This light uses PWM. If you don't like PWM stop reading here:
Ok, so if you're still reading....
After reading reports from the 016 SHOT show that Streamlight was upsizing the ProTac HL 3 to a 4, I yawned. But after reading the details I perked up.
What's this? Streamlight designing it to use primaries and 18650s?
Then I read that the core of the body is adjustable to adapt to differing diameters between 16mm and 18mm cells.
I began sticking coins in the piggy bank hoping to have the announced whopping $200 (stated potential price at the SHOT show) by it's scheduled April 15th release date. I figured online would be around $150.
Well it seems this thing is going for $99 at this point. That is the current price at a few reputable online sellers in the US. Higher later? Time will tell. Retail is $176.
The rated 2200 (30k) candela is nothing ground breaking. Frankly I was after the 600 lumens at 5+ hour runtime thing. Streamlight also chose a 60 lumen low. Now for many I suppose that's too much. But for carrying a flashlight the size of a Mag 2C it's a pretty good setting. Say you want to find your tackle box in an unlit shed, walk to the local ice cream store, or other general use Mag 2C type uses it's great.
Streamlight chose to TenTap the ProTac series. No change this time except...
Factory is the usual high/strobe/low. Setting 2 is the usual high only. Setting 3 is low, medium and high similar to Strions and Stingers. The 2 cell version is low/high with no medium.
This one tail stands. It also comes with a wrist lanyard instead of the usual neck length.
The body has a Scorpion type of rubber covering. If you like that feature vs the Stinger covering you'll appreciate this one. It is about like the Stinger in that the tail cap is exposed.
The glass lens is frosted. It's an opaque looking creature with an anti-reflective coating akin to fine camera lenses.
Looks kind of odd. But after dark you'll understand.
It arrives in a blister pack that can be reclosed. Also comes with 4 Duracell 123's.
Package now opened:
I slid the supplied cells in. Instead of the 18mm body swallowing up the 16mm primaries, each one went in like a round in a clip thanks to the adjusters. (My initial thought was a pair of 2 cell magazines to prevent battery flop...but not needed here). The next cell slides the previous forward. 1st to third slide out easily with 4th requiring a slight pop to the palm to get it out.
Head is fixed. Bezel is fixed. Dratz. I was hoping to see the innerds without declaring war on my new toy.
Turn it on and HOLY COW. Suddenly my well lit kitchen was even brighter. It was like reading a book near a window on a cloudy day and suddenly clouds part and the sun pops out.
I ten tap'd using momentary. The switch has a fairly long stroke for accidental click on prevention. So clicking it fast enough is not easy. The switch is about medium. The button is not hard, nor mushy. Engaging is not difficult even though the switch is recessed. Typical ProTac stuff.
The light is very weight forward. Think softball attached to a 6" stick. Now that's not a complaint. Just an observation incase you prefer a balanced light. If you are going to walk around with your thumb on the switch it'll be a drag after a while.
In normal carry your over hand or underhand grip near the center or forward will not result in fatigue. But this is not a cigar grip type light even though the body is plenty slender for that. Note, for the cigar grippers out there holding it between the middle finger and ring finger does create a surprisingly confident experience vs middle finger and pointer. I have found that instinctively that's how I cycle the thing.
Oh, speaking of cycling... when cycling with momentary, once you've reached the 3rd level that's where it stays. So if you use factory setting when you reach low for instance, if you quickly momentary it'll be low each time. If you wait about a second it returns to level 1. ie with practice you can morse code with it.
Others have reported that runtime numbers by Streamlight are conservative on 18650's. I'll do some testing at some point on new primaries. But today I do not have enough extra "good" ones to do that.
It has also been reported this light dims with time as cells deplete on high. But medium stays the same.
But I did note after a few minutes on high things get warm. Not hot, but warm enough to notice. The lens and cooling fins remained cool while the area around the serial number warmed.
Around twilight my den was dimming, and the ceiling fan was on medium. PWM check time. On high the room was bright. Uh, yeah...very bright. On medium no lines were noted in my camera and the fan blades appeared normal. On low a rapid PWM was noted in the fan blades but not the camera. It was also noted that tint is warmer on low.
Nice.
Today I did some further checking. At a shutter of 1/200th the PWM was captured on low. Nothing observed on medium.
On low the PWM may bother some. On the first night I used it weather was a rainy/ drizzly night and in real world use I did not notice it.
On medium.
Regarding tint, it appears Streamlight moved away from a copy paper white beam to something akin to a Malkoff neutral. When I did a side by side with other Streamlights the difference was striking. When a side by side was done with an M61 NL it appeared cooler than the Malkoff. More like the tint of a SureFire G2x Pro (minus the green).
After dark:
I noted right off the bat that on high this thing is bright. Duh. But I also noted I was not squinting when shining it on nearby objects.
My brain considered it was from having lit room adapted vision. It was drizzling on that night so I did not stay outside long.
But last night I hung around outside for about 30 minutes before trying it on high. It was amazing.
This is from about 3'.
I found the whitest, brightest, shiniest object nearby and tried to blind myself. It was crazy how mellow this light is up close. Not an up close step down like SureFire did. But genuine no self blinding with full output.
Yet it still lights up the block.
I went out back and shined it on a neighbors photosenser porch light and it turned off!!! WOW.
Mweew-ah-ah-ah (rubbing hands together)
Then I also noticed how well colors seem to "pop" out with it.
Things look natural while light bouncing off a nearby tree wasn't the least bit harsh.
I don't know the target audience for this one. But it will make a fine smoke slicer, search light, tow truck driver lighting, home defense, and general use light.
I'd bet a Pepsi some patents took place for this one.
Edits to occur...
