Fashion. Ladies need to find their lipstick, mascara, etc. in the bottom of their purses. As larger purses come into vogue, ladies will need brighter flashlights to find things in the deeper purses while in dark theaters, or restaurants, etc. Simple. 
I’m not an expert on batteries. 10 amps discharge is well below the capacity of the 26700. But like I said, a good 26650 works quite well. How much of a drop in output there is I cannot say. The 26700A from what I can see maintains consistent output for the life of the charge. It’s rated to 40 amps discharge, so, 10 amps is not that much for it. Good LIMN 26650 do really well but not as good as the Moli.
I make the flashlight, not the batteries. The battery technology is what I watch, if something comes along that works for what I want it to.
A forum for batteries is a better place to discuss battery performance. However, we know the battery performance affects the product.
From what I’ve heard, Moli discontinued the larger 26700 in favor of a smaller 18650 moli battery. We cannot buy the Moli 18650, that is, unless you buy 10000 or them, something like that. I Have some eFest LIMN 18650’s that are supposed to have a 10 amp discharge rate. Currently the remaining supply of Moli 26700A, the company I buy them form, uses them in golf cart battery packs, electric cars, etc., they do perform. If they are equal to the LiFePO4 I cannot say. I assume so, but don’t really know for sure.
Wayne
A buck regulator for this power level would be really large. The voltage of the batteries almost perfectly matches the Vf of the LEDs. I add in .25 ohms, not much, just to keep power levels acceptable for reliability. I am not opposed to any kind of regulation, not at all. For this application, to me, it doesn’t seem necessary or needed, or practical, and would add cost.
From what I’ve seen performance wise, from any Li-Ion, and especially LIMN chemistry, or the Moli batteries in particular, is they maintain a very flat rate of discharge until they need recharging, and you can tell when they need to be recharged because all of a sudden there is a marked drop in brightness. Buck regulation is most efficient, but 90% efficient. That’s 10% of power loss to regulation. True, the resistor also uses power, or wastes it to heat, but, not very much.
One other thing we sometimes do not think of, the life expectancy of the LED is longer than most circuits life expectancy. The circuits in our flashlight will die before the LED die dies. 
Wayne
Just saw Wayne shut down business, bout a month ago. Shame - hope all the best for him. He had some true innovation going there.
- 1 Tom. Thanks for the news as I would never have known.
Funny, I looked him up because I knew he had one or two really big flashlights that just might compare with our GT, and saw the note on his website.
If you have direct links to some of the sub pages, like on lights, they still work, for example:
http://elektrolumens.com/Kong/Kong-12.html
http://elektrolumens.com/Big-Bruiser/BigBruiser.html
They still look like amazing lights. If Wayne had someone like you on board Tom I’m sure his lights would still be a leading brand.
I liked how Wayne presented himself and his business, I hope he is doing well. His lights were awesome, technically conservative but always impressive.
In my opinion the best presentation of an Electrolumens light was from manny, back in 2012, he made a great little video about the Electrolumens Search&Rescue SST-90 light.
Here it is once more:
Oh yea, I remember that vid - really liked it. He lacked in the electronics end but the chunky designs, quality of workmanship were unique for sure.
Thanks djozz. I haven’t seen this video before. Does anyone know who Matty in the video is?
They look like very well built and unique lights. So how did the driver/UI work? Did the two buttons just control two different circuits with different current limiting resistors, or was it more high tech than that?
Can't recall Matty's BLF name, but he was a very active member.
Dunno much on the driver/UI, but from Wayne's comments, the driver circuitry, if it existed, was very simple - no MCU, no smarts I think. He added resistors to control brightness, so probably all DD wiring, some inline resistors.
Thanks Tom.
Hi all,
Noticed this thread a while back, been meaning to comment. I have moved on to other interests. I decided to shut down Elektro Lumens last year, April turned out to be a good time. I have gone on to build lap steel guitars, electric and bass guitars, from aluminum.
Biggest flashlight I ever made was Kong-21:
I still get a lot of requests for my Anglelux-XML flashlight, so, I decided to put my web page back up, www.elektrolumems.com , with only this flashlight available for purchase. It is a Fulton Industries MX991/U military issue Anglehead flashlight, modified with a Cree XML2 LED and driven with a Micropuck-2009SHO. Been selling these things for many years, sold a ton of them. Not the brightest flashlight, but, run time is 24 hours to 50% original brightness, and I never did find out how long until it goes dead, I cut it off at 72 hours. I also added a link to my older design main page with the flashlights I had been offering for sale, for historical value, if anyone is interested. I will eventually create a web page with all the different flashlights I sold over the years, for those who might be interested.
Wayne