I looked at it, read the specs, and thought seriously about getting one. Ultimately, I decided my $10 could be better spent. Glad you guys like yours, just not for me. 
For those who have one and LOVE it, how about telling me what’s better about this light than others that can be bought for less than $10 all the time.
Any other lights can’t beat the L3 for $10
I posted this deal in the deal thread but I did not grab one only because I do not need another XPG2 light.
If the nichia ones are on sale I will be all over it.
+1
Mine is good for $10. The head is really hard to tighten to compress the foam to get it to light and I have unscrewed the bezel a few times trying to turn it off i am going to have to glue it I believe. 14500's have to have a pronounced button in order to make contact through the thick foam. I would return it If i paid $25.
on mine the threads were really dry, to the point I had trouble even changing modes. A little lube and it works great now! I think it’s a quality light for $10. Great for EDC.
Please point me to another quality AA offering at this price point, cuz I’ll be a buyer 8)
yea, I only wished they would have offered the Nichia.
Yeah please point me to a better AA light for $10
I don’t know. That’s why I’m asking. 
The one thing that I dislike most about the L10 is that it has no mode memory and always starts on the lowest mode and has four modes that you must click through in order to get to high mode. If it had mode memory or started on high or had a short-cut to high from off (or from firefly), or if it only had Off-Lo-Hi, it would be okay. I rarely use the mid modes in my lights, so having to click through them is a waste of my time. At least there isn’t a strobe mode in the order!
Another thing is that it only goes up to 120 lumens with AA cells. You do know it’s possible to get 120 lumens from AAA cells, right? (although, not for $10) Certainly any ‘quality’ AA light should have a little more output, IMHO.
Admittedly, it is a nice looking light, and the issues I have with it are not big issues. I really just don’t need or want a single AA light badly enough, I guess.
This is the third L10 I’ve owned [1-4 mode XP-G and 2-4 mode XP-G2].
First two had a knarley wintergreen tint. The most recent L10 has a pale pink, ground beef like tint. The .09 mode looks more like 3 lumens, uxexpectedly bright.
All in all, I’m okay with the purchase considerng the price. Also the silent twist action won’t wake up your wife. The mode seperation [though not perfect] works generally for me.
I find the AA’s capacity comforting relative to AAA.
Selfbuilt’s review noted the L10 is reasonably efficient [run time].
It’d be nice if they had been selling the Nichia model at that price, but even with XP-G2 it was still a steal at $10. I got several, which will be given as gifts over the next year or two when I encounter people who need a decent light.
I find the lack of mode memory and the low-to-high mode order to be features, not bugs. And after using one for a while (and after a bit of SuperLube) the twist action really loosens up.
Run time on moon, low, and medium is significantly longer than the official specs indicate. It’s almost on par with Zebralights for efficiency, and it’s one of only a few lights under $40 which don’t use PWM. Also one of the smallest 1xAA lights available at any price.
If you want to start on high, though, or if you don’t like twisties, it’s definitely not the light for you.
$10 certainly isn’t bad for an L3 L10. Although I agree that a Nichia would have been preferable to the cool XP-G2, the XP-G2 is still a good light. So what makes this light any better than other inexpensive 1xAA lights? Hard to say. But I CAN tell you a few things I like about it.
- It’s EASILY a 120 lumen light. This is true about both the XP-G2 and Nichia versions. These aren’t Chinese lumens. These lights make good on their rating, and then some. This is one BIG difference between this light and 1xAAA lights. Some 1xAAA lights are rated as high as 120 lumens. But I have yet to see one that does better than 70-80 lumens. The bottom line here is that a TRUE 120 lumens is really not too bad for MANY uses.
- Regulation is dead-flat. Brightness literally constant until the battery is dead. Selfbuilt has been able to confirm this.
- The light is VERY compact. Not much bigger than the battery that goes in it. Many 1xAA lights are MUCH bigger.
- Although some folks have had problems with lights dying after dropping them, mine HAS survived being dropped.
If I understand correctly, that was only the L10C, which has been discontinued and replaced by the L11C. And even then, the error rate was pretty low.
If Anyone has any available for $10, let me know.
Love it.
FWIW, my 2 N219 samples top out at ~85 lms in my lightbox, although that’s probably in the ~120 lm range on a Selfbuilt scale…. guess it depends on your definition of what “Chinese lumens” are. I calibrate to a scale matching Ti-force, the only reviewer I seen that claims laboratory accuracy, and this scale matches most of my respected lights. Zebralight, Thrunite, Armytek, etc… are closer to Selfbuilt, however.
Agree the L10 is a great value light though… and IIRC, they never spec’d the N219 Max output when I purchased (just footnoted the 120 was for the XPG).
