The Torch - world's brightest and most powerful flashlight
This is ridiculous, and I want one -
Currently being reviewed by The Guinness Book of World Records, The Torch is the world's brightest and most powerful flashlight. It is easily capable of melting plastic, lighting paper on fire within seconds, and if you want, frying an egg or a marshmallow on a stick! At 4100 lumens, The Torch is 100 lumens more powerful than The Polarion Helios, the former most powerful flashlight. Incredible? Watch The Torch in action.
The Torch - world's brightest and most powerful flashlight - Link.
Posted by: The Oracle on January 30, 2008 at 3:07 PM
I read about this a couple of years ago on the Candlepower Forum, but as I recall, I learned of CPF through Make, so Make still gets the credit and I won't call it old news.
It's a very cool looking light. Also at the top of my list would be the orb, a tiny keychain light that's brighter than a typical 3D mag.
Tim, the $300 price depends on your point of view, it's a hand made custom mod, they machine the aluminum body, replace the plastic reflector with a custom machined aluminum one and the lens with crystal because the stock parts would melt. As well, they have to replace the plastic bulb mount with a ceramic one and supply the HID bulb.
On top of that is the power supply; normal cells won't output enough current, so they give a special 12-cell recharagble pack with a custom built holder to give you a high enough voltage at enough current. The batteries are too wide for the stock mag tube, so they also bore it out to give you more space, again it's an aluminum machining job.
The $300 price tag also includes the battery charger btw.
Considering everything that goes into building this light, $300 is a bargain.
If that's your reaction is "Wow, $300 for a flashlight", then nobody's forcing you to buy it, but comparing it to a 99 cent toy light isn't really fair.
Posted by: The Oracle on January 30, 2008 at 6:42 PM
Sam, that's like comparing apples and elephants. The Surefire is a nice flashlight, excellent build quality, but so grossly overpriced, imo, that I don't have one. I do have several clones such as from ultrafire which are cheaper than the sales tax on a surefire yet *almost* indistingishable.
The light here is not of the same build quality as a surefire, but it is about 100 times brighter than the brightest surefire light. There really is no basis to compare the two.
Also, Surefires are all LED lights, there's nothing wrong with that and most of my lights are LED based, but there are several areas (like throw and total light output) where LEDs fall very short.
Posted by: Gear Head on February 2, 2008 at 8:59 PM
@The Oracle, your comment
"Surefires are all LED lights, there's nothing wrong with that and most of my lights are LED based, but there are several areas (like throw and total light output) where LEDs fall very short."
is simply not true. I have several tactical Surefire products and not one of them is an LED model. Take a look at their product lineup. They do have a few LED lamps, but for aviation, tactical and law enforcement products is incandescent all the way.
Posted by: mkmcgregor on January 14, 2009 at 3:14 AM
Ever think how to store this thing?
Whoops, it accidentally turned on while:
In the car trunk or glove box.
On the grage shelf next to everything flamble.
In the kitchen drawer; for/causing emergencies
In my back pocket; my biskets area a burning.
I love the concept, and it obviously have it's purpose, but a flashlight is for lighting things and not burning things. If it doesn't throw tons of light on an area or thorw it a long way, it usefulness is limited to "I don't have a match right now".
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I could care less if it melts plastic, I just want to see how bright it is and how far the light is thrown.
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Oh, I don't know if it's the brightest...
http://popsci.com/diy/article/2008-01/handheld-sunbeam
Maybe the brightest commercially available, or brightest in it's size, but not absolutely brightest.
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Wow, $300 for a flashlight. Is it really worth it?
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Looks like other lights with that order of magnitude of output are in the few thousand dollar range... so yea :P
Reply to this comment
I read about this a couple of years ago on the Candlepower Forum, but as I recall, I learned of CPF through Make, so Make still gets the credit and I won't call it old news.
It's a very cool looking light. Also at the top of my list would be the orb, a tiny keychain light that's brighter than a typical 3D mag.
Tim, the $300 price depends on your point of view, it's a hand made custom mod, they machine the aluminum body, replace the plastic reflector with a custom machined aluminum one and the lens with crystal because the stock parts would melt. As well, they have to replace the plastic bulb mount with a ceramic one and supply the HID bulb.
On top of that is the power supply; normal cells won't output enough current, so they give a special 12-cell recharagble pack with a custom built holder to give you a high enough voltage at enough current. The batteries are too wide for the stock mag tube, so they also bore it out to give you more space, again it's an aluminum machining job.
The $300 price tag also includes the battery charger btw.
Considering everything that goes into building this light, $300 is a bargain.
If that's your reaction is "Wow, $300 for a flashlight", then nobody's forcing you to buy it, but comparing it to a 99 cent toy light isn't really fair.
Reply to this comment
I think this could be really handy. DIY Plastic Molds :) Great survival tool...forest fires :(
Reply to this comment
Sam, that's like comparing apples and elephants. The Surefire is a nice flashlight, excellent build quality, but so grossly overpriced, imo, that I don't have one. I do have several clones such as from ultrafire which are cheaper than the