Pinnacle Flashlights Blog

Thinking about using your flashlight for self defense? There are some things to consider before you think that your flashlight has the ability to blind and disorient your attackers. We must first mention that regardless of which flashlight you choose it is generally not recommend that you rely solely on your flashlight for self defense. Unless you have been trained to use the light in a defensive fashion, it may be of little use or even worse, used against you. That being said, in certain conditions the bright beam of a flashlight may be used to temporarily blind or distract a potential attacker for a split second to allow you to get away. This post will demonstrate what were here at Pinnacle Flashlights have coined the “Stun Potential” or SP of a flashlight.

Some basic factors that affect the SP include:
1) Ambient lighting conditions
2) Distance from light to target
3) Lumen output
4) Beam focus

We will break each of these points down into a little more detail:
1) The ambient lighting conditions have a huge impact on the ability of a light to stun an attacker. Attempting to disorient an attacker in broad daylight with a flashlight will obviously be less effective that using the same light in pure darkness after your pupils have accommodated.
2) According to the laws of physics, the brightness of a light versus the distance to its target follows an inverse squared relationship. This means that every time the distance from the source is doubled, the intensity of light drops off to 25% of its initial value.
3) Brighter the better, no doubt about it, however as mentioned in our other article “Lumens vs. Candlepower” you will find that lumens is only a measure of total light output and not a measure of beam focus. Even though the light may put out a lot of lumens, the beam may be very diffuse and not highly effective in this situation.
4) Beam focus is also very important. The tighter the beam, the more the flashlight is able to focus its power and the better it will function to disorient an attacker.

So now that you know a few key factors about stun potential, we have set up a series of photos to simulate each light being directed into the eyes of an attacker. Each photo is taken with the same camera settings (1sec, f7.1, ISO100) at a distance of approximately 35 feet. In assessing each light’s SP, note in each photo the size of the hotspot as well as the amount of the body that is obscured by each beam. The less of the model that you can discern, the more effective the light is for disorienting and the higher its Stun Potential.

The Test Lineup:

From Left to Right:
Minimag AA, Nitecore EX10, Nitecore Extreme, Fenix LD10, Fenix TK10, EagleTac T100C2,
Surefire E2e, Surefire L4, Surefire Z3, EagleTac M2

 

 

 

 

 

See the complete line of Tactical LED flashlights at: www.PinnacleFlashlights.com