How important is the run time of a flashlight to you? If one needs a light for night time car trouble, or camping, or whatever do you consider the run time of the light when choosing your edc or car light?
Jerry
Not really. It’s definitely important, but it’s not much of a factor because I can always switch to a lower mode to prolong battery life
I reckon it kinda depends. I use flashlights everyday for the rather menial task of letting my dog out at night. I primarily mod flashlights because I enjoy it. Every now and then I use them for hunting or for inspecting large dark commercial buildings for work.
As far as runtime… I tend to carry small tube lights (convoy s2+ and similar) that take one 18650 battery. So best case 3400mAh. Because of that I tend to stick to a max of 3A on the highest mode for a runtime of slightly less than one hour. Also typically use firmware with a step down to a lower mode on lights I carry everyday. So total runtime is more accurately figured on the medium level of about 1A, or roughly 3 hours or slightly less.
I figure it’ll be pretty different based on what folks are using their lights for, but I can’t really imagine a scenario where I’d need more than 3 hours where I wouldn’t know beforehand and carry additional lights and batteries in anticipation of that need.
ding ding ding
or carry a spare 
All depends on the situation. If I’m close to other lights and/or batteries and it’s not a critical situation then run time isn’t important at all. However I spent time in the Amazon basin and Uganda 2 years ago and run time was paramount, much more so than brightness. In the dark, and it was dark there, 200 lumens or so is more than bright enough for walking around at night. I subscribe to the same philosophy with my emergency car lights where I value run time over a really bright light.
I don’t do anything where a torch is generally mission critical. So on one hand runtime is less of an issue.
But tbh I find I use my EDC a lot, so I like something I can rely on. And frankly I find most 16340 and 14500 lights just don’t cut it.
I have several of each and a selection of different batteries, but if you have anything with highish output, it just eats through the 700mah batteries in know time. With ICR’s I kept finding they would trip the protection circuits on the batteries after a day or a couple of days EDC. This leaves you in the position that you can’t even use the lower modes.
I switched to IMR’s in all of these lights pretty much, as you can tell when it’s dimming, but at least it won’t suddenly go dead on you while using it.
I much prefer 18650 lights and thus far I’ve not once had trigger the protection circuit.
i like zoomies, and i have a primary main use of a flashlight for when i am working, as i am a delivery driver on a 4-12 shift. I need the flood for walking along yards and walkways to customers houses? and you can break a leg tripping over discarded engine blocks and turn an ankle BAD in a relatively small hole or ledge. BUT, i also need to “scan” mailboxes and house numbers to locate addresses without fussing around, IE, “big throw”.
some rich peoples houses can easily be 25 to 50 yards from house to road distance.
somewhere between 500ma and 1000ma (half an amp, to 1 amp) the little zoomy becomes “incredibly useful” to me… usually i demand 700ma “plus”.
i also use them for going out to get COAL for the heater constantly, and recently used my hand zoomie for working on my CAR for 8 hours straight? Uh, i wished my “low” (HI-LO-blink light) was a good bit “lower” as i was really “losing zip” and had to start watching how long i had the light on… up CLOSE working on something for an extended period of time? you really dont need much amperage.
i guess i can NOW see the value of a “moonlight” mode, i guess…
Runtime is what wimps start talking about when they failed to give their flashlight a proper light output. 
that’s just totally me lol