Check out Candle Power Forums . A message board to ask
questions about all sorts of lights, and I get to moderate!
If you like regular flashlights check out my new flashlight page.
| Bright Guy | all sorts of flashlights, one of my favorite places |
| Fenix Store | They carry the Fenix line and much more. One of my EDC lights |
| Direct Lights | A good selection of lights |
| Surefire Flashlights | All of our Galco, Streamlight and Surefire products are at guaranteed low prices |
| ANDAX - Streamlight distributor | Anything you need from Streamlight, they have it. |
| Skunk Lights | skylight/freelight small solar rechargeable led and other cool stuff like the McLux |
| County Comm | They have the new Inova X5 and more |
| Glow Bug | my favorite sight for comparison, all the newest lights & great prices! |
| World Tools | Lots of neat tools and flashlights of course |
| Shenzhen LED Flashlights | lots of newer lights and neat gadgets! |
| LED home lighting | a wide assortment of custom LED fixtures and lights |
| Action Lights | Wide assortment of lights and accessories at good prices |
| Nightstar2 | Great info and pricing on the no battery LED light |
| the LED Light | some of the best LED flashlights and Bisons |
| The LED store | another LED store, check them out |
| JJ Global Business | lots of differnt LED lights |
| CFR lights | another LED store, good selection |
| Battery+Savers | lights that shut them selves off! |
| Pocketlights | all the small LED lights, my favorite size |
| Flashlights 4 less | some good prices on LED lights |
| Tactical Flashlights | a wide assortment of lights |
| Karst Sports | all sorts of lights, lots of headlamps |
| One Stop Knife Shop | LED and regular Flashlights, and knives |
| NDS Products | all sorts of led and regular flashlights |
| Hosfelt | a supplier of LED's, lowest price Photons (that I know of) |
| Tech Kits | mini pocket LED |
| ledtronics | led's and supplys |
| 1000 bulbs | bulbs, LED, Halogen, CF, CCFT & more |
| Energy Outfitters | Off grid energy products, Quantum 2000 |
| LC Flight | lightwave 2000, and a couple more |
| Triple Aught Design | even more good gear |
| Maxmax | streamlight stylus, also in IR and UV! |
| e-Headlamps | all sorts of headlamps |
| Bright LED's | lots of loose LED's and lamp assembly’s |
| Advance Mart | a good asortment of items |
| Battery Mart | all sorts of batteries |
| Cheap Batteries | if you need a battery they have it, and cheap |
| Thomas Distributing | another great battery store |
| TNR Technical | lithium 123's, and more |
| Sunn Battery | good prices batteries, where I get most of my batteries and chargers |
| Z Battery | lots of rechargables & alkaline batteries and some lights |
| Buy Battery | Great source for Procell (Duracell) batteries! |
| Sure Fire | what can I say they make the best lights |
| Photon lights | One of the best and brightest small lights out there |
| Peak LED | Some really nice small lights |
| JT Spotlight | A nice small LED light that recharges in your automotive cigarette lighter socket |
| Lunar Accents | Custom LED Design's |
| LED-Replacements | Some really nice replacements lamps for regular lights |
| Terra Lux | replacements lamps |
| Technology Associates | Home of the Eternal line |
| Opalec Electronics | makers of the New Beam for the "Mini Mag" |
| Nielsen Labs | Lightwave & Photons |
| Malcolm's Headlamps | Some very intresting and large LED headlamp arrays |
| Pal Lights | Makers of the PAL line of lights |
| CCrane | great durable lights, and very bright |
| Delta light | Makers of the Delta and Millenium light |
| EternaLight | smaller 4 led rectangluar light |
| HDS Systems | some expensive, but worth it LED lights |
| Hollysolar | flashlight's and 120vac lamps |
| Color Kinetics | Actual 120vac LED lighting fixtures |
| Tektite | make a lot of common lights |
| Candle Power Forums | A message board to ask questions about all sorts of lights |
| Craig Johnson | an excellent comparison of the latest LED's available |
| Doug Ritter | Equipped to Survive site now has LED flashlight section, very nice! |
| Shake Flashlights | reviews of all sorts of shake powered lights |
| Don Klipstein | everything you wanted to know about LED's |
| Paul Mathews | The LED FAQ Page |
| Quickbeams | Flashlight reviews site, great info |
| glowinc | Glow in the Dark Paint and Powders |
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Paul Kim, a fellow flashaholic that works at Surefire, great info |
For a more in depth review of the lights I have you really need to check out Craig's site. I have begun sending him the lights I have in my collection and he is doing a great job reviewing them. My site is a LED flashlight "basics", with images from the different lights for your own comparisons. Craig's site will tell you the details of how the light functions and is used, I would encourage you to check out his site.
