Multiple lights for anybody going out for more than a
15 minute dog walk at night. When I’ve looked at the specs in the past I don’t see a difference between low and high operating or storage temperatures between cr123 and 18650/20700. It does seem that high discharge rated batteries do better in the cold. Avoid cold white if possible.
I did a review here:
The “Built in Charging” is in fact a Micro USB port installed in each special 18650 battery. So the batteries have to be removed to charge them.
This also makes the battery extra long. Spacers are needed to use flat top or even most button top batteries.
It has a great UI for S&R. Set it so that it always comes on in low, a quick press steps it up to Med or High.
Great beam pattern too - thinks I.
BUT - The darn button is just about impossible to find when wearing gloves! Something that S&R is going to be wearing most of the year in the UK?
The new Sofirn Q8 Pro looks very interesting. Lots of light and USB-C charging.
But - a fiddly interface. Perhaps it could be set so it only uses a few steps instead of a ramp.
The soda pop can lights I find are not pleasant to hold for long periods.
The Sofirn SP70 with 2x26650 is awfully hefty. Good interface for noobes and plenty of light. No built in charging.
But how hard is it to carry extra batteries? I mean we did it for years when Maglites were king.
The other posters are right about output and throw. You want some kick in the center of the beam. With a full flood (like a zoomy) the near field brightness washes out everything else and renders stuff farther away hard to see.
All the Best,
Jeff
Ends up being around 50/50 if team members use gloves, I personally don’t tend to unless it’s water work.
It seems the general consensus is that if you’re looking for something with “good enough” throw and “good enough” flood, then don’t bother with a zoomie and just get two dedicated torches - with the exception of something more hybrid like the Streamlight.
Given how popular zoomies are in the search team, I’m a little surprised they’re viewed so negatively in the enthusiast space!
I you want a thrower that laffs at cold weather, get an EA8 (The Cave Man) or similar, which runs off 4 or 8 AAs, and use alkaleaks as long as you pull them after use, or just eneloops.
Waterproof, grippy, throws nicely, easy to feed.
Perhaps it is due to lack of exposure to other examples?
And zoomies are so heavily marketed everywhere.
As much as I dislike his “everything is wonderful” reviews.
Charles Bridgetec has beam shots that you can view that shows relative merits of different beam and throw patterns.
Just be aware that he only reviews lights he gets for free.
And they are almost always “Amazing”
Another source is Flasaholic, A frequent poster here, and a fellow UK-er of yours.
He usually shows 4 or so lights in comparison with beam shots at different distances.
All the Best,
Jeff
I don’t know of anything that meets everything on your list, but I would suggest the Streamlight Stinger DS HPL or Strion DS HPL.
Zoomies are prevalent for plenty of my SAR team members too. But when they see the difference between my lights and how I use them and their zoomie, they will always ask me where to get the stuff I was using after a night mission.
The major issue with zoomies is that they are often cheaply made. Not waterproof, or sand, dust, mud resistant either due to the mechanism involved. Also because even LED Lensers use cruddy LEDs they aren’t actually very good at searching. Decent CRI and color temperature matter.
Zoomies do throw far. But in practice when using a thrower to search a hill 500m away, honestly you usually can’t find a person unless they’re actively moving. Using a thrower to find someone who is not moving from a distance is simply not a reality. You’re going to either have an active person who responds back to sound that you’ll usually hear first, or you will have a passive subject who you will amost have to walk over to find.
So my ultimate SAR light is a headlamp. Shoulder mount works too. Just manage your brightness to not blind others on your team. Rarely do I use my 2500 Lumen headlamp at 2500 lumens. Usually more like 25. The other ultimate light for SAR that I am still trying to find is a light that does about 3000 lumens for over and hour with no stepdown. LEDs aren’t quite that efficient yet and AFAIK this doesn’t exist in a compact flashlight body. (no larger than 3x 21700) with of course 90+ CRI. I want a scene area light but haven’t found a good one yet.
Our local fire Dept. is in the process of getting a drone with a FLIR camera.
I would think that one of these could replace many ground pounders for locating lost persons.
Depending on terrain and weather conditions.
But cost? – don’t even ask!
Looking for reviews on the P7R. There seem to be several flavors with the same model number.
Could you post a link to the one that your fellows are using?
The 1000Lm one here on this side of the pond seems to sell for about $90.
If one was in stock (which is isn’t) locally, I’d get one to give it a test.
There is a fancier version that goes for $130.
Just curious – How are your searches usually conducted?
I would imagine that the rescue part is done with a goodly number of rescuers involved?
And if I had read your OP more carefully, I would have seen that bigger light were out of the running… 
The Sofirn C8F and C8G are 21700 lights. One for throw one for moderate flood with a good center area.
Sturdy, relatively cheap (less than $50 US). Relatively easy to master UI.
Unfortunately the battery has to come out to charge. But that makes for a better weather seal.
A video of the C8G
And one for the C8F
All the Best,
Jeff
Possibly, though I can understand why it is the case that zoomies are popular. No hotspot when working close, e.g. trying to read a map and no bright spill to distract when trying to spot things far away. Naturally my opinion could change upon trying out some more dedicated torches, but I’ll have to wait until they arrive to try them.
I’ve also come across some of these reviews by CharlesBridgTec - It had occurred that of the ones seen so far they did all sound positive! I’ve looked at his and other channels to try and get a better idea of what’s available before asking here.
