I like to chime in here. My setup puts out the same amount of light as the Dinotte 600L, except that I don't have a strobe option (don't need it when the light is that bright).
My setup cost me $80, that was before the Canadian dollar was on par with American dollars.
Total reported lumens by Seoul is 720lm, we all know that's just marketing bs. Realistically, it's probably around 650 if I'm lucky maybe pushing 700.
Runtime is 2.5 hours, up to 60 hours on low with 2650mAH battery. With Li-Ion 7.2V 4000mAH or more, the runtime will be significantly extended.
The good stuff about my setup is I can actually change the beam pattern just by removing the lens and slotting in a different one.
User interface is a lot easier, just a knob to turn and that is it.
The mounting option is very, very good, none of that o-ring crap.
Exact same setup for me today would cost around $60 without the battery.
Cost break-down
- Seoul P4 U-bin $15
- Lens from Kai, $5
- Aluminum, $3
- Fatman driver from Taskled, $27 (cost saving from this can be significant if you manage to find another driver for cheap)
- Potentiometer $2.50
- Power plug $2
- Cube 6AA holder with 9v snap, $1.50
I already have batteries and charger, a 6AA 2AAA NiMH 2500mAH Sanyo package cost $15 from Costco is pretty cheap, and adds just $15 to the whole assembly cost.
There's nothing wrong with people choosing to buy commercial systems, it took me 2-3 hours to build this, and that's not counting the time for gathering the material. For some people, the economics of spending their time to build a system is just not worth it when they can buy a readily made one.