Need help finding the best lights for my purpose

MaxPowers5

Newly Enlightened
Joined
May 1, 2011
Messages
5
This is my first post here and I am a little bit overwhelmed. I am about to go to the Army's officer leadership development course. I am wanting to get better lights than what I have that could help give me an edge. I was hoping someone could give me some suggestions.
I am looking for both a flashlight and a headlamp. They both need to be red light. There is no need for me to have any white light throughout the month, so even cycling through white light to get to red would be hazardous.
I wanted to know what your advice would be for a high power, red, push button light. Multiple power levels would be a plus. Battery life should be at least 5 hours and it needs to take AA or AAA batteries. (I need to have easy access to the required batteries) I also don't want to deal with large separate battery packs. This is for both the flashlight and headlamp. I was looking at the TACTIKKA ADAPT and it looks good with the ability to detach and attach to other things, but if I put the red lens in it, will it only be red? I cannot risk hitting the wrong button and shining white light when doing tactical training.
Any suggestions would be great. Thank you.
 

angelofwar

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Nov 17, 2007
Messages
3,336
Location
South Carolina
Welcome! Finding a "red-only" light is hard enough to begin with, and then when you start putting other stipulations (this many modes, these types batteries only), it becomes nigh on impossible. So, I'll give you my best recommendations, and you can decide if it works for you.

For the handheld light, I'd recommend a Surefire incan model with an F05 Red Slip-on filter. The filter is very simple, yet robust, and holds on pretty good. This will give you a nice true red. Dedicated red LED's are pretty hard to find. Right now they have the E1e Black at LApolicegear pretty cheap (for a Surefire) and F05's can easily be found on the net. The E1e can easily be slid on a hat bill doubling as a headlamp. When you finish school, you'll have a nice little back-up stealth light. LED's don't do to well with RED filters and you lose ALOT of the light. The E1e will give you an Hour and a half of runtime on 1 cell. The lithium batteries it takes will not leak, will last 10 years and still have almost full power, will work ALOT better in the cold and extreme heat.

For headlamps, the Tikka sounds like the best bet. Just leave the red filter on it. Hope this helps, and welcome to CPF!
 
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