I am a real fan of a head lamp, rather than handheld, for a primary light because it is much easier to hold a headlamp in your hand than it is to duct tape (or otherwie fasten) a hand held light to your head. I hand hold my trusty Tikka about half the time anyway, but it fits very nicely on either my head or my helmet in a variety of situations. I even used it as a bicycle headlamp briefly.

There are lots of good LEDs out there. What is "best" depends totally upon your uses for the light.