What is the world's most powerful handheld searchlight?

Answer 1

Maxabeam Searchlight

....is the most well known, is a VERY powerful 75W short arc xenon handheld light, used in dozens of Hollywood movies, military, and was designed for search and rescue. It is focusable and due to its unique design can geneerate a very precise pinpoint beam to extreme distances up to light targets a mile or more away, and is visible almost 18 miles away. It is part of a modular system but designed to be a handheld searchlight. With battery and charger (basic strip down kit) it retails for almost $4000USD. At tightest focus/narrowest beamwidth/longest range it spreads out to about 4-5 degrees of beam angle, illuminating a small area instead.

BUT

There are two other handheld searchlights that dwarf the Maxabeam's performance. At a quarter of the Maxabeam's price, XeVision produces a 75W high intensity discharge (HID) handheld with substantially more output and higher performance, also focusable, but cannot quite match the pinpoint (super long range / ultranarrow beam) beam due to the lighting element design. Xenon short arc lamps (like the Maxabeam) can be focused to extremely narrow beam widths to illuminate a very small area a long distance away. HID lights like the XeRay produce light from comparatively large electrical arcs (no filaments in either, rather ultrabright arcs of light between two electrodes so even when tightly focused cannot quite match the ultimate range of the Maxabeam, but produce massively larger areas of light of greater intensity.

AND FINALLY

the No Holds Barred reigning world champion:

The Maxabeam uses a 75W arc xenon lamp and has a longstanding record of high performance and reliability, but it is utterly outclassed by a light called (appropriately) the MegaRay. Using a 175W (more than 250% more light) short arc Xenon lamp combined with a focusable ultranarrow beamwidth of six degrees maximum to a mindboggling TWO degrees (laser-like) minimum, it simply has no equal with current technology.Simply the Ferrari of handheld searchlights. www.megaray.com.

For an independent review with nightime beamshots see http://www.cones-stuff.co.uk/MegaRay%20175.htm. Naturally, the price (if you have to ask) is Ferrari-like as well (over $10000USD) but they are available for short term rental or lease.

There is nothing currently available commercially that comes anywhere near this very specialized design in performance.