Flash light works great! Even better that it works with same battery pack as the drill (same generation/model series).

If you are looking for a recharable flashlight that will actually last a long time without getting dim, and you have tools that use the 9.6 stick-style Makita batteries, then this one is a good choice. I don't know just how long the light will operate on a fully charged battery, but I had mine on for just over an hour without the light dimming at all. I took the battery out and tested the volts just to see what it read. Even after an hour the battery still had 10.1 volts. I believe it would have easily gone another hour.

I bought it because I had the battery and wanted a flashlight that would last long enough for me to set up my generator in the night when the electricity goes off from an ice storm or other outages. For me it will be much cheaper in the long run than buying 6 volt batteries that just don't last that long in a flashlight. It won't put out the light that a fancy new spotlight will, but my fancy new spotlight will not stay on for over 12 minutes. And it will be quite dim by the end of that 12 minutes.

The Makita flashlight puts out plenty of light, and I have full confidence that it's not going to let me down. For me it was a good purchase.

The Makita stick-type 9.6v batteries are a generation or two old now. In fact, they started the entire cordless power tool revolution. I still use my old Makita 9.6v drill because of it's light weight and great balance, something the 18V and larger NiCad and NiMH tools don't do!

Build quality is decent, but not awe inspiring. Made in China like so many modern tools. Oddly enough I'm not seeing a big drop in prices of power tools as production moves from Japan and the US to China. Why is that?

This flashlight is a decent addition to your vintage 9.6v collection, but I wouldn't buy it if starting from scratch today. Somebody needs to make a super high efficiency LED based light which would really make the most of these old batteries, but the market is probably too small for such a thing.

At the right price for a retro-cordless tool user like myself this is a handy addition, but if you are starting from scratch go with a newer tech Li-Ion technology.