The SureFire 6V (2 x cr123A) handheld line used to dominate this field, but many other manufacturers have stepped in.
The biggest change is the move to LED emitters, which are more durable, brighter and offer significant battery life. SureFire has converted most of their line to LED.
www.surefire.com
Other manufacturers offer similar models with a huge variety of features. Many of those features are nothing but liabilities. When your life depends on it, you want to push a tailcap and get bright, dependable light. You don’t want to be messing with twising bezels, multiple clicks of the tailcap to select brightness, etc.
My favorites are the SureFire G2 lights with LED conversions. They’re cheap ($35 before the conversion module), lightweight polymer lights that just work. No extra bezels and switches.
Streamlight offers similar models without too many gimmicks, but others like Jetfire have models with over ten brightness settings, strobes, SOS flashes, etc. Those are utility lights, not something you want to use when you’ve got a pistol in your other hand and you’re shaking with fear and adrenaline.
—The biggest change is the move to LED emitters—
It’s made ALL lightbulb flashlights obsolete. When I see them even being offered for sale it cracks me up.
I used to use a $150 6v headlight system for my bicycle. 25W bulb and a very heavy battery that looks like a water bottle and slops into your water bottle holder. Now, I use one of the lights from the 200 lumen three flashlight set at Costco ($19.99). It is brighter, is five inches long, made of machined aluminum and takes 3 AAA batteries. 3 watts.
Frankly, I’m seriously thinking of getting two of these three packs and using the six as auxiliary lights for my car. that’s 18 watts vs the normal 70-210 watts and much more brightness. And three per side is about 1.5” x 4.5” of frontal area.
I’m thinking of turning my 2001 300M into a Rat Rod with a really nice interior. These lights would be really cool instead of the old big ones. Hmmm.