flashlights | Military Times GearScout

Surefire goes green-ish

By: Rob Curtis

18-04-2012

Surefire is now offering “K2 Energy” branded rechargeable CR123 batteries for use in their LED flashlights. The SF2R charger comes with a pair of rechargeable CR123 for $29, and a pair of batteries is $12. The batteries will last for more than 500 charging cycles, saving a significant amount of money. But, the rechargeables offer about half the runtime of a set of primary CR123s.

Getting a charger and a second set of batteries for backups for $41 will net a savings of about $800 considering a 12-pack of batteries costs $20. So, even with the reduced runtime, this should be attractive to anyone on a budget (read, all of us!).

But, there are some caveats worth noting when using rechargeables in flashlights. Rechargeable batteries have a little power spike as they start to deliver power. Surefire’s LED lights can deal with it, but the power spike can cause older incandescent bulbs to burn out. So, stick with the primary CR123s for vintage lights.

500 lumens from this little thing? Seriously!

By: Rob Curtis

17-12-2011

Product Announcement

The Surefire P2X Fury is here. Aluminum bodied with 2 brightness modes of 15/500 lumens. 46/1.5hrs runtime on two CR123 batteries for a street price of $155. It just started shipping to dealers this week.

I’ll have more on this light shortly, but I dare say given the price, feature set and pedigree, this might be the best tactical utility light available today.

Princeton Tec’s MPLS Switch hits today, only at Grey Group

By: Rob Curtis

09-12-2010

Product Announcement

The Gen1 MPLS was an instant hit, but guys wanted more from the little light. Princeton Tec turned around an update at warp speed in the form of the MPLS Switch, released today. It started out as the single LED “MPLS” but PT reappropriated the MPLS moniker to encompass their whole family of multpurpose, military oriented lights.

The Switch updates the single LED design by adding a second LED to the tiny, lightweight admin light. It snaps easily and securely between helmet, vest and anywhere else you can stick one of the MPLS base plates. It’s got white and your choice of red, green, blue or IR light on a flexible stalk. Minor downer is the use of button cell batteries for power, but the CR2016/2032s are pretty easy to find in grocery stores these days. Major downer- the price went up from about $30 for the original MPLS to $60 for the Switch.

Grey Group Training has the exclusive on them for the launch through Christmas. Get one from them for $60 and you’ll get a set of Picatinny and reverse Picatinny (Ops-Core ARC) rail mounts not normally included in the retail package.

Surefire picks up two new SOCOM contracts

By: Rob Curtis

18-11-2010

Contracts

Surefire just announced Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division, awarded contracts to supply USSOCOM with three lights.

The first contract, Visible Bright Light-Heavy, is $16.6m worth of Surfire’s crew served weapon mounted Hellfighter light. This is the fourth generation of the Hellfighter which has grown more compact and brighter with each generation. The Hellfighter is designed to mount co-axially on an M2 machine gun, M134 Minigun and the M240 machine gun. It puts out 3000 lumens with an HID bulb.

The second contract award is $14.9m for the Visible Bright Light-III contract which includes an indefinite number of Surefire’s M620V Scout Light and the more compact M720V Raid weapon mounted lights. These both use the Vampire head which puts out visible and IR light by rotating the light’s bezel. The use of discrete LEDs gives much better output and runtime efficiency over a system that uses filters to produce IR light.

Energizer fixes their vest mount and gives us a history lesson

By: Rob Curtis

25-10-2010

Product Announcement

Energizer just redesigned their Helmet Light vest mounts to add more security. The original design, left, used a friction fit to secure the light, while the update uses a sprung metal tab that locks the light down. If you have an original vest mount, head over to Energizer’s Hard Case website to register your light and ask for a replacement. They’ve also added some magnets to the back of the mount so you can use the light a task light whenever you have something metal to hang the light from.

Energizer also showed us a few other mounts that come in the Energizer Tactical kit. The kit was an end-of-the-year special that was so popular, that its availability has been extended. The rail mount and the cap mount expand the use of the helmet light. The kit itself is available for $250 and up and includes a helmet light, angle head light, 4 mounts plus a coupon for a 5th (a headstrap for the helmet light) and 6 AA lithium batteries. It comes in a custom made tactical admin pouch that holds everything.

