Tactical Flashlights?

[Ian_Gere]

I don't know... There's a lot of science into getting any electrical system to work well... Even my cheap Nitecore stuff runs at about £70 and will do that sort of range and throw... I'm not a ure about £20 from eBay...

Well yeah, and there's a lot of science into getting people to believe that a brand name indicates high quality, even though the item in question is manufactured in the same factory, or one similar in some other part of China... My cheap UltraFire stuff runs at about £12 and here it is...

...and here is a pic i've just taken out of my back window - the house being illuminated is 60m-ish away, probably a couple more:

I would like to show you that with the bezel on full zoom the trees planted on the opposite side of the main road at the bottom of the slope onto which this window looks are illuminated well enough to see movement clearly and to distinguish the shape of people from foliage, unless their camo was designed for night use and they knew how to hide in such a way that their head was not viewable as a silhouette against a simple background. The trees are about 115m away, maybe a bit more. They are the ones you can see in silhouette above.

 

The problem is that when pointing the torch that way, there are a number of rooftops which are illuminated so brightly that they cause the software of my phone cam to adjust the brightness of the whole image to avoid whiteout and to focus on those lighter areas closer to the camera, which makes the trees appear very dark.

Edited September 4, 2014 by Ian_Gere
extra info

[Ian_Gere]

Although I'm still a big fan of the CREE XM-L T6 LED, there is a new one emerging which i've seen called CREE XM-L2 and also XM-L U2 which is likely to be even better. Be under no illusion that you are getting a better LED in a £70 or even £170 torch. These LED's are the state of the art as far as mass production goes. For sure the circuitry which controls the modes will be more reliable. The O-rings likely provide a more reliable watertight seal. The switches may last a few hundred thousand more pushes. But for sheer brightness per volt, you are not going to get more from an expensive torch.

 

Bear in mind that at these voltages a watertight seal is not necessary to remain functioning - there is not enough voltage to cause a failure inducing short through water; not even salt water, even though that would bleed off some of the power available to the LED.

[NH Shooter]

Although I'm still a big fan of the CREE XM-L T6 LED, there is a new one emerging which i've seen called CREE XM-L2 and also XM-L U2 which is likely to be even better. Be under no illusion that you are getting a better LED in a £70 or even £170 torch. These LED's are the state of the art as far as mass production goes. For sure the circuitry which controls the modes will be more reliable. The O-rings likely provide a more reliable watertight seal. The switches may last a few hundred thousand more pushes. But for sheer brightness per volt, you are not going to get more from an expensive torch.

 

Bear in mind that at these voltages a watertight seal is not necessary to remain functioning - there is not enough voltage to cause a failure inducing short through water; not even salt water, even though that would bleed off some of the power available to the LED.

Aye... If you turn on 2 "similar spec" torches... No, your right... You'll see similar results. The difference comes in materials, strength, build quality, power consumption... One will function as new after a year or 3... One wont. It's also the after sales support and features that you pay for...

 

If you use your kit hard... Then you don't want tat that will fall apart on the first tap... I like my kit to always work, all the time or I've just thrown away money. It's certainly worth a mention... And it's also not all about brand name and marketing... Some things are, but this like this get a good name for reasons far better than brand identity.

[Ian_Gere]

Well I've had that torch over a year and skirmished it a few times - plus another one which runs off 1 18650 battery which i've had for a couple of years and skirmished more times than i can remember. Both still going strong. Both made from 7075 aluminium the same as a more expensive one. But hey, all i can do is tell you and show you. It's up to you to decide what to do with the info.

[armysurplusandtoys]

i use the ledwave trooper on a pressure pad....but only use it it brief moments so as not to give my position away

[NH Shooter]

That's perfectly fine... But it's all a bit anecdotal... For example... I've had the same sort of cheap lights and they have failed when I've used them. But my first decent one... Second hand from eBay... With a faulty switch (previous user error). A quick email to the company explaining it was broken, but second hand and can they help... and they send a replacement part out for free. I can't say the same about even having replacement parts available for cheap ones... Let alone that support.

 

It's why I use vortex optics instead of clones

It's why I use snap on instead of draper

It's why I use Motorola instead of baofeng

It's why I don't touch stainless steel knives

 

There's a certain level of service, quality and functionality in expect from anything I buy... Which you don't get buying cheap. A £10 anything is not the same as it's £80 counterpart in 99.9% of cases.

[Richie Boyle]

i bought this yesterday Ian. to replace the one i bought on tuesday which is only 230 or 430 lumens but very similiar design

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/351066334238?_trksid=p2059210.m2749.l2649&var=620293710378&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

[Ian_Gere]

Yeah Richie, that looks very similar to the one i've had for a couple of years - TBH there's no real need for the extra brightness I get from the 2 x 18650's and the small one is obviously lighter to carry / unbalances your gun less.

 

NH - anecdotal indeed: what else is a forum? I have had issues - the 1st one of these longer double battery ones i bought gave up the ghost after a couple of days - the mode select got jammed so it only worked on full power or off. They sent me a replacement, no quibble.

[NH Shooter]

Granted... You won't find much actual data knocking about... But my point was really that having a single unit for a while didn't really mean anything...

 

I'm still of the opinion though that you get what you pay for... And I realise that in any given second... You'll have the same product... But I've their lifetime the differences are vast.

 

But that thought process isn't for everyone...

[Ian_Gere]

I agree that some things cannot be produced well cheaply, so if you buy cheap you will by twice. But torches do not have moving parts that wear out easily, even if they're made from cheap materials. But aircraft grade aluminium, 7075, is cheap, as is brass, no matter who the manufacturer is, but more importantly who the trademark owner is, because they're all made on Chinese production lines no matter what badge they end up with. Maybe the paint will wear off an UltraFire faster than it will off a SureFire, but they'll both either fail quickly due to some manufacturing fault, or go on for donkey's years.

[jcheeseright]

FYI surefire flashlights are 100% manufactured in the USA. One of the many reasons they're so bloody expensive!

[Ian_Gere]

I sit corrected. Nevertheless, you would have to try hard to balls up manufacturing such simple exterior parts and still end up with an object which resembled a working torch. That's not to say that electronics cannot fail however.

 

Personally I would have reservations about an aluminium RIS from an unknown Chinese production line if I intended to use it on a real firearm, unless I had confidence in the brand name for quality control, because the stress involved in recoil is considerable and the consequences of failure of a weapon in real life shooting situations could be fatal. But a torch for airsofting? I'm happy to conduct my own quality control testing...

 

So far, out of 3 UltraFire torches, 1 partially failed. Bad odds, but it was replaced with no quibble and I had to wait no longer than I would have had to for a package from the USA; about a week iirc. But for less than half what I would have to pay for a single posh name brand one I got 3 good torches, 1 18650 battery and single charger, and 4 good quality mounts (3 rail and 1 barrel), plus i sold the busted one as a 'no mode' (full power or off) for about a tenner iirc, possibly more actually as it was to some random person on fb.