Small high-intensity handheld lights haven’t only spawned a whole new industry, but have given us cops relief from carrying those heavy, large, anemic-output “police” flashlights, a much longer range of dark space that we can now reach into and a whole new subject control tool. Almost any small high-intensity light you buy today will work reasonably well and will certainly do so if your comparison point is the Kel-Lights of yore. But there are real differences in today’s products — some matter while some don’t.

Size Matters?

Lights naturally differ in size. The original SureFire 6P is about 1" in diameter and about 5" long, is run by two CR123 lithium 3-volt batteries, and has more or less set the standard by which we calibrate the size and output of other lights. The original 6P size is very convenient to carry and fits most hands extremely well, but you can get more light out of a three-CR123 batteries light if you’re willing to go to about 7" in length. Both the 5" and 7" lights are practical for uniformed carry, while a light much longer than 7" seems to cross an ergonomic boundary and be less convenient to carry. In any case, you will seldom need more light than a three CR123 battery light can put out (which is usually about 100 lumens).

Thick Or Thin?

Thinner lights at .75" in diameter won’t be any more convenient to carry on a duty belt, but are more convenient for plain-clothes carry. What you sacrifice with a thinner light is a tight beam focus, since the ability of a lens to tightly focus a light source decreases with the lens diameter (and lens length too.) However, this difference in focus is not a real big consideration for most normal LE applications.

Batteries

Almost all handheld high-intensity lights run off of CR123 lithium (actually lithium manganese dioxide) batteries. These batteries have a very slow self-discharge rate, and thus have a long shelf life — about 10 years. You want to avoid buying bargain-priced non-US made batteries. US made batteries conform to safety regulations causing the battery to self-disconnect at high temperatures. Otherwise the battery could explode — a bad thing. US made batteries also conform to UL regulations concerning mechanical stress but you never drop your light, do you? Many non-US batteries may not. Quality CR123 batteries are available at very low cost from several light manufacturers, so there’s really no need to buy the dangerous cheapies.

Power

Lumens is a measure of the total amount of visible light a lamp puts out. Candlepower is a measure of the brightest spot in the lamp’s beam. The two measures are not convertible to each other. But, the two numbers together do reveal something useful: for lamps of the same lumen output the one with the greater candlepower obviously has the more tightly focused beam. For our purposes, the most useful measure of a light output — or “power” — is lumens.

The generally agreed-upon floor for a tactical light is 60 lumens, although routine tasks like reading and non-tactical searching can be accomplished just fine, or possibly better, with much less light. Beware though — the lumen and candlepower ratings on some units are sometimes, well…er “optimistic.”

In addition to the light output, the focus of the light — how tight or wide it is — can be important, as can the evenness of the light. An uneven light will have dark spots and uneven brightness and not properly illuminate a dark spot you are looking into.

Focus on any lamp and reflector can have only one spot at which the light is actually focused. So-called “variable-focus” lights that move a reflector fore and aft are more accurately described as “de-focusable” lights, and they add no value. Unless the reflector’s actual shape (not its position) is changing, the light’s focal point cannot.

Incandescent Vs. LED Lamps

The light source of incandescent lights is a glowing wire filament, usually housed in an inert gas atmosphere to prolong life and enhance performance. Xenon and halogen are the state-of-the art gases today.

The light source of an LED (Light Emitting Diode) is the semiconductor diode itself — there’s no filament. LEDs are more efficient than filament lamps, are inherently more shock-resistant and have a longer life.

Currently, LEDs are limited in practical terms to about 100 lumens, but this technology is moving very swiftly. Soon almost all handheld cop lights will be LED based.

Incandescent lamps are skewed to the red side of the light spectrum, while LED lamps are skewed to the blue side and produce no IR light. So if you need IR capability you’ll need an incandescent light.

Reflectors

Reflectors for incandescent lamps, or their counterpart LEDs can vary in quality and affect the focus and evenness of the light beam. Computer designed and textured reflectors are a very critical component of today’s tactical lights.

Window

The sheet of transparent material covering the lamp assembly is called the window — not the lens. It can be made of tempered glass for strength, Pyrex-type glass for heat resistance, ordinary glass or plastic. Tempered Pyrex with an anti-reflective coating will provide the greatest quality and performance.

Shock Isolation

The circuits, lamps, and batteries of handheld lights can be either be shock-isolated or not. Shock isolation is usually accomplished with rubber rings and buffers. Most handheld lights don’t normally require shock isolation. But, most weapon-mounted lights do. LEDs require no shock isolation for the lamp.

Body Materials

Lights come with metal bodies, polymer bodies, sometimes with rubber insets or over-molding. Rubber and polymer will be less cold in the winter and are more slip-resistant. The extra strength of metal is nice, but not absolutely necessary.

Switchology

Most lights sold as “tactical” lights these days have tail-cap switches, as ?they should, since this is the only way to easily and intuitively manipulate the switch in a tactical situation. Most tail-cap switches used to be momentary-on switches only; constant-on was accomplished by twisting the tail-cap. However, many new tail-cap operated models are using two-stage switches; you depress them partway for momentary-on, and all the way for constant-on. I really don’t like this new setup, since under stress you do everything more forcefully than normal, and you are thus very likely to make the light go constant-on when you only wanted a short blip of light in the middle of a fight or a search. This can lead to a very dangerous situation.

Some manufacturers are trying to mitigate this danger from their two-stage tail-cap switches by housing the switch in a hollow, leaving the partway depression of it with your thumb easy, but requiring extra effort to fully depress the switch. You’ll have to experiment to see if a particular model set up like this works for you — and if you trust it!

Waterproofing

Almost all good quality lights are water-resistant to deeper than you will go without special equipment. This is usually accomplished with rubber O-rings on the threads of the head and tail-cap and a seal around the window. Water-resistance is a necessity, since your light — like you — will get wet in this job.

Overall Quality

There are two kinds of quality that affect us. The first is quality related to integrity or how likely the unit is to break or fail. This type of quality is obviously vital. The second type of quality relates to the technical “goodness” of the components or light beam. How vital to you is it that the bulb filament or LED is of the utmost quality, and thus pumps out a few more lumens or lasts a bit longer? Or how important to you is a perfectly distributed light beam with no irregularities? This second type of quality is subjective and each of us will have different needs.

Recommendations

Start by deciding on a size that’s good for you (length and diameter). A light that’s uncomfortable to carry won’t be carried. A tail-cap operated momentary-on switch is a must.

Get a light with at least 60 lumens of output. More if you want to see details across more than two residential yards (or about 200 feet) on a regular basis. In some cases you can get more light from the same model by going to ?a higher-output lamp assembly, which are sometimes available, but at the cost of significantly reduced run-time. You can also get more light from a longer unit — more batteries — but at the expense of bulk. You have an unusual job if you need to carry more than 100 lumens most of the time.

Don’t worry too much about incandescent vs. LED unless you have a tendency to drop stuff a lot. For some reason, LED lights often come with a wider focused beam than incandescents. This isn’t usually an issue and can sometimes be an advantage. You will, however, get a longer run-time from LEDs given the same number of batteries and lumens.

Decide the other issues based on specific characteristics of your job, each unit’s “feel,” its price, and personal preference.

Finally, purchase a second light! If you don’t carry it on you, at least have it in your gear bag. If you stow it there size isn’t an issue, so consider choosing a more powerful light for your second light — you’ll be glad you have it when you need it.

For More Information:
www.blackhawk.com
www.surefire.com
www.pelican.com
www.pentagonlight.com
www.streamlight