Looking for ultimate bad-guy-blinding, friend-impressing EDC light

I recently bought a Quark 123*2 Tactical XPG R5. It's a nice EDC light, the brightness is pretty good. I realize I may sound like a lumens-whore here, but I want the same approximate size with MUCH more light. :huh: Is this possible?

Use - short bursts only for momentary lighting and self-defense.

Things I want -
1) floody beam with MAXIMUM lumens & lux in the hotspot
2) ability to use primary (non-rechargeable) batteries
3) small size & light weight for EDC
4) tail clicky
5) maybe have hi/low/strobe, but not necessary. Max-only is OK.

Things I don't care about -
1) battery life
2) lots of modes
3) tail standing
4) light throw
5) light spill
6) heat sinks
7) perfectly concentric hotspot

I am thinking I need to buy a custom light. Where to look?

thanks for all comments

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seen this? http://www.cfrlights.com/servlet/the-768/EagleTac-P20C2-*Cree-XP-dsh-G/Detail

Here's my suggestion. Find yourself any P60 accepting host and get a Nailbender SST-90 Dropin. The size of a Surefire 6P with ~500 Lumens.

You seem to want as any lumens in the hotspot as possible, but at the same time are asking for a floody light? This is somewhat contradictory....to a degree. There are lights with HUGE hotspots, but that I would not call floody at all. The Nailbender sst-90 will give you tons of lumens (as will his P7, which I use often) and it will be floody, but the hotspot will not be very defined. Also, I'm not sure if the SSt-90 gives you that kind of power on primaries...I run my P7 on 2X123.

I think I need a little more info on what it is, exactly, that you are looking for.

Looking for a budget light or does the price matter?

In most cased primary batteries under powers the light. So the full potential can't be realized restricting yourself using only them.

Chevy-SS said:

Things I want -
1) floody beam with MAXIMUM lumens & lux in the hotspot

Things I don't care about -
4) light throw
5) light spill

Click to expand...

Wait... what? :thinking:

These are contradicting requests. I think you need to re-think and clarify what sort of light you're looking for.

slightly larger but this sounds like what you want:

http://www.lighthound.com/MKN-SST-90-MOD-Flashlight--one-26650-Battery-SST-90-LED_p_3479.html

I'm happy with my custom Ra Clicky 170.

i think he means flood light with high lumens, and he don't care how much spill or how long it throw.
if this is the case, maybe you need luminus sst-90 drop-in like camaro09 said.

jch79 said:

Wait... what? :thinking:

These are contradicting requests. I think you need to re-think and clarify what sort of light you're looking for.

Click to expand...

How are they contradicting? I want a large hotspot (floody), anticipating maximum range of 5 to 20 feet. Spill is not an issue and neither is throw.


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C4ReeN said:

i think he means flood light with high lumens, and he don't care how much spill or how long it throw.
if this is the case, maybe you need luminus sst-90 drop-in like camaro09 said.

Click to expand...

Yes, yes, I think you are understanding me. I am trying to use all the correct terms, but the definitions of some of these terms (i.e., "flood") are not all that clear to me.

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monkeyboy said:

slightly larger but this sounds like what you want:

http://www.lighthound.com/MKN-SST-90-MOD-Flashlight--one-26650-Battery-SST-90-LED_p_3479.html

Click to expand...

This is close, but too big and requires recharging batteries.

thanks

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AH, OK...large hotspot with tons of lumens...yes, that is clearer now. I tend to think of flood as tons of spill...nto neccesarily just a big hotspot.

A Malkoff MD3 wildcat has a huge hotspot with tons of lumens. Hard to get (often sold out) and the head is bigger than a 6P.

The new Malkoff M61 has a decent sized hotspot (wouldn't call it FLOODY, though), it is a great mix of flood and spot, actually. At close ranges, it is quite blinding, but is still quite usefull at some disctance (though prehaps not as much as the M60 was). It might be too tight a beam for you, though for a bad-guy-blinding friend0impressing light...I don't know how much better you'll do. If you want it to be USEFUL too, add the two-stage switch with an MD2 body and a pocketclip, and you have what I consider to be one of the best all-around hand-sized lights on the market.

Chevy-SS said:

How are they contradicting? I want a large hotspot (floody), anticipating maximum range of 5 to 20 feet. Spill is not an issue and neither is throw.


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Click to expand...

total lumens at the source does not linearly project to high intensity at the receiver. A 100 watt light bulb on the ceiling in front of you face 5 to 20 feet away is not blinding white light.

It is the collimation of light into a tighter beam focused literally into the eyes of a human being on the receiving end that makes the light more "blinding". A 100 lumen light source with a very tight angle beam of say 4 degrees focused and pointed into some one's eyes would have more of a blinding effect that having a 100 light bulb on which is close to 1000 lumens just throwing light out at all angles. So your requested needs as stated are contradictory.

If you want blinding light it will have to be somewhat of a thrower to be effective. The floodier the light, the less effective it is, even if its very bright. The effectiveness goes does in direct proportion to the increase of beam angle.

There are many lights in the 200 to 350 lumen real world output class in a decent reflector or with optics that will make an 8 degree beam or less that will have some blinding effect.

The Tiablo A10 for example at only about 240 lumens will be far more blinding than the Malkoff MCE 20 degree flood light wiith 500 lumens from 10 feet away.

So you need to look at all the data that is out there. This question has been asked and gone round about many times alreay. And look at flashlights with high lux, not lumens, which is the spot intensity, figure out what you can afford and care to carry and pick one thats at least 20K lux as measured at 1 Meter for a starting point.

Since you mention you want a custom flashlight you may want to consider getting a Solarforce body and get the moddoo's drop ins with 500 - 1000+ lumens. Plus it will be the same size as your quark tactical. Or you can wait for a while coz 4/7's is releasing their maelstrom series this month and get the M500 with 500 lumens that's more on floody side. It uses 2x123 same as your tactical.

Olight M21

Oh my god... not this topic AGAIN!!!! Seriously, this is getting crazy.

My suggestion is to get a Dereelight MC-E custom made from Alan. Tell him to drive it at 2.8V and with only two modes: Max and Strobe. Drop that SOB into a CL1H v4 and be done with it. This is what I EDC everyday. It's 550 to 600 lumens out the front and on the floody side, but not too much so, so you can illuminate multiple subjects but still have powerful lux / spot brightness.

Email Alan at Dereelight by going to his website www.dereelight.com

The less said on this topic the better... I've barely recovered from the last thread on this topic a few weeks ago.

p.s. I think the OP needs to be merged into the "standard flashlight talking points" thread. I'm shaking my head right now.

Hilariously enough, the Olight M30 Triton is 700 lumens and can be carried easily in the pocket. It will happily use primaries or rechargeables, is ridiculously bright, and seems to perfectly match your criteria.

don.gwapo said:

...Or you can wait for a while coz 4/7's is releasing their maelstrom series this month and get the M500 with 500 lumens that's more on floody side. It uses 2x123 same as your tactical.

Click to expand...

This sounds great, thanks


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yalskey said:

Oh my god... not this topic AGAIN!!!! Seriously, this is getting crazy.......

Click to expand...

It may seem to you like I'm beating the dead horse

I apologize but I have actually been looking through endless threads and have never seen the criteria listed EXACTLY as mine are. Everyone's situation seems a little different from mine, so I wanted to post precisely what I was looking for.

This thread and the suggestions have been VERY helpful to me. Many thanks to all.



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