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.

Everybody needs a TS10.

It may not be The Perfect Light, but it comes a lot closer than many other lights. Do you want great CRI and R9? The CPS2323 is solidly 9080. Do you want lumens? The TS10 has more than enough for any practical use. Do you want small? It's the size of a button-top 21700 cell; you could shove it inside most 21700 lights and screw down the tailcap securely.

IMO, the only thing that could make it more perfect is a 4500K 219b emitter swap.

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....

Not disruptive enough. Too automated.

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

And now I have "Careless Whisper" playing on repeat in my head.... the Sergio Flores version....

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.