The christmas season will soon be upon us and I'm trying to plan ahead just in case I need to place an order from china. ;)
So, for all my non-flashaholic family/friends what's the best sub $10 light out there?
I've thought about the black cat hm-01, uniquefire aa-s1, Sipik SK68, and nf-x8455. I can't really compare any of them since I only own the Sipik out of all of those... But I'm sure there are even more options out there, so let's hear what you think is the best flashlight for giving.
Uniquefire AA S-1, I like mine much better than my Sipik, though both are great choices. The AA S-1 is much narrower and easier to carry, and the beam of mine is a much nicer tint as well...and floody.
I have both the Sipik clone and a Tank 703. It really depends how you see the light being used and by who. Personally I would buy the Sipik for guys and red 703's for the gals.
Another alternative is the Powerlight (http://www.dealextreme.com/p/powerlight-hx-g011-1w-1xaa-led-flashlight-grey-2089).
I have a couple of these, the Sipik clone, the AA-S1, and the BLF Tank 007. All are used depending on time & place. The Powerlights hang on stick on hooks in strategic places.
I would consider ebay flood to throw lights. They use 3 AAA batteries and work decently with alkalines since 3 batteries can be added serially for 4.5 volts to work with. Hence the light can be driven adequately.
The nice smooth beam of a flood is really nice to work with. NO glaring hotspot. Plus, even non flashaholics can enjoy going outside at night in full throw mode and seeing what looks like a LightSaber effect. Being able to adjust the beam is really a neat feature that is a cool novelty and pretty useful.
True flashaholics seem to scoff at them and say reflector = better. Which may be true to some extent, but I still like my cheap flood2throw when working on stuff.