How bright is too bright?

[lurkingknight]

what's 'not directly in their face'? If you light up someone in the beam cone of the flashlight, that light is still going directly in their face. It's not like a laser that hits a specific spot (which I don't think should be allowed, but that's another issue) lights are meant to saturate an area, if something is in that saturation area, it's receiving direct light.

Originally Posted by cadpat_tact

Just use common sense and don't shine it directly in their face...

[MultipleParadox]

Any light having a somewhat wide cone will be much brighter in the center than in the peripheral area. So yeah, there's a way to light things up differently.

That being said, I don't quite get all the fuss about this; I don't really know but I don't see a small tac light having enough power to actually blind someone, even temporarily. Incomodate, annoy, making them see spots for a few seconds, yes. But blind? I'm skeptical about this. It's not like they can pack the equivalent of a 1100W High Pressure Sodium bulb at 150L/W.... Yes I'm exaggerating a bit but you get the idea.

PS: I know that some post I make like this can look like I'm acting as a know-it-all or that I'm stating facts or whatever but it's not the case here. I'm really questioning ( as in having questions?) this here and if anyone have actual scientific facts I'd be glad to read them

[anthon]

grab a maglite xl200 and call it a day....

[Danke]

The comment about lighting up your team is spot on also.

Last night game I was at there was one guy who was like a five year old with a new toy. He could not keep his hands of the light, he flashed people in the face, lit them up so the enemy team could spot them and generally made an ass of himself.

He flat out didn't get it; not sure if he was team killed or not.

[PrIeSt]

Originally Posted by ThunderCactus

Lights are really useful against single targets, especially at night or in dark areas since it wrecks their peripheral vision. All they see is the light, and not your squad advancing
But there's a time and a place to use the tac-light, if your enemy already knows where you are, you're not really giving away your position. And they can't see you behind the light, so there's nothing wrong with simply turning your light on and resting it on a crate while you position yourself 5 feet to the left lol

Hmm and the users who leave a light. Especially strobe. Get there lights broken. I may not be able to site in on a light quick. But after the fact if it is still sitting on a ledge. I shoot until it is knocked off. Hopefully breaking it.

Ruining someone's night vision and sight over and over is a dick move. I've also go e as far as walkin over and taking someone's strobe light. And putting it in the admin area. Since they left it there and walked away..

I prefer to enjoy my game. Not spend half of it blind so someone else can get a kill.

[IggysPiggy]

anything over 250 lumens is doing damage to your eyes, your playing a game and so that should be taking into account you do not want to harm the other players so going with a lower lumen flashlight is best. If you think ppl are being babies then ill happily shine my 950lumen tac light in your face.

think of it as a fps limit for your tac light, you dont run a 500 fps gun indoors for a reason so why run a real taclight thats meant to blind a target so he can be killed.

[tygr701]

150-200 lumens is perfect for most situations. Anything more is just excess. You DO NOT need a 500 lumen flashlight to be effective....

[Brian McIlmoyle]

Don't use a light that you would not want used on you.

it's not that difficult.

also stupid bright lights generate a lot of heat.. to the point of melting and possibly igniting things.. and most airsofters are not all that careful regarding stowing their gear.

These high lumen lights are an accident waiting to happen

[ThunderCactus]

my 200 lumen used to have a wicked strobe, long story short I broke the switch in the winter, replaced with it a simple recessed on/off switch lol
Having access to polycarbonate is useful, all my tac lights are BB proof
Can't say it attracts fire, I tend to get shot in the fingers often in CQB whether I use it or not
I only use the tac light at night in defense postures though, like that year at CFB rivers when I was lighting up Shodawg from the steam plant
And then adding insult to injury by then circling his whole squad with my laser to indicate their position to everyone watching LOL
There are situations where a high power flashlight is really useful though, especially at night, and especially in buildings where you could fall into a 60ft hole and die if you can't see enough detail