What Flashlight Has the Tightest Beam Around?

[**DONOTDELETE**]

Hi

Can anyone recommend a few of the flashlights that hands down have the tightest beam around?
I am interested in small to medium sized lights, no big spotlights, lanterns, or "baseball bats (really long C or D cell lights)."

What I am really looking for is a light that casts a beam like that of a Maxabeam. Whenever those are used in TV and movies, you can see the very well defined path of the beam, so you get a nice spotlight effect.

What would be the best medium or small sized flashlights that will cast a focused, defined beam that is clearly visible to a third person?

Try to name a few from different companies, so I have some options.

Thank You, I hope you understand what I am trying to get.

 

[lightuser]

This depends on several input variables besides beam shape and size. There are six battery types in use, at least that many bulb technologies, water resistance performances, runtimes, and several other issues to think about, hence the expansiveness this forum. The price of good lights can be from $10 or so for certain PR- bulb models to $600 or so for the tactical Surefires. If you want a stun gun, Surefire is your company. But assuming you want to spend less than $75 the Stingers are good lights with a bright beam and they have a rechargeable model which is also cost effective. Many cops have those. I don't have one, but many here like Surefire E2s. They give a great beam and are powerful. See Brock's comments. Hope this is of some help...keep reading...

 

[**DONOTDELETE**]

Yeah, I've heard that Surefires are very good, I just wasn't sure about the beam.

Any others you can recommend? The thing about Surefires that turns me off are the price of the batteries. I have no problem getting an expensive light, but expensive batteries seem like a hassle in the long run.

 

[lightuser]

The surefires have as good a beam as you'll find in a compact all-in-one flashlight, they're made for that, but the drawback is the cost of lithiums. They have one called the Nitrilon that is a rechargeable, but I can't remember how bright it is compared to the others. Go to a cop shop there and try them all out, especially the M series. TheF E2's beam profile is on Brock Nevermann's website. All surefires are maxed out in terms of beam power and quality. Personally I like to use a Turbocat bicycle light with a remote battery pack (rechargeable lead b.'s) for walking when off duty. You have the pack to lug around but the light is as good as any surefire and cheaper than dirt...

 

[Gandalf]

IMHO, the Surefire lights, and I have 7 of them, don't produce a very tight beam at all; they were designed for LE use, where illumination of a good sized area, such as a good portion of a romm that's had it's door just kicked in, are required. They put out an incredible amount of light for their size, but they simply don't have a tightly focused beam at all.
Of all of my flashlights, and I can't even count them anymore, the one that has the tightest beam, hands down, is the Super Saberlight, by Pelican. The beam is almost unbelievably tight, with very little light outside the central spot. It's a 3 C cell light that's just uder 8" long, or about the same size as an 'average' 2D cell light. If you want an incredibly tight beam of light, this will give it to you. It uses a 3.4 watt "Xenon lamp [that] produces a tightly focused collimated white light beam." At 3.4 watts, it's not blindingly bright, but gives a decent burn time. The only real down side is that it uses a 'tighten the head' method of turning it on, which requires 2 hands. This light is coincidently on sale now at brightguy.com for $18.95.
Another light that has a very tight beam is the Streamlight 3C Pro Polymer. It's actually brighter than the Super Saberlight, with a very tight spot, but also has a ring of light around the central spot of light. It also has a momentary end cap push on button, as well as the rotate the head to turn on, and I use it much, much more than my Super Saberlight for this reason. (I doubt that my Saberlight is going to get any use at all, now that I have the Streamlight 3C).Replacement lamps are less expensive, as well, for the Streamlight 3C. The light costs $22.50 at brightguy.com, spare lamps are only $4.60
For my money, and for a nice, tight beam of xenon powered light, the Streamlight 3C is a great buy; it gives a very far reaching, tightly focused beam of light, and is easy to use because of it's momentary end cap switch.

 

[bkral]

I, too, have one of the 3C Super Sabrelights (actually the illegal clone sold at Home Depot) and I second that it would be a good choice.

To get a tight beam from a surfire you really need a turbo head, and my 9PT with the old-style 3" head has the best beam of any light I own. Second best (and considerably cheaper) is the UK SL6 - about the same output as the 9P, but uses 6 C-cells for longer life.

I know you said you didn't want a lantern, but if you really want that "X-files" look, you need to see the UK Light Cannon. It uses C-cells, so it's really not that large, but it puts out a beam that is not only almost as well focused as the 9P, it's about three times brighter AND pure bluish-white. ANY halogen flashlight will look yellow by comparison.

-BCK

 

[lightuser]

Victor, are you trying to see a target? Really tight beams can actually prevent that. If you need a good signal light don't forget to get one with a momentary switch on it...

