Thanks a lot for the tips.
I had a couple of CJ-1's from goldengadgets/ebay and a pair of Husky 1AA LED's from HomeDepot two years back and they worked pretty well for a good amount of time (one Husky's switch cap eventually wore out, and one CJ-1 from eBay broke when dropped on the concrete floor the other day).
I'm looking for a flashlight that's a bit brighter now, that gives about 25 lumens at least. I was reading earlier posts and the Powerlight only gives about 11 lumens. So it's not bright enough for my use:
https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/484?page=1#comment-6956
Am I reading right? Or is there another choice that gives 25+ lumens?
I got an NF-05 from DX a few months back. The brightness was good enough for me (somewhat brighter than CJ-1), but the cap switch was really bad and constantly flickered/not working. DX sent me a replacement and that one's cap switch went bad a few weeks later also--so that's pretty frustrating. I was able to get up to 5 hrs runtime with usable brightness using an Eneloop AA so if it didn't have the bad switch I'd have ordered a few...
Right now, I'm not eager in getting a high power LED as I need a good amount of runtime (>=3 hours) and my budget is < $7. I don't need a perfect beam--as long as it lights up the area and works properly that'd work good for me.
Is that feasible?