The LED flashlights I bought in March from Amazon (but shipped from Hong Kong) arrived recently and I’ve had a chance to use them a bit. I paid $5.49 apiece, with free shipping, but I see that the price (as of June 8) has gone down to $4.30, These have a Cree Q5 emitter, and use a single AA cell. The lens on the front slides in and out to allow the light to be focused in a large or small pattern. They said 300 lm but I don’t believe it. The body is black, solid aluminum, with a screw on cap in the rear with the click switch.
Nowadays, the reflector has dozens of squares on it to help diffuse the light pattern. But this LED light has the additional lens and it will focus the face of the LED onto the wall, so I can see the actual pattern of the emitter. But I don’t have to pull the lens out that far; the pattern will stay somewhat diffused. I think that most people don’t like this sliding lens ‘feature’, so they are having difficulty selling them and have to drop the price. I bought them to give to some of my co-workers.
One thing I noticed when I picked this light up was how heavy it was. It has a lot of aluminum in it. The case is aluminum and it’s thick. If I wanted to go on a hike, or take a flashlight somewhere where ones gear has to be light, this is not the flashlight to use.
More about flashlights (torches) in general and what I see in the market currently in my blog here.