 

[**DONOTDELETE**]

I actually have a Pelican Laser Pro 4D and it's quite good for a larger light. However, I haven't had very good experiences with their smaller ones. Also, I did a little research on this board and at the Surefire board, and there seems to be a lot of people who aren't very fond of Pelicans.

I would really like a very tight beam where the beam is highly visible, not just the spot where it hits something, because I am in a situation where I only want to illuminate particular objects or animals, and not disturb surrounding wildlife. The beam has to be really visible so that I or one of the people I work with can easily locate where the user of the light is and what he is looking at at the same time.
I will be working out in some thick foliage, so there will be times when people will not be able to simply see the head of the flashlight glowing.

I suppose that in order to have a nice visible beam, the light would have to cast very little ambient light. I could be wrong, though.

I have tried the UK SL4 and thought that that was pretty nice.

 

[Flashlightboy]

Victor,

I own a number of Streamlight, Pelican and SF lights and I can second the opinions of others in saying that Pelican has the among the tightest beams around.

My Sabrelite has a very tight beam with good run time and with fresh batteries, it just about bulletproof. The only draw back is the twist head. Yes, other SF lights use the same method but the head on the Pelican is sometimes a b!tch to twist. Still, once it's moving, it is OK. More of a slight inconvenience than anything else.

You might want to look at the Stealthlite or the rechargeable model. Both are water resistent but the rechargeable model has a great advantage besides the 5K increase in candlepower - in a pinch it can use AA batteries until you can get to your charger. According to Pelican, the AA use will reduce the candlepower to about 10K which is exactly the regular Stealthlite output!

 

[Glow Bug]

I own 3 Surefires and can say without hesitation, the 9an with a turbo head will give you what you are after. The beam is extreamly tight and it will really reach out there! It is rechargable. I have owned the 9n for over four years and still have my original Ni-cad battery. It still performs flawlessly. It is not very large either.

 

[Glow Bug]

Here is the link for the turbo head. No picture though???

http://www.surefire.com/cgi-bin/or_main.pl?pgm=display&func=disp&PageWiz=&language=&carfnbr=&prrfnbr=295&sesent=0,0

 

[**DONOTDELETE**]

A 3 or 4 D cell Mag Light will focus down to the tightest beam. Period. I have compared them to Sure Fires. No contest.

The beam will not be a perfect circle, and there may be a thin dark line or two, but for really focusing a large amount of light into a small area, MLs are the best.

I am speaking of the lamps with the biconvex lens in the tip being used, the Mag Num Star or the Carley lamps. The PR style krypton lamps which are standard equipment on the MLs will not perform as well.

Hope this helps. Walt

 

[**DONOTDELETE**]

I have a 4D Mag with the Num Star. It's merely ok.

Anyone like the UK lights? SL4 anyone?

Thanks to all who replied!

 

[**DONOTDELETE**]

1. tightest beam
2. beam like that of a Maxabeam
3. very well defined path of the beam, so you get a nice spotlight effect.
4. best medium or small sized flashlights that will cast a focused, defined beam that is clearly visible to a third person?

Haven't seen a Maxabeam firsthand except in movies and tv show so I really do not know how solid-clean-even its beam is.

A CPF member has a 4AA Docter Aspheric flashlight which is said (I haven't seen it first-hand too) to have a solid-clean-even beam of light.

You can also check out my sample beam photos of small to medium size flashlights;

http://albums.photopoint.com/j/ViewPhoto?u=443720&a=13143240&p=53795328&f=0

Its a tough search for everyone looking for a flashlight with a solid-clean-even beam of light.

- verge -

 

[**DONOTDELETE**]

Wow 2d_edge, those pics are beautiful! An invaluable resource! It must have taken a lot of time and dedication to get all those.

I did a search on Docter, and all I could gather is that they are a German optics manufacturer. No mention of flashlights. Do you know where I could look for more info?

 

[**DONOTDELETE**]

Glad to be of help VictorC88.

I started taking photos of flashlight lightbeams to show how each flashlight (in my possession, gotta work more to buy more lights) compares in beam quality.

If I tell you my SureFire 12ZM has a 500 Lumen brightness and my LSI NiteTracker RC3800 has 2 Million Candela brightness, can you picture in your mind how bright a 500 lumen and 2 Million candela according to manufacturer's rating are?

Here's an example: Streamlight Scorpion rated at 6,500 CP is as bright as SureFire 6P rated at 65 Lumen. Maglite 3D is rated at 14,000 CP but SL Scorpion and SF6P seem brighter than Maglite 3D.

Every manufacturer have different system of rating beam brightness which confuses me the consumer, so I decided to take photos of every flashlight's beam that I own to give other flashaholics a visual sample of beam quality of flashlights.

Oh before I forget, here's a url about Docter Aspherilux flashlight;

http://www3.supremeco.com.hk/flashlights/droptics/DrOptic.htm


- verge -