Build your perfect tac/EDC light

I am in the market for the best edc/tactical light I can get. To me, having an extremely bright one is key, overcoming someones darkness adaptation is essential. With this thought experiment, let's included mods, for example my ultimate EDC would be:

Tail clicker Vinh modded surefire p60 bored for 18650 w/SBT90 led maxed out for crazy output, 2 modes: max and strobe.

I dont know a whole lot about tactical lights and hope to learn more through this thread. I want a high quality, uber powerful edc in EDC small form factor(18650 or smaller). Let's keep it to tail clickers only since I dont find non-tail clickers style lights acceptable for emergency/edc use.

MALKOFF MD2 with either a 61 hot or 91t. If tactical is what you're going after ignore lumens and focus on candela/lux. Lux is what punches the ambient light.Your gonna get a lot of bad information here from people that don't train in no light/low light conditions that don't know squat about what a tactical light is that are going to tell you opposite of what I am.
The only way to prove to you what I'm saying is, take a high lumen low lux light outside and try and see threw ambient light you won't be able to. Try taking a low lux light and shining it threw a window. It won't, the light will just block out what is on the other side of the window. Now try both those experiments with a high lux light and you'll see my point.

Fish 14 said:

MALKOFF MD2 with either a 61 hot or 91t. If tactical is what you're going after ignore lumens and focus on candela/lux. Lux is what punches the ambient light.Your gonna get a lot of bad information here from people that don't train in no light/low light conditions that don't know squat about what a tactical light is that are going to tell you opposite of what I am.
The only way to prove to you what I'm saying is, take a high lumen low lux light outside and try and see threw ambient light you won't be able to. Try taking a low lux light and shining it threw a window. It won't, the light will just bounce back and get you in your eyes. Now try both those with a high lux light and you'll see my point.

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Wow, great info. Thank you! Can lux be measured the same way lumen and throw can?

ike1985 said:

Wow, great info. Thank you! Can lux be measured the same way lumen and throw can?

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One lux is equal to one lumen per square metre: 1 lx = 1 lm/m2 = 1 cd·sr/m2. A flux of 1000 lumens, concentrated into an area of 1 square metre, lights up that square metre with an illuminance of 1000 lux.

Surefire edcl2t

Or

Malkoff e2dht

Also

+1 on fish's recommendation

wicky998 said:

Surefire edcl2t

Or

Malkoff e2dht

Also

+1 on fish's recommendation

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Yes, the e2ht would be most practical as a WML, and a very good choice for a tactical light as well.

Also stay away from everything Chinese made. Tactical indicates to me that you're depending your life to the light and I've seen 100s of Chinese lights fail in class, everything from streamlight to olight to klarus and nitecore. MALKOFF, surefire oveready elzetta are the only brands that I've seen make it threw a weekend of training.

It doesn't take a huge amount of lux to blind someone if you're pointing your light directly at them. If your light is too bright then you risk it reflecting back and blinding you, particularly in confined spaces. Just something to consider prior to chasing max output.

I beg to differ, with a total of 45 hours of low light/no light training under my belt and another 18hrs on the way knowing how to position your light removes the possibility of self blinding.

Fish 14 said:

I beg to differ, with a total of 45 hours of low light/no light training under my belt and another 18hrs on the way knowing how to position your light removes the possibility of self blinding.

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But that would require a somewhat narrow beam, correct? I was picturing an SBT90 flooder like the OP mentioned and that would be difficult to avoid glare.

Avoiding glare or flash back in a coffined space with a flooder would require the light to be angled upwards bouncing light off the ceiling. Flooders tend to have a lux of under 10,000. A good example of a very well rounded tac light that has a perfect amount of lux to lumens would be the TACTICIAN. I believe it's 10,000 lux and 1,000 lumen.

So what would be the advantage to having a higher lumen flooder that needs to be pointed at the ceiling versus a lower output light, like say an M61, that could be pointed directly where you want to look?

Tactical lights are normally carried with a gun, if your not carrying a gun you really have no need for a tactical light.
If you want to carry two lights a high lumen flooder is a great option. But if you re going to carry just one light lux is more important.
a tactical light doesn't only apply to indoors, factor in alley ways, around your property or just walking the dog late at night. Maybe you're at a grocery store at night and out goes the power. Lux is the determining factor on how much ambient light you're going to be able to punch threw

Have you ever ran threw a shoot house in low light with a flooder? They don't work well because of all the ambient lighting. Then factor in gun powder and dry wall dust and it gets even worse.

Here's an informative video from a guy with a really cool t-shirt that speaks to what Fish 14 is saying.


https://youtu.be/cN2K7UhT6rk

Why do you need a strobe? It's only a distraction technique, it doesn't stun someone and you need to train to follow up the distraction technique.

Tail clicky isn't ideal for a tactical light, momentary is better.

For the EDC side you need variable output levels to suit the many uses that an EDC light can be put to.

Check out the HDS EDC Tactical 325, it has a tail clicky and a rotary control, however the tail clicky functions as momentary in the strobe and high output setting of the rotary.





It is also available with a 18650 body if the CR123 version does not meet your requirements.

Very good points Dave. Although 325 lumens is not suitable for a tactical light. That's just a marketing gimmick on HDS's end

I don't agree with the gimmick comment.

Lower lumen lights have been used for years in tactical situations, 325 is plenty for most scenarios.

The Malkoff M61 is a good drop in for tactical use with 450 lumens, the human eye doesn't notice much difference between 325 and 450.

I wouldn't knock the HDS until you've tried it.

A lot depends on what scenarios the OP is expecting to encounter on the tactical side.

My pick (and I haven't owned a Malkoff yet) Surefire e1e defender, 300 lumens 2 mode, although I would prefer just high.. strike bezel and tailcap and a decent runtime of about 35 min on high.

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Considering the surefire or hds modded and maxed out with sbt90.