I’ve also just popped in an order for this driver to try with the SBT90 in the Z1:
https://nzl.grandado.com/products/fet-8x7135-22mm-3v-4-5v-1-cell-5-mode-flashlight-driver-circuit-board-1-pc
I’m sure it would get very hot very quickly on turbo, but as stated, turbo doesn’t get used for long. I’m hoping this will give me the equivalent of a “high performance” zoomie to test alongside some of the other offerings.
I’m intrigued that many of your team members are impressed by the options you run with - I’m further interested to try out the lights when they arrive.
I agree with the fact that its a tricky spot when you get to the ~500m range, even in good conditions - but this is why I was looking for a light that could manage up to 500m and not further, as I also think that any further is unrealistic for spotting even if it could be illuminated.
Build quality and reliability is an issue for any torch, but it is harder achieve with a zoomie for sure. The mechanism makes it harder to prevent ingress, but not impossible, and I still think that total waterproofing is probably overkill for general usage. The dive torches for water work take care of that side of things. It seems that respectable zoomies can manage a reasonable level of environmental protection?
Proper scene lighting is definitely an issue, I’m looking forward to when the tech moves forward with that. The current “scene lighting kit” we use weighs in around 30kg and is wheeled around in a peli-case!
I’m all for drone technology and improving aerial solutions but you’d be surprised at their limitations and how often they’re encountered.
Drone flying is difficult for regulatory reasons, they’re often not allowed out of visual line of sight which limits search area.
Drone limitations aside, a large portion of our searches have police helicopter support (with much more expensive camera gear!) and even then they are limited in coverage compared to actively covering the ground. It’ll be a good day when we can assign this sort of job to a team of drones, but it’s not here yet, unfortunately.
Searches (at least for our teams, it is likely to vary elsewhere) are conducted in teams of 4-8 members assigned a particular search area or route. Multiple teams are deployed on a search.
Ah, I see what you mean with the model numbers, the popular one here seems to be the one with a high output of 1000LM and no turbo mode. I believe it uses a LedLenser branded 18650 cell.
One of the torches on my order list is indeed a C8+, from convoy rather than sofirn however
Edit to say that the C8+ was the sst40 version (as this seemed a good throw/flood mix)
500m is a long way for a small light or even larger versions.
I’d be hard pressed to spot someone at 500m in daylight if any concealment was involved.
I’ve often thought that a low powered set of wide field binoculars, with a big exit pupil, mated to a thrower light would make a heck of a combo to identify things at a distance.
Nobody seems to make low powered big objective binos these days. I envision something like a 4x30 for max light gathering (yes I know that 28mm is the theoretical max). Mated to a light that had a matching throw pattern that complemented the magnification.
All the Best,
Jeff
The C8 is a great light at very reasonable price. I have one with the sst40. You won’t be disappointed.
I dislike the 3 mode UI, for short duration use. It’s fine if using the light for longer periods.
One of these along with a headlamp would make a great low cost combo.
All the Best,
Jeff
It is a long way for a spot, but it’s quite often not a case of concealment. In the case of the “ideal” torch as well, it would be preferable if the limiting case was what it’s possible to see rather than what the torch is possible to light up
Is there a bookmark function for specific posts. I would appreciate that.
The best that you can do is click on the post number, and then bookmark that post with your browser.
Take a look at the Nightwatch NI03. It might not be refined enough but the general build is very suitable for your application. A smaller emitter with more cd/lm and additional modes would make this even better IMO.
Yes, thanks. Search lights are sort of my favorite topic.
I quite like the c8+ SST40. I use one often as a sar volunteer in NZ. It’s compact, for a thrower style light it has reasonable spill. However, I always carry a second light (plus a headlamp) because I find it pretty horrible for any tracking work.I love it though because it’s super compact and fits in most any small pocket or vest spot in a holster.
I’m firmly in the carry several lights in vest pockets / holsters etc though, however, I can appreciate this isn’t appealing for everyone.
I find that having a light for most searching and a separate one for tracking fine though. As soon as the team is looking at boot prints there is time to swap.
Others have pointed out already that the “fun” pencil beam throwers with crazy range are not typically super helpful for general search work. Decent throw with wide hot spot and spill and light quality more important considerations.
A number of folk here have one of the Fenix lights that has a throw and flood emitter with relevant separate reflectors with electronic control between the two.
I think that is basically opera glasses. They are optically somewhat different from traditional binos. These might be of interest: Orion 2x54 Ultra Wide Angle Binoculars
I haven’t tried them but I want to ;). I wonder if they turn the image upside down. There is also a Bushnell 4x30 binocular:
FLIR stuff has gotten sort of affordable: PureThermal Mini Pro JST-SR (with FLIR Lepton 3.5) - DEV-17544 - SparkFun Electronics (this weighs less than 1 gram so putting it on a small drone seems doable)
And an even cheaper, lower res gizmo: SparkFun IR Array Breakout - 55 Degree FOV, MLX90640 (Qwiic) - SEN-14844 - SparkFun Electronics
I have no idea how this would be for spotting humans if they are around foliage, etc. And of course bad weather would probably stop hobby drones from flying.
Maybe there is stuff that would let you locate the signal from a cell phone if the person is carrying one. It might require special licenses but perhaps accomodations could be made for legitimate SAR teams.