Electronics, Lighting, & Gadgets - Man I'm out of the loop - gimme some help

I thought I was knowledgable about lights 2 years ago after hanging out here, trying to find good lo-cost lighting solutions for my bike commute.l

Unfortunately in the past 2 years, I stopped bike commuting, but I'm getting back into it now, and was checking around here to see what the latest and greatest was in cheap lighting.

Well, seems like I'm totally old-school now. My beloved Fenix 2 x aa torch is puny compared to what I'm seeing now.

My limited experience remembers trends of -

2006-7 CREE LEDs
2007-8 Fenix (a refined CREE)
2008-9 P7 flashlights
2009 MagicShine
2010 ??

Someone get me up to date with the latest and greatest cheap lights out there now, as well as giving me a heads of what's on the horizon to come!

Magicshine is the one everyone's talking about right now. I have had mine for a few weeks, and if you look on the threads here, I don't think you'll find anyone that's really unhappy (one guy got his with a broken glass but that was replaced) and most are very pleased.

You have to spend at least a few hundred more for another light with more output, but I can't imagine needing more light that this for commuting (maybe offroad technical guys need more light). AFAIK nothing can beat it for light output for less, and at $90 I don't think it's really worth buying anything less unless you simply can't afford it. You can get P7 output for less with a flashlight, but personally I think it's a bit klugy and the runtime isn't nearly as good, and by the time you buy chargers and batteries you're not saving all that much money anyway.

Check out www.niteflux.com I am very happy with the Photon 4 Enduro

RPK