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Questions are:
1) Why would I pay this much for the one I'm looking for vs other lights of similar or lesser output or quality? Is there a lot to it internally/quality-wise I'm missing?
2) What's the difference between 2000 lumens and 3800 lumens in throw/output/night usefulness, particularly on this one and would this be overkill for normal use and night outings?
3) How tough are they vs significantly cheaper lights? I know the last flashlight I had (that I thought was good) the circuitry broke/nearly broke in twice (after replacement even) after a drop from arm height from general clumsiness (4-5 feet).
4) How long will the batteries last or be available to buy do you think? I'd hate to buy a flashlight for life and be unable to power it in 10-20 years because they stopped making the batteries for it.
Sorry if they're hard to answer. Just want to be absolutely sure before dropping ~230$ US (incl. batt.) on a flashlight I might not be able to return or end up liking. Thanks in advance!
2) Just lumens alone isn't quite enough to tell you how the flashlight puts the light downrange, you have to look at the peak beam intensity as well as the beam pattern. In this case generally speaking the TM11 is a floody light, the TM15 is more oriented towards throw, and the TM26 is also a flooder but the sheer output gives it quite a bit of reach as well.
3) Depends on how significantly cheaper we're talking about, there have been "torture" videos of the TM26 where they toss it around on the ground but I imagine the weak point would be the OLED display if a sharp edge happens to hit it at the right angle.
4) Unless they stop using the 18650 format in power tools and laptop battery packs, I think it's safe to assume the batteries will be around for a while. On a side note, LED tech moves fast, it's possible that 10-20 years from now this light will be long obsolete.