I measured the L3 L10 Nichia at 113 lumens for the 219A version and 120 lm for the 219B, on a scale calibrated to match Zebralight and selfbuilt. Also, I hear the L11C is up to about 160 lumens now.
On the same scale, the best I could get from a SK-68 was 72 lumens.
Eneloops were used on both tests.
I know the selfbuilt-vs-Eagletac lumen scale is a sore spot, but selfbuilt’s scale is nonetheless widely used by OEMs and reviewers, and has become generally accepted. It’s not necessary to bring it up all the time. The ZL/SB scale gets used in part because it makes the numbers look good, but mostly because it became popular. And because it’s nice when reviewers and companies can more or less agree on the numbers. It keeps things simple and makes everyone happy.
Meanwhile, companies who use the EagleTac scale kind of shoot themselves in the foot for marketing purposes, since they’re basically claiming their products aren’t as bright. And reviewers who use that scale tend not to be liked by the companies who use a selfbuilt scale, because they publish significantly lower numbers and make it look like the company was being deceitful. Customers reading these reviews get confused if they don’t know about the scale difference, and end up thinking Company X is bad. But if a reviewer does the opposite, measuring an EagleTac light with a Zebralight scale, it makes the product look good — brighter than advertised — and everyone is happy.
The scale is still useful despite is potentially-inflated numbers. It’s just a meters-vs-yards kind of thing. If you want to know what the numbers mean on the other scale, multiply or divide by ~1.4.
In practice, an “emitter lumens” value on the EagleTac scale is usually about the same as the “OTF lumens” value on a selfbuilt / Zebralight scale. The conversion approximately erases losses from optics.
…
Then there are “Chinese lumens”, which is when companies make up a number with virtually no relation to the product they’re selling. Usually they take the highest number from the emitter specs and then double it (or worse). No actual measurements are involved.
Our relative measurements continue to be quite consistent, the best I can get from my SK-68 is ~50 lms. Although we have discussed this lumen scale issue in relation to the D25 in the past, you should know I’m not interested in defending Eagletac per se, rather it’s any manufacturer that has the integrity to do the right thing and adopt a true ANSI standard (like Surefire, Malkoff, HDS, and FourSevens, to name a few), particularly if they are going to advertise it as such. My samples from such companies seem to be using a similar “US-ANSI” lumen scale, so Selfbuilt, along with my samples from ZL, TN, and AT, feel like “Chinese lumens” to me.
Selfbuilt as a common lumen scale standard? I don’t see it ever happening - flashaholics are but a small fraction of the true market and most folks will not bother to research/compare/test lights as we do for a hobby. That said, everything is relative, and SB/ZL/etc. versus Fleabay/DX/Sipik Clones is yet another round of “Chinese, Chinese lumens” - I suppose the quote I pulled above was actually referring to this latter level of exaggeration.
If I understand correctly, selfbuilt calibrated his scale to what was already being widely used. It was a community pseudo-standard before it got associated with him, but he did it so well it kind of became the new standard. Others continue to use it for the same reason we try to use common measures for other things — to ease communication, avoid confusion, etc.
As for doing the right thing and using an ANSI standard, there are pretty strong market disincentives against it… especially for companies which have already picked a scale. I haven’t really seen any decisive evidence for which scale is correct, since it’s very expensive for an individual to run the required experiments and maintain their equipment. Then again, I also haven’t looked in quite a while.
I’m fine with either scale, as long as I know which scale is being used at the time. I can convert as necessary, just like I don’t care much if people use inches or centimeters.
What I’m not okay with is when people make up numbers which don’t actually mean anything. That is the essence of the “Chinese lumen” — not merely a bit skewed, it’s downright fictional. That 8000-lumen Ultrafire light is neither 8000 lumens nor a genuine Ultrafire product, and I’d really appreciate it if they stopped making false claims.
My problem with EagleTac isn’t their lumen numbers… it’s that a lot of their other specs tend to be false, like claiming no PWM on a light which clearly uses PWM, or claiming 92CRI on a light with an ugly green beam, or claiming a lens is replace-able when it’s firmly glued in place. This is strange behavior for a premium brand.
Yes, SB’s scale is based on 150 data points and a regression analysis (it’s linked on his site), but the data seems a bit dated to me, perhaps from points even before the industry voluntarily attempted to standardize around ANSI. Three of his original six data sources - ti-force, 4sevens, and Novatac (FourSevens and HDS now, I presume) - no longer seem to match up to SB’s scale…. although I find these three entities do match each other (and ET, SF, Malkoff).
As for Eagletac, other than their output/runtime spec integrity, I’m not a huge fan myself - to add another to your list, their “10yr” warranty is actually only a year when you account for the “electronics” clause.
Primelumens.com sells the L10, orange, 4 mode with strobe! I thought it was a typo as I had not seen it with a strobe before. $25.
I’m happier all the time with my $10 L10.