Why Do Manufacturers Put SOS And Flash Modes On Flashlights?

It seems like most people hate those modes, including myself. I always thought that manufacturers did what the market demanded. I'm I missing something here?

It's an extra mode for marketing.

SOS mode is useless.

Flash mode is good for about twice in the life of the flashlight. (If you remember how to use it.)

No, it is very imortant, when you where on an lonely island, then you can blind the indigenous "Friday" and send SOS.

I can't stand these modes either but I can think of two reasons these modes exist.

1. Most of these are found on 'tactical' style lights which they might be trying to market towards law enforcement or related fields.

2. I've only seen these on multistage lights where it would not be possible to do SOS or Strobe manually because each click would just keep shifting brightness settings which makes for a wierd (or sometimes useless) strobe or sos. Does this make sense?

I know everyone might think "I'll never need strobe or SOS" but no one knows this for sure, and manufacturers who make the click only multistage interfaces don't want to make it impossible for you to do strobe or SOS if you need to.

I think Olight put SOS and strobe in their light purely for marketing towards law enforcement, with their UI these modes aren't necessary.

Please write someone, who realy needs this funktion and for what need this

As a volunteer for a number of emergency services I have found the strobe mode to be useful. I carry my Huntlight Cree during the daylight hours for that reason. It makes a terrific emergency strobe at accident scenes when you arrive before any of the paid emergency services and is otherwise useful to get someone's attention over a considerable distance. The interface to get to the strobe mode could be thought out better, but the feature itself has merit for some of us.

I could see it as being an unnecessary annoyance to many casual flashlight users though.

Not everyone knows how to SOS maybe? I don't believe they taught it in public school.

swxb12 said:

Not everyone knows how to SOS maybe? I don't believe they taught it in public school.

Click to expand...

Yes, that is right, but when do you need it, with an micro flashlight like fenix?

Just days after I gave my father a light with a flash mode, he ended up finding it useful. He was on the way from TX to GA and his car broke down. After calling for a tow, he placed the light on the roof in flash mode and sat in the car to get out of the cold. The first thing the tow truck driver said when he arrived was how easily he spotted my father from far down the road.

GreySave said:

As a volunteer for a number of emergency services I have found the strobe mode to be useful. I carry my Huntlight Cree during the daylight hours for that reason. It makes a terrific emergency strobe at accident scenes when you arrive before any of the paid emergency services and is otherwise useful to get someone's attention over a considerable distance. The interface to get to the strobe mode could be thought out better, but the feature itself has merit for some of us.

I could see it as being an unnecessary annoyance to many casual flashlight users though.

Click to expand...

Not to disagree, but I have worked as a career medic and a volunteer technical rescue dude, and I am CERTAIN there has never been a need for me to have strobe capability on a handheld personal light during an emergency scene. If I needed to 'flash' to catch someone's attention, on/off will suffice. Edited to add : NOw in night environs while performing swift watyer rescues - yes. I wear an atcivated strobe, but it is dedicated as a strobe only, and for that purpose-not a hnadheld light.

Now, as an LEO, the flash mode can be quite distracting to a perp that you strobe out, but a really bright light would help as well. In addition, a constant high level light source with a blue tint is actually more irritating to the human cornea, retina, and rods than a white light that does not maintain its constant duration. So constant bright light is better to subdue a person into compliance than a flashing light. Plus, the flashing is disorienting to the LEO. During tac practice, we developed a nausea for using the flashing mode. Not good when your team hates to turn on their lights. And lastly, the confusion over placing a tailcap in one of several different positions to useit or actually change it, is a fine motor skill that most officers do not have in a mission. KISS>

I personally, from a field usage perspective, think the flashing strobe mode is just a gimic. DO I own one ofthose type lights? yeah. DO I use it for anything other than grins and giggles? Do I trust it with my life? No. Just my opinion.

Marketing Guy: "If XYZ brand has a "tactical strobe" and SOS modes, our brand gotta have 'em too!"

Clueless Consumer: I'll buy the XYZ or ABC brand flashlight 'cause it got these other cool modes I can play with....and wow, a computerized flashlight; who'd of thunk it?

CPF: YMMV

Personally?: I think they get in the way of straight forward lighting. But WTH do I know.

I'm not much of a fan of SOS and like that goldserve replaced it with a beacon mode in all but one mode. And not much of a fan of strobe either really - which is why I like those UI's that allow you to ignore them (i.e. don't force you to cycle through those modes all the time) such as the flupic, the HDS/Novatac and the Liteflux.

I'll have to look at the Olight UI and it appears that the new Arc will have a similar ability to ignore those modes.

Can i understand it right? No one want this functions and no one need this functions ?

I don't mind there being lots of features like SOS, flash modes, etc. so long as the interface is designed in such a way that they never get unintentionally activated. This is my biggest gripe with Fenix lights (aside from the L1x series, which allows direct access to high or low by twisting the head), skipping past infrequently used modes in order to change brightness from high back to low is irritating. This is also one of the key reasons I prefer the LF2 over the L0D-CE for keychain carry. I have never once accidentally triggered strobe mode, as I can access high or low directly depending on how far I twist the head, rather than going through a sequence.

I just want a low and high mode... any strobe or SOS can be done with my thumb! That's all I want from my Inova, a low mode and possibly a SSC or Cree emitter...

I guess it is for the same reason that you would wear a seatbelt or a helmet.... Just in case you need it.

I have been told by a couple of officers that the strobe mode is also for self defense. People react differently to the strobe that to a regular beam.

Good question. Those "things" clutter up the interface and are utterly useless in the lights we usually have, IMHO.
For me, they represent the incarnation of what can go wrong when using uC switches.

Then again ... those modes were embraced by CPF enthusiastically some while back as the uC controllers came aboard ... so there must be some members who find them useful.

bk