I am new to the world of flashlights. I’m looking for the best all around flashlight with plenty of throw and flood. I would like one with zoom and to take aa or aaa batteries. preferable around 1000 Lumens or more. I don’t know if my goal is realistic but I would like all of this for around 20 dollars. here are a few I’ve found on amazon. any and all help would be greatly appreciated.
-David
Hi DMSPIT
Hmm, there are lots of favorite budget lights that you could look at.
I have had a few Zoomies, but am now resigned to no more zoomable flashlights.
Why you ask? Because there are some great products that have a good flood and also a good zoom beam.
My favorite “budget” one is the Convoy C8, and at around USD$17 it is good value. Granted, it does not use AA or AAA batteries, but uses 18650 batteries.
Once you are comfortable with the 18650 batteries, and get a xtar or nitecore charger, you will not look back.
But be warned, these damn flashlights are addictive 
Be ware that all of the lumens numbers for the lights you linked are lies. In reality an off-the-shelf XM-L flashlight will be less than 1000 lumens at best. And most likely they much less.
If you would like a 1xAA light I’d recommend one of these They are commonly known as SK68 clones. Popular cheap little toss around lights.
You willget the best performance from quality ni-mh rechargables.
I bought one of the UF like the E17 way back when I started getting the bug (although I am not sure if that is the exact model) it looked like that one, and came with the UF batteries and charger.
Total JUNK!! it maybe put out 250 lumens at best and the batteries were almost useless (as most of the UF cells are)
Save yourself some grief, and some money, listen to what you hear on this forum , you will find that it is probably better to go ahead and spend a little extra now, and get quality stuff to start, than to waste money several times and then decide to go for better quality.
I would recommend editing your thread title to add that you’re looking for “multi AA / AAA”.
Only some people here are into multi AA / AAA lights.
None of those flashlights are near 1000 lumens, and you probably won’t find a single emitter zooming light outside of something modified that puts out 1000 lumens. About the only thing in that price range that puts out 1000 lumens, will be using a 18650 battery, and isn’t anywhere near as throwy as a zoom. And eagle eye X6, with an XPL HI is a decent pick, but doesn’t fit all your requirements. To be honest a light doesn’t exist, stock, that I’m aware of that fits your qualifications.
do not limit yourself by looking for lights below a certain price.
look for the light that fits your needs and then look where you can afford it 
Wanting a zoomable light is kind of a limiting factor, because there are so few good ones out there. Many Led Lenser’s have really nice lens design for zooming, and they also have many AA and AAA models (which is another factor that limits your choices). Their downside is the price, and sometimes the size too. I’m not aware of any good Led Lenser clones that would be cheap.
Then there are those zoomable lights that have “magnifying glass” style lenses, which waste reasonable % of the LED’s light because the lens is only on the front of the LED, and the LED also emits light to the sides. There are some good quality ones too, but they easily become quite big and heavy, price goes up, they often need modding to become good, and pretty often they are not handy for close up work. The SK68 clones seem to be popular, and can be had for almost $2, just don’t expect too much from them.
I think the best deal right now would be the Olight S15R for $23 (which goes over your budget a bit). It is not zoomable (fixed reflector), which is good for close to medium range use(84 meters MAX). It comes with rechargeable AA size lithium battery(14500), and you can also use other chemistry AA’s with it. It also comes with charging base, but it only charges the 14500 li-ion’s.
18650 powered lights with conventional fixed reflectors are the ones that have a lot to choose from right now.
I think everyone should start out getting an ultrafire flashlight like the WF-501A or B. It’s a cheap 10usd way to get you started. After that you’ll start appreciating things like constant current instead of PWM, and AR lens, nicely centered LED, reflector design, good heatsinking, led binning and tint, etc. You’ll then understand why the cheap UF is cheap.
I used to think spending 50+ dollars on a flashlight was a waste of money, now I think it’s a waste of money to spend 10 dollars on an UF.
Oh, and I think the best thing you can do is get a decent battery. The Panasonic NCR18650B can be had for about 5-6usd now. Try to get one with a manufacture date of 2014 or 2015. I wouldn’t get the rebranded one (Olight, Nitecore), it’s essentially the same cell but 2-3 times the price.
When I was still young & innocent I bought the 2nd one on your list. Here’s the picture of the box. Looks like I was lucky & got the really strong one 
Wow! Thank you all for all of the help. I see I am completely uneducated in the world of flashlights. What would you all recommend for the best all around flash light then? I like prefer a lot of light for when I’m checking my house at night for weird sounds and when I need to go outside and see farther distances. My only concern when straying away from cr123a aaa, aa, c, and d cell lights is the local availability. I know you all could provide me with lots of online vendors, but are there stores that also stock 18650 and 26650 batteries? Also now that I have expanded my battery selection, should I start a new post , or is there a way to move this current one? If so where should I post it at?
*edit- I moved it to LED Flashlight - general info.
BLF A6 will do the job at $25 delivered.
Here in Japan I don’t see a brick-and-mortar store that carries 18650 or 26650 rechargeables. Where do you live?
See also these discussions:
Much the same the world over I believe.
My step-son managed to find them in a RadioShack store in Texas where he lives, but wayyyyy over priced. I think he paid about $30 for some very ordinary 18650 cells.
In Australia where I am presently, there are perhaps 5 stores within 100 Km that sell some, and this is in a city with population of over 2 million.
Don’t you have e-cig vaping shops just about everywhere.Fairly high priced,but at least available.BTW,I just received 4LG MJ1’s from Gearbest in 3 weeks,same for 2 Xtar 18350’s from Fasttech,and 30Q was 12 days from Banggood.At the moment,it seems fluid,but Xmas and chinese new year chaos is around the corner 
I think it’s more like ~$40 now that the GB is over but some discount codes may still work to reduce cost. I think it’s still a good value at that price. Retail availability of 18650’s isn’t really a problem since a good cell will last for years. And for the more ‘advanced’ folks, cells from old laptop packs (‘pulls’) might even be free- hard to beat that price but you need to have a charger that that lets you know what’s going on to use them, which simple cheap ones won’t do. And flat-top ‘pulls’ won’t work in every light.
If I were stuck with just one light (heaven forbid!) it would be a Convoy C8 with a smooth reflector. Great throw and good spill for it’s size, 3 good modes, and the cost unbelievably low for the fine build quality. Not very pocketable because of the larger head but that’s what makes it perform and it will fit in a pocket if it has to. Add an Xtar VC2 charger and a good cell or two, and the whole package will be ~$50. It is this very combo that really got me hooked on performance lights. I think it will do the same for anyone else new to the game and the C8 beats the heck out of any ‘junk-fire’ brand economy lights- you will not be disappointed.
Phil
blf a6 or astrolux s1, same thing, 18650 battery, 1000 lumens
not very small though [to me]
for small, get utorch ut01, 1xAA battery, $10 on sale
wle
All of those lights linked to are junk. With the exception of the Litesam, I have one and it’s not too awful. Those other lights are T6 junk and have no business in a “tacticool” situation.
Spam, and not even clever spam.