Hi, i read a few previous posts where the terminology flashaholic was used; unfortunately i know none – which is why i might need your help. I go straight to the point, which flashlight and headlamp (i need both) is the most powerful in regard to both throw and flood, with a stronger emphasis on flooding. I walk a lot in forests and i want to illuminate as much of the surrounding area as possible, the price tag should preferably stay below 500USD for each, any suggestions?
500USD 
Convoy L6. It’s not specifically noted for throw, but what it achieves in that regard comes from sheer output. It’ll easily reach out 100 yards. and it has very good flood. It also has decent runtime even in turbo mode. But it will get hot in turbo if it’s not raining or cold. It’s still quite capable if one “only” uses it mostly in high mode and saves turbo for when it’s really needed.
You can go directly to Aliexpress and get it for under $60 shipped. The 5200mah cells will cost about $30 for 2 , and the charger is whatever you want to pay, from a few dollars to $100. You can get something very usable for under $30. So you’d be near $100 for everything and it would last for many years.
Another light that will save you alot of money is the Trustfire TR-3T6. It’s a smaller and lighter light than the L6, but it’s quite good. It uses smaller cells that will be less $. I don’t remember what I paid for mine but I think it was under $30. With an inexpensive charger and top quality cells you could easily come in under $50. It comes with an extension to house a 3rd cell for extended runtime.
Understand that Li-Ion cells don’t perform at their best in the cold. I have yet to fully test my lights in the cold Maine (USA) winter, so bear that in mind. It might turn out that I’ll be happy for the old tech NiMh cells and halogen bulbed lights that I’ve held onto. Or maybe putting some pipe wrap onto the L6 will work to keep it warm as long as it’s using “juice” and producing heat. I might also need to swap to a LED diving light that has no almost no cooling designed into it’s housing. You being in Sweden might have similar considerations. I’ll know more in a few months, but what I wrote works fine for months that are above freezing. At –30°F (–34C), LED light performance with Li-Ion cells, that’s yet to be decided for me.
500USD for each?! You can really have some amazing and premium flashlights with that kind of budget! (Omg I really feel jealous of you!)
Is size a matter for you? If I assume not, I would suggest a high lumens and more throwy light for handheld and a more floody and high lumens light for head.
You can buy the TN40 and it is still well under 500USD for handheld lol. 4400 lumens with more than 1.1km of throw, is that enough for your application? 
Headlamp: Armytek wizard pro v3 XHP50 2,300 lumens
Powerful compact flooder: Olight X7 9,000 lumens
Large thrower/flooder combo: Thrunite TN40 4,400 lumens
Those are the best lights in their category at the moment.
$500, I think you landed on the wrong forum…
Seriously though, you don’t need to spend anywhere near that amount of money.
A standard Supfire M6, Solarstorm Warrior or any similar soupcan light will give you plenty flood and light…
Not so clued up on headlamps, but a Led Lenser h14 is pretty good, if you don’t mind the battery pack on your head, and I believe the skilhunts are pretty good too. And there is always zebralight if you want to spend more money…
Good luck, I’m sure there will be many more opinions…
Cheers
Good choices and you can get all three of them for $500 plus $100 for batteries and a charger.
Anyone consider the Olight H25 Wave?
[edit] In my defense, I was very tired when I posted this. LOL :disappointed: :person_facepalming:
Thanks for the responses - i looked into your suggestions, such as the Convoy L6, while reading on Aliexpress i ended up seeing this quote “Notice that never turn on the turbo mode all the time ,otherwise the temperature of flashlight can be up to 80-90 centigrade,you may be scalded!!!” i didn’t know that LED could generate such temperatures, would the heat radiate throughout the casing till it reaches the batteries forcing them to shut down, or would the lamp downscale itself to a lower setting automatically once the temperature reaches a certain threshold? I also noticed that Olight X7 and Thrunite TN40 had Turbo modes as well, would they end up with similar problems even if they have active thermal management, how long could i have these on turbo before it automatically reduces the output if we assume that the outside temperatures are between –15℃= 5.0℉ and 5℃= 41.0℉
In addition, as a reference - i do have a Skyray king 6 xm-L2 and Boruit RJ-3000, how well would they fare compared to your suggestions? In terms of output and thermal management?
