The Great Outdoors Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for people who love being outdoors enjoying nature and wilderness, and learning about the required skills and equipment. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
LEP (laser excited phosphor) is the new technology of flashlights to use, with extra brightness. I get some cons to use LEP, like its effect on eyes if the light beam is applied directly to them.
I want to know how many people here use this flashlight as an EDC or for a tactical purpose? Is it suitable to cover the targeted area during hiking with this flashlight? (Because LEP works like a spotlight.)
How it's worth using as a tactical flashlight or mounting on the weapon?
The design benefit of these emitters is that the brightness comes from a much smaller area. This means that the optics can focus the light into a smaller spot. There doesn't, at the moment, seem to be an efficiency benefit over the best LEDs, except perhaps in low power modes. This is partly because current designs are optimised for maximum brightness.
For hiking, if the light is to see where you're going, they seem pointless - the tighter focus isn't what you need to place you feet or spot trail markers. But they do project a tighter beam at long distances, so if that's what you need, whatever the activity, there's some benefit. I won't go into detail on use with weapons - again, that depends what you're doing. In this context it might be sensible to assume hunting or target shooting, but the tighter spot is most useful at longer ranges. Night wildlife spotting (if spotlights are suitable) would be a good use case, and I could see a role in an emergency kit for some activities, but for everyday use many seem rather large, and the smaller ones don't seem to have very good battery life.
As for eye hazards, modern high-brightness LEDs are hazardous already with some lenses, at short ranges. There's no extra hazard from the laser itself (it's focussed into the phosphor and what little is reflected is divergent), but the tighter beam means the eye hazard extends further. In practice this could be an issue, but just dazzling someone is far more likely unless you do something silly like pointing it directly at their face.
Of course, you can, but tactical lights are ideally suited for tactical use. It is constructed of a higher grade of aluminium and is more durable, and they are smaller and easier to carry than standard flashlights, and they are waterproof.
It is great for self-defence in an emergency.
It can emit light intense enough to discourage an attacker, disorient them optically, or be employed as a blunt force self-defence weapon. They are widely used as a daily carry item or fitted to a pistol to illuminate a target.
LEP light emits a very thin beam that can travel over several kilometres. As a result, it is ideal for hunting, and however, it is not suitable for close-up work.
Yes you can use but it is better use tactical flashlights. Tactical flashlights are much more durable. Many are made with a higher grade of aluminum and are armor-coated. They are normally lighter in weight than a regular flashlight. And they're resistant to weather, shocks and corrosion.
