I honestly haven't really thought too much about what type of cells to use yet, any of the lights I've used in the past have always just been with alkaline disposables but that's something obviously I'm keen to move away from.
I had a look at the Convoy and that looks like a very good starting point though I'm still keen to hear about some other alternatives if you guys have any recommendations.
Battery tech is important, and sadly far too many people still don't understand much about the different offerings.
The reality is, unless you really have to, never use alkaline (for pretty much anything). They are dreadful, worst they have a high tendency to leak completely ruining whatever they are in. And not only that, in high powered applications like torches (and digital cameras) they simply don't perform very well.
Making a choice on what battery type you want to use is important, as it will then dictate what torches are on offer.
Your main choices are:
-Lithium primaries, either AA, AAA or CR123a. Can be pricey if you buy off the shelf in Tesco or similar, but not too bad if you buy off places like ebay. The AA/AAA will be Energiser Lithium and several brands of CR123a. The advantage with these is, they don't leak, have a great shelf life, offer brilliant performance over alkalines and work well in the cold. Only downside is they are throw away, so can get costly if you use the torch a lot. But are ideal for a backup torch that you might keep in a car.
-NiMh rechargeable. Now there are a couple of types of NiMH, the one you want is the Low Self Discharge variety, these will hold 70% of their charge for 3 years. Which makes them very useful. Non LSD ones might go flat in 2 weeks or less without you using them at all. If in doubt, buy Sanyo Eneloops. They are generally seen as the best and not bad to buy. NiMh doesn't leak and also offers great performance too for high amp draws. And also doesn't mind the cold. Runtimes might be lower (depending on actual use), but being rechargeable makes them a good choice.
-Li-ion. Many people are not familiar with Li-ion, although it's been a mainstay in the mobile phone and laptop world for some time. The big difference here is, they are 4.2v vs 1.2-1.5v for the other battery types. This means they have a lot more energy/punch and will give higher performance. The only downside is, they are potentially more volatile and dangerous. However you need to weigh this against other risks. Li-ion is no worse than handling petrol, which many of us do regularly. You just need to be careful, give respect and don't be stupid.
If you plan to go Li-ion, then you'll need a quality charger (many crap ones about), and you'll want quality batteries, again there are many really crap ones about, avoid any battery that says Ultrafire or similar on it.
You'll also want a Digital Multi Meter, these cost about £5 off ebay, so no reason not to get one.
As far as torches go. Led Lensers are fine, but a tad pricey for what they are. On here they take a bit of stick, but it's usually unfounded IMO. But it is true, you can get more brightness and for less money, but that doesn't necessarily mean better. I have several Led Lenser type lights and I think they are all very good and if you plan to avoid Li-ion, then they are very good performers.
If you want to try out Led Lenser, you can buy one here:
https://www.fasttech.com/products/0/10003915/1675300-p7-2-9407-1-r5-2-mode-240lm-zoom-cool-white-led
About £20 with free postage. They work very well on NiMh and I'm sure you'll be impressed with how good it is.
For AA/AAA use, Maglite are another candidate, but frankly they are massively over priced in the UK. If you lived in the USA then they are quire viable, but over here I'd opt to avoid at UK retail prices.
Of course there are plenty of other AA/AAA options out there and with a lot of price variance. For something pocket friendly and a good starting point, the Xeno E03 is quite nice:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/XENO-Tige...664?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item234d566000
And you probably won't believe how small it is.
As I've just posted a link to the Xeno, something to note is LED emitter type and tint.
When people first start out, they often get bamboozled with some of the names and marketing lies.
But you really need to know what is what.
Cree make LEDs and not torches. At the moment the two most common LEDs you'll see from Cree will be the XM-L2 and the XP-G2.
The XM-L2 is a large LED, it makes lots of light, but will be more floody.
The XP-G2 is a smaller LED, not quite as bright, but because it is smaller it will throw a beam further, i.e. will light stuff up further away.
And don't get too hung up on lumen output. Lumens are a bit like torque with cars. It doesn't really tell you how it will perform. And buying the most lumens might not give you the best performance.
As far as lumen output goes, many Chinese vendors completely lie. A single XM-L2 will make 700-1000 lumens or so. If you see claims higher than this, then they are likely lying.
An XP-G2 is in the 300-600 lumen range (but remember will throw better than the XM-L2).
Tint is the next important thing. Many cheap lights have dreadful tint, usually a harsh cool white often tinged with blue, purple or green. Personally I think tint is the most important thing, way more important than output, as no matter what mode you use the light on, you can always see the tint. A nice Neutral White (NW) tint will generally be more pleasant on the eye, have better colour rendition and look so much nicer, especially if you are out camping or in the countryside. Cool White (CW) will tend to make the greens and browns of trees and grass go a sort of colourless grey.
As for li-ion lights. I would recommend starting with the 18650 size. Very good output, but small enough to fit in your pocket. With li-ion there is a lot to learn, so I won't try and teach it all in one post. But 18650 lights are hugely versatile and great place to begin.
I too would promote buying Convoy lights. For the price and quality they are very hard to beat. The likes of Fenix and Nitecore, there is nothing wrong with them, but they are expensive IMO.
Generally torches/flashlights fall into the "premium" category, the likes of Fenix and budget, such as Convoy. Now there are a lot of really rubbish budget lights, but also a great deal of really good ones.
And with the premium lights, well they are a bit like buying a BMW. You often only buy them for the name and image. Rarely do they actually out perform cheaper offerings, often not as good even. The only main difference with premium lights, is usually the User Interface (UI). Budget lights tend to have fairly simply UI's, while many premium lights have quite advanced UI's. This is the only real difference.
Also oddly enough many premium lights can only be bought in horrid CW tints. But some of them are starting to learn.
As for the Convoy lights, I can highly recommend the S2+
I would buy it from here:
http://www.banggood.com/Convoy-S2-Red-Cree-XML2-71358-5-Modes-EDC-LED-Flashlight-p-964149.html
When buying any Convoy light, aside from the model you want, you need to know two other things:
-driver
-LED tint
Tint, I explained above. To help out a bit you might see something like XM-L2 U2-1A
XM-L2 = the type of LED
U2 = the brightness bin. Cree categorise the LEDs into different outputs. A word of warning, by eye you'll be hard pressed to see any difference. And as a rule the best tints can't be had in the brightest output bin. So don't get too hung up on it.
1A = the tint bin.
I would recommend as first time purchase you opt for the
XM-L2 T6-3B, this is a very nice NW tint to try out.
Driver, LED's typically need a driver of some kind, to set the modes and to dictate the output levels. All of the Convoy lights use the same type of driver with the same modes. The differences are how many 7135 chips the driver uses. The more chips the brighter. However the brighter the hotter it gets and the quicker it uses your battery up on High.
If you need to turn a light on and use it constantly for 40mins +, then a lower spec driver will work better. If you will only use it for shorter periods of time, say 5 mins at a time, then the high output driver will be fine.
Remember you have 3 output modes on all drivers, so you can lower the output, but the modes are percentage of max, so all modes will be lower output on the lower spec drivers.
The 8*7135 driver (meaning it uses eight 7135 chips) is the brightest. And still very usable. This will give output similar to the Fenix and Nitecore lights you mention.
