Here's some options.
Budget light, Convoy M1. It's a nice well built little light. It's not super fancy or the latest and greatest but it'll get the job done. You'll need an external charger. I would suggest the 4000k or 5000k color temp. Most people prefer to be somewhere in that range. Nice white light. Big downside is you'll probably be waiting 2-4 weeks for it to show up.
https://www.aliexpress.com/store/pr...158.html?spm=2114.12010608.0.0.727c7394J327es
Mid range option 1, Emisar D1S. It's a nice light that the flashlight enthusiasts all like. It's a pretty
current design with a lot of bells and whistles. The ramping UI is really nice. The head is a little larger than the other 2 lights, but this one has a lot more
throw without nearly as much
spill. Again, you'll need an external charger.
http://www.mtnelectronics.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=80&product_id=891
They also have the mini version, which is probably more suited to what you would really need performance wise. It'll have plenty of
throw, but also provide more
spill for general lighting. It's currently out of
stock, but you could get it shipped from China and again wait a couple weeks or more.
http://www.mtnelectronics.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=80&product_id=876
direct from China option
https://intl-outdoor.com/emisar-d1-mini-thrower-p-922.html
More expensive options, honestly, I would much rather have either of the mid range options than either of these lights. Upside is they have USB charging, and come with a battery,
etc. And you can get them from pretty much anywhere.
Nightcore MH25GT
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00NLL7PDA/?tag=controlbooth-20
Olight Warrior X
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07KTT2HZD/?tag=controlbooth-20
Now onto batteries. All of these lights are powered by 18650 Li-Ion batteries. They can be dangerous, especially the unprotected models. There's really nothing stopping them from shorting out if you bridge the terminals. Now with good cells what will generally happen is they'll get hot and vent out some nasty white
smoke. If your cells are of questionable quality then there is the chance they could also catch fire. Which is where the videos of some vape dudes pants catching on fire come from. The usual cause is them doing something stupid and not treating the batteries like they should. Or making some modification to their vape pen that damages the battery. So all that being said you want to make sure your buying from a trustworthy source. And Amazon is not one of those. If the battery comes with a name brand light like I posted above it's fine. But if your buying bare cells then your taking a chance you'll get fake cells. Even if your buying directly from Amazon. They co mingle their product with all the stuff from 3rd party sellers so they could easily
send you a fake that one of their 3rd party sellers sent into them. As long as your not an idiot and treat the batteries with a little care and keep them in the plastic case they'll come in, or the flashlight you'll be just fine.
Some good batteries for high performance lights like the Emisar lights are the Sony US18650VTC6, or Samsung INR18650-30Q.
If you don't want to eek out every
lumen possible, and would like a little more battery life then you could go with something like the Sanyo NCR18650GA, or the LG INR18650MJ1
I wouldn't recommend protected batteries for the Emisar lights, but for most lights you should be fine with them. And they make protected versions of all the cells I listed above.
Some trusted sources are
mtnelectronics.com they're usually a little more expensive, but if your buying a light from them it's usually not enough to make buying from somewhere else and paying shipping any cheaper.
https://liionwholesale.com/ is a good source if your just buying batteries/chargers.
And this is just the tip of the iceberg. If you have any questions, or want more info let me know. Or you could head over to reddit.com/r/flashlight or budgetlightforum.com and look around or ask questions from the real enthusiasts there.
Good stuff!