I got into LED lights by just playing with them myself. The first couple of lights I had were just ones that I modified. I always disliked the idea of making light by heating up some tungsten so hot it would glow. It just seemed like a silly way to make light, and very inefficient. While I was out wandering the web, I found the Photon site and got one. The rest is history. If you have a light you like that I don't have, let me know and I will try to get one. My wife has limited me to one light a month, but on the bright side, that means 12 new ones next year!
Since I have received so many e-mails asking me to do so, I am going to rank the WHITE flashlights I have in the order of brightness. Remember, this is brightness only, not quality, usefulness or favorites. I ranked them by shining them at an object from about 20 feet (7 meters) across a pitch black room. I then switched back and forth until I got them in this order.
| Maker | model | # of LED's | LED MCD | focus in feet | battery | mA draw | mA per LED | weight oz | relative brightness |
| Surefire | new KL4 | 1 | 5w LS | 7 med | 2 123 | regulated | 5.2w | 3.1 | 950 |
| Surefire | L1 | 1 | 1w LS LD | 5 soft | 1 123 | regulated | 1.6w/.03w | 3.1 | 275/30 |
| Surefire | KL1 | 1 | 1w LS LD | 5 soft | 2v-6v | regulated | 1.6w | N/A | 275 |
| Arc | LS | 1 | 1w LS HD | 4 med | 1 123 | regulated | 1.22w | 2.2 | 275 |
| Surefire | KL2 | 18 | 7200 | 7 soft | 4v-9v | regulated | varies | N/A | 250 |
| Terralux | mini star 2 | 1 | 1w | adjustable | 2 AA | - | - | - | 195 |
| Quake II | 19 LED | 19 | ? | 3 med | 2 123 | 400 | 19 | 4.75 | 175 |
| Tektite | Expedition 19 | 19 | 5600 | 5 soft | 3 C | 500 | 26 | 11.5 | 170 |
| Tektite | Expedition 14 | 14 | 5600 | 5 soft | 3 C | 500 | 38 | 11.5 | 140 |
| Lightwave | 4000 | 10 | 5600 | 5 med | 3 D | 260 | 26 | 23 | 125 |
| Streamlight | 4AA LED | 7 | 5600 | 7 soft | 4 AA | 450 | 64R | 6.5 | 120 |
| Inova | X5 | 5 | 5600 | 5 med | 2 123 | 250 | 50 | 4.7 | 95 |
| Xnova | 8 LED | 8 | ? | 3 med | 1 AA | 750 | 20? | 2.5 | 85 |
| Peak | Matterhorn ultra | 3 | 29k | 3 med | 1 AAA | 130 | 20? | 1 | 75 |
| CCrane | CCexpedition | 7 | 4800 | 5 soft | 3 C | 300 | 42 | 11.5 | 75 |
| Photon | freedom | 1 | 29k | 3 med | 2 2016 | 35 | adjustable | .2 | 55 |
| Peak | Shasta hi | 3 | ? | 3 med | 1 N | 100 | 20? | 1 | 50 |
| Night Buster | 8X | 8 | 5600 | 7 soft | 3 AA | 500 | 62 | 10.0 | 65 |
| Night Buster | Ledda | 4 | 5600 | 5 soft | 3 AA | 375 | 94 | 5.0 | 75 |
| HDS | Action Light 1 | 24 | 4000 | 8 soft | D lithium | 400 | 17 | 17 | 5/10/70 |
| Eternal 3 | Tech Associates | 4 | 5600 | 6 soft | 3 AA | 180 | 45 | 4.5/3.5 | 50/70 |
| MPtech | XP3 | 3 | 5600 | 5 med | 3 N | 150 | 50 | 2.5 | 65 |
| Streamlight | 3 N LED | 3 | 5600 | 5 soft | 3 N | 200 | 65 | 2.0 | 60 |
| Peak | Shasta hi | 3 | ? | 3 med | 1 N | 100 | 20? | 1 | 50 |
| Lightwave | 2000 | 4 | 5600 | 5 med | 3 AA | 140 | 35 | 4.25 | 46 |
| Millennium 3 | Military | 3 | ? | 6 soft | 3 D | 165 | 55 | ? | ? |
| Quantum 2000 | Quantum 2000 | 2 | 5600 | 5 soft | 4AA | 160 | 80 | 10.0 | 35 |
| Opalec | New Beam | 3 | 9200 | 5 soft | 2 AA | 155 | 30 | 4.0 | 35 |
