CREE LED's are a big advance

by bj , Thursday, February 02, 2012, 11:01 (4626 days ago) @ Rob Leahy

I have a lot of the older LED lights using the Lumiled LED's. They were great at the time, not as much light as a good incandescent light but longer battery life and no bulb to worry about burning out. But then Cree LED's came out and they are very much brighter for the same voltage and current. I bought a new Fenix light in December, smaller than my Pelican and Streamlight lights, but 320 Lumens, and they have models with more light output than that. I even found a module to plug into a maglite with claimed 1000 lumens. The older LED's are still useful for some things and you don't always need that much light anyway for instance if you are working up close, looking under seats in your truck, in closets, etc.

With rechargeable batteries you have the problem of battery life. In a matter of years you will probably need to replace the batteries. My "good" lights all use CR123 Lithium batteries. There is much less chance of leakage with these batteries, but they can be expensive unless you buy them right in bulk.