Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/11/21/these-military-grade-flashligh.html
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UltraBright 500-Lumen Tactical Military Flashlight
seriously?!? 500 lumen? a pretty small construction-light with highpower-LEDs and li-ion-battery, which is good for 3 hours from my hardwarestore costs about 10 euros and got 900 lumens. its even small enough that I made a bicycle-light out of it…
military-grade, jeeez 
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I’m curious, what exactly is military-grade? Is there a Mil-Spec that defines what a flashlight should be built like and are these built to it? Or is military-grade just advertising mumbo-jumbo that only has the meaning endowed to it by the reader? Is it just as useless as the phrase “all natural?”
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That is not a bright flashlight.
THIS is a bright flashlight, 12,000 lumen!
I have an earlier version of this and it still works after having it for 5 years.
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The Sidewinder from Streamlight is an actual flashlight used by the US military. They don’t mention a military specification number in their documentation, but there are multiple National Stock Numbers listed.
Here’s a military Request for Information describing test procedures for flashlights:
https://www.fbo.gov/?s=opportunity&mode=form&tab=core&id=26b986dc310d19f4f2b91be7f114c388&_cview=0
They used that to come up with an “approved family of flashlights” but I can’t find any current information about that. For the most part I think the military buys whatever is available on the market at the time, and it’s very task specific: weapon lights, helmet lights, distress beacons, and IR versions of all those.
And then there’s the finger lights and lip lights used by pilots, and included in survival kits. Interesting stuff. If you’re into flashlights, you should join the candlepower forum.
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Sorry, I wrote all that without even looking at the flashlights. They say, “Army Gear” right on the side in big white letters, just as all proper mil-spec gear does. That’s how you know it’s legit.
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in a very, very small area at not more than maybe one centimeter distance. scnr.
edit/ Klossner-correction.
in a very small area at not more than one meter distance
That’s lux. Lumens are independent of distance. Lux are lumens per square meter.
But, according to the reviews on Amazon, this flashlight doesn’t put out anything like 500 lumens. Which is what I would expect from a light powered by a single AA battery.
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military grade
A friend of mine who was in the army says he always reads that as, “Made by the lowest bidder at the lowest cost.”
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you are so right. 
thanks.
yep, I stumbled over that one, too.
Why would you put anything in an emergency kit that relies on batteries?
I mean, is obsessively monitoring the state of reserve batteries a popular hobby, or do people only have emergencies that are carefully planned in advance?
I have an old Russian dynamo light and a grundig crank radio in mine, because they can be left unattended for decades and still work.
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I’ve been using the ThorFire TG06S ($17,89 on Amazon) for more than a year now and I absolutely love it. I’ve travelled, hiked at night, camped and worked with it.
Super bright, very strong and has different brightness settings. It’s even recommended on different gear websites, that how I found it. Good stuff.
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Well, let’s be fair. With your skills your emergency kit is probably just iron ore and a hammer. Everything else you can make from there 
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Because batteries have a shelf life of around ten years these days. Which is probably more than my “shelf life”.
Anyway, “military grade” and number of lumens is just marketing talk from a Chinese company. I have a few of these, and they are great for the price, though better deals can be had. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/2016-New-Mini-2000-Lumens-Bright-CREE-Q5-LED-Adjustable-Zoom-Focus-Flashlight-Torch-Lamp-Light/32650216356.html
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That, and the marked-up price.
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