Holy Smokes! I did a paste and search on every light mentioned,they are all CRAZY good lights,Im astounded whats out there!

I carry an ARC AAA premium and an Gerber Infinity Task Light.The gerber replaced my CMG infinity that was lost.Pros are common power cells and basicly no moving parts.In this I mean there are no push button or internal switches that can fail.The connection is direct contact on the battery teminals.
The cons are the AA Gerber Infinity is a little thick for pants pocket carry.The other thing is the Gerber turns on by twisting the tail cap instead of the head like the ARC AAA or the CMG.This is just picking nits and I find they are both "Bomb Proof" pieces of gear.....


BOATMAN
John

I have several of the original CMG Infinities. Those are my emergency lights. In addition to being built like a tank, the battery lasts forever. Nowhere near as bright as today's LED marvels, but what you want for emergencies is long lasting light and durability. A super-bright thing that only lasts one hour per battery is good for everyday carry where batteries are plentiful and you have house power to charge LiIon's and NiMH's, but IMHO, not for emergencies. You just can't beat those CMG Infinities for emergency backup.

Hum? - not a bit? I usually run lithium batteries in mine (for longer runtime), if that makes a difference. I usually change about once a year, whether it needs a new batt or not.....

I like the CMG/Gerber Infinity lights, they are well built and reliable. However, while the newer lights can run much brighter with correspondingly shorter run-times, they can also run much dimmer with correspondingly longer run-times. For dark adjusted eyes, the 1xAA FourSevens Quark Pro QPA has a moonlight mode of 0.2 lumens which is good for 10 days (70 hours) of walking around with dark adjusted eyes.

If you need a bit more light you can bump it up to 4 lumens which is still good for 2 days. Bump it again and you get 22 lumens for 6 hrs, and then 85 lumens for 1.5 hrs. In any of those modes a simple twist of the head takes you directly to 109 lumens which drains the battery in 1.2 hrs.

I can't do that with a Gerber Infinity. With the Gerber I hold the light deep in my closed hand to limit the beam and avoid spillage. It's just the same.

Not affiliated, just a user.

In my carry bag:

1. SureFire Minimus, 1xCR123 headlamp
2. 4sevens Preon P1, 1xAAA twisty
3. 4sevens Quark Pro QPA, 1xAA clicky, with prism attached

The 4sevens lights are only there as bug-out bag lights; the Surefire is a daily work light. The disaster lights are deliberately single-cell and don't need exotic cells: in a hurricane or earthquake aftermath it's a lot easier to scavenge an AA than a CR123.

There's a 4sevens Mini ML (1xCR123) in my pocket. This gets the most use away from a lab bench (where a headlamp is always used). I sometimes find clicky lights get turned on somehow in my pocket so I prefer a twisty lights there: I prefer single-cell to minimize the risk of thermal runaway (i.e. "vent with flame" in my pocket sounds uncomfortable).

My keychain has a 4sevens Mini MLR2, a 1xCR2 twisty. Battery cost is the issue here, but 200 lm from a keychain...

General comments:

Don't underestimate headlamps. A steerable headlamp almost always beats a hand-held light in real-world usability for anything beyond momentary use.

Cree just announced their MK-R LED series, which reaches 200 lm/W. These will make for much longer runtimes and for honest output levels on a lot of lights (my Mini MLR2 has a claimed 200 lm max, but no way can it do that for long because of heat).

Interesting. I tend to use the lower output modes more often than the high end so bumping it up from moonlight to low to medium makes much more sense than a bump from moonlight to max.

Power that Quark with a 14500 LiIon rechargeable and the max output jumps up to 160 - 180 lumens (I can't remember the exact output boost). The other modes stay the same lumen output with a 14500.

I wish manufacturers would get rid of the useless strobe, flash, blink, SOS, etc. modes. Those are just a waste IMHO, and a pain in the butt to have to cycle through if you hit them by accident. I would say, make a special version of the light specifically for folks that need those extra modes so everybody else doesn't have to put up with their annoyance.

I bought my last headlamp (I have many) specifically BECAUSE it didn't have a flashing mode. Who in the heck needs a flashing headlamp?! My headlamp does OFF - HIGH - LOW. Perfect!

for you that may need a high output long run time light... jeopardized by a shut down due to excessive heat....you might check out the Malkoff modules... they are expensive, but have massive brass heat sinks

http://www.malkoffdevices.com/shop/dropin-mod-dropins-to-fit-surefire-c-1_14.html

Some runners, cyclists, walkers, etc. out at night will use a flashing headlamp not to see with, but to be seen (for safety).