I bought a little Jetbeam BC-10 about 5-6 weeks ago. I take it and/or my other new LED flashlight out to walk the dog on our 1.3 acre heavily wooded property at least 2 times each night, and all I really ever need to use is the 30 lumen low setting on the BC-10. I dont turn it on it's 270 lumen high setting very often, but its pretty bright. It has a standard tail switch with a momentary on ability.
The Jetbeam BC-10 is a small diameter light, without a wide reflector, so it isnt a long throw style flashlight with an extremely focused hot spot in the center at long ranges, but you can clearly see about 70 feet in front of you on low, and about 150-200 feet on high. It has a good medium sized spill beam too, and it lights up most everything in between you and whatever you are pointing the light at. Its about twice as bright on high as a standard 4-D cell incandescent Maglite, but it's only a fraction of the size and weight of the Maglite!
It is 23mm in diameter, and about 3.5 inches long. It runs on just 1 CR123 battery, but has a 270 lumen high brightness setting.
It's made of thick, aircraft grade aluminum with top end type III anodizing. It's light and compact. It has a high end Cree XPG R5 LED. It comes with a strong aluminum orange peel textured reflector, and a tough lens. It's battery life on low(30 lumens) is 18 hours, and on high(270L) about 1.5 hours. I have not used up the first battery yet.
The BC-10 costs only $39! Overall, I think that you cannot possibly do any better than the BC-10 for the money, or even for $10-$20 more to be honest. I bought 2 more for Christmas presents.
The other light I bought is the iTp A6 Polestar. It runs on 6 AA batteries, has 3 brightness settings and a strobe: 1. Low-12 lumens 2. Medium-160 lumens 3. High-700 lumens. It is very bright on medium and high. It has a remarkably wide spill beam, so you can see everything all around you, but it also has a very focused hot spot, which throws pretty far.
It has a Cree XME LED, which has a great, warm, slightly yellowish tint to it's beam, which gives it great color rendering. Its made of aircraft aluminum with type III anodizing. It has a rare side switch, instead of a tail switch. Its a little smaller in diameter and length than a typical 2-D cell flashlight. It has a little thinner gauge aluminum construction than many lights, but its not too thin that it will break or anything. It's obviously built well, and it usually sells for the relatively low price of $79.99, but I found it on Amazon.com for $59.99! Thats very cheap for a higher end 700 lumen light.
I like both of them, and best of all, I got both over the internet with free shipping, so I only paid $98.99 for both lights! You can easily spend more than that for 1 light that has a max brightness of 450 lumens, or you can pay even more for a Surefire that only has a max brightness of 140 lumens!
They are both very well made, and the only disappointment I had was with the iTp A6 Polestar's battery holder, which is a bit thinner than I figured it would be, but the Fenix TK-45 has an almost identical battery holder, and it costs $130. It works just fine, I just wouldnt drop the battery holder from a high place, or step on it or it will smash........
But other than that, I'd recommend either or both. I'm going to try and mount a BC-10 as a weapon light.
The Jetbeam BC-10 is a small diameter light, without a wide reflector, so it isnt a long throw style flashlight with an extremely focused hot spot in the center at long ranges, but you can clearly see about 70 feet in front of you on low, and about 150-200 feet on high. It has a good medium sized spill beam too, and it lights up most everything in between you and whatever you are pointing the light at. Its about twice as bright on high as a standard 4-D cell incandescent Maglite, but it's only a fraction of the size and weight of the Maglite!
It is 23mm in diameter, and about 3.5 inches long. It runs on just 1 CR123 battery, but has a 270 lumen high brightness setting.
It's made of thick, aircraft grade aluminum with top end type III anodizing. It's light and compact. It has a high end Cree XPG R5 LED. It comes with a strong aluminum orange peel textured reflector, and a tough lens. It's battery life on low(30 lumens) is 18 hours, and on high(270L) about 1.5 hours. I have not used up the first battery yet.
The BC-10 costs only $39! Overall, I think that you cannot possibly do any better than the BC-10 for the money, or even for $10-$20 more to be honest. I bought 2 more for Christmas presents.
The other light I bought is the iTp A6 Polestar. It runs on 6 AA batteries, has 3 brightness settings and a strobe: 1. Low-12 lumens 2. Medium-160 lumens 3. High-700 lumens. It is very bright on medium and high. It has a remarkably wide spill beam, so you can see everything all around you, but it also has a very focused hot spot, which throws pretty far.
It has a Cree XME LED, which has a great, warm, slightly yellowish tint to it's beam, which gives it great color rendering. Its made of aircraft aluminum with type III anodizing. It has a rare side switch, instead of a tail switch. Its a little smaller in diameter and length than a typical 2-D cell flashlight. It has a little thinner gauge aluminum construction than many lights, but its not too thin that it will break or anything. It's obviously built well, and it usually sells for the relatively low price of $79.99, but I found it on Amazon.com for $59.99! Thats very cheap for a higher end 700 lumen light.
I like both of them, and best of all, I got both over the internet with free shipping, so I only paid $98.99 for both lights! You can easily spend more than that for 1 light that has a max brightness of 450 lumens, or you can pay even more for a Surefire that only has a max brightness of 140 lumens!
They are both very well made, and the only disappointment I had was with the iTp A6 Polestar's battery holder, which is a bit thinner than I figured it would be, but the Fenix TK-45 has an almost identical battery holder, and it costs $130. It works just fine, I just wouldnt drop the battery holder from a high place, or step on it or it will smash........
But other than that, I'd recommend either or both. I'm going to try and mount a BC-10 as a weapon light.