Hello everybody. Very long time, no see.
I haven’t been active here for several years. Life kind of needed me to focus on other things.
Anyway, my teenage son have caught the flashlight bug, and at the moment he is in the max (real) lumens phase.
At around the 100 dollar mark, what would be the max output flashlight to order? (Already got batteries, charger etc).
Thanks guys! Nice to be back 
The Q8 plus is often recommended. It has 3x21700 batteries and performence close to 20K lumens on turbo. With high drain batteries, it should do more than 20K lumen. It also has built in charging.
Yes Q8 for raw lumens is a good choice. Might also consider TS32 as it should be $100 or a little less. Not as many lumens but still a wall of light and you can get nice tint flood emitters along with SFT40 center emitter for throw. Complete package if the throw and great tint is of interest along with alot of lumens.
The Q8 Plus is under $50 without batteries right now:
Note: The Q8 Plus requires Button Top 21700 batteries which are difficult to find.
If you get this adapter from Convoy and slightly modify it, it will fit in the Q8 Plus and allow you to use flat top 21700 batteries.
It’s never a good idea to simply focus on lumens. Does he want throw or flood or a mixture. I would buy two for $50 each and get one thrower and one flood. I would not recommend anything with multiple batteries for a teenager.
Peak brightness or sustained brightness? Flood or throw? High CRI/good tint or just as bright as possible? USB charging or not? Any size constraints (pocketable or not)?
A teenager will show off his new toy and allow his buddies to use it. If he is responsible and has common sense he won’t let it out of his sight.
One slight miscue and someone could get hurt.
If he can be trusted I would teach him Anduril lockout and temperature control so he can share it safely.
I bought a Q8 Plus off AliExpress a couple of weeks ago and ordered it with the batteries- it came with the proper button tops. It’s a lot cheaper for me (in Australia) doing it that way than buying batteries here. I had read elsewhere Sofirn were supplying flat tops in them, but it wasn’t the case for me.
The Sofirn 21700 Batteries are pretty good but for maximum lumens, I recommend batteries with a higher CDR.
For sure. I figure I can do that later on if I want (and repurpose the lower continuous current batteries into other flashlights that don’t need a high peak current.)
Given it’s for a teenager, it would be a lot safer with the stock batteries. e.g. In a review I was reading they’d fitted Molicels (or similar) and the Q8 Plus decided to release some smoke.
I’ll chuck the Sofirn IF30 in. Flood or throw, silly bright. Just great fun, especially for a teen. Also, single big battery and ready to go. People offering mods and upping battery outputs isn’t a Christmas present, it’s BLF talk, this is ready to impress in stock form and has a nice rotary dial to change modes and output. Jeez, I’m in my 50’s and it blew me away.
Some pics of mine.
My recently purchased Q8 plus uses 21700 flat top. No issues. Great flashlight.
As long as the positive terminals sit above the wrapper they can make contact with the brass ring.
Most 21700 positive terminals are recessed slightly and won’t make contact with the brass ring.
My bad. I just checked to be sure. Sofirn labeled button cap 21700
This!
For the time being, he does not care too much about throw or flood ratio, CRI, tint etc.
He’s into the raw (real) lumens numbers, and I guess, the immediate wow factor.
I really appreciate all the good suggestions though!
I’ve got an old BLF Q8 laying around with three LED’s (I don’t remember the specs anymore, but many of you surely will) .
He likes that light a lot.
But if possible, it’d be cool to step it up at notch from the old Q8. (How do the newer ones with more LED’s compare?)
I’m not overly conserned, but would at least like to avoid lights with batteries in series…
My Thorfire BLF-Q8 4 XPL v6 3d claimed 5500 lm.
In my T.A. lumen tube I was only able to get 3650 at turn on.
In another thread there is this:::
Don’t know much about it but it’s 95 bucks with the bigger battery.
That NIGHTWATCH NI03S Valkyrie model looks very impressive, both on paper and in the review video. 
I have a thread on exactly this same topic and discussed the 4 budget ultra-high lumen flashlights. At this level of brightness, all 4 of these lights have amazing flood effect and all 4 throw 700 meter plus. All of these should be $100 or less either regular price or with Xmas sale, etc.
Of these 4, my top choice for most of hobbyists is Wurkkos TS32 (~15000 lm, 700 m throw) because it has Nichia 519a 5000k with its beautiful color rendering. For throw, it uses a single SFT40 in the middle. A great light designed with input from BLF hobbyists.
But for a teenager with “fun factor” as a consideration, I would lean towards Haikelite HK05 (~23500 lm, 824 m throw). It has the most incredible “wall of light” effect that is both functional and extremely fun. Your son will love it, so will YOU 
. Hope this helps.
I have this light also - 13000 lm 675 m throw. Actually I love it so much I have two of them. It was on sale at Nealsgadgets (I don’t mind him but read up for yourself.) for only $60. It does have a couple quirks that I discussed in that link below.
What’s unique about this light is for its incredible output, it’s smallish enough and as “pocketable” in loose fitting pants as a 13000 lm light could be. I take it for my evening walks.
It has that impressive wall-of-light effect, not just as “overwhelming” as that of the big guns like Haikelite H05K. So my vote is still for Haikelite. Note that Haikelite also have HK07, etc., which I don’t know anything about. For all of these lights, keep in mind without active cooling Turbo is incredibly impressive but transient, roughly 1-2 minutes or less. Still functional depending on use and no question incredibly fun.
I really like the Wurkkos TS32 for a reasonable size high output light with a versatile but user friendly user interface but then I have always liked soda can lights with a handle. The separate controls for both the flood and throw beams keeps the user interface both simple and versatile and the output range of 1 lumen to maximum is hard to beat for the price. I actually bought both LED option versions. Amazon currently has a 25% off coupon for both versions.
