foxtrot
Watts determine the brightness. Watt is the unit of Power. And Power is equal to Voltage x Amps. Amps and voltage together determine the brightness. But other things like how the wattage is focused and how long you like your batteries to last come into play. Real bright lights take a lot of watts. It all comes down to how much weight you want to carry in the field. They are making better batteries and more efficient LEDs today to help current and voltage produce efficient wattage. Future hunting lights seam to be heading this way.
So to produce a lot of amps and volts it takes big batteries or they just go dead in a short time with the high wattage drain of big bright lights. A lot of lights use higher voltage like 12,18,24 volt and so on to to help lower the amp draw. The higher the voltage the lower the amps to get the same wattage but the cost of higher voltage batteries and parts come into play. The best way for a person like you and me to pick a lights. Is to read the information on the light. Look at lumen's and battery life listed on the package.
A friend of mine uses a LED Cree lights to walk out to pick stuff we shoot that is really bright.
Hear is a link to cree lights,
http://www.dealextreme.com/products.dx/category.901Hope this helps some.
Ernie
