I need to pick up an LED light. Anyone have any opinions on a really bright, durable LED for $30 or less?

Thanks.

If you have a old mini-Mag Lite, you could get a Night-Ize LED upgrade and IQ switch for around $15... Night-Ize new 1 Watt LED upgrade is rather impressive.

Personally I really like the Princeton Tech Impact II. I have also done the maglite LED conversion, it works well and I like it, but i still prefer my Impact II.

http://www.rei.com/online/store/ProductD...vcat=REI_SEARCH

This is a bit hard as these lights tyipcally vary a lot in how focused they are and how bright they are. More detail about the intended use would be helpful.

I'd take a look at:

- PT Impact series of lights as mentioned above.
- Streamlight ProPolymer 4AA LED lights
- Underwater Kinetics 4AA eLED lights
- Inova X5

-john

I suggest the Civictor or Fenix L1S, either available from www.fenix-store.com . These use one AA so are easily pocketable, easy to find batteries for, and quite bright. Using an NiMH rechargeable battery for economy or a lithium for performance both work extremely well. Alkalines work less well because of their lower current capacity, but are fine in a pinch.

I've got many LED lights and the one I use the most these days is the cheap "River Rock 1/2 watt 2-AAA" from Target. $9.95 normally, I found one on sale for $7.95 once.

It depends on what you mean by "really bright". A 1/2 watt is easily bright enough for all the normal household chores I do. You can get 3 watters and 5 watters, but probably not for your under $30 price point. The new MagLites that come with LED's are 3 watts I think (I don't have one). They're reportedly pretty good, and I think they're just a bit over $30 ($35 maybe?) That's for the MagLite branded LED. There are many other conversion LED manufacturers. Some good, some not so good.

I would get a combination myself. Maybe that River Rock 1/2 watter for the everyday needs, and a Princton Tec TEC40 4AA incandescant for when you want something brighter with throw. Those TEC40's are cheap and very bright. Small. Pretty durable for a non-LED light too. If you shop around for sales you can probably pick up BOTH of these lights for a grand total of $20.

The authorative website for anything flashlight related is http://www.candlepowerforums.com

MiniMag has 2 LED lights, one with 2AA batteries for about $24 and one with 3AA for about $26 both at Wal-Mart. I don't have one yet because recently I converted my old MiniMag with the Nite-Ize conversion, that doesn't have the switch ,for less than $5 at Wal-Mart. With the conversion you cannot adjust the beam like with the new flashlight. Does anyone has any of the new LED Minimags?. How are they?

Define really bright. I have two LED lights that I go to. One is a 1xAA Gerber Ultra Infinity and the other is an Underwater Kinetics 4xAA eLED. Both are regulated and both have excellent battery life.
Go to FlashlightReviews.com and see if anything looks good.

I bought the 3AAA for $19.99 instead of paying WalMart's high price and really like it, its quite bright for its size. I wish they would make their own AAA versions.

And define durable. The UK Mini Q40 eLED is ultra reliable and nearly bombproof for example. Some of the others listed here I think are fine for around the house kind of duties, but I wouldn't trust in a it's-absolutely-gotta-work situation. The Maglite for example; too many moving parts. I've had too many not work reliably.

-john