B. Flashlights
Flashlights are what I consider essential low-light/night skirmish gear.
Why?
Not only is it useful for a variety of gaming purposes, but it is also essential for many “real-life” circumstances, such as first-aid or even helping you find your way back to the base-camp/safe-zone, should you become lost.
What is “necessary?”
Think about carrying one of today’s many “long-run time” LED-based flashlights. This can be something as small as a Photon Microlight to something as large as an Inova X5 or Lightwave 4000.
This is a basic survival tool should you become lost/hurt. It will put out enough light so that you can either see what’s sticking out of or into your leg or to help you trek back to base-camp, and will also help you signal your friends, if needed. But also, this item doubles wonderfully as a general-use light, giving you something to use when you need to go to the latrine at night or help you find things in your tent/car. Its long battery life, plus near fail-proof “bulbs” makes these items something that you should always carry.
But aside from this tool, why carry a flashlight?
Flashlights are also indispensable “tactical” instruments.
Now, before we go any further, let’s define this word – tactical – in terms of flashlight use.
The most common meaning of the words “tactical light” refers to the manner in which SureFire – what is perhaps the world’s leading manufacturer of high-speed “tactical” handheld and weapon-mounted flashlights – defines “tactical.” In this case, it’s something that’s bright enough to temporarily blind and daze/disorient a subject on the receiving end of the light’s output beam. SureFire defines this level of output to be at least between 60 to 65 lumens of objective light output.
However, “tactical,” as defined in Webster’s, means simply (1) of tactics, esp. in military or naval maneuvers, or (2) of or showing skill in tactics – which is itself defined as only “a means to gain an end.”
Now, then, what if this “tactic” is to be as stealthy as possible? Is stealth not a viable tactic of military maneuver?
In this case, then, wouldn’t the best “tactical” light be one which you can use – to, say, read a map of your Area-of-Operations or to signal your linemate – without giving up your location by “light compromise” by being overly bright, as with the “tactical” lights of SureFire’s definition?
Certainly it would!
Thus, we have two types of “tactical” lights, with two distinct and separate purposes.
Want a stealthy light?
Again, the LED’s work well, especially one with a shroud, such as the Photon Microlight III + Shroud. Get one with a red LED, and you have something that you can easily use to read maps of your AO night while maintaining your natural night vision and minimally disclosing your position to opposition squads patrolling the surrounding forest. Want something with a lockout to prevent accidental light discharge? The Arc AAA will fill this purpose just fine. Look around a bit – just about every major flashlight and tactical light maker now has a complete line of such LED-light units available, for a variety of prices. Just remember your purpose, and how you want these lights to perform as you look at their options (color, output power, lens shielding, switching, etc.) and you’ll be fine.
What about a more powerful light?
One capable of lighting up a relatively large area so that you can clearly determine threat level – one that has enough light output to temporarily dazzle, daze, and blind your down-field target?
Unfortunately, despite their claims otherwise, that Mini MagLite that you see rigged to the front of some players’ AEGs, that Tokyo Marui “Tactical Light” (which is nothing more than just that very same Mini MagLite, only in slightly different cosmetic construct), and the various LED-based flashlights all simply do not produce enough light output on an OBJECTIVE level to fit this bill.
SureFire , for good reason, defines this type of “tactical” use with the need to put out at least 60 to 65 lumens – or around 10,000 candlepower – as a minimum.
Unfortunately, this is a level of objective light output that no current LED-based flashlight can measure up to. Even the “brightest” of the bunch, such as the SureFire KL3 head (1W LuxeonStar emitter) fitted 9V-systems (producing a total of around 20 lumens, max) or the LightWave 4000 or the Inova X5 (both of which fall far short of this mark) is simply insufficient to fill this job description. [Note, as of 05/2003, we are still awaiting the introduction of SureFire’s promised 80-100 lumens 5W LED-based systems; similarly, Streamlight, which has come forward with several LED-based “tactical lights” – note the similar tone of the claim as Inova puts on their products – has ironically and cryptically not disclosed the lighting output of their lights, thus making one wonder exactly how applicable or capable their lights are in this context.]
