STEP 1:
Pick your Primary Light
The one light you'll use 90% of the time. Should be military grade, using 18650 or 21700 batteries.
These are the best possible power source today for high lumens and long runtime (at least 90 mins).
They work great, and provide triple the power and capacity of AA batteries. The best lights are built around these batteries.
What to look out for:
BRIGHTNESS
1000 lumens is the sweet spot now for constant use without the light getting too hot quickly. Lights above 1000 lumen will provide that extra punch when you need it, but will get hot quickly if you keep using them at the brightest setting.
250 lumens is all that’s needed to blind someone in the dark. CREE LEDS are the standard, used in all high-end lights.
BEAM TYPE
Flood, Throw or mixed? When you work in different scenarios. Mixed beams have the best of both worlds, a spot AND a wide flood beam.
Avoid lights with ‘zoom’ or adjustable focus features. The less moving parts the better.
DISTANCE
Around 200 meters at 1000 lumens is great. This covers most practical needs of first responders and urban use.
If the ANSI chart says 200m beam distance, the actual useful distance in real life would be divided by 3, so 66m.
