A less expensive light with many choices of superior emitters seems better to me. Then again, for those that can't tell CRI 94 from CRI 74 or tell a 219b from a 219c from the amount of green and go solely by lumens, I can see why some folks wouldn't care about the things that set the KC1 apart from the others.

For one thing, cheap lights rarely have good color rendering. They make people look like zombies, wash out detail, and just don't do color very well. If you cannot tell brown from green, you will step in that dog mess in the lawn. While some enthusiast-grade lights also do that, most enthusiast lights that lack color rendering make up for it with sheer throw. Often in the 400-800m range, and sometimes up to 2,900m (yes, ~1.8 miles).

As for "similar brightness", a lot of cheap lights do not meet their claims while enthusiast lights do. For instance, the light you see sold a lot under hundreds of different names (including Gearlight S1000) and many of us get a cheap knockoff free with our battery orders claims 1,000-2,000 lumens depending who slaps their name on it, but it actually doesn't even make 300. The D2 gets about double that at startup. On one channel. Oh, and if you zoom that Gearlight to max throw, it's only 86 lumens; about half of what a D2 can sustain for the entire charge of it's battery. Here is what a 1,400-lumen light that *actually *makes 1,400 lumens looks like. And both the D2 and TS10 are tiny lights that run on an AA-sized battery. Larger lights are more powerful.

Hanklights (Emisar/Noctigon) also have the option to be configured many different ways. Hank is famous for shipping accordingly. Your choice of color temperature, some emitters available in actual (often monochromatic) colors like Deep Red, or maybe you want a UV light that has a filter that cuts the non-UV part of the beam out. Some lights, like the D2, offer multiple choices as they have two or three channels.

Metal construction doesn't mean much if you use cheap metal and/or bad machining. The build quality is notably better for enthusiast-grade lights.

In short, it's the difference between a decent restaurant and McDonalds.

We always remember the past as being better than it was. They haven't really gotten worse; if anything, they've improved. They've had to in order to remain relevant.

Everybody needs a TS10.

If you want low enough lumens with high enough CRI for wound examinations, it's a nice addition to your collection. It can bet lower than your M150, or it can get obnoxiously high, and it ha a smooth ramp in between the two to get any level in between. Ramping UI's rawk. As one who both works optometry and has been sent into medical distress by medical personnel using shit lights for pupil exams, I can attest to the value of a TS10's ramping UI. If you ever encounter a patient who is on the spectrum, epileptic, or has other medical issues triggered by photosensitivity, you'll find the TS10 potentially better than the Weltool M6 I recommended to my boss, an OD who knows more about eyes (37 years in practice) than about flashlights. He doesn't do SAR though, so he doesn't need twice the lumens an M150 is capable of, but it's also the only light my CRI-baby arse would consider a rival to the Nichia 519a and 219b. If you think the Nichia M150 is nice, you'll also like the TS10.

The only light I have that can compete with it for beauty or CRI/R9 is an Emisar D2 with a 4500k Nichia 219b. And that light has a UV channel for other uses. Not as powerful, but since I use UV as part of my job, a bit more useful. And still plenty powerful for close work; simply not good for throw or sheer power the way my TS10 is.

After having gone through a few natural disasters that the AA-worshippers think utterly vindicate their fanaticism to he utter and total superiority of AA-compatibility, I have to say that I am unimpressed by anything that combines the downsides of alkaleaks (low lumens and low wH) with the biggest weakness of Li-ion (needs to be charged instead of replaced).

I appreciate that some, like Acebeam and Skilhunt, go for sustained lumens over startup peak lumens, and am a fan of boost drivers in general, but I think that the backlash to hotrod lights is a bit extreme. I've used TS10's to keep my home nicely lit during prolonged power outages. Yeah, it has a reputation as a hot rod since its a 14500 light that can do 1400 lumens, but at lower levels that do not involve the FET, it can hold enough lumens to do what it needs to do for many hours despite being a 14500 light with a driver that isn't a boost/buck driver and cannot take the first battery to sell out when TSHTF.

