Little late and OT to boot, but I'm the OP so I'm gonna get away with it. Maglites suck for photos, mainly because of the rings, even if the beam was intense and wide enough. Serious incans have a dimpled reflector to eliminate rings, and better, whiter bulbs, sometimes krypton. Surefire is trusted name for super high-quality incan flashlights. There are a few others. Check the "beam shots" posted all over on CPF. Truly white light can be had with certain LEDs as well. I forgot the grading system they use, but they're graded on color and certain types of LEDs have wider throws, by design, than others. You'll be looking for a name like "Lambertian Grade AA", or Grade AB Cree, or some such, depending on the characteristics your hunting for. LEDs have a name that indicates the beam pattern, and a letter(s) that designates degree of whiteness and clarity.
Forget C batteries. NO good LED, or even good incan, uses C cells. They're all designed for lithiums. C-cell flashlights are for Walmart shoppers and housewives who need to find the bleach bottle under the kitchen sink. If you absolutely need something that takes disposables or NiMh, you'd be better off getting a flashlight that takes one or two 14500 lithiums OR (in a pinch) will accept two AA cells. Any lithium flashlight gives you far more power and run time in a much smaller package than any C cell light. Look for ones that are 2 or 3 stage dimmable as well. On low settings, they last forever and are still as bright as most larger C-cell lights.
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