I am a novice. I’m looking for a high quality tactical flashlight with a battery meter, built in charger, 200-250 meter throw, well focused beam,good battery life, waterproof. I need enough lumens to be able to identify targets at 100-200 meters. Prefer a cylindrical form factor around 160 mm x 40 mm max. Thanks.
Can you be more specific about what you mean by the word “tactical”?
Does this mean a switch that allows for momentary on, or are there certain UI patterns/shortcuts you’re looking for?
200 meters is a ways away. What do you need to identify at that distance?
The Sofirn C8G might be pretty close to what you are looking for except for in light recharging.
All the Best,
Jeff
Pick which ones are most important, ’cause it’s doubtful all those features will be in one light.
well, i ordered a Fenix TK30 for long distance.
have not received it, yet.
here is the store:
The Klatus lights have good tactical UI’s with turbo momentary and instant access to strobe. I have an XT12GT that sounds like it would do most of wha you are asking.
My FT03 XHP50.2 would be pretty close. Except I’m not sure about the body diameter.
Personally I wouldn’t call the UI tactical at all.
Click on for memory (presumably high), double click for turbo.
No momentary. No instant access to high reliably. No instance access to strobe.
I have an FT03 it is great. But it isn’t tactical IMO.
Depending on your budget, the Olight Warrior X Pro is my vote for best tactical light. It’s two-mode, runs for 8 hours on the 300-lumen low mode, and has a max throw of around 600 meters on turbo without being overly large. It’s IPX8 rated and drop tested from 3 meters.
The drawbacks are no strobe, the proprietary 21700 cell and magnetic charger cable. But it’s an extremely slick light.
The standard Warrior X does have a strobe option and can be run on CR123s if needed, but still requires the specific 18650 to reach max output, which is around 500 meters.
The “gas pedal” UI takes a touch of practice but I think it’s the best for tactical use. If you’re under pressure, how are you going to operate the switch? You’re going to squeeze it as hard as you can. And the way it works, half press goes to low mode and full press goes to turbo. When you need maximum light in a hurry you don’t have to worry about double clicks or tap dancing or whatever.
I agree it might be a stretch overall, but it does go into turbo very readily…
Anyways, something more dedicated? How about the Streamlight Protac HL-3 with 1,100 lumens and 36,000 candela? In my use it can easily reach out to 120 yards. Or, if the rubber sleeve is removable the Protac HL 5-x? 3500lm 51000 candela.
Get rid of the non-“tactical” crap like charging, etc, and the TM03 is pretty damned tactical. Blast someone with strobe or turbo (“suppression mode”, and they ain’t kidding 
) through the dual-switch tail.
Agree that FT03 is great but not tactical . However it does have momentary on. It should be 5 clicks from off.
The Olight M2R Pro has all of the features you described. Tube style, excellent battery life (21700), water resistant, 300m throw, built in charging (magnetic), battery indicator LED.
Ehh Olight uses a proprietary 21700 battery which is annoying IMO needing a specific battery to run a light, I suggest the Acebeam T36 does everything the Olight M2R pro does for a lower price.
The battery is proprietary, but if you’re just using the inbuilt charging it doesn’t really matter. I have a couple Olights and while I’d prefer the batteries to be interchangeable, I find in actual practice it isn’t an issue since I just slap the magnetic charger on it at the end of the day and it’s good to go.
I like Acebeam lights but most have weird mode spacing. 2 lumen ultra low to 200 lumen low? Yuck.
The 15 and 60 lumen modes are the ones I use most often with the M2R.
I don’t know much about the Olight’s UI. Is it tactical based?
Personally don’t like proprietary batteries on principle. Also if it is flat, you can’t exactly just put another battery in and go on your way. You need to wait for it to charge or you have no light.
I still think Klarus have the right UI for this.
They offer many lights, some smaller, some with more lumens.
But the XT12GT would seem to fit the bill:
https://www.klaruslight.com/Products/XTSeries/XT12GT.html
C8 sized. So not too small and not too big. Magnetic charing with good lumen output and lots of throw for its size using the XHP35HI.
Has a great tactical UI. You get turbo momentary. Or turbo On from one switch. The other gives instant access to tactical strobe.
Runs on a variety of batteries. 18650 or 2 x CR123a or even 2 x 18350.
Battery meter
If we going similar size the acebeam L16 probably has one of the best tactical UI, tail switch is instant turbo either momentary or always on while side switch is for everything else.
convoy C8+ with xpl hi biscotti driver. You can set the driver to 3 modes high-medium-low and shut of memory so it always turns on on high. You still need a charger, but you cant have it all.