"...you could choke on it..."

If that is the case, you are putting it waaayyyyy too far into your mouth

Here's my beef: I'm living in the 3rd world and can only buy batteries of the AA and AAA types. Also, these batteries come in pairs or in 4's. No fancy lithium (or was it chromium?) cells here.

Thus I'm totally against anything that doesn't use AA's or AAA's in pairs or in 4's. Sorry Petzl fans - I'm not in your club!!! I mean - 3 AAA's (as opposed to 2 or 4)? What do i do with the extra one? These are not exactly cheap out here.

My solution:
http://www.amazon.com/STREAMLIGHT-ENDURO...3454&sr=1-1

LONG LIVE THE AA (and AAA) CLUB!!!
(Were did that post go?)

Eh hem!!!
Now where did I put my blood pressure medication? Mumble grumble...

"I mean - 3 AAA's (as opposed to 2 or 4)? What do i do with the extra one?"

Uh... buy six and have a spare set?

I agree with you on standard sized batteries for the most part. AA, AAA and CR123s are the standards in my kits. I have made an effort to use mostly AA battery powered items in most of my kits, but some devices that use CR123s cannot be replaced with AA powered units without making sacrifices.

The e+Lite does use coin batteries, but the size of that light and a spare battery more then makes up for the lack of "common" cells in the EDC relm. As for it being fragile light... I strongly disagree. I has held up to my beatings day in day our at work and in my off duty EDC fanny pack.

You just died. Couldn't find your meds in the dark. Snigger.

Alternativly, you could buy your batteries in bulk packs of 12's. I do! pay for just TWO BATTERIES????!!!!
Which gives you 3 in the torch. 9 for 3 reloads.

They should make a head lamp that you could shake or crank to recharge. Of course you'd probably be better off removing it from your head first. Unless, you have plenty of aspirin.

Tim

Based upon your speficiations, I would take a look at the Princeton Tec Apex or the Petzl Myo XP. Both lights have great throw and low power modes, are water resisant, built like a tank, and use good 'ol standard AA batteries. I have both and love 'em.

Craig.

Depends on your end-use.

I have a couple of petzl e-lites and a black diamond duo tucked away for emergencies. They are led, have great battery life and are good enough to use at a campsite, to read by, or to illuminate your hands while doing detail work, or to use while walking (slowly and carefully) on a trail at night. These are very small and use watch/hearing aid batteries.

A step up powerwise is the tikka and tak tikka xp. The tikka has multiple leds and while the taktikka has only 1 high output LED (but with a focused lens which makes it brighter). These use AAA (or maybe AA, I forget) batteries so they are easy to replace. The taktikka has a power boost mode that is good for looking at things at a distance. If you go with a tikka, I would strongly recommend getting the newer version where the switch is a pushbutton sealed below rubber instead of the older sliding switch version. I got sand in a sliding switch mechanism and that louses it up.

The petzl myolite 3 has a xenon and 3 leds so it is a good all around light. Battery life on the leds is great and with the xenon it is bright enough to do some trail running or (in a pinch) use on a bike riding on a trail. If you only had one light, this would be my choice. But the battery pack is separate and it sits on the back of your head with a wire running around to the light and some people don't like this set up. It isn't very compact either.

At the "top" of the spectrum, I used to have a black diamond Solaris which also had xenon and leds and it was (at least a couple of years ago) just about the brightest thing out there. However it was still only powered by 4AAs or a rechargeable pack so there is an upper limit to how much light it can throw. And it is not a bright as a "normal sized" streamlight flashlight.

I got the Solaris to use going to and from duck blinds through marshes in the middle of the night and was disappointed with its brightness and went back to carrying a hand-held streamlight flashlight for pathfinding and also carry a small e-lite or the equivalent for use once I actually make it to the duckblind.

I have a MYO XP and absolutely LOVE it. Multi-brightness and has a VERY level usage curve with NiMh rechargeable batteries.

I've been waiting to get a tikka until they replace the LEDs with CREES or the new Nichas.

The MYO XP is worth every penny.

Ray-o-vac now has a nice headlamp that runs on one AA. There's a CPF thread about it:

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=169690

There's also the coming Zebralight 1aa headlamp but it's not out yet.

If you want something absolutely tiny and cheap, there is this:

http://countycomm.com/ARES%20SOLED.htm

It's not a headlamp in its own right; it's a keychain coin cell light attached to a sturdy metal clip, so you can put it on your hat brim if you have a baseball cap.

I was drooling over one of these Petzl e+LITEs as a replacement for my Petzl Tikka Plus that's in my hiking daypack to save a little weight, but then I read the specs on REI.com and they scared the heck out of me.

Acceptable:

Weight (w/ batteries)
e+LITE: 1 ounce
Tikka Plus: 2.7 ounces

Half life brightness (70 deg)
e+LITE: High: 7.2 / low: 7.4 foot candles
Tikka Plus: High: 17.6 / low: 11.5 foot candles

Half life brightness (0 deg)
e+LITE: High: 7.4 / low: 5.2 foot candles
Tikka Plus: High: 9.2 / low: 6.3 foot candles

Battery life at 70 degrees
e+LITE: High: 5 hrs. 8 min. / low: 5 hrs. 15 min.
Tikka Plus:
High: 22 hr. 33 min. / low: 68 hr. 45 min.

Unacceptable:

Battery life at 0 degrees
e+LITE: High: 4 min. / low: 3 min.
Tikka Plus: High: 7 hr. 28 min. / low: 23 hr. 51 min.

I hope that's a typo, because the last thing I need when I find myself unexpectedly trying to hike back to the trailhead in the dark and cold is for my battery to die on me in three minutes. For now, I'll skip the e+LITE and stay with my Tikka Plus (which I love), or maybe switch to a Zipka Plus for the slight size/weight savings.

As a side note, lately I've been using lithium batteries in all of my outdoor electronics (GPS, etc.) for the weight savings. Petzl says you should only use alkaline batteries in their headlamps because lithium batteries can cause the headlamps to overheat and damage the LEDs. I emailed Garmin to see if there was a similar potential problem with my GPS, and they said lithium batteries were fine. Does anyone else know of instances where it isn't safe to use Li batteries?