Not a lot of Streamlight love? Why?

[Monocrom]

I find that they are well made but a one trick pony: pretty much just pencil-beams...that's about it.

I have quite a few Streamlight models. None tosses out a pencil-beam of light. Not even my Streamlight Stylus that runs off of three AAAA batteries. In fact, the light comes with a special sleeve that fits over the bare LED in order to significantly narrow the otherwise floody beam. My first "tactical" light was a Streamlight TL-2 LED model. Functioned very well, if underpowered by today's standards. Narrow beam? No. Not even remotely. Did a very good job of lighting up the sides of small buildings outdoors. The flood setting on my SL Scorpion isn't ideal. Full of dark rings. But, it works as intended. Easily lights up a large, dark, bedroom fully. If you get a pencil-thin beam coming out of Streamlight's HID Litebox, then you definitely received a defective unit. One of those will easily light up a typical house from several feet away. And I mean the entire house.

Streamlight also has their own version of the classic SureFire A2. (At least in function.) Incandescent bulb designed for throw. Along with a cluster of 3 LEDs designed for flood. My Streamlight 4AA Proploymer LED flashlight is specifically designed for flood.

Streamlight makes a huge variety of different lights. I own just a few. None of mine toss out a pencil-thin beam.

 

[flashlight chronic]

Although I don't own a Streamlight, my brother-in-law brought his Stinger DS LED rechargeable on a recent camping trip and, in my opinion, the output and build quality was excellent.

 

[TEEJ]

I'm glad they make more variety than available around here. They were all too tight of a beam for me, and anemically powered to boot.

I'm not sure how their floody lights compare to other similarly sized floody lights, as I've never seen one of their flooders...but I'll try anything once. :devil:

 

[RomeoKilo]

We run TLR-1's on our S&W M&P .40s. Never heard of a one failing. Very reliable, a very good room lighter and does exactly what we need it to do. Not to mention relatively cheap for what it is.

 

[Rex Johnston]

I've used Streamlight products professionally for over twenty years as a Mobile Night Patrol Security Guard. Firstly it was the SL20 which I upgraded with a Maglight rechargeable which incidentally was a very bright light in its day. Because of the weight of that light, I further upgraded to to Ultra Stinger. That light gave me years of service & I eventually discovered (on this forum) the terralux led replacement module for it. That got rid of the problem of bulbs needing replacing on a regular basis & gave me plenty of usable light. Since then I've replaced that with a Poly Stinger DS & have found that really good. Plenty of usable light, dual switching which is actually useful & a quality product. The only down side was that I experienced a faulty battery from new which meant that sometimes the light wouldn't switch on. Originally I suspected a faulty switch & got a replacement one but that didn't fix the problem. Only pulling the battery apart showed that the fault was in one of the cells & a replacement fixed the problem entirely. The only other complaint if you could call it that, is that radio interference sometimes occurs whilst transmitting using a hand held RT. The light will turn on or off depending on its current state. This only occurs if the RT is closer than about 250mm to the light & cannot be worn on a duty belt beside each other. I'm told that it only happens with some frequencies & that the main frequencies used in the US don't present any issues.

I'm so pleased with the unit that I intend to replace it with a newer model Stinger DS either the HL when it becomes available or the DS LED 350 lumen. Will see how the reviews go with the HL model. I suspect it will have more flood than throw as I like the beam of the Poly Stinger I currently use.

 

[Raiden]

Before joining CPF, I only heard of Sure Fire, Streamlight, and LED Lenser. I thought those were the best flashlights on the planet, boy was I wrong. LOL Majority of my flashlights were Streamlights ranging from Microlights, ProTac HL, WayPoint, just to name a few. Streamlights are extremely reliable. Not one failed on me since I was buying back in the 90's. My favorite SL before CPF was the Strion LED. Now, my little Olight S10, Jetbeam PA10, and Thrunite 1A packs more punch, has a better UI, and they cost a lot less.

 

[C.M.S]

I really like Stremlights , a lot of models to choose from , very durable and the ones I have do the dirty work as they can take a serious beating and I'm not afraid to do so .
If I owned a 200$ Surefire I'd be keeping that bad boy clean and probably wouldn't use it a lot .

 

[a1mu1e]

To be completely honest, I have never bought a streamlight and never will. 2 words: C4 LED. I want to know what's in my products, and I don't want to have to snoop around to get it. I also don't like the whole idea of it- the whole "let us take care of it" attitude.

Same way I feel about Apple, really.

 

[Palantas]

Rez'd thread!

Many companies claim their lights are used by the military. Maybe individual soldiers buy them but unit purchasing officers can only buy using NSNs. No NSN not an official military flashlight.

Think about the variety of products that you could say "Used by military" concerning. That applies to basically every kind of flashlight there is. Not to mention a whole mess of other products, notably booze, pizza, and prophylactics.

 

[subwoofer]

To be completely honest, I have never bought a streamlight and never will. 2 words: C4 LED. I want to know what's in my products, and I don't want to have to snoop around to get it. I also don't like the whole idea of it- the whole "let us take care of it" attitude.

Same way I feel about Apple, really.

I met with Streamlight at SHOT, and expressed my concern over their continuing to use C4 for the LED specification. The trouble is, that it is only CPFers that see this as an issue. Their main customer base look at the lumens output and don't care what LED is in there.

 

[Greenbean]

IIRC doesn't C4 just define the actual way the LED is mounted or attached to its board?

I remember reading about it and laughing my butt off in the house. It's like going to a carrot and the sales guy just says hey man we have "Internal Combustion Technology" in our cars. Lol... Like yeah man, that's pretty much every car, hahaha

I do own two Streamlights, I really like my HL Stinger but would love for someone to replace the XM-L2 in it to a more Neutral emitter.

 

[fivemega]

Not a lot of Streamlight love?

That statement is not true.
Streamlight is a very loved company for many policemen, firefighters, mechanics and....
They just don't make many flashlights for flashaholics or CPF members and it doesn't mean the company is not loved.
They offer many different models with very high sell and good warranty.

 

[M.Link]

I love their rechargeables. I currently have a SL-20XP LED (I think is the model), has a bright halogen bulb in the center and 3 LEDs around the edge. It's a good, light weight light. I have a charger in my truck for it, and one in the house. The nice thing about Streamlight is, they have very affordable rechargables. I paid $99 for mine, with two chargers, house and car. I've had a couple smaller lights from them, and liked them, but not quite as much as a Surefire, they feel much cheaper quality.

 

[Timothybil]

Streamlight today pretty much holds the position Maglite used to hold - solid, dependable, get the job done. Nothing flashy, not leading edge, just always there, always dependable. They plus one or two others pretty much hold the listed and hazardous conditions market sewed up as well. They went in with serving that market at the beginning, and have been keeping up as the innovations came along.

Yes, they don't get a lot of press here amongst us 'bleeding edgers', but when someone asks for a light that is solid, dependable, and something to trust someone's health or life to, Streamlight always gets mentioned. As a top of the head guess, I would say that probably at least half of all CPFers will admit to having or having had one or more Streamlights at one time or another. I know I come across as a Nitecore and Lumens Factory fanatic now and then, but my EDC for years has been a Streamlight Microstream.