So Not to long ago I asked yall about http://www.dealextreme.com flashlights and ended up purchasing a Ultrafire 2AA light.

http://www.dealextreme.com/p/ultrafire-cree-c3-flashlight-with-2xaa-extension-tube-bundle-4452

This one in particular. Just got in in today (Dropped it broke the glass just abit almost right off the bat but oh well) and I gotta say Im blown away. It has a decent build quality the batteries do shake a lot inside tho. The ability to switch from 2 too 1 AA is pretty neat.

Now for the surprising part. Its Just as bright as my 70$ Quark..... And infact has a tighter beam then it making it look a tad brighter.

I have no affiliation with any of these company's but jesus what a major conundrum this made for me. Im trying to rack up the differences and see what makes them better or worse and so far i have this.

The Quark Has a wider pattern lighting up just a bit more tho making it relatively slightly less bright. It has 8 Modes. The body feels slightly sturdier and more ergonomic.

The Ultrafire is a tighter pattern but more halos in the flood portion of the light. It only has one mode but can be used with 1 or 2 AA's. It costs 60$ less then the Quark.


Now one argument That can possibly stand is internal quality. The clicky switch the Bulb The glass the circuitry and heat sinking. This is near impossible for me to test tho. The only way is to see which breaks first which could take years.

Nice. If you don't mind me piling on with the DX love, I bought one at the recommendation of a fellow ETS'er-I think it was Am_Fear_Liath_Mor. At any rate it's this one. Very potent light! On the plus side it's about the same brightness as my Surefire E1B. The optics and reflector aren't quite as good but at 1/12 the price I won't complain. Build quality seems good. Can't comment on battery life or durability yet as I've only had it for a couple weeks. One big bummer; it's a 5 mode light. It says it's a 3 mode on the site. In any event, 5 modes is 4 modes too many. At least it remembers where you left it.

Sorry if this is a sidetrack but I just wanted to share some praise for my DX lights.

The UltraFire Cree C3 runs a P4 flux bin emitter, while Quarks have R2 or better. If the UltraFire is brighter in lumens, chances are that it will have significantly inferior runtime.

As for the flood vs. throw question, that is entirely subjective to your requirements and preferences. If it works for you it's good.

My experience with UltraFires is limited. I had one that I experimented on (I changed the emitter and driver) and that's it. I own a lot of Quarks and I've had one switch get a little flakey, which was promptly replaced under warranty.

Neither UltraFire nor 4Sevens has been around long enough for us to know what long-term reliability will be like, but I've beat the heck out of some of my Quarks with no problems other than the aforementioned flakey switch.

Cool, has anybody seen the light Phaedrus posted but with a clip?

http://www.dealextreme.com/p/tank007-tk-...-1-cr123a-19183

They offer a zillion different models, Ireckon, probably they do have a similar light with a clip. Funny, until you posted that I didn't realize it lacked one! Just goes to show we must use our lights in a bit different manner. My Surefire E1B has a reversible clip but the only time I've ever used it was once to secure it in an organizer sleeve of my Maxpedition Kodiak.

Most of my lights are going strong: iTP, Fenix, 4Seven's, Surefire, Mag ... but I'd lean towards 4Seven's if you were going with that "style." At least he lives in the US, so theoretically it's an American small business. Though I believe the lights are still made in China.

4Sevens is US-based, with customer service and design functions here. Manufacturing is contracted out to Chinese companies. Fenix is a Chinese company. Olight and iTP are the same company, also Chinese. Mag Instrument is US-based and flashlights are made in the USA. Surefire is US-based and I'm pretty sure that all their flashlights are made in the USA as well.

I like the one Frisket purchased, but there are so many to choose from....I carry a Hugsby P31 at work that I got from DealExtreme. I recommend it. Very rugged, bright, and good runtime on one standard AA battery. I bought a second one for my son in Greenland. http://www.dealextreme.com/p/hugsby-p31-...clip-1-aa-35078

Here is a newer version of the TANK007 TK-360:
http://www.manafont.com/product_info.php...k-16340-p-11147

I bought the AA version TANK007 TK-568. According to reviews, the AA version has the same light unit and the same switch. The main difference is the battery, and thus the AA version is bigger. It's a thrower (tightly focused beam), which is what I need almost always.
http://www.manafont.com/product_info.php...lack-aa-p-11179