Well Don... you have been away some time, but not this long. ;-)
You might even remember posts like this.
You are right about that I'm still a big Eneloop AA NiMH fan and only surpassed in my resistance to integrate Li-Ion cells in my daily use by Old-Lumens. ;-)
I just looked up the purchase date for my batteries and I purchased 2x 2400 mAh 18650 HiMax batteries on 11/1/2010 and 2 x XTAR 18700 2600mAh batteries on 05/31/11 and these are still my only LiIon rechargeables.
@Kumabear: Thanks for taking interest. The main difference is the wavelength distribution over the whole visible spectrum and it seems to be more even on the Nichia emitters than opposed to the neutral white Cree or even the high CRI offerings from Cree. (see page 10 of this document and page 3 of this document) It's always hard to explain why a Nichias 4500K emitter have a better color rendering than a Cree 4500K emitter, because often people think they have to have the same attributes. I think to some degree Cree sacrificed the CRI to have better efficiency/the highest output available, because many people in decision making positions will favor the concept of pure, raw output power much more, than the concept of sacrificing some lumens to get a superior color rendering index. I have written a little bit on my take on high CRI lights here and why I think that even the industry standards on measuring the index are outdated. (it's not the "real" or "subjective" CRI that's measured) Probably the most convincing are beamshots like these.
I expect the output/efficiency to be in the realms of NW XP-G emitters... maybe ever so slightly below that. The Nichia has a B10 Flux Bin(100-110lm@350mA) so I would put it the range of an CREE XP-G Q4-Q5-R2.
I hope to be able to finish the built in the course of this week, but life often gets in the way of doing things like this... so no promises.
Regarding the clip: The O-ring and the potential lack of being watertight is not the only problem, but also that the anodized threads will prevent the light from closing the electrical circuit. (see workarounds in posts above) But I agree that the light looks killer with the clip attached and easily would make it my best looking light in my 30+ light arsenal.