I'm kind of a flashlight geek too. Ever since I went to LED, I can't stand regular lights. And now that you can get LEDs in 3Watt for relative cheap, there's no reason to ever have to carry a standard battery, standard light.

The light output of a white LED, is uniform and has none of the black spots you see with regular bulbs. The bulbs last forever and they don't get hot. They're also more effecient and even as the battery drains, the lights will still work some long after a regular bulb would has stop burning. And in pitch dark, an LED light really does look like sunlight hitting the ground. It's just amazing. I don't ever want to go back.

I've converted all my D cell mag lights to the 3 watt LEDs and they work awesome, but they're still just back up lights.

I have the 2 AA mini-mag 3 watt LED and it's nice, but I would imagine it's not going to last very long on a single set of batteries if my double 123A battery 3 watt light is only rated for less than 2 hours. Still, for a back up mini-mag, it's nice.

For work, I've carried a rechargable stinger on belt for last 14 or so years. Same flashlight all that time. I've had to replace the battery 3 times and the bulb several times, and case looks like it's been through hell and back as many times as I've dropped it, but it's been a dang good flashlight and I still rely on it

In my truck I have a Rechargable maglight, equivilent in size to about a 3 D cell Mag light, but much brighter of course.

For hiking around I bought a Coast 1 watt LED headlamp and absolutely love it. 3 AAA powered. Lasts forever, provides more than enough light for hiking or biking around at night.

My latest light is one that I will probably carry with me everywhere I go. It's a Streamlight TaskLight 2L. My first light powered off Lithium 123A batteries (except for my Glock weapon light) and has a 3 watt LED. It's a little bit smaller than my stinger and a good bit lighter. What I like most about it, is that it has two settings that allow you run the LED at a full 3 Watts (which lasts about 1.5-2 hours) or at about 1 watt (which last about 9 hours).

3 Watt LEDs are nice, but it's really nice to able to lower the output to conserve power.

As for Lithium 123A batteries, they are extremely expensive at retail stores, anywhere from $5-10 a piece, but I found an online source for $1 a piece and bought a whole bunch of them.

My next flashlight will likely be a super powerful LED rechargable, roughly the size of a maglight. Something will way more than the equivilent of a 5 watt LED if I can find it.