So… last night I decided to google “What makes maglights so popular/good”. From there I found myself on… I can’t believe I’m typing this… a “flashlight enthusiasts forum”. I got reading and I learned maglights are cheap and reliable, and a great host for internal modifications to get MORE POWAR out of a flash light. Well thats great.
Then I thought more and more about hobbies. I’ve one of these people that will see a youtube video and say THAT IS THE HOBBY FOR ME!! knee slap. Watch a crazy amount of content on that subject and then do the lamest copy of it i can that requires the least effort and money. Case in point is xoverland.com resulted in me driving my outback from BeaverBank Villa to Enfield via loggin roads. 
So about flashlight enthusiasts… do they find them selves in the dark more than the average joe? Do they go around shining their lights at everything? I find myself needing a flashlight about once every month max. I can’t imagine modding one for performance
Be right back… gotta go bulb, reflector and battery shopping.
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A modified minimag could be a handy backup for night riding.
I use a flashlight every day with the livestock, I’ve trained my birds to “follow the light” to be put away for the night plus I’m milking in the dark this time of year. My Petzl headlamp does the job just fine sans modification, with rechargeable NiMH batteries.
I’m one of those flashlight people. Have a large group of high output LED flashlights, batteries and chargers. I am an electronics hobbyist as well so I already have the gear to mod and improve lights that I feel can be better.
I have no idea why I do this, but I have always found powerful flashlights cool.
http://budgetlightforum.com/ is a great forum.
My lights include:
3x SolarForce L2
2x SolarForce L2P
1x SolarForce L2N
1x SolarForce L2T
All with various custom drop-ins that have XM-L / XM-L2 LED’s ranging from 1A to 3A current in various colour bins.
UltraFire C2 (custom pill XM-L 1A @ 2.8A)
Aurora C6 (custom pill XM-L 1A @ 2.2A)
XinTD C8
2x Shadow BL21 Bike Lights
SkyRay King (Black XM-L U2 version)
Thrunite TN12 (2014)
Thrunite Catapult V3 (LED upgraded to XM-L2 1C)
Thrunite Ti
Thrunite T10
Thrunite TN32
Nitecore HC50 Headlamp
Practically all of my lights are 18650 Lithium Ion powered.
Not all lights pictured.
Batteries.
Chargers.
I have a serious problem. 
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Do you find your self in the dark more often than a “normal” person?
Ha ha, not particularly no. Actually I live right in the city where it is almost never dark, but like any hobby however it is a slippery slope. However I always found flash lights (and other survival gear for that matter) really neat.
I did learn the importance of owning a good flashlight (or several) and having charged batteries around during and after hurricane Juan, all I had was a cheap Canadian Tire plastic light (that had dead batteries and no spares) and my VistaLite bike lights (charged thankfully). Good thing my roommate had an unusual supply of candles. I learned after that I should probably own a functional flashlight and spare batteries, so I went to Canadian tire and picked up a 4D MagLight and some spare batteries and that was it for about 9 years.
I only really discovered this new world of high power LED flashlights three years ago because I got into playing with lasers, and the nice people over at laserpointerforums.com pointed out budgetlightforum.com, I was amazed at what you could get for not much money, I was hooked.
I really only need maybe three or four of the lights I own, stuff for power outages, hiking and camping. But I like to tinker so I kept getting L2 hosts from SolarForce and building various drop-ins for them with various LED’s and drivers for all types of purposes. But once you’re into the hobby you start to want the bigger more powerful lights, not because you need them though you will inevitably find an excuse to use them, but because they really have a wow factor. My ThruNite TN32 is a 1700 lumen beast that can throw about 800 meters, it’s a thing to see. Do I need it? Absolutely not, it’s more powerful than most search lights, but it is awfully cool to see it in operation.
If you get into it have fun, but beware, like all hobbies it can get out of hand awfully quick. However if I had to recommend a light to someone who is interested but doesn’t want to get crazy with it I would recommend the Nitecore EA41, 960 lumen all-purpose light that is made extremely well and takes 4xAA instead of Li-Ion cells.