Ok, so if you're still reading....
After reading reports from the 016 SHOT show that Streamlight was upsizing the ProTac HL 3 to a 4, I yawned. But after reading the details I perked up.
What's this? Streamlight designing it to use primaries and 18650s?
Then I read that the core of the body is adjustable to adapt to differing diameters between 16mm and 18mm cells.
I began sticking coins in the piggy bank hoping to have the announced whopping $200 (stated potential price at the SHOT show) by it's scheduled April 15th release date. I figured online would be around $150.
Well it seems this thing is going for $99 at this point. That is the current price at a few reputable online sellers in the US. Higher later? Time will tell. Retail is $176.
The rated 2200 (30k) candela is nothing ground breaking. Frankly I was after the 600 lumens at 5+ hour runtime thing. Streamlight also chose a 60 lumen low. Now for many I suppose that's too much. But for carrying a flashlight the size of a Mag 2C it's a pretty good setting. Say you want to find your tackle box in an unlit shed, walk to the local ice cream store, or other general use Mag 2C type uses it's great.
Streamlight chose to TenTap the ProTac series. No change this time except...
Factory is the usual high/strobe/low. Setting 2 is the usual high only. Setting 3 is low, medium and high similar to Strions and Stingers. The 2 cell version is low/high with no medium.
This one tail stands. It also comes with a wrist lanyard instead of the usual neck length.
The body has a Scorpion type of rubber covering. If you like that feature vs the Stinger covering you'll appreciate this one. It is about like the Stinger in that the tail cap is exposed.
The glass lens is frosted. It's an opaque looking creature with an anti-reflective coating akin to fine camera lenses.
Looks kind of odd. But after dark you'll understand.
It arrives in a blister pack that can be reclosed. Also comes with 4 Duracell 123's.
Package now opened:
I slid the supplied cells in. Instead of the 18mm body swallowing up the 16mm primaries, each one went in like a round in a clip thanks to the adjusters. (My initial thought was a pair of 2 cell magazines to prevent battery flop...but not needed here). The next cell slides the previous forward. 1st to third slide out easily with 4th requiring a slight pop to the palm to get it out.
Head is fixed. Bezel is fixed. Dratz. I was hoping to see the innerds without declaring war on my new toy.
Turn it on and HOLY COW. Suddenly my well lit kitchen was even brighter. It was like reading a book near a window on a cloudy day and suddenly clouds part and the sun pops out.
I ten tap'd using momentary. The switch has a fairly long stroke for accidental click on prevention. So clicking it fast enough is not easy. The switch is about medium. The button is not hard, nor mushy. Engaging is not difficult even though the switch is recessed. Typical ProTac stuff.
The light is very weight forward. Think softball attached to a 6" stick. Now that's not a complaint. Just an observation incase you prefer a balanced light. If you are going to walk around with your thumb on the switch it'll be a drag after a while.
In normal carry your over hand or underhand grip near the center or forward will not result in fatigue. But this is not a cigar grip type light even though the body is plenty slender for that. Note, for the cigar grippers out there holding it between the middle finger and ring finger does create a surprisingly confident experience vs middle finger and pointer. I have found that instinctively that's how I cycle the thing.
Oh, speaking of cycling... when cycling with momentary, once you've reached the 3rd level that's where it stays. So if you use factory setting when you reach low for instance, if you quickly momentary it'll be low each time. If you wait about a second it returns to level 1. ie with practice you can morse code with it.
Others have reported that runtime numbers by Streamlight are conservative on 18650's. I'll do some testing at some point on new primaries. But today I do not have enough extra "good" ones to do that.
It has also been reported this light dims with time as cells deplete on high. But medium stays the same.
But I did note after a few minutes on high things get warm. Not hot, but warm enough to notice. The lens and cooling fins remained cool while the area around the serial number warmed.
Around twilight my den was dimming, and the ceiling fan was on medium. PWM check time. On high the room was bright. Uh, yeah...very bright. On medium no lines were noted in my camera and the fan blades appeared normal. On low a rapid PWM was noted in the fan blades but not the camera. It was also noted that tint is warmer on low.
Nice.
Today I did some further checking. At a shutter of 1/200th the PWM was captured on low. Nothing observed on medium.
On low the PWM may bother some. On the first night I used it weather was a rainy/ drizzly night and in real world use I did not notice it.
On medium.
Regarding tint, it appears Streamlight moved away from a copy paper white beam to something akin to a Malkoff neutral. When I did a side by side with other Streamlights the difference was striking. When a side by side was done with an M61 NL it appeared cooler than the Malkoff. More like the tint of a SureFire G2x Pro (minus the green).
After dark:
I noted right off the bat that on high this thing is bright. Duh. But I also noted I was not squinting when shining it on nearby objects.
My brain considered it was from having lit room adapted vision. It was drizzling on that night so I did not stay outside long.
But last night I hung around outside for about 30 minutes before trying it on high. It was amazing.
This is from about 3'.
I found the whitest, brightest, shiniest object nearby and tried to blind myself. It was crazy how mellow this light is up close. Not an up close step down like SureFire did. But genuine no self blinding with full output.
Yet it still lights up the block.
I went out back and shined it on a neighbors photosenser porch light and it turned off!!! WOW.
Mweew-ah-ah-ah (rubbing hands together)
Then I also noticed how well colors seem to "pop" out with it.
Things look natural while light bouncing off a nearby tree wasn't the least bit harsh.
I don't know the target audience for this one. But it will make a fine smoke slicer, search light, tow truck driver lighting, home defense, and general use light.
I'd bet a Pepsi some patents took place for this one.
Edits to occur...
Last edited:
Looks a very useful beam and nice tint too...............win win!!!
