Looking for a AA light that can get a good brightness with common store bought batterys.
Tail button, 100+ lumens, mainly throw over flood, will consider twist on if Its much brighter. I don't care what the UI is
I light the GITD rings but it isn't a must. Not even a deal breaker for me I just like them
What kind of budget do you have?
My favorite single AA light is the Klarus ST10, nice UI and has a moonlight low, and no strobe modes unless you want them. It has an XP-G so throw is decent for an AA light.
If you want 2 x AA, try a Caveman from Shiningbeam, or the Klarus ST20
Or you can go 3 x AA and get a Cyclone 88 with huge throw.
About $30 or so. I want to stay single AA
1 AA 100 lumens ? i gave this as a gift , nice for a single AA and is close to 100 lumens , lots of modes though. its decent quality
review
Balder SE-1 $24, Great beam, slightly floody with decent throw. It will run on either AA or 14500 Lith- Ion.
This is my favorite light.
So it gets less than 100 lumens with a eneloop?
You can only estimate based on the led used, voltage, and other factors. I'd say around 100+ is about right on an Eneloop. I second the Balder SE-1 though, very good build quality (make sure to get the XP-E R3 version if you'll be using AAs exclusively).
It can be a little intimidating to consider buying and using rechargeable cells such as 18650s or 14500s. But do consider it, because usually you'll get better runtimes and much greater brightness with cells other than AA.
18650 and 14500 seem very hard to maintain and charge. Im not to fond of the body style on the onepictured. The trustfire r5-a3 seemed nice for the price
Here's some others:
UltraFire C3 (there's also a new stainless steel version with better build quality I'm told)
Tank007 TK-566 (XP-G R5)
The C3 is a nice size and form factor, but the non-stainless version has connectivity issues so I wouldn't recommend it. I don't have the stainless, but it is reported to be of better quality.
This looks like a really good option, Xtar makes some good stuff:
1xAA, around 130 real lumens on high, 15 hour runtime on low, good throw.
Okay I'm thinking of getting 14500 now if you guys can recomend me a light battery andcharger for that. I hope they won't be hard to maintain
Here you go. The best little smart charger for the money.
a word of warning about using 14500 in budget AA lights:
drivers in many budget AA lights are boost circuits only. they don't buck properly when input voltage exceeds about 3 volts and run direct drive on a 14500. this can lead to some problems such as losing certain modes or even losing the ability to run the light on a AA all together.
although many members have used 14500's in AA flashlights without issue, many members have had problems.
if you want Li-ion power and care about long term reliability, get 18650s. all 18650 lights have drivers that are actually designed to handle the voltage, so will be more reliable in the long term. otherwise, stick to AA batteries.
unless... by "common store bought batteries", did you mean alkaline batteries? most 1xAA flashlights pull over 2A from a AA battery and should really only be used with high drain capable batteries like LSD Nimh (Eneloops). using alkalines in 1xAA flashlight will give you reduced performance and possible battery leakage.
http://www.shiningbeam.com/servlet/the-115/Romisen-RC-dsh-G2-III-Cree/Detail
This is brighter than my XM-L XENO E03 when both using AA's
Pics are down the bottom of this thread: https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/8656
Its my new favourite single AA.
Hope I'm not necroing this thread, but rechargeables aren't hard to maintain at all. You just use them in your light until they're dead or almost dead, then let plop them in the charger for a few hours until the light turns green and you're good to go. Repeat.
This should be an adequate 14500-only charger:
http://www.manafont.com/product_info.php/ac-lithium-battery-charger-for-14500-100v240v-p-5640
Not really sure where the best place is to buy some quality 14500s, but perhaps someone will chime in on this one, or you can use the forum search.
What he said . 
Okay well bringing this back to life again. I ended up ordering a tr-001 charger foursome 18650 batteries for another light so this light can use 14500 now since the charger will work for it also. I did forget to mention a few requirements for this light. No more than 4 inches long and the head can’t flare out. It has to stay the same size as the body. Like the tank 007
