Should the budget include batteries and a charger?
Yes, I’d like to keep the total for everything under $100 if possible. But they have to be reliable and able to take some punishment. I’m very hard on equipment.
I have had good luck with Fandyfire so I think the ones you picked out should work well. One of my fav 18650 lights is my Fandyfire 2011. It has high, med, low, strobe and SOS. Has an XM-L and produces a wall of light. It is mostly flood which I like since I can put it in a headband for headlamp use. I think I paid $15 for it and I haven’t had any problems. It’s very compact and well made.
The Ultrafire / Uniquefire 2100 is another compact 18650 light but it is only three modes. High, low, strobe. Cost is less than $15.
I could picture you losing alot of 5” pocket lights in your line of work. A C or D cell Mag light is a little harder to lose. I just picked up a Nitecore EC2 myself or a Fenix LD22 for pocket. This will eat $60 out of your budget however.
And this little gem for the truck, for $16.90 LINK
There’s a review on this light on this forum search for it.
For your line of work I would up the budget. Better to invest in durability and dependability than budget restricted guidelines. You want something you can depend on every day under any conditions.
http://www.intl-outdoor.com/edc-18650-xpg2-r5-xml-u2-850450lm-flashlight-p-522.html
http://www.cnqualitygoods.com/goods.php?id=1738
http://www.cnqualitygoods.com/goods.php?id=1495
For the charger, many swear by this one :-
Review: SysMax/NiteCore Intellicharger i4 V2 Charger although I had hoped there would be a purchase link in there, people will be able to point you in the right direction.
Note I linked a couple of cells, I think that price is for pairs, both are cells that many people use, not the top capacity, but acceptable none the less.
The two lights I linked give you both driver mode and led tint options, I’m sort of thinking a neutral tint would be better for your task. I have the edc light host, just waiting on a driver to finish it, but its a real nice solid little light. The xintd c8 is pretty much a go to light and will still drop in your cargo pocket.
I would also consider one of these :-
You can find them cheaper than Amazon, but the link gives you an idea, both the edc and the xintd will fit it for hands free operation, I’ve used one for twelve years and its still going, I work under vehicles and it is very secure with the larger light, since it used to carry a mini maglight, it’ll be fine with the edc18650 weight wise.
As said above, the fandyfires seem good, but these options may allow you to better tailer the lights to your needs (low high strobe or five mode, 3 mode etc).
I should have said as well, the edc18650 has big enough slots to take 550 paracord and still tailstand, a lobster claw is a couple of dollars, once the driver arrives, this light will be going on an edc lanyard with my srm h03 pocket knife, both with lobster claws and a claw to attach to a belt loop, the lanyard will also be able to loop round my wrist so that it tightens if dropped (this is harder to explain than to achieve, I’d have to tie it and take a picture).
Seems like a headlamp would make a lot of sense in your work. If ever someone needed hands free light, I could see a medic needing it.
Hence the headstrap link, best of both worlds, I love my niteize strap and few head lamps will match a well driven c8. 
Here’s a couple of charger suggestions from between rides.
The second is the nitecore I suggested above.
Thank you for all the posts and opinions. I will look into some of these additional options and try to make a decision.
I’m not opposed to increasing the budget if there are issues with some of these lights in terms of reliability. I’ve always been of the mind of buy the best and buy it once. That said, the best isn’t always the most expensive. There are also other items I plan on purchasing so I want to keep the budget in check. I actually came across this site researching a monster flashlight that a friend at work recently purchased. The more I read, the more options I came across and then became utterly confused.
The head light is a good idea but most of these lights would blind the patients. Most of us clip the pocket lights to the shoulder straps on our uniform for any hands free work. Plus this keeps the light slightly off center and hopefully out of the patients eyes.
Gords1001 made some really good suggestions.
If you look around some of the similar threads on here, you’ll see the XinTD come up again, and again… there’s a reason for that. It’s good. I’ll admit, I was hesitant to buy it because I didn’t like the “looks” of it as much as some of the other lights… but it’s a winner in every other way.
Also, question: Do you need a pocket clip on your smaller light? That may influence what people might suggest.
You can apparently add a solarforce clip to the edc if you make a spacer to make up the connection, a bent paper clip seems to work, if a little ghetto.
Personally, I remove pocket clips, they annoy the crap out of me, but if its useful….
As starter lights, I’d suggest a 501b with a P60 drop-in led bulb that relies on an XPG led for pocket carry. And either a C8 with XML led, or maybe an HD2010 XML for more throw. Should be able to do both lights for ~$45 max even getting better versions. Then add batteries from Kumabear and spend rest of the budget on a good charger. If you are fastidious about your gear and know your way around a DMM, then you might look into spare batts from laptop salvage, too. I’d make sure the lights or drop-ins you get have low voltage protection.
I suggest the 501b so that you can afford to lose it, and also because it is closer to the slimmer 2100 in size/feel than most other P60 drop-in capable lights. Also, being new to lights, you can change the drop-in if you find you want XML in both lights or just want to go for something custom programmed - something you can’t do with many of the smaller pocket lights.
The 2nd and larger light is harder to fill at the budget level, so getting something a lot of people have and like seems the best way to start out with your first buy.
What determines the distance and how compact the beam of light is? I’m assuming it’s the reflective cone at the head of the flashlight and it’s rated lumen? I see several boasting 2K and 3K lumen and from a novice it sounds like bigger is better. However, there seem to be several in the same category and price point that come in at 750 to 1K lumen and I’ve read reviews on some and they seem to out perform others with higher numbers. Is this obtained from simply a better product or are some companies faking their numbers or am I just looking at this the wrong way.
