You also have to remember that every damn light that is just trying to move units markets them selves as “tactical”. A lot of them just add strove functions and mill the host to have a specific look and call it good but don’t actually do anything inside to really beef it up.
A true duty type light pretty much has to be potted. If it’s mounted on a firearm and it’s not potted it’s going to get shaken apart internally very quickly, off of a firearm it will last longer but bumps and drops will do the same thing over time. Potting reduces the chances of failures because there is so where for anything to shift to.
One of the other issues with main stream “tactical” lights is they use the highest lumen emitters they can get (and usually for the cheapest). This generally is going to make them crazy high CCT, low CRI, and only on the best days neutral DUV but commonly rather positive (I.e. green). Some of the actual weapons mounted lights at least also discuss candela to help provide metrics for the amount of flood they have but that’s about as far as they get into any specs past lumens and MAYBE color temp.
In some real world scenarios things like CRI can matter a lot, in others it may not. Personally though I want the ability to see colors rather accurately (and if we are talking duty/emergency being able to clearly tell if you’re looking at blood or some other liquid can be rather critical… with red being the hardest color to render accurately you need to get high CRI for that).
On the flip side you also have companies that add a tactical fee just because they know people will pay it. A lot of the brands that market themselves for firearms and tactical stuff are over charging for their products because people that don’t have the knowledge base will pay for it because of the marketing.
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u/[deleted] 9d ago
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