Streamlight Super Tac!

[jzmtl]

See post below for full review

So I decided to join the salvation army and become a bell ringer in front of walmart. I bought a bell from streamlight, as you can see it's even powered by two cr123a lithium cells.



Wait... That's a Streamlight Super Tac...

Anyway I sold my fenix T1 to fund this, because I think a dedicated thrower would work better for me instead of a bright general purpose flashlight. It uses a luxeon K2 TFFC LED powered by 2x123a cells. Supposely 135 lumen out front and runs for 2.5 hours before dropping of regulation. The reflector is bigger than a D cell maglite! It's tint is one of the warmest I've seen in LED, but of course the store had two and I handpicked the better one lol. The other one is really blue, luxeon lottery is alive and well.

Initial test shows it's output and throw is virtually the same as my seoul'ed magled, tonight I'll try some 600ft shots to see if there are any difference.

More info from streamlight, they even did a runtime graph. http://www.streamlight.com/documents/fact-sheet/202.pdf

[Spoonrobot]

That's pretty sweet, excited about the beamshots.

Ridiculous body proportions aside I was really put off by the fact that this light had a plastic lens. I never heard if they were going to update or not, still plastic?

Do you plan to carry it?

[jzmtl]

it's still plastic. But consider it was designed as gun mounted (both + and - contacts are spring loaded) and the size of the lens, it probably makes sense to have something shock resistant. The head is huge, but it's literally all reflector (plastic not metal). It's as wide as the bezel is and extend all the way to where the horizontal rings end. I won't EDC it, since the holseter is even bigger, will only take it on outdoor trips.

[NutSAK]

It reminds me of the Heliotek HTE-1.  I hope it throws at least as well!

[Hoghead]

It does kinda look like a bell. 

[jzmtl]

I was looking for a 2 cell thrower to replace my Fenix T1, since I feel it would suit my use better. I remembered reading about the Streamlight super tac right after SHOT show and thought it was pretty ugly and didn’t think much of it. Well the local B&M store have them in stock so I went to check them out, and ended up taking one home

The light is huge for a light that use 2x CR123a cells, but most of that is because of the reflector. The reflector on it is bigger than D cell Maglite in fact. If you look at it, the reflector is as wide as the largest part of bezel, and extends all the way down to where the rings end on neck of the light. The reflector is smooth and made of plastic.





Despite its size, the light feels good in hand, and can be easily operated.





The light is made of aluminum, and anodize to matte black. I don’t know which type of anodizing is used, but since Streamlight did not advertise which type I would assume it’s type II.

The battery tube is checkered for better grip. I love the checkering pattern used on this light, it’s very grippy, yet not abrasive like those used by Surefire. A pocket clip is included but I don’t know why would anyone use it, consider the larger (and heavier) part of the light is outside pocket, and will probably fall out easily.

Switch is a tail cap forward cliky, which feels great when using. It only needs to be pushed in a little bit for the momentary to engaged, but need to be pushed in quite a bit to latch on, so it’s hard to accidentally click on. The tail cap can be twisted counter clockwise to lock out the switch, a quarter turn is enough.

A Luxeon TFFC K2 is used as light source. This particular LED has very warm tint, however the other one in store had very blue tint, Luxeon lottery is alive and well.

The lens is made of polycarbonate and is pressed in, so replacement is not possible.

Nothing is glued on this light, everything can be taken apart easily.



The LED resides inside an aluminum pill, which appears to be press fit and impossible to take apart for LED upgrade. (NOTE: a member on another forum showed me that his scorpion use a very similar pill and the top portion can be pulled off to reveal the Luxeon star, but I haven’t tried it yet. Thanks AshA4!)



Both + and – contacts are spring loaded. Battery tube inside diameter is 17.3mm, so…



Streamlight advertises this light to be 135 lumens out front. Runtime is 2.5 hours to 110 lumens, then drops out of regulation, and down to 13 lumens at 3.5 hours.

Since the reflector is smooth the whitewall shot isn’t pretty, but at least no rings.



Beamshots with Magled with SSCP4 and SF L1 cree

30ft/9m

Control


Super tac


Mag


L1


320ft/97m A lot of light pollution from the city, and to my right is a warehouse with many exterior sodium lights.

Control


Super tac


Mag


L1


Now about 620ft/189m? I can barely tell what is being lighted up at this distance.

Control


Super tac


Mag


L1


I thought the mag was a good thrower, but Super tac kills it. With all the light pollution I can still see things being lighted up at over 600 ft, so I’d imagine in total darkness it’ll do that easily.

All in all this is not the brightest light out there, but it sure makes good use of all its lumens! It won’t be my EDC, but for outdoor trips I will definitely have it around!

For more information see the fact sheet from Streamlight.

Oh sidenote, C4 LED just means whatever Streamlight happens to use in that light, Luxeon K2 in this case, and cree in Argo.

[ringzero]

So I decided to join the salvation army and become a bell ringer in front of walmart. I bought a bell from streamlight, as you can see it's even powered by two cr123a lithium cells.

Thanks for the nice pics and review, jzmtl.

Looks like this'd be a great light for applications where a small thrower is needed - boating, for example, when you need to see way out across the water.

Streamlight knows how to design reflectors to get the most out of them for a given size of light.  Even the less expensive Streamlights tend to have really deep reflectors that throw well, yet still have usable spillbeams.

I'd love to see Streamlight offer this same model head, but with C and D cell bodies:  2C and 2D, 3C and 3D, 4C and 4D.

.

[jock1]

That looks great I can't seem to find anywhere that stocks it in this country if anyone knows different I would grateful for the assistance

[Neil]

A bit quirky looking but those beam shots tell it like it is.  Nice light, thanks for sharing it with us.

Neil

[WhichDawg]

nice review and pics!

until I seen it in your hands I was like "wow" but in that shot it doesn't look so "bell-normous