Vu1, the company behind the technology, says ESL bulbs don't contain the trace amounts of mercury in CFLs and don't require the manufacturing energy behind LEDs, making it better than both. The first screw in models, which produce 40 lumens per watt with a 6,000 hour lifetime, are expected to be available by September 2008. At $12 a bulb, they cost about the same as dimmable CFLs already on the market. [Vu1 via Cleantechnica]

Try feeding this sucker with 20 lithium batteries, each of which costs $1, and the whole passel of them will only last 1.5 hours. Topping that is a $7,000 price of the flashlight itself. You'd better have some serious perpetrators to light up if you're going to be spending that kind of coin on a mere flashlight. [Shop4Torches, via Coolest Gadgets]

If you don't feel like winding it up you can plug it into your car's cigarette lighter, with a charge of the light's internal battery giving you eight hours of light. It even has a handy carrying handle that lets you hang it upside down in your tent. We're just hoping that its wind-up mechanism doesn't make that distracting ticking sound as it completes its energy cycle. [I Want One of Those]

This portable lighting instrument is made up of four Luxion K2 LEDs, running on a quartet of AA batteries. The arrangement gives you smooth, soft light without sucking up too much battery power. Situating the four LEDs on a square frame around the lens, you add small diffusion holders to keep the lights soft, add heatsinks to keep those LEDs cool, and you're good to go.

The result? A portable light that's cheap to build and does the trick. Jump over to the Instructables site to see a video of the results. – Charlie White

Intimate Video Light [Instructables]

[via Geekologie]