To truly go “tactical” in this sense, at this present day and time, outside of custom-built LED projects, we are left with incandescent lighting as our one and only choice.
But exactly how bright is such as system?
To figure this out, one has to realize several different considerations.
Remember first that lumens and candlepower are two separate measures, and that they cannot be either mathematically nor realistically/practically converted.
Candlepower, as defined by Streamlight, is “a measure of the brightest spot in the focused beam. It is a function of both the output of the lamp and the efficiency of the reflector.”
Lumens, meanwhile, is a measure of “the entire light output of the flashlight regardless of beam focus.”
But to us, the end-users, neither figure really means all that much.
Instead, to get a better picture, we have to take into account both how much light there is, as is seen with the above two measures, as well as how “focused” the light happens to be. This is the only true way to get a useful practical measure.
Think of it this way.
That 60-Watt desk lamp that you’re using to help you read this post?
That lamp puts out over 800 lumens.
It lights up your room pretty well when you remove the lampshade, right?
But look outside your room door, down the hallway. I bet that after about 30 ft. or so, you can barely even see your German Shepard sneaking into the bathroom for a quick drink from the toilet.
As such, we have to rate these lights according both to how much light they throw out, as well as exactly how they throw that light.
Have a look here, at Brock’s excellent comparison page:
http://www.uwgb.edu/nevermab/flash.htmLook specifically at the “Focus” and the “CP@ 7 meters” columns. To judge a light for our use, it becomes imperative that we consider both how much light is thrown out towards our target at a distance (the latter measure), as well as exactly how that light is dispersed (the former).
With that in-mind, let’s look at some of those lights.
First of all, let’s get a good feel for what, say, one of the “standard benchmarks” of this genre – the SureFire 6V system, with their standard P60 (65 lumens output) lamp and reflector unit can do. Scan down until you find the entry that reads “SureFire D2/P60” and now compare that with some entries right below – the MagLites. See how the “relative brightness” of the SureFire unit, which is about ½ to 1/3 the size of the corresponding 3 “D-cell” and 5D MagLites, slots in? That, my friends, is how “powerful” such a small SureFire light can be. It has the “lighting power” that, for all intents and purposes, is the same as a 4 “D-cell” MagLite.
Does the 4D MagLite attain “tactical” levels of brightness? By SureFire’s own definition, certainly. But at somewhere near 3 times the size, the MagLite is going to be awfully burdensome to drag around with you during skirmishes, and furthermore, it is going to be an absolute bear to mount to your AEG or even GBB when compared to the svelte SureFire!
And have a look at this:
To wit, the Mini MagLite that is also the basis of the Tokyo Marui “Tactical Light?” That only has an objective light output of 2,200 candlepower – the Mag 2AA on Brock’s page doesn’t even register a “relative brightness,” does it? That’s why these items are totally a joke when it comes to being used as “tactical lights” in the SureFire coined sense of the words.
So, with all that said, what, you ask, is a suitable “tactical” flashlight?
If you used Brock’s chart, basically, we have an arbitrary cut-off at the 10 CP @ 7M mark, and that will do it. Everything above that, OK. Everything below, no go.
Out of these, currently, perhaps the absolute “best deal” that you’re going to find for such “tactical lights” is the SureFire G2 Nitrolon. This polymer plastic bodied light is a near carbon-copy of SureFire’s legendary original P-series, and will support either the P60 (65 lumens) lamp (with about an hour’s run-time per set of 2 CR123 lithium batteries) or the high-output P61 (120 lumens, with about a half-hour run-time) lamp/reflector units. At under $25, this is an incredible bargain. Add to this an el-cheapo one-inch diameter Weaver-based scope ring, and for less than $30, you can have a nice, hard-mounted tactical light on your AEG (the P61 lamp will cost you about another $15 extra). Getting a little fancy, spend another $20, and you can easily buy the G&P remote pressure-pad tailswitch assembly, which will give you the ability to use a pigtail to actuate your light.
