How Many Lumens Should You Look For In A Tactical Flashlight?

Tactical flashlights form an essential tool for search & rescue services, police officers, military personnel, police officers, as well as other emergency services. These flashlights are designed to be reliable, sturdy, and durable, because they are used commonly in these emergency services. These flashlights typically employ an extremely energy efficient and low power consuming light emitting diode as its light source. Apart from the above services, soldiers, law enforcement officers, and sharpshooters use these gadgets, available in different luminosities, in combination with a firearm to aid low light target identification.

Advantages

This permits them to illuminate the target and aim a weapon at it simultaneously. These lights can be mounted on the weapon or handheld with the beam of the light parallel to the bore. These lights also serve a task as a means of non lethal force, which is employed disorient and blind targets temporarily. In case, you are planning to purchase this gadget, you might be wondering how many lumens should you look for in a tactical flashlight. This value has changed drastically over the past decade or so.

Choosing the luminosity

Tactical flashlights for self defense and other applications, used by soldiers and law enforcement officers in 2005 emitted 100 lumens, which was considered bright enough during that period. This degree of luminosity changed considerably by 2015 when these flashlights had the ability to deliver as much as 1000 lumens. Nowadays you can purchase models that have a 100 watt light bulb, which emits approximately 1,750 lumens. If money is no factor, you can purchase the most powerful and brightest model, which delivers a whopping 4,100 lumens. This is more than sufficient to blind a person for a long period, even in bright sunlight. In fact, it is downright dangerous to use a flashlight with that luminosity when you consider that even 60 lumens are more than enough to blind an individual in a dark environment. Based on research, exposure to extremely bright LED lights can harm the retina of the human eye irreparably.

Mistakes people make

People often make the mistake of looking at the wattage and not the lumens when purchasing a new flashlight. They also look for the cheapest model available and invariably end up purchasing cheap imported products that hardly emit the luminosity they claim. Apart from that, they do not last for long. This is surprising as the average LED lasts for thousands of hours. American models last much longer and provide the luminosity mentioned on their packaging.

Other factors

The build of the flashlight and the quality of its reflector and lens also play a big role in determining the luminosity and intensity of the light emitted by it. How many lumens should you look for in a tactical flashlight depends on the purpose you plan to use it for. If you plan to use it for self defense, an output of 100 lumens is sufficient to blind the attacker for a couple of minutes in a dark environment. You need a flashlight with an output of 300 lumens to blind the attacker during daytime.

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