i am surprised, i have been using my 30 dollar big bad 4D maglite for a while now and have always thought it was a pretty bright light. i do pest control and have to do inspections a lot and always need to be carrying a good flashlight on me. so i lug this big *** mag lite everytime i go lookin around at work. i just got my 15 dollar cree led light from ebay and i am shocked at the difference. this thing runs on 3aaa batteries and my big mag lite runs on 4D batteries. look at how much light the one on the left puts out compared to the big mag-lite on the right. i even put the original bulb with next to zero hours in to compare it to the led upgrade i did. it is a bit brighter than the led i put in the mag-lite but the cheapo one still beats it by far. second picture i used the camera flash so u can see the sizes of the two lights

mag-lite+LED upgrade=40$
cheapo cree led 200lumens on ebay=15$

hmmmm. there is a 400 lumen light with rechargeable battery package that uses the same batteries as the one i just got in for 25. i think i am going to order it

 

how is the build quality? would it still work if you beat somebody to death with it? cause for me that is the appeal of a maglite.

lil

 

Easier to miss place

 

seems to be built pretty good. nice metal housing, good threads, no beating anyone with it because of the size. the 25 dollar one i was looking at is slighty bigger. maybe the size of a 2D mag-lite or a little smaller i would assume. it fits nice in the hand. it isn't as small as i thought it would be. shouldn't have a problems misplacing it

 

Yeah, the reason why mags are so awesome is because you can use them as weapons.

...and play lightsabers.

 

I watched Superbad last night, anyone remember that scene?

 

is it when evan is telling that chick about his wild nights when they arent at the popular kids parties?

 

It would be awsome to clock someone across the head with a maglite but in the last 15 years I have had a maglite in my hand ist never had to happen. So I think I am going to start walking around with the smaller light

 

LED's are in a more useful light spectrum. They put out a very limited spectrum of light which is easily tuned to whatever color temp you need. Plain white light is very intense appearing but it's actually got shitty penetration. If you want a light with good penetration (to see down in holes) then xenon and krypton are great. Unfortunately both run hot and eat juice and shine in broad spectrums, not all of which are visible to humans.

If you want a really powerful flashlight, check out surefire. http://www.surefire.com/E2DL currently the best flashlight for the money.

 

it's when the two cops are driving and hit Seth because they were shining maglights in each others eyes.

 

Oh yea now I remember the part. That movie=awsome.

I have looked at surefire on web. Haven't held one and seen it on in person. That and streamlight are suppose to be top of the line as far as what I have been seeing. The price was right on this thing so I figured it wouldn't hurt. I am thinking about going and putting the original bulb in the maglite since I won't be using it as much. What is that bulb, krypton? I know I go through batteries quick with that. The led can prob stay on for a week straigh running off those 4D's. When I am under a pier and beam house, in crawl spaces for three or four hous at a time doing a termite treatment I like knowing that big maglite with the led won't run out of battery.

 

Them surefires and streamlights are soooo expensive. That is the only reason I haven't bought one yet. This guy has three settings high/low/and strobe. So even though u can't beat someone with this, u can strobe them and they can't see u run up sand smash their face with ur fist

 

The surefire is so bright that if you close your eyes and put your hands over them it's still throws a beam bright enough that you can't even bring yourself to consider opening your eyes, much less moving your hands away from your face. Defense flashlights BLIND people for several minutes all the way up to forever. The multi setting is useful there and plenty bright. Strobe with an intense enough light makes it impossible to balance and you'll see most people fall over and sensitive people can have a seizure.

EDIT: Defense lights also make the image of you pulling your licensed concealed pistol which helps there too. Increased surrender and decreased fatalities.