't care about the runtime, the Trustfire R5-A3 or the Uniquefire AA-S1 are superb. But if you do care about runtime and a nice high mode, go for the Ultrafire C3 Stainless 3-mode from Manafont.

The ITP A2 is very bright on a 14500 ... You need to chose a light for the battery you wish to run ... Small bodied flashlights will warm up on a 14500 ...

Going AA you will always lose output when comparing to 14500

Thanks for the replys

@Vectrex

- AA-S1 it's an OSRAM light, while K2 have Q5. Did you tried your AA-S1 with AA or 14500? If K2 is brighter than AA-S1 with 14500... makes me think... OSRAM better than Q5?

- Yep, build quality is great on my K2, HAIII, waterproof and so on. And yes, it cost me about $35. The review I saw @ http://www.light-reviews.com/ helps me in my decision. Constant brightness is great, good regulation.

- Will take those Hugsby into account

- Yes, most driver can't be good for AA/14500 equally, but at least I know that it will work properly on AA and 14500 without burning the driver. As fran82 says in one of those Hugsby threads: "... if you have an emergency, i.e. a black out, or a hurricane, earthquake, flood, tornado, etc and you have not 14500 or dont have electricity in your house to charge it, you will be fuc***..." So, prefer sacrifice a little power, but have a light that is compatible with AA and 14500 Good lumens btw.

- I saw this C7 review. Looks like tactical version is better (a little bit brighter and has better regulation). http://www.light-reviews.com/itp_c7_tactical/

- Is K106 programmable is better than normal K106? Looks like the second one is brighter, and I don't mind switch between modes (although I don't like strobe or SOS modes)

P.D.: thanks for all those links, vectrex, good job ;)

@sb56637

Thanks. The runtime is not a problem. One question: why do you (and others) recommend AA-S1? Is it better than K106/F20 with Q5? Don't mind pay 3 bucks more for K106 if it's brighter.

@old4570

- A2 brighter than C7?

- "Going AA you will always lose output when comparing to 14500 " - Will lose output comparing to exclusively 14500 flashlight or you mean in general? I know that 14500 is much brighter than AA.

Thanks for your help!

EDIT: looks very interesting new Ultrafire U20 with XP-G R5.

If you want a nice AA light , AA-S1 is very good on AA's ...

If you want to run 14500 with AA for back up . Akoray AK-16 ...

I tested the Uniquefire AA-S1 , and got up to 120 Lumen on Alkalines , and 130L on Nimh , and I thought the 14500 was maybe overdoing it [ 200+ ] , I sent it of as a gift , as it was very nice ..

I need to pick up a few more as I was impressed by it ... For under $10 shipped

No problem Sashix... links are why we are here. I don't own any 14500... so my view is very heavily focused on max output on AA's and I really despise strobe modes, especially on lights with memory. This is why I would favour the programmable K106, if I had 14500's, but it lacks in the AA department.(review1,review2,review3) But the TrustFire R5-A3 seems to be good on both battery types.

Also it seems I'm the only one with second thoughts about the Uniquefire AA-S1. I liked it at first, when I thought it was a warm tint with the Osram emitter, but later I found out it was actually yellow, like with a yellow lens in front, but everybody else seems to love it here, so my model might have been faulty, or a bad exception. Also don't forget that the S1 is single-mode and you wanted multi-mode.

The K-106 in Don's table might be the non-programmable... at least that is, what it is linked to, but here the top of the pops:

