Flashlight Tactics Trivia Question

[Guest Lester Weevils]

The flashlights thread and the recent flashlight glove thread got me curious studying up a bit on flashlight tactics. Am typically ignorant of the topic.

Many of the "tactical flashlights" are about 1" diameter and 5" or 6" in length. Some go up to 200 or even near 300 lumens.

Those would obviously be a practical size for toting out in the real world, and fairly "blindingly bright".

However, I noticed a few models which are only marginally bigger-- Approx 7" to 8" long and 1" to 1.5" diameter, which spec in the ballpark of 700 or 800 lumens. For example--

Olight M30-B, Olight Triton M30-B, Olight M-30B, Olight Triton M-30B, Triton M30-B

Olight M31, Olight Triton M31, Olight M-31, Olight Triton M-31, Triton M31

Fenix TK40, Fenix Light TK40, Fenix TK-40, Fenix Light TK-40, TK40

In situations such as home defense where a light wouldn't need to be a convenient pocket size, would the slightly larger size of those brighter lights for some reason make them "less tactical"?

Just wondering-- If 100 or 200 lumens supposedly can blind/disorient an attacker enough to provide advantage, then wouldn't 700 or 800 lumens be "even more gooder"?

[Mike]

7-800 lumens would be overkill indoors, IMO. It would probably disorient you and the guy you lit up.

Outdoors they would probably work well. I use a Streamlight strion that I carry at work. I can light up things out to 1/3 mile and ID most anything I can see at 1/4 mile. It's only 160 lumens.

On the positive side He might turn to Jesus after seeing "The Light"

Mike

[Punisher84]

This one is 60 and I don't like it shining in my face.

Surefire E2D Executive Defender® Self-Defense Flashlight

[BigK]

Hey Mike, is that Strion the rechargeable line that Streamlight makes? I've been wanting one, but wonder about real-world hour per charge.

[Mike]

You can get 8 hours out of it if you kick it down to a lower power. At 160 lumens you can get just over an hour and a half runtime.

Mike

[Guest Lester Weevils]

Thanks for the good ideas. That is a good point that maybe 800 lumens indoors would dazzle anybody in the room, including the user of the flashlight.

Finally got off work a few days and was reading up on lights on the interwebz.

Ran across the Polarion PF/PH 50 lights that are used for military and search & rescue. They are a little pricy, but supposedly the current brightest flashlights at 5200 lumens!

Here is a promo video from Polarion--

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwO6ROpvzpU

If tech marches on and they manage to double flashlight output a few more times, then perhaps a defense pistol would be made redundant. Just shine the flashlight on the bad guy and he would explode in a poof of smoke. Maybe that is how the first sci-fi rayguns will enter the real world-- The evolution of really powerful flashlights.

I have difficult making decisions and have spent way too much time the last couple of days looking for a light.

Finally decided this one might be a good one to try out for starters--

https://www.fenix-store.com/product_info.php?products_id=2538

Found this long forum thread that gives the impression that early adopters like it well enough, and it is only about $80--

Fenix TK15