One nice thing about Anduril is that it can do the no-FET-needed levels that prolong battery life when you just need a little light, and despite the fear-mongering, it doesn't actually operate any differently from many other lights that copy it's Simple UI mode and merely omit 10H and the (easily ignored) options it unlocks. How do you think I get my TS10's to hold "don't walk into wall or trip over the cat" light levels for 8+ hours despite the low mAh of 14500 cells? I have options between M1 and M2 that Skilhunt's and Zebra's UI lack.

IMO, all lights need a ramping mode that allows for achieving a a nice balancing point between output and runtime. And I have yet to see a stepped-mode-only UI hit that balance with their mode spacing.

And now we know why the military uses so much green light....

RNG-controlled brightness. Every button press is a new roll of the dice.

Welcome to The Rabbit Hole. The ~~Stavi Special~~ M150 is a fine flashlight. Especially if you choose the Nichia 519a. But if you think you're in deep now, wait until you get introduced to Hank....

Nope. Got me too.

I don't even notice the added weight in my pocket, but when I hold it, it's heavy enough to know that I have something in my hand. It's actually pleasant in a way that cannot be described.

Even though I loved the aluminum TS10's enough to get four of them before copper was an option, I've barely touched the my aluminum ones since getting one in copper. It's that nice. I won't say that it's better than sex, but it's good enough that I'd have to think about it for a moment if asked to compare the two.

I used to carry a Stylus Pro and loved it... until I fell down the rabbit hole and discovered MUCH better flashlights.

My first was the Rider RX. Rugged, simple to learn (though with problems... I'll get to that), and the lowest most was 12 lumens with the included 14500. Still more than I like for pupil exams having worked Optometry so long, but low enough to get the job done. Just hold it back a little further. It also has great CRI, which helps with a lot in medical settings. Then I found better. Much better.

Everybody need a TS10.

There's a bit of a learning curve, but once you get past that, it's simple. The hard part is just that it's different. The lowest setting can be so low that it's useless for pupil exams; that's how dim it can get. But you can change that. The brightest it can get is probably brighter than you need. Again, that can also be changed. Going from pupil exams to over ten times what your lost Stylus Pro can do, and in something smaller.

While many are intimidated by the diagram that shows the full capabilities of Anduril, in actual use in the really real world, it's a lot like most other flashlights. A simple click will get it to the last-used brightness you had it. A double-click while on will make it as bright as it can get. Those are near-universal in high-end flashlights. Holding the button will start dim and make it brighter; many other lights have you hold from Off for low levels. The main difference with Anduril is that, by default and with no programming, it raises brightness smoothly when you hold the button; just release the button when it's at the level you want. If you overshoot while raising brightness, just let off briefly and then hold the button again to dim it. If you need to dim it it after not adjusting it upwards, press-release-press-and-hold (2H). Like the Rider RX, it has excellent color rendering to aid with pupil exams and wound inspections. It's also at least as rugged as your Stylus Pro, and slightly cheaper. Once you get used to it, it's pretty easy. And my wife got used to it in under a minute with no instruction at all; possibly because she never saw the manual and wasn't intimidated.

The downside is that it cannot accept regular AA batteries, and lacks onboard charging. That means you need an external charger and spare batteries... not unlike the radio you probably carry if you do SAR. There are some low-priced Xtar chargers, and spare cells are cheap, though my experience is that the TS10 requires recharging less than half as often as my Stylus Pro needed batter swaps; one charge on my TS10 lasted longer than 4 AA's in my Stylus Pro or 2 AA's in my Rider RX unless I cranked it FAR beyond what either light is capable of.

If you want a light that can survive being drop-kicked repeatedly, allows you to get a good look at wounds, and can go from "too dim for pupil exams" to "DAMN, that's bright!", for less than the cost of a Stylus Pro, then grab yourself a 4000K TS10.

I've been on the internet too long to ignore the reference.