Led lenser torch ???.

[samboy]

Hi gang.

             I might treat myself to one of these. So where is the best place to buy one from, battery or rechargable, and also the best one to get.

              Only for general purpose use. Not the headset type.

                                                                                             Thanks all.

[chrisjpainter]

If it's for general purpose use and not for shooting or emergency use, then it's always a battle between weight and power.

There's also a caveat with the new generation of Led Lensers that are rechargeable. You must use the special lead for them, the run times at full power aren't great and you can't use other types of battery in them. You can buy spare batteries, but they're £20 or so I think.

In their current range, I still don't think there's a better all rounder than the P7. You can get it in rechargeable or AA mode (and you can use rechargeable AA's in them). If you want to pay (a lot) more, the P7R core is waterproof. A nice option to have, but at a fair old price hike. 

[ph5172]

While not a lenser I have a rechargeable (via usb) half decent torch for general use. 
 

if you are using it loads that’s what I would stick with. Only issue is I don’t get any form of battery capacity warning aside from the brightness becoming severely reduced as it’s on the way out. It seems to just look a lot duller. It’s never died to the point it won’t work but has just about been usable to watch your footing. 
 

mine takes about 6 hours to fully charge. I dread to think how many batteries I would have gone through. 
 

I do have a backup that runs on 3AAA and that is good for its size. I bough some decent rechargeable but when they get low it plays up snd won’t switch itself off unless I remove the batteries - it doesn’t do that with normal disposables. 

[old man]

Fill your boots at "Ludicrous Lumens?"

[billytheghillie]

Im sure Steve B the moderator on here put a lot of us onto a great torch from the bay of plenty, it was cheap as chips and takes a 18650 battery. They were that good i bought some more to leave in the car etc. 

[HantsRob]

I have both the P7, I think the previous was L7, and the P7R. 

 

They're great build quality, and can really stand a beating. The P7R does work great in really terrible rain, and the output is beautiful.

 

Is it the brightest for the price? No. But, do I think you can beat the overall build and quality? No.

The P7R is rechargeable and you can get replacement batteries, however the "cheap" ones are very much in the buyer beware camp. I love my P7R, but a few times it's run out when I needed it desperately. The issue is that they work on full power then just stop, rather than dimming at all.

P7 would be my choice as a go-to affordable. Do NOT buy on ebay, there are a LOT of fakes that will work for a few weeks and die. Go from a trusted re-seller, and by trusted I mean one that's a decent brand that buys genuine only. Amazon is NOT trusted in this respect unless it comes from Lenser direct.

 

For general purpose, L7 or P7 is my opinion from practical use.  

[12gauge82]

For a thrower you can't beat a convoy c8. Cost about £25 and out throws touched 5 times the price.