Cody JW wrote: Custom Duo says alkalines will last longer but not be as bright.
Batteries are a bit of a can of worms, so I hope you don't mind me hopping in and qualifying this Jeff.
The thing with alkalines is that they will invariably sag under load, so if a lamp is regulated to pull say 700mA from the batteries, then (depending on the quality of these primary cells) it is quite possible that they won't be capable of delivering the required current for very long, and the lamp will be quickly become less bright on the higher settings. The some what ironic upside to this is that they (alkalines) 'will last longer', and by this I mean, will last longer (provide more duration) than they overwise would have if they had been able to sustain the full power set by the regulation circuitry of lamp. The lamp would be less bright than if it was running at its regulated level (using, for example, good nimh cells that could happily pull the required current). So, alkalines won't necessarily last longer than nimh rechargeable cells. That would depend on the quality of the cells used. It's an almost impossible comparrison to make, as there are trillions of different batteries, and while nimh are conveniently rated in mAh, alkalines don't have a tangeable measure of capacity/ performance stamped on them. Over here, the better alkalines are generally rated in what percentage longer they can run a non existent childs toy, as compared to the next best selling battery
As for Nimh rechargeables, Eneloops tend to be used as a bench mark (because it's generally easier than trying to explain to someone why not to buy the highest capacity nimh cells they can find), but there are other good
low self discharge nimh cells available. As for chargers, a good one is important. Cheap chargers can often be pretty dodgy and kill your cells early (typically by overcharging). Something not too fast, that doesn't massively over heat the cells is a plan.