| Princeton Tec | Attitude | 3 | 5600 | 5 med | 4 AAA | 120 | 40 | 2.75 | 35 |
| Night Buster | clipper 3 | 3 | 5600 | 5 soft | 3 AAA | 80 | 26.5 | 2.5 | 34 |
| Turbospyder | 10 LED model | 10 | 4000 | 6 soft | 3 AA | 130 | 13 | 3.5 | 23 |
| Streamlight | Baton | 3 | 5600 | 7 soft | 3 N | 225 | 75 | 3.0 | 20 |
| Pelican | L1 | 1 | 5600 | 5 med | 4 LR44 | 160 | 160 | 1.0 | 18 |
| PLW-3 | Pilot 3 | 3 | 5600 | 15 soft | 3 AA | 180 | 60 | 4.25 | 6 |
| Streamlight | Stylus 3 | 1 | 5600 | 3 med | 3 AAAA | 60 | 60 | 1.25 | 18 |
| mini trek | CCrane | 2 | 5600 | 3 med | 3 AAA | 140 | 75 | 3.0 | 15 |
| ARC AAA | ARC Flashlight LLC | 1 | 5600 | 4 med | 1 AAA | 200 | 45? | .75 | 16 |
| Infinity Ultra | white | 1 | 5600 | 6 med | AA | 250 | 45? | 1.5 | 16 |
| LEDTronics | FlashLED | 6 | ? | 10 soft | 3 N | 90 | 15 | 4.0 | ? |
| Turbospyder | 4 LED standard | 4 | 4000 | 5 med | 3 AA | 100 | 25 | 3.5 | 14 |
| O-4 | CMG | 1 | 5600 | 4 med | 2 2016 | 30 | 30 | .5 | 16 |
| Night Buster | Klikit | 1 | 5600 | 4 med | 2 2016 | 30 | 30 | .5 | 16 |
| Photon 3 | white | 1 | 5600 | 4 med | 2 2016 | review | review | .25 | 16 |
| Photon | narrow white | 1 | 5600 | 4 med | 2 2016 | 35 | 35 | .25 | 15 |
| Night Buster | clipper 1 | 1 | 5600 | 5 med | 3 AAA | 30 | 30 | 2.5 | 12 |
| Scepter | white | 1 | 5600 | 4 med | 4 LR41 | 70 | 70 | .75 | 12 |
| Princton Tec | Pulsar | 1 | 5600 | 4 med | 2 2016 | 35 | 35 | .25 | 15 |
| Emissive Energy | Microlight | 1 | 5600 | 4 med | 2 2016 | 35 | 35 | .25 | 15 |
| very | small? | 1 | 3mm led | 7 soft | 2 1220 | 25 | 25 | .1 | 4 |
| HTS | GX4 | 1 | 7000 | 4 sharp | A23 12v | 50 | 50 | 1.2 | ? |
| Infinity | white | 1 | 5600 | 6 med | AA | 55 | 20 | 1.5 | 10 |
| Lightwave | Pocketbright | 1 | 5600 | 3 med | 2 2025 | 25 | 25 | .5 | ? |
| HTS | GN | 1 | 4000 | 6 med | A23 12v | 50 | 50 | .75 | 1 |
| HTS | A1 | 1 | 1000 | 8 med | 2 AA | 15 | 15 | .75 | 1 |
| Photon | old white | 1 | ??? | 10 sharp | 2 2016 | 30 | 30 | .25 | 1 |
| Nighthawk | Microlight II | 1 | ??? | 6 soft | 2 LR44's | 5 | 5 | .5 | .5 |
| very | narrow | beam | lights | listed | below | - | - | - | - |
| Turtle | 1 | 1 | ? | 1 sharp | 4 AA | 70 | ? | ? | - |
| Pal | Gold turbo | 1 | ? | 2 sharp | 9v | 76 | ? | 3.25 | - |
| Pal | Onestar | 1 | ? | 6 sharp | 9v | 69 | ? | 3.25 | 26 |
| Brinkman | Long Life | 1 | ? | 4 sharp | 2 AA | 95 | ? | 4.5 | 13 |
| Pal | Gold regular | 1 | ? | 2 sharp | 9v | 6 | ? | 3.25 | - |
Focus is how wide the beam of light is after shining 20 feet. For lighting at a distance, a small number would be better, while a big number would be better for closer viewing. The sharp, medium or soft refers to how abruptly the light drops off outside the measured beam of light, for instance a laser would be VERY sharp.
Brightness was measured with a G.E. light meter with the lights 1 foot from the meter. Keep in mind a light that is more tightly focused or a smaller beam of light will tend to have a higher reading. These numbers are really more useful just as a comparison of all the lights I have and can't really be compared to lumens or foot candles manufactures rate their lights at.