One thing a good flashlight shouldn’t be is cheap, or at least, not if you want a bright, consistent light source.
Also, a quality flashlight shouldn’t have a ‘zoom’ function, if the reflector is well designed, then it should give either have a wide, even flood with a decent range, or an outer flood with a bright centre spot.
I’ve got small, pocket-sized lights that take either AA-sized 3.7v 14500 Li-ion or 18560 Li-ion cells, which give maybe 2-400 lumens, up to 900-1000 lumens. The cheapest are around $11, a little TrustFire light hardly bigger than a AA cell, up to roughly $50-60.
It’s perfectly possible to spend a couple hundred dollars on a high-end flashlight, putting out maybe 3-4000 lumens, I have a pocket-sized light, 18650 powered, with three emitters, that has a turbo function lasting a couple of minutes that can set fire to cloth or paper! That’s at 2500 lumens, that’s a crowd-funded custom light that was cheap at around $60.
None of those ‘tactical’ lights are tactical, or useful in a ‘tactical situation. A proper tactical light should have a quick on-off tail switch, with additional strobe, and should be capable of being mounted under a gun barrel for true tactical situations.
