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I'm it the market for a good flashlight. I was leaning toward the ex defender, but talked to a shop here and was told the new led lights were brighter and had longer battery life. I would like your ideas on each.

The new Cree LED's are brighter with better battery life than Surefire Incandesants.

Some info here:

http://www.texasshooting.com/TexasCHL_F ... hts#p83239

A search should turn up additional info.

Fenix has a new T1 tactical light. Good light, but much larger than a Surefire e2e.

Surefires make LEDs. All of my lights are Surefires.

Another advantage to the new generation of LEDs is that they are instant off. Many of the high-lumen incandescents--because they heat up so much so fast--actually glow for a second after you release the button. Not a problem if you've shined it right in a BG's eyes just before you release the button ('cause he won't see much of anything for a few seconds), but if he has buddy hiding off to one side he may be able to see that little orange glow as it tapers off and use it as a target.

Plus, the LEDs can do some pretty fancy stuff, like strobe light effects. How truly useful that is, I can't comment. TXI, do you guys teach anything regarding tactical strobes?

Skiprr wrote: How truly useful that is, I can't comment. TXI, do you guys teach anything regarding tactical strobes?

I have only seen video.

Thanks to all who have replied, I think I will look into the Led lights. Any other comments are most welcome

Re: Strobe effects;

John Farnam seems to like them -- he got a Gladius (I think) flashlight back when it was the first, or one of the first, with the strobe effect. He demo'd it during the night fire session at the handgun courses I went to.

The strobe effect is certainly obnoxious! I personally did not find it as "incapacitating" as a steady, incandescent Surefire beam straight in the eyes, but that may have been due to the LEDs used in the Gladius then (this was year or two ago). If LEDs are now truly as bright as the original Surefire incandescents, that would be nice. The strobe might be more effective too.

elb

Some additional thoughts...

Surefire has released some SSC LED lights. These are very nice LED's, and Surefire is an excellent brand... but the Surefire LEDs tend to be very expensive and not as bright as Fenix and others.

Suarez has some thoughts on LED lights and strobes:

-He has stated that LED's have a stronger blinding effect than Incandesants. I can't confirm it, but I believe it. These new generation LED lights can blind in the daylight.

-Suarez also believes that strobes are useful when deployed as part of a team rather than for individuals. I don't know exactly why. The only thing I'd use a strobe for would be an emergency beacon.

I now have a Fenix T1. It's rated 225 Lumens. It has good spill and throw. Very solid light, although the T1 is new and of less certain reliability than Surefire. The Fenix is by my nightstand and would be my first choice for a houseclearing light. The T1 is similar in size to a Surefire 6P, but probably a little heavier. I keep backup lights in case of failure.

Paladin wrote: I now have a Fenix T1. It's rated 225 Lumens. .

What is the battery life at that?

I realize you are probably looking for something smaller, but when it comes to "regular" size flashlights (like a 3 "d" cell Maglight back in the day) I really like the rechargable Streamlight brand SL series. The latest generation (that I have seen anyway) is a double switched rechargable. You have your choice of 3 very bright LEDs with an 40 hour run time (yes 40 hours) on a single charge, or one hour of 40,000 candlepower "regular" beam. I've had the opportunity to assist LEOs at times removing intoxicated persons from their automobiles. (Basically I'm a human lamp, keeping light on the subject so the officer has both hands free to deal with the subject). I use the LED mode only as this provides more than ample light for observing the subjects hands, scanning vehicle for weapons, etc. This keeps your night vision more intact than the full power mode. But if the subject begins to act "froggy" in the least, a nice 40,000 candlepower blast in his/her face really does the trick. Even when they close their eyes that 40,000 cp blinds the heck out them. I have to admit its a good feeling to blind a potential bad guy and give the LEO an additional edge.
Now maybe these new generation LEDs can do this too, but I don't know if they are rechargable.
P.S. I think I read it is a natural human reaction to turn ones head away from a very bright light (and what I've seen would back this up) and thats pretty handy (getting a bad guy to turn their head away from the LEO or myself, kind of takes the fight out of them before it even starts).

I love LED lights but there is still a place for incans. Incans penetrate fog/rain/mist/smoke far better than LEDs will, and if you ever operate in that environment, it could be a deciding factor for you. Also, Incans tend to project (throw) their light farther than LEDs will at a given power output.

Surefire or Pentagon are the only way to go with flashlights.

txinvestigator wrote:

Paladin wrote: I now have a Fenix T1. It's rated 225 Lumens. .

What is the battery life at that?

Factory claims 1.5 hours in turbo mode.

cbr600 wrote:

txinvestigator wrote:

Paladin wrote: I now have a Fenix T1. It's rated 225 Lumens. .

What is the battery life at that?

Factory claims 1.5 hours in turbo mode.

Yep. Haven't used up my batteries yet, but Fenix tends to be fairly accurate with runtime.

Vic303 wrote:I love LED lights but there is still a place for incans. Incans penetrate fog/rain/mist/smoke far better than LEDs will, and if you ever operate in that environment, it could be a deciding factor for you. Also, Incans tend to project (throw) their light farther than LEDs will at a given power output.

I think you're correct about this. The other day using my LED riflelight (~200 lumens) at an indoor range, I noticed that the LED didn't have as much penetration through the gunsmoke as I expected. But my incan was only 70 lumens... so in comparison the ~200 lumen LED still gave me good performance.