On AA'S
EastwardYJ J09 High AA NiMH 916 750 706 164 135 127
Ultrafire C3 SS Q5 AA NiMH 718 620 574 129 111 103
Ultrafire C3 Grey Q5 AA NiMH 664 629 596 119 113 107
Hugsby P32 High AA NiMH 650 597 554 117 107 99
Trustfire R5-A3 High AA NiMH 650 117 0 0
Aurora SH-035 AA NiMH 644 116 0 0
Trustfire F22 AA NiMH 586 105 0 0
Uniquefire S10 AA NiMH 575 103 0 0
Uniquefire AA-S1 AA NiMH 565 557 531 101 100 95
Akoray K-106 AA NiMH 189 198 198 34 36 36
On 14500's
Trustfire R5-A3 14500 1630 1482 1416 292 266 254
Ultrafire C3 SS Q5 14500 1391 1259 1122 250 226 201
Ultrafire C3 Grey Q5 14500 1359 1205 1149 244 216 206
Ultrafire C3 (P4) No. 2 14500 1347 1118 1089 242 201 195
Uniquefire AA-S1 14500 1255 1183 1162 225 212 208
Trustfire F22 14500 1254 1128 1030 225 202 185
Ultrafire C3 (P4) No. 3 14500 1176 1099 977 211 197 175
Hugsby P31 with P32 Gold driver 14500 1176 1084 1064 211 194 191
Uniquefire S10 14500 1112 1017 962 199 182 173
Akoray K-106 14500 1055 1019 1004 189 183 180

I ordered the grey C3 Q5, as I want to see if it is really brighter on 1xAA than the Hugsby and brighter on 2XAA than the Solarforce L2R, but that one is only single-mode.

The ITP C7 may be one of my next elected...I have no flashlight with IBS system.

In the range of the cheaps,maybe you should consider the Ultrafire C3 SS. Very good amount of light as both AA & 14500 (5 modes although)

I'm actually planning to put a R5 in the C3 SS,although with no specific reflector ...

While it is true that the UF20 promises...if the driver holds the 14500 without burning the driver (Waiting confirmation of this).

Hi there SashiX. In terms of brightness, the Akoray K-106 3-mode programmable is not the brightest. The cheaper K-106/F20 are somewhat brighter than the K-106 3-mode programmable version. But the AA-S1 is far brighter and has an incredibly beautiful beam. But I personally prefer the flexibility of the K-106 3-mode. Another decent option is the Ultrafire M2, which is very bright on high, and it still has a decent runtime on low mode.

It is a programmable one. I was fiddling with it recently to see how low it would go.

The link is what I actually bought, most of those links come from my DX account history. But at the time they were shipping the 3 mode programmable though they claimed it was the less useful 6 mode.

Then you should switch to the Kaidomain purchase link. To avoid confusion.

Makes sense. Pity I didn't notice the link was to YouTube till I'd stuck it on the spreadsheet. Ah well, off to KD to play hunt-the-link. It will be sorted shortly.

lol, the new spitting image flashlight, look at post #3, there is the needed link to KD.

@old4570

- "If you want to run 14500 with AA for back up . Akoray AK-16 ..."

Akoray AK-16? Do you mean K-106?

As for SS-A1... good light for less than 10 bucks indeed.

@Vectrex

Yeah, don't know why almost all lights have SOS, strobe modes. I think momentary-on switch is much useful.

- "but later I found out it was actually yellow, like with a yellow lens in front, but everybody else seems to love it here, so my model might have been faulty, or a bad exception"

Yes, could be a batch issue. I've seen many lights (C3 for example) that had different tints, depending on when they were purchased/batch.

- "Also don't forget that the S1 is single-mode and you wanted multi-mode."- Well, If the light is only AA, could be an option, but if it's AA/14500... multimode is a must I think, because on 14500 it will be twise as bright.

Interesting results I see... Hm K-106 really sucks on AA... Can't believe it, so loooow lumen Well, on 14500 also. R5-A3 an C3 SS have great output.

@XRAYboy

Yes, C3 SS is a good choice apparently. Will wait review from Don. Looks like he bought U20. Or not?

@sb56636

Haven't found M2 @ DX or LT Where I can found it?

We should make a fundraiser to let Don buy every interesting light that is new... what are a few hundred lights more or less... right Don?

M2 Review / Purchase Link

Thx for the links, Vectrex

sb56637, have you tried your M2 with 14500? Very similar to K106/F20/AA-S1 body.

I have the Akoray AK-16 , 3 mode programmable , AA - 14500 - CR123A [ very nice ]

No, sorry, I actually don't own any 14500 cells. But I'm almost positive that it will work well with 14500, because it appears to be a rebadged Akoray K-106 6-mode, which according to the reviews is bright and reliable on 14500.