Beyond what’s new, Energizer showed us that old gear can be cool. They had a display showing just how far back their relationship to the US military goes. The Eveready Mobile Artillery Light was the first flashlight Eveready, now Energizer, produced for the military back in World War I. It took a couple of C cell batteries and probably ran at about 1/3 lumens for about 30 mins… and guys were probably totally geeked over it!

Energizer’s Compact Vest Light looks like an old friend

By: Rob Curtis

05-08-2010

Product Announcement

Energizer won’t say it, but we’re darn excited to tell you they’ve resurrected the Pentagon Light Molle Light. The trusty little angle head LED light is called the Energizer Compact Vest Light in its new form. It takes the single AA form factor of the original and adds magnets to the clip and a pair of stock filters, blue and red. They are still finalizing the details and we’ll report the price and date of availability as soon as we get it from the Pink Bunny’s mouth.

Review: Princeton Tec Modular Personal Lighting System (MPLS)

By: Rob Curtis

24-07-2010

Review

The name is a mouthful, but the MPLS is barely handful. The tiny flashlight puts admin lighting exactly where it should be right when you need it.

There’s nothing really new in the lighting aspect of the MPLS; it’s just an LED on a gooseneck. Princeton Tec makes its money in the attachment system. Regular headlamps get in the way when wearing a helmet, helmet-mounted lights only work when the helmet is on your head, and an angle-head flashlight clipped to your chest is never really pointed where you need it. So, in one accessory-laden swoop, the MPLS tackles all those field-admin lighting issues.

Scout Light – Afghanistan GearPorn Part XIII

By: Rob Curtis

30-03-2010

GearPorn

Surefire’s M600 Scout Lights were spread around the unit. This one was used to shave rocks, by the look of it. Soldiers told me that weapon lights have been one of the first items to get left at the COP since they aren’t really doing house searches anymore –that’s the Afghan National Army’s job now. So, if they are going to carry something just-in-case, it’s got to be light and the M600 fits the bill, though some soldiers bought their one M300s to shave a few more ounces.

4Sevens’ fist full of light

By: Rob Curtis

24-01-2010

Product Announcement

4Sevens’ Malestrom series pumps out mucho lumens — 1,800 at the high end. But if you don’t need 1,800 lumes, we saw a working prototype of a 1,000-lume model that’s half the size of the 1,800. They also had their Quark RGB, and a couple smaller AAA lights. Check out the pics and captions:

Surefire RAID Weaponlight; if the X300 and Scout Light mated

By: Rob Curtis

20-01-2010

Product Announcement

Surefire took the form factor of the pistol oriented X-series and applied the ruggedness of the M-series Scout Lights to create the new RAID series. All the M720s run 2 CR123s side-by-side and will be available in 3 configurations; M720 white light, M720L ultra high-output white light with the M720V white/IR light.

The M720V will be the first to hit production for a March 2010 release with the M720 and M720L arriving sometime in the second half of 2010. Using the same dual-die LED technology in the Vampire series heads, the M720V features a pull-and-twist control to switch between white and IR light.

M720, 2 hours @ 200 lumens, 6oz with batteries and tape switch
M720L, 1.5 hours @ 350 lumens, 6.4 oz with batteries and tape switch
M720V, 1.8 hours @ 150 lumens (white), 8 hours @ 120mW (IR), 6 ounces with batteries and tape switch

Surefire goes green-ish

500 lumens from this little thing? Seriously!

Princeton Tec’s MPLS Switch hits today, only at Grey Group

Surefire picks up two new SOCOM contracts

Energizer fixes their vest mount and gives us a history lesson

Energizer’s Compact Vest Light looks like an old friend

Review: Princeton Tec Modular Personal Lighting System (MPLS)

Scout Light – Afghanistan GearPorn Part XIII

4Sevens’ fist full of light

Surefire RAID Weaponlight; if the X300 and Scout Light mated

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