Looking for Best LED Flashlight

Posted by Frank on October 15, 2009, 7:01 am

frank1492 wrote:

> Should have Li-Ion battery, with good life, and be rechargeable. Saw a
> nice bike light, but would like this to be hand-held. Would prefer
> flood to spot, high lumen.
> Recos much appreciated. Thank you!
> Frank

I have a 3 watt Cree, believe it is called, from Lowes, although not
sure it is still there. Uses 2 C batteries but I guess you could use
rechargables. Cost $30. Rated output is something like 170 lumens.
All the multi led's I've seen are OK for close use but are anemic on
light output.

Posted by ransley on October 15, 2009, 7:08 am

> frank1492 wrote:

> > Should have Li-Ion battery, with good life, and be rechargeable. Saw a
> > nice bike light, but would like this to be hand-held. Would prefer
> > flood to spot, high lumen.
> > =A0 =A0 Recos much appreciated. Thank you!
> > =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 Frank

> I have a 3 watt Cree, believe it is called, from Lowes, although not
> sure it is still there. Uses 2 C batteries but I guess you could use
> rechargables. =A0Cost $30. Rated output is something like 170 lumens.
> All the multi led's I've seen are OK for close use but are anemic on
> light output.

Cree is the name of the led bulb, they are bright, Ledlenser has one
with 7 Cree leds, it sells for something like 400$

Posted by Frank on October 15, 2009, 7:26 am

ransley wrote:

>> frank1492 wrote:

>>> Should have Li-Ion battery, with good life, and be rechargeable. Saw a
>>> nice bike light, but would like this to be hand-held. Would prefer
>>> flood to spot, high lumen.
>>> Recos much appreciated. Thank you!
>>> Frank

>> I have a 3 watt Cree, believe it is called, from Lowes, although not
>> sure it is still there. Uses 2 C batteries but I guess you could use
>> rechargables. Cost $30. Rated output is something like 170 lumens.
>> All the multi led's I've seen are OK for close use but are anemic on
>> light output.

>
> Cree is the name of the led bulb, they are bright, Ledlenser has one
> with 7 Cree leds, it sells for something like 400$

Yes, I would look for the led and look for watt, candlepower or lumen
output. I bought a 12 led lantern for my wife's use during power
failures and it does not even give off enough light to read by. She
bought me one with 20 leds focused in one direction and you can read by
it. I have several other led lights and, as I said, they are adequate
for close work. What I really like about led's is that they get much
more effective power out of a battery.

My main use is hunting and just this week I was out at 5am in an area I
was somewhat familiar with but needed a light to find the public stand
and the Lowes light was great illuminating trail markers 200 yards away.

Posted by Stormin Mormon on October 15, 2009, 9:14 am

The crank up lights with the silver "tornado funnel" in the
middle, I find them to be useless. The crank is noisy, and
the light spreads on a single plane, hardly lights the room.

Kmart has a "Jeep light" with 10 or 20 LED, and three D
cells in the base. Looks like a creature from STar Wars.
I've got a couple of these, and really like them. Long run
tme on D cells. and you can point it to the ceiling, to
light the entire room. These work nicely when it's bitter
cold.

For area light, my favorite is the Ozark Trail fluorescent
camping lantern from Walmart. Ten bucks, and takes four D
cells. Hang from the ceiling, and light the entire room.
Walmart also has fluorescent "closet lights" in the hardware
section which are very good. Fluorescents do not work when
it's cold.

The round "tap lights" are OK for finding the bathroom at
night, but not much more than that. They have either LED or
filament bulb types.

Pocket carry. For me, the minimag with LED conversion is
good. Nite Ize makes a convesion for $4.97 at Walmart. I
went with the Teralux for $25 and very pleased with it.

Harbor Feight has a 15 LED light that takes three D cells.
Very blue light, and very short range. It has its uses,
indoors, but I'e never bring it camping.

Mag makes a LED 2D through 4D light with the mag brand LED
bulb. I got a couple 3D, when Lowes had them on sale. They
are super bright, and the batteries last a long time.
Brighter than my Garrity light that had 3D cells. I even
swapped out the batteries on the Garrity, I thought the
batteries were low, the Garrity was so dim compared to the
Mag LED.

Garrity LED bulb from Walmart, replaces 2D through 6D bulbs.
Blue light, dim, not worth the cost of the bulb. Turns a
good flash light into a nightlight.

--
Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
.

Yes, I would look for the led and look for watt, candlepower
or lumen
output. I bought a 12 led lantern for my wife's use during
power
failures and it does not even give off enough light to read
by. She
bought me one with 20 leds focused in one direction and you
can read by
it. I have several other led lights and, as I said, they
are adequate
for close work. What I really like about led's is that they
get much
more effective power out of a battery.

My main use is hunting and just this week I was out at 5am
in an area I
was somewhat familiar with but needed a light to find the
public stand
and the Lowes light was great illuminating trail markers 200
yards away.

Posted by Don Klipstein on October 15, 2009, 7:01 pm

>Yes, I would look for the led and look for watt, candlepower or lumen
>output.

Watts are a unit of power consumption - and that can be either actual
(either taken from the batteires or delivered to the LED, 2 different
things) or the maximum that the LED is allowed to have dumped into it.
(How much extra by driver circuitry or dropping resistors varies widely.)

Since this means there are already three different things that wattage
can refer to, and efficiency of LEDs varies widely, wattage has only
"fair" correlation to light output.

Candela is the intensity of the beam, and roughly means "beam
candlepower". This refers to intensity of a beam in the distance, and
decreasing area of the beam covered gets this to increase when lumens are
unchaged.

Lumens may be what the LED is rated to produce, and in that case is
often at some specific high amount of current, and also in that case is
usually specified at some non-real-world level of cooling the LED, either
cooling its heatsinkable surface to 25 degrees C (77 degrees F) or
worse-still cooling the "junction" (within the LED's chip) to 25 degrees C
(77 degrees F).

> I bought a 12 led lantern for my wife's use during power
>failures and it does not even give off enough light to read by. She
>bought me one with 20 leds focused in one direction and you can read by
>it. I have several other led lights and, as I said, they are adequate
>for close work. What I really like about led's is that they get much
>more effective power out of a battery.
>My main use is hunting and just this week I was out at 5am in an area I
>was somewhat familiar with but needed a light to find the public stand
>and the Lowes light was great illuminating trail markers 200 yards away.

I do agree that LEDs tend to be better for flashlights than incandescent
lamps. Modern LEDs are finally mostly more efficient than incandescents,
many times by a substantial difference, and - unlike incandescents - they
do not lose energy efficiency much (or at all) when power input is
reduced.

- Don Klipstein (don@misty.com)

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Looking for Best LED Flashlight - Page 2