hello everyone,

Once again I am calling on the collective knowledge, experience and wisdom of the folks here at ETS. It's time to upgrade my headlamp and flashlight for scouting activities this year. I was also thinking of standardizing battery size, so I am looking at a smith and wesson MP7 series flashlight in AAA and a black diamond storm headlamp in AAA. Anyone with experience with either of these lights care to comment on quality? Also, other than the convenience of only having to bring one type/size of spare batteries, is there any other reason to consider standardizing battery size? I have never really given that idea much thought as I always seemed to have gadgets around the house that took lots of different size batteries, so i always seem to have ready supplies of AA, AAA, 9 volt, C and D batteries hanging around. Comments and insights are appreciated and welcomed. As always, thanks in advance for your words of wisdom.

I see it as a trade off. If you only need one kind of battery for your gizmos, keeping them fed is easier. If you have battery diversity, you might find it easier to find a battery that will work for one of your flashlights. You also may find that different battery form factors work better for different purposes.

I have no hands-on with the MP7 but I do not care for the 3xAAA form factor. You get less power than you would with other form factors (such as 2xAA or 1xCR123A) and they're more fiddly to change batteries.

For me, I would in almost every circumstance for EDC and emergency use recommend an LED. After that, most non-flashaholics are better off with AA-powered lights. Flashaholics will often want CR123A or 18650 or 14400 or
10440 or some other kind of oddball cell. When you've figured those things out, output, runtime and whether you need variable output and disco modes should help you narrow the field.

Mark... I attempted to standardize my lights to AAs a couple of years ago, and except for the CR123s on the weapons lights have pretty much done so... I chose the AAs over the AAAs for the added run times, but this did lead to some difficulty in finding the right appliances... for a headlight I went with the Black Diamond Icon (earlier version on closeout that does not have the red LEDs for night use) for a flashlight I went with the Fenix E21... I use Sanyo Eneloop AAs and have a Goal Zero 7w panel as well as a Fujicell SCH808F multi input charger...

these are what I came up with ... good luck

lower left... Black Diamond Icon, Gerber Infinity task light, Fenix E21, and Coleman 3AA High Tech area light...the battery pack will not charge my older Motorola...Midland W300, and Reecom (not shown) weather alerts and older Grundig all use AAs

Maybe you could skip a headlight:
How well does the photon freedom micro light Doug sells work?
Is the clip used on a cap brim or something as good as a headlight?
And is the protective LED tube removable?
Anyone know?
qjs

It works very well, certainly the best coin-cell flashlight I've ever seen. The clip works well on a cap brim, keeping in mind that you won't get as much output and runtime as you would with other form-factors. The tube around the LED is removable, once. I managed to do it without destroying the light. You might not want to, though, as the glare is noticeable when it's clipped to the cap brim after that.

I don't use headlamps a lot but when I do I prefer one that's AA or (more commonly) CR123A powered and with a lot of output.

Chaos, I had never even really thought about standardizing battery size for my lights and other gizmos before, i just accepted the fact that the gizmos i bought used different sized batteries, and did my best to have them on hand. However, over the years I've noticed it is frustrating to have every battery size on hand except the one the gizmo in question needed. It's never been in a critical situation before, thank goodness, but since I've seen a lot of people here mention standardizing battery size I thought I'd ask and see what people's opinions are about the subject.

I would (maybe) prefer a AA form factor, but I'm ok with the 3 AAA form factor, I deal with it frequently on other gizmos without too much trouble. Also, I didn't see much in the way of AA headlamps (granted I haven't really looked at many yet). I was looking at a petzl pixa 2 pro, a nice and rugged looking light but the performance of the light seemed pretty dismal, only 6 hours run time on high at 40 lumens and 12 hours on low at 30 lumens. I'm sure there are better performing AA headlamps available, but i expect the cost will rise substantially and I'll end up with one that has the battery pack on the back of the head and the dreaded over-the-top head strap.

I guess I'm not truly a flashaholic then, I tend to prefer standard AA and AAA cells these days rather than the others you mentioned. Shopping for them is dreadful, especially if, like shopping for the myriad of coin cell type batteries, someone has put a pack on the wrong hook, and you're not paying as close attention as you should to the actual battery pack you put in the cart. As far as narrowing the field, goes, I really like the options on the ones i mentioned, dual outputs, good run times, and uses a more standard battery size. I just hope I am on the right track.

Thanks for the options les, I will give those a look

QJS and chaos, the reason I am upgrading my headlamps is my existing cyclops type just isn't cutting the mustard. We tend to end up setting up a lot in the dark for scout activities, and I need something with more light output, with the option of switching to a lower output setting. A headlamp is absolutely needed in these situations so the hands are free to work.

I am upgrading my mini-maglites (AA form factor) for the same reason. They've been good lights, not used very often, but I'd like an upgrade to something with much better output for the times when i do use it.

If you have one light, you want it to be a headlight. It is much easier to hold a headlight in the hand than to fix a flashlight to the head, and there are situations where you do not want a light on the head. The ability to switch modes rapidly is very useful. My basic light is a headlight.

There are AA headlights using single batteries. Consider Zebralight - http://www.zebralight.com/. They aren't cheap, but I have found their headlight to be satisfactory, once I modified and simplified their headlight strap. Check out candlepower forums for similar brands - there are quite a few.

One feature of the Zlight that I really appreciate is that it comes with a clip that allows you to attach the light to clothing so that you have both hands free and depth perception capability.

I have more or less standardized on AA, with some AAAs in the mix. Primarily, I like my GPS and light(s) to share the same batteries. Right now I can go afield with either a AA set, or a AAA set, or conceivably both. What is really critical if the ability to recharge, which I can do in either house current, 12V DC, or solar. The solar option adds weight and bulk, critical in backpacking, but not to a totally unreasonable degree.

I note that I am beginning to acquire more and more units, charged through UPS technology, that use 18650 batteries, which well might replace AAs as a standard.

Battery standardization is a worthy goal, but probably unattainable in the real world. The alternative is organization, not something that comes naturally to me.

Yeah, I tried to standardize on AA batteries but failed. Some goodie would come along in other than AA and I went for it. GPS and LED flashlights are AA. My headlamp is AAA; both lights for my handgun and shotgun are CR123A. A couple pocket lights are AAA and the DR light on my keyring is a coin-cell.

One reason to standardize on AA NiMH rechargables is that my Goal Zero solar panel uses AA NiMH batteries as part of its system. That's one very good reason to standardize on AA batteries. YMMV