Also, can someone explain the differences in the batteries, protected vs unprotected.
Thanks again.
Also, I don’t have all of the technical jargon down, but I assume I’m referring to the “throwers”
1 # is your best idea to date ..Not that model but a single 18650 straight tube light that has an xml ,,it will be pocketable in cargo pants . it's pretty small compared to what you think a flashlight should be ..
Both 2 and 4 have some pretty serious issues in my humble opinion . i think they represent something they aren't
A. I think a noob thinks a multi cell is "twice as good " or twice as bright " twice as big etc or even that it runs twice as long ..All of those are wrong
Multi cell lights first off are 10 times more dangerous /// i'm not really scared since i know how to run a muliti battery light and have what it takes to do it correctly ..But part of that selling you on the fear is to generally discourage you from these lights anyway ..If you're really a noob then almost any well driven 18650 xml light is going to be so bright that 90% of the time you're dropping it down to a much more reasonable level of light ... secondly the multi emitter lights are hugely floody and at least to me that's really a poor definition of what a flashlight really is ./Thirdly they suck down so much power that they A . are dangerous and B. don't add to runtime only add lumens C. a single cell light does about 80% of what a double cell light does ..and overall runtime isn't an issue if you buy decent batteries ..lastly the money spent on a gimmicky cheap supposedly brighter light is money wasted when it could be better spent on really important , not terribly obvious to a noob , but highly appreciated aspects of what better lights include ... Better threads , higher pwm , nicer anodizing ,knurling , thickness and quality of materials ,tint , binning of emitter ,driver ,quality of clicky ,glass? coated or not ,reflector etc etc etc ....
Let me give you a few suggestions .. I think what you want is a unique-fire 2100 just made a bit better ..Lights like the N-light st-50or a roche
http://www.fancyflashlights.com/goods.php?id=39
i'd highly suggest the Neutral white lights if you have any opportunity to do so like this light offers it for 1$ extra .. that's a pure gift .. for much better color rendering / less washout etc ..Don't worry about not buying CW emitters ..99% of all lights come cw like it or not .. you'll never be lacking for cw emitters
http://www.fancyflashlights.com/goods.php?id=329
http://www.fancyflashlights.com/goods.php?id=142
http://www.fancyflashlights.com/goods.php?id=27
and then i'd buy a
https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/12633
xintd c-8....again in neutral ...and on anything I bought I'd avoid the strobes for the same reason.. craepy light s with crappy tints and stupid modes will come to you like moths to a flame .. don't purposefully seek them out .
Charger is easy I'd buy aSysmax intellicharger V2 about 20$+ cuz it will charge nimh and lithium iopn and almost any sixe battery made .. very usefulll smart purchase ..if you have to buy a litium ion only charger I'd buy a tr0001 i think light castles had them for 8$ ..
https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/8112 much more universal ,, it will almost dertainly keep you from buying a nother nimh charger too or a charger for 26650 batteries
18650 batteries in the US has to go to Kumabear
https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/11558
I'm not a huge fan for buying the latest and greatest highest mah batteries .. better bang for your buck is probably 2600 mah... that said If i were you i'd probably buy a 3400 a 3100 a couple 2600's and a 2250..Probably a little over 40$ < maybe one of the smarter places to invest in flashlights ..cheap batteries is like taking a leak in your gastank and wondering why the mileage and power sucks on your car .
I may be a little over budget but doubt that anything I've said will lead you too far astray ..
welcome to Budget light forum
Thanks Boaz, and props on your typing skills….that’s a lot to drop in 4 mins ;). You have my attention in regards to safety. Now I’m not exactly sure if your referring to these lights blowing up in your hand or sitting in the cab of my truck and starting a fire, but I’m not interested in experiencing either.
Are the single cell lights you listed going to be able to search a large area? I need to be able to put a lot of light down range and up in the trees. It will need to make things visible at 200 yds or so. I remember reading that the multi cells that were not inline were safer and I read a decent review of one of the small sun lights and I believe it uses that configuration on the battery.
The beam is determined by the LED design and the reflector (or optic for TIR). Larger diameter reflector generally shifts any beam toward more throw. XMLs are generally a lot of floody light without a big reflector (in a C8 you get a much better balance of throw and flood than seen in most smaller reflectors), XPG are a good balance of throw and spill in the P60 sized lights (why I recommended it for you - preferably a XPG2), and XRE are generally narrow beams without a lot of spill.
Very simply, unprotected batteries are dumb cells (like those used in laptop battery packs) that can be over-discharged if the light does not have good electronics like the laptop pack has. This is very bad. Protected batteries have a little PCB board at the bottom of the battery to limit discharge (and sometimes more) and are thus slightly longer than unprotected. Length can make a difference in some lights, generally not a big problem if the light has springs at both ends (which I strongly prefer), but that can add a bit of length.
Oh, they’re only $5-8 so I would add a Sipik SK68 or clone using AA sized eneloop or duraloop NiMHs to your wish list. They’re not lightweight, but they are versatile with the zoom or flood to throw feature and their aspheric lens. Example:
There are single and 3 mode versions - lots of threads and recommendations on BLF.
Note that it may help you look at chargers that do both lithiums and NiMHs. Or you may want separate chargers to have more bays.
That’s the extension-capable genuine TrustFire X8 that is. Overall performance-wise no real contest IMO, and about the same or less money. 8)
Just sayin’…………………………………………