The more light output, the more “juice” it takes to get that output (and the runtime suffers). The more juice flowing through the head of the light the more heat produced. So yes, all lights with significant output will get hot. You can’t get something for nothing. I’m sure other folks push their lights far more than I do, but I only use turbo for when I need it and then sparingly. The electronics are in the head and I don’t feel good about heat stressing the chips. The heat produced is the reason some lights will ramp down the output; to protect the light from damage. There are only a few ways to get rid of the heat produced that I can think of. Use it in a cold environment, or increase the mass, that includes adding water to the head as in a diving light or using it in a rainstorm, of course increasing the mass also could mean adding more aluminum to the head and handle and adding more fins to transfer more heat to the air. Yes the handle will conduct heat from the head of the light and warm up the cells also. In theory the cells could get so hot that they break down but I don’t know if that has ever happened in the real world. The batteries do have protection to help protect against that, but others will need to jump in here to give you more info’ regarding that. I use only quality cells for the safety aspect. Never use inexpensive cells that make fantastic claims about capacity. Basically if you read about cells being used in these pages you can sure that they’re quality. But even then you can get into trouble by using cells in dangerous ways.
You can read about cell safety and such here: LEDs & Other Stuff - (Reference Guide)
It’s an absolutely huge document, but cursor way down in it and you’ll find a few areas regarding cell safety and what can happen and such.
Sorry, that’s all I have for you. I can’t answer your other questions.
In all likelihood the skyray king has some pretty terrible heatsinking. The LEDs just sit on a thin ‘shelf’ which means the case doesn’t really get warm, but the LEDs are often cooking. The Tn40 will likely have higher ouput. The colder LEDs are the more efficiently they operate, almost without exception. If the case of the light is getting hot, thats really a good thing, as the heat is being moved away from the heat sensitive parts. In as cold an environment as your talking about, heat wont be quite as much of an issue. (handwarmers may be nice too eh?) In all of my custom built lights, i’ve always followed the philosophy that the LED can handle 150 Centigrade, which is roughly three times the average human pain tolerance of 40C. If it starts getting uncomfortable to hold turn it off or down.
In the datasheet for LG HE4 18650 cells, it is stated that safe operating temperature on the surface of the cell is 75C. Agian, well above the temperature you could hold.
If you are wearing gloves, all of that goes out the window. I do second BrianK, use high continously, and turbo when you need it.
Most lights have a turbo timer. Every time it is set to turbo, the timer starts and once it expires it will return to a predetermined lower setting. Very few lights have active temperature sensing.
I’m out in the woods a lot, have 2 Convoy L6’s and you don’t need the turbo mode. The thing will light it up like it’s daylight. my buddys 13 year old son was out last go round and I handed one over for him to use. He wanted the turbo mode:-) In fact, he was in disbelief about the power of that flashlight. I didn’t notice anyone getting burned either. Another flashlight I like is the Nitecore MH20GT. Easy on and off, real nice throw, small to handle but plenty of light and steps down for use about a campsite or peering into your vehicle.
Couch’, I actually think turbo is a negative in the forest. It’s too bright on close in surfaces and blinding. I think Sweden would have a lot of birches and that would be blinding up close and lit in turbo. But how does one explain the light output of these lights? And to compound it we have auto exposure eyes and that’s compounded with a retina that changes the speed of the film. I’m a noob, and that’s why I have so many lights (yet it’s nothing compared to other folks). One needs to have a baseline to judge other lights by.
Silver’, have I got a guarantee for you! If you buy an L6 and don’t like it you can send it to me and I guarantee that I’ll take it off of your hands and charge you absolutely nothing. I can’t do better than that! Such a deal (for me)! I know what you’re thinking… I’m all about people and just an absolutely great guy, so you don’t need to write it. But back to reality . These lights are so bright I think you’ll be amazed at what’s available inexpensively right off the shelf.
Just for insurance I would have a body warmed C8 or other light in my parka pocket just in case. Being in a frigid and pitch dark forest with a failed light would be no picnic.
There is a huge thread about the L6 on the forum, and lots of the posts will mean nothing to you, but some will, so just skim until you see something of interest. Many of us use the light in the same context that you intend to. Convoy L6... XHP70 Beast!
You might also get involved in this if it’s still open : Q8, PMS SEND TO THOSE WITH ISSUES BLF soda can light
Like the L6 it gains throw by sheer brute force of light output; but I expect it to be a pure flood type light with no hot spot. The L6 does have a hot spot.
If you need a smaller light with throw consider having djburkes mod a C8 for you. It will easily outperform a stock C8 and will have a bunch of throw (or whatever you specify), but we’re back to the max’ output= more juice drawn= more heat= lesser runtime. But it’s a significantly smaller light and easily pocketable in a parka. Of course in lower output modes it draws no more current than any other light at that output. There are so many ways you can go and the reason many folks on this site have so many lights.
TN40 has stepdown in Turbo mode, but the good thing is it is monitored with the temperature (instead of timer based).
Not sure about X7 tho, maybe other people can chime in.
As for the Convoy L6 it doesn’t have any stepdown at all in Turbo mode, so it could be a good or bad thing I guess - It’s good for us “lumenshead”, but probably it needs some caution for average users out there.