New LED Torch Needed

[DMS]

With the prospect of walking a dog in the dark approaching, I need a new torch. At the moment I have various Maglites (which are all pretty useless unless being used as a cosh), a Fenix P3D, a Fenix L1D and an LED Lenser Frogman. I used to have an LED Lenser Police Tech Focus but number one son rather annoyingly decided to leave it on a bus.

The Fenix torches are brilliant but they are not quite bulky enough, use expensive CR123 batteries, run out quickly and run pretty hot if used on full for more than 10 minutes. The Police Tech Focus was not as bright but had the right bulk, used AAAs and lasted forever. So what I want is something between the two, ie the size, battery set up (AAs or AAAs as I have hundreds of the things) and burn time of the LED Lenser with Fenix brightness. Cheap is good but I don't mind paying for quality.

Any thoughts?

[2o2o]

I have a 3 torches currently in use one is a Led Lenser P14, the other 2 are cheap Chinese torches (I would say copied but tbh they have some pretty innovative heat dissipation that is both cheap and very effective) overall the cheapies provide more light, just as even and clear projection and tends to last longer (one uses 2 CR123's, other uses 2 AA's). They also have the nice feature that you take the lens off and you have a very effective windproof candle , infact their only negative is the aluminium machining is nowhere near as good.

[DreamingSheep]

I would suggest one but can't find it anymore. Field & Trek use to sell their own brand torch (Stormlite) but it probably would have been too small for what you want. Pic here

The light output on them was amazing for the size of it and it runs on a AA battery for countless hours (had mine for about 5 years and never changed the battery, just checked and the battery in it expired in 06/2005 and it's still working fine). I was working for them at the time and we had them on display in the shop, just left on for about 10 hours a day and hardly ever had to change the batteries. They also managed to shine light the lenght of the store in the middle of the day with the shop's lights on.

With the Maglite issue, just avoid anthing that has a fully smooth, mirror cone around the bulb as this is what causes the huge gap in the middle of the beam. If you have to get a cone type reflector it's best to get a difussed one (check the cone and some of it should be dimpled) as this will help remove the dark spot, but does reduce the overall light output, so you'll want a mix with the rear section difussed and the the front smooth.

Better yet would be a Luxeon LED with a lens and you'll get a more focused light with a consistant beam.

So that probably doesn't help at all

[2o2o]

I do love playing with luxeon's I am just about to buy myself an Orange or blue (not decided yet) one to use as a monitor backlight (facing the wall to give the monitor a glow around it) I use my monitor a lot in the dark and regret it when i enter light conditions again so it has been suggested as a good solution. But we also used them and wired them into the alarm system for a no power lighting system in a fire (using orange as it is better in smoke) they give off amazing light for such little power have in the past been tempted by a 22w luxeon but persuaded myself £100 for a light is OTT.

[DMS]

If I remember rightly, the problem with Luxeons is that they need more volts than, for instance, the Cree Q5s in the Fenix lights. And the white light from Crees is brighter than Luxeons - at least they were when I was last looking, think it was Luxeon V at that point so they may have moved on.

I'm quite taken by the Ultrafire C8 due to price and brightness but it still uses the wrong batteries.

[tomtom1]

ok well i have found a tourch on ebay. its brilliant. it has uv, 10 led and a laser light. all in one. its very powerful and a handy size to fit in your pocket. it also only uses aaa batteries. and its less than 10 pound
http://tinyurl.com/d5l5amk

[DreamingSheep]

Not sure if it's just me, but 99p (£3.18 inc p+p) makes me a bit sceptical that it'll be that good. I would love to be proven wrong though.

[Doct0r]

http://www.aldi.co.uk/uk/html/offers...uys3_21969.htm Certain high street store that's popped up has these 5W LED torches. Packaging says 480-500 lumens, not sure what that refers to as the torches you linked to show lower, beam of 120m distance and uses 3 AAA batteries, not AA as stated. Less than 4" though so should be ok. Came out Sunday so not sure if your local store would still have them in stock.

[DreamingSheep]

Probably a bit late, but how about this:

http://www.7gadgets.com/2011/12/24/5...chnology/47059

No need for it to be a good size to ward off would-be Woofy stealers .