Chuck Norris charged me, but the strobe was no use. He was able blink at the same frequency of the strobe, effectively turning "off" my light.
Speaking of Chuck Norris, I strangely enough *just* watched a Tivo'd episode of Dog the Bounty Hunter. The episode started off with Dog's wife wanting a new flashlight, so "the guys" go into some tactical shop and start strobing each other in the eyes and end up buying a few $200 flashlights. I'm sure they were garbage, but the timing of the episode was quite humorous to me.
When I created this thread, I definitely should have replaced the word "Weapon" with the word "Tool". By definition, a flashlight is not a self-defense weapon... but it
can be a self-defense tool if there is nothing else available.
There are a few compact lights that are already capable of throwing ~350 to 450 meters -- T25C2 HI, TN11s v2, M23. The G25C2 HI will be another compact thrower that would burn the hell out of your retinas. I'm sure by the end of this year there will be a dozen lights using the XP-L HI emitter with high Lux ratings as one of the main objectives. This means much better self-defense tools for those who cannot carry a gun everywhere or what have you.
Of course, these compact throwers probably would be fine without the strobe feature at all. Sweeping the light back and forth across some eyeballs is probably just as effective, however, the strobe just allows you to think about other things, like running, an escape route, what the attacker is doing, what other tools do you have available around you that the attacker is not able to see coming.
And perhaps you guys are buying lights that cost hundreds of dollars but have crappy UIs, but the Nitecore light I have will activate strobe with two taps of the Mode button. Pretty simple. Other Nitecores activate strobe by holding the Mode button for more than 1 second. I was reading about one light (forget which one) that activates strobe after holding for 5 seconds, which is at least 2 or 3 seconds too much, but whatever. The TN11s v2 has it's own dedicated strobe button (and not only that, but the frequency of the strobe changes to become more "disorienting". Eagletac has even added a "disorienting strobe" function into some of its lights, in addition to the regular strobe)! More and more lights are coming out with multiple mode buttons, which will make activating strobe something that *is* second nature. Confusing for you? Maybe. Confusing for the person who buys it and practices with it for an hour the first day it comes in the mail? I doubt it.
Point being, I would be hard pressed to believe there is any major flashlight manufacturer who does not see
the future of lights being used as self-defensive tools by a HUGE potential market. They're all honing in on these strobe features for one reason, because they know there is a limit at which your eyes are capable of functioning with a given amount of relative and/or consistent light, and I'm sure they believe they are knocking on that limit's door if they have not already achieved it. The reflection of the sun off white cement kills my eyes every day after being inside work for a few hours, so I'm sure there is some magic number of candela or lux that translates into ocular sensory overload for humas.
Actually, it should be fairly easy to determine what that "magic number" is.
50,000 candela @ 1 meter = 50,000 Lux
50,000 candela @ 2 meters = 12,500 Lux
Since most Lux ratings are
probably taken at 1 meter.... it should be fairly easy for people to take their throwiest flashlights, put in some fresh batteries, and strobe themselves at night (not inside Walmart) from a 1 meter distance.
There's no reason to NOT be scientific about this. Who can handle 50,000 Lux strobe @ 1 meter? Who can handle 100,000 Lux strobe @ 1 meter? What is your tint? How does a yellow tint affect you versus a white tint of the same rating?
EDIT: Now that I think about the sun's reflection off white cement affecting my eyes, eye color probably is a fairly big factor in this matter as well. Blue eyed people would likely feel the effects moreso than those with hazel eyes, who would feel the effects moreso than those with brown eyes. Another factor to keep this all scientific. Would be nice if someone with enough throwy lights and a video camera could help us with these scientific tests. Clearly there are people here with great cameras and great flashlights.... so why not?