i find it strange!

I think it's like being a meat eater or being the butcher. Here we butch the DVD and Blu-ray players (and hosts)

I have no problem with it. Those eastern assembly lines are set up to to prodice a lot of DVD drives because 99.9% of the world wants them that way. If they would make an exception and sell raw parts to those very few people here, they would invest more man-hours than they gain by saving materials. And knowing this they could very well be consciously building all these drives even if one or two get thrown away after people extract the diode.

i find the 9 led flashlights nice because they were 3$
my 3d maglite sits under my car seat if i need something with a bit of a beam and some weight. I'd buy a higher powered led one but i know nothing about them except dx adds 3 new ones every day to the hundreds they carry

Want some recommendations? Ctrl-V of an epic post I made a little while ago...

Here's some I say you give a try, listed in ascending order in terms of size/output:

Aurora R2 Buckle: There is criticism for this, but I have one, I took it camping and it was great. Good output, good runtime, yes, it is throwy but the hotspot isn't as bad as the reviews make it out to be. I find the clip useful for attaching to your pants, or hanging from somewhere such as the inside of a tent. It lights up a four-man tent.

Romisen RC-G2: Neat 1xAA. Popular. Good reviews. Heaps better than Maglite. Q5 version here.

Shiningbeam L-Mini: Lots of bang for your buck... Erns did a review on version 1.

Handy Cree Q5: This is about the same size as your 9-LED. Runs on the same batteries. Good reviews. Cheapest Q5 on DX, I believe. Comes with holster.

UltraFire WF-606A Q5: Good reviews. Easily obtained batteries. Will absolutely pwn the MagLite LED 2xAA.

Fenix L2D Q5: If you're looking to spend more coin than the 606A, this is a good pick.

Fenix TK10: Very popular. Not cheap, but great build and beam quality.

Spiderfire C-R8 R2: I have one of these and they're great. If you buy one and have any problems with it I can help you out. Throws nice and far, you can see the beam at night... good price too.

MTE M4-2 P7: I wouldn't trust the TrustFire 2x18650 (funny eh) Razako can testament that TrustFire fails. This would be a good option for a medium size photon cannon.

SolarForce T700: Probably brighter than the above... and runs at 9W, 3W more efficient than the P7. Razako has one, ask him about it.

MicroFire Samurai-III K3500R 35W HID: Total beast. How can you be disappointed with 3500lm? Rechargeable too, no messing with batteries. Morepower has one.

For those who don't know, the P4 and P7 are emitters from Seoul Semiconductors (SSC). A P7 is just four P4's wired in parallel. CREE also has a P4 bin, which is relatively weak. The Cree emitters are as follows:

P4 80-87 lm @ 350mA
Q2 87-94 lm @ 350mA
Q3 94-100 lm @ 350mA
Q4 100-107 lm @ 350mA
Q5 107-114 lm @ 350mA
R2 114-121 lm @ 350mA

These are all 3W LEDs. The P7 is 12W of course.

Flashlights are usually driven at a higher current than this (~1A) so we have more performance. Other emitters include Luxeon (maker of the Rebel, a tiny high power LED, among other things), Phillips Lumileds (ala MXDL)

Here are some things you want to look for in a flashlight.

-Cost compared to other flashlights with similar specifications and features

-Output in lumens (flood + throw)

-Output in lux. This is dependent on how strong the light source is and how tightly focused it is. If you want to use it at close range or wandering around indoors you want flood. If you want to disorientate potential threats, spot targets at long distances or up trees etc you want throw. Throwy flashlights have a higher lux rating. Even throwy flashlights have a weaker, less focused area surrounding the hotspot. This is called spill.

-Beam quality and tint (People don't like ringy beams or too warm or cool tint. Colour temperature is measured in Kelvin (K).



Rings in your beam are common in Cree emitters especially. Textured / orange peel reflectors smoothen a beam out, but reduce your throw a little.

-Runtime and battery type. The longer and more common the batteries the better, of course. If it runs on its own rechargable battery pack, kewl.

-Number of modes and type of switch. Modes include Low, Mid, High, Turbo (extra high), SOS strobe, faster strobes, random and police strobes for disorientation. Too many modes are annoying to cycle through. Personally Low and High are plenty. As for type of switch, the classic clicky (the most common type of switch you will see) comes in two flavours: forward and reverse. Forward clickies can turn on before the actual click, making them double as a momentary switch if you press lightly. Reverse clickies activate after the click. Twisties (or cell squashers) just twist together to turn on. People don't like twisties for various reasons. The Maglites are all 'reverse twisties' because you actually unscrew the head to turn them on.  

-Body material. Cheap flashlights such as the 9-LED are thin Al. Most DX flashlights are anodised Al to make them scratch-resistant. HA-III is better than type II anodised. There is no such thing as HA-II. You may also prefer a colour, but you won't get a huge variety. There's grey, silver, shiny silver, black, charcoal and olive, but most will come in grey/black or just black.

-Extra features such as a holster or crenellated bezel (aka assault bezel) These look cooler (subject to opinion) and provide a small amount of light when placed head-down on a desk. The sharper ones such as this make for a last resort close quarters weapon.