jmcglash ... i am taking a serious look at the hexbright.
aluminum housing ... has two light modes (hi and lo) ... price is reasonable.

chaosmagnet - i will wait for your evaluation of the hexbright before buying. thanks. and i would like to get your opinion about whether these lights have tactical usefulness - shining it in an attackers eyes at distances of about 4-6 feet.

spuds said - "Jim, when you get that light will you do me a favor? I wonder if its bright enough to shine light thru hand or maybe sideways at oblique angles in arms to see veins?I might be able to use it to help start IV's."

I had no idea that was even possible. :-)

Pete2

I'm pretty sure the $100 HexBright flashlight and some other flashlights posted here are far outside of the original poster's ball park, based on the links he posted. Maybe we should start a new thread so this useful discussion isn't buried in this thread.

Nope, we left cheap flashlights way back. A friend bought a Gerber 1xAA LED light for ~$5 as I recall. Very good light for the price.

Once the discussion moves to lights with CREE XM-L and XP-G emitters, we are way past cheap.

Oh I don't know about that!

UltraFire WF-502B XM-LT6 5-Mode 510-Lumen Memory White LED Flashlight with Clip for $13.50

http://dx.com/p/ultrafire-wf-502b-xm-lt6...0-55238?item=44

can somebody explain to me the CREE design concept, and why it is that there are a few bright flashlights in the price range of $10-$30, and then after that the prices seem to jump to $80-$200??

thanks,
Pete2

Thats is about as big of a mystery as the Apple iPhone, which costs around $8-10 to manufacture in China.

One of my Cree equipped lights cost me about 45 bucks, and my latest Cree purchase was $64. I am happy with both of them - light and bright. As the shiny new technology ages, the price tends to come down.

On the subject of lights, it really irks me that they make them so complicated! It seems like most of the Chinese lights are cluttered with multiple modes- some have a dozen or more! Maybe I'm just a cave man but two modes is sometimes pushing it for me. I guess that's why my (admittedly expensive) Surefire E1B is my favorite light. When you turn it on it's automatically at full power; quickly cycling it will get you into low mode (5 lumens IIRC).

I bought a cool inexpensive 1 x CR123a light from DX that was recommended by Am_Fear_Liath_Mor. The light is great but I missed reading that it has 5 modes! It's a real bear to find the mode I want, and invariably it comes on in whatever mode is most inconvenient/disadvantageous for the purpose at hand.

Does anyone make a DEAD SIMPLE led light that takes 1 or 2 CR123a batteries, with just one or two modes, for a "reasonable" price? I put it in quotes because "reasonable" varies from person to person. Say, $20-ish?

so far I'm pretty happy with the DIY build from Solar Force (Hong Kong) products... a LM2 body was $11 (2x cr123) and a 320 lumen LED module about the same.. also a 240 lumen LED module for about $10... has a click tail cap, momentary and on... no multi modes ... I EDC along with a Fenix E01, a Streamlight TacPro 1L that is a single cr123 and 3 modes.. but it was around $35...it took about 2 weeks to get the light from Hong Kong, but shipping was pretty reasonable...at the same time, I purchased several LED module upgrades for a couple of SureFires incandescents I had laying around...

Some flashlights on DX.com are so cheap, it's easier to buy rather than to critique. For example...

http://dx.com/p/new-10b-cree-q5-3-mode-3...0-123406?item=2