Good quality protected cells usually run double the cost of unprotected cells.
Well last time I bought pannies it was with coupon for registering and in a deal so I paid $12 for 4
Maybe RMM adds a very good protection board himself, that would explain it.
Lumintop asks $7 a piece for basically pannies with their wrapping
For those I have this figure of $4 in my head and I don’t care about the wrapping, specially with Narsil with good LVP.
So personally I don’t care much for protection or not, but official we can only say use protected cells 
RMM uses Evva brand protected panasonic ncr18650b.
MtnE/RMM does use a high quality protection circuit, but so does Jon here: https://liionwholesale.com/collections/batteries/Liion
LiionWholesale specializes in batteries, plus they are tapped into the huge vaping market so they/we get the pricing benefit.
His protected GA's are the best protected cell anywhere based on the specs of the protection circuit, and the protected MJ1's are also an all around best. Both are a great choice for the Q8.
That’s unprotected for $7.
Lumintop protected Panny b’s are $15 each.
Liion Wholesale:
Protected Panny B $7. Protection Cutoff Current: 5-7A (usually about 6A)
Protected Panny GA $8.49. Protection Cutoff Current: 12-13A
Protected LG INR18650MJ1 3500 mAh $7.95. Protection Cutoff Current: 12-13A
.
.
RMM aka Mountain Electronics:
Protected Panny B $9.65. Protection Cutoff Current: 7A
Protected Panny GA $9.95. Protection Cutoff Current: 10A
.
Plus both companies charge extra for shipping. So you won’t know total price until you see the shipping charges added.
They are in direct competition with each other as far as batteries and each sometimes have sales. I know RMM is a member and sponsor here and is quite the knowledgable flashaholic. He sometimes does group buys on batteries as well. I can usually find some cool extra bits in his store to add to my orders.
I don’t know much about Liion Wholesale. Maybe someone can say a few things about them. Are they a sponsor?
Lots of people here buy from Jon at Liionwholesale. He’s got button top 30Q’s right now for $5.09. His Panasonic/Sanyo GA’s use Seiko PCB’s with AO MOSFETs for 12-13A high current cutoff. His LG MJ1 use the same Seiko protection circuit. (in the description) I also wouldn’t say they are in direct competition. That vaping market is way bigger than the flashlight market.
edit… shipping (in the US) was $3.49 for 4 18650 cells, two storage boxes included. Shipping for 8 cells was $6.30 also included storage boxes
Like RobertB said, Liionwholesale has high current cutoffs of 12-13A for the GA and MJ1 cells, not 10A as posted above.
I like they have cutoffs a little higher than the rated top amps of the cell.
Jon at Liionwholesale is a class guy. He goes out of his way in support, very much like Richard, as good at the least. I've had many email conversations with him, kind of filled him in on BLF a while ago.
On Liion Wholesale both MJ1 and GA say the circuits are 12-13A, but have a max continous discharge rate of 10A.
So I’m confused.
Is it the battery that is rated for 10A and the protection circuit is 12A-13A?
Please add me to the list. A light and 8 cells.
Welcome to BLF!
Will update list later
How the cells are going to have to be ordered is not clear et, will post it when that is clear.
First the GT prototype, improved parts, so that cell news will be later then that 
I want a light, and 8 cells!
Add me to the list and please reply with payment instructions. Thank you.
Only the first 555 had to make a payment.
Everybody else just waits until the preorder/order starts. You will get a PM stating all the details. You will follow a link to a store and then you use the special coupon code that was sent to you to buy it at the special price.
So for now, we wait.
yes, 10A is manu rated, like 3A for an XPL 
Not sure yet, but don't think it will go through Banggood. Neal is the our contact for the BLF GT and he doesn't work for Banggood.
Okay, so those cells from liionwholesale will do a legit 12A? That’s good to know. That’s by far the highest rated protected 18650 I’ve heard of.
I’ll edit my 2 posts above.
Still no one answered my question, what are the runtimes on this light? Has it been tested? Someone said 2.5 hours on high is that accurate?
ThIs light has 150 brightness levels so it’s pretty hard to give you an answer.
Also, I think there is only one prototype and I’m not sure who currently has it.
Maybe you could specify a certain brightness level (40% ?) as well as a certain battery and they can find out for you.
It’s still pretty early to be measuring things like that, though.
18650s on the highest setting the setting that will throw over a mile. 150 brightess settings…Thats a little much no?
The highest setting is turbo. It will not sustain that level for very long. Maybe 3 to 5 minutes (I don’t know for sure, might be 10 minutes), then it will need to step down to prevent over heating. Maybe this has been tested, I’ll let someone else say for sure how many minutes.
Remember, this light is pushing the led very hard in order to get the best performance.
This light has a ramping interface. It goes through all 150 levels in 2.4 seconds, so it’s very smooth and easy to use.
You can also switch from ramping to a more common low, med, high type setup if you want. You can have from 1 to 7 brightness levels.