BORELLI CONSULTING: Recreational Equipment Reviews

Lights As Emergency Tools
3 September 2007

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When I took Low Light Operations Instructor training one of the things I learned was that we gather LOTS of information through our eyes. About 80% of the information we use to make decisions with comes to us through our eyes. But if it's dark the amount of info we have to work with is reduced and that can be a bad thing, especially under critical or emergency circumstances. This week we're going to take a look at a few flashlights that provide dependable light, are easy to carry and require low maintenance.

So, in the "good ol' days" a field flashlight was about the size of a small baseball bat, usually used four to six C or D cell batteries and produced a nice dim yellow light. But if you were lucky you could focus that yellow light into a small spot or open it up into a "flood"... like anything was flooded. In today's world, decent flashlights can still be that size, but they can also be much smaller - and usually far more durable than what we used to see.

But here's the catch, and it's been this way forever: the tools you have are only any good to you if you have them WITH YOU when you need them. I know a great many people who never took that big heavy flashlight with them - and therefore had no flashlight at all when they needed it in the field. That's why I now believe in carrying dependable, compact, high quality lights. Now with all that said, let's take a look at a few design characteristics I appreciate and some lights that fit the bill.

The Gladius from Night-Ops is an excellent example of a high quality, LED driven, compact field light.

The first thing I'd go for is an LED driven light. While incandescent bulbs were fine back in the day, they were too easily broken, produced a yellowish light, and sucked batteries dry pretty quick. LED lamp assemblies are much harder to break and many are now accompanied by digital circuitry that controls power flow, maximizing battery life and even allowing for varied power output.

The SureFire L4 Lumamax is another excellent LED driven compact light, although it doesn't have the versatility of performance that the Gladius does.

Next I'd look for a light that isn't plastic - if you can afford it. So many lights today are made of polymer - which is a fancy way of saying plastic. But they aren't as durable as those made from aircraft aluminum. Of course, money is always a consideration, but if you can afford metal over plastic, go that route.

Finally, I'd look for a light that has both touch activation and hard on/off operation. In other words, a single switch that you can push to get light but then the light goes out when you stop pushing. From that SAME switch you can push it and have the light stay on even when you release the button. Then you push it again to turn the light out. Such functionality is handy to have and increases the versatility of your light.

Now, while I enjoy the light output from a two-cell (6 volt) light, some folks just don't require that much or are looking to carry a smaller light. SureFire, as an example, makes two lights that are quite handy and run on one CR123 3V battery. You can see them below:

The difference in size that you can easily see is due to the digital circuitry that is included in the Lumamax. It's an LED driven light compared to the incandescent E1. There's only one battery in each of those lights, but the Lumamax will give you usable light for a much longer period of time and will take a lot more abuse without failing in the process.

Finally, I have to offer an option for those who are working on tight budgets. Shown here, to the right, is an example of the SureFire G2 Nitrolon light. It's a 6V incandescent light with tailcap touch activation. It's quite compact, easy to carry and use and will serve well. However, it won't take the abuse that one of the Lumamax lights will. The polymer body is durable but not as strong as the aluminum ones. The incandescent bulb is MUCH easier to break than the LED lamps. On the other hand, you can usually find a G2 Nitrolon on ebay for less than $35 and for that money it's a damned good light.

The bottom line is that if you're going to go into the field and there's any chance you'll be out past sunset - or before sunrise - you're silly if you don't take a decent light with you. "Decent" no longer means heavy, bulky or four D-cell batteries. There are a plethora of good quality compact 3V and 6V lights out there that will serve you well. Shop around and get what you need.

BE SAFE!

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Don't forget to check out our Tactical Equipment Review about BlackHawk's new Warrior Wear line of garments that have an Internal Tourniquet System (ITS).

This week's Training Article about how the terrorist siege in Beslan, Russia in 2004 should have affected our response policies, protocols, tactics and training.

For a listing of all reviews in chronological order, GO HERE.

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