The two beauties of quality items is that buying used is rarely a problem and you avoid paying retail.
Cheap stuff simply ends up being twice as expensive.
Flashlights seem like such a pedestrian item ...... until you need one. Then things such as beam output and runtime become considerations. After several years of having an eye on it I picked up a 4-flats Surefire A2 Aviator. Very nice quality piece of lumen throwing equipment.
It has a great low beam (red LEDs in this case for preserving night vision) with a 20hr runtime and a strong white incandescent at 50 lumens for an hour.