60 bucks. Which I think is pretty reasonable for a light like this, from what I've seen so far. No Scrapyard lifetime warranty, but you do get a 10 year warranty.

So I got to try out the light in near total darkness. Cloudy night here. Once your eyes have night adjusted, the "moonlight" mode is in reality a very usable amount of light out to about 20 feet for navigation, and bright enough that you can read by it or do fine work up close. As I suspected, "maximum" is total overkill for most indoor scenarios. Used as as candle the AA2 at maximum will light up a white-ceilinged room well enough that everybody in the room can read by it. It lights up a clearing very nicely too.

Most of my light's life will probably be spent on "low" or "medium" modes, but that ultra battery saving moonlight is nice, as is the ability to light up an entire room or fry somebody's eyeballs if the need arises.

I think you're supposed to attach the lanyard via a split ring in the crown around the switch. But then the light won't stand up as a candle. The pocket clip has a slot down the middle of it, and it's a very robust clip, so putting the split ring on there may be a better bet if you like your flashlight to be a candle.

The beam is flawless as far as I can tell. The spill is a generous ~40 degrees off center, so there's no waving the light around trying to see the whole scene. The spot is smoothly transitioned, I don't see any weird artifacts or rings so common to flashlights trying to be lasers. I'm sure other lights will throw farther, but for normal people who don't plan to be lighting up suspects at 50 feet, it's a fine beam.

Maximum brightness builds up heat very fast. I left the light on max for about a minute as a candle, and when I picked it up it was noticeably warm. You probably want to keep the light in hand if you're using maximum brightness so you can sink the heat.

That's all my thoughts so far. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> Gets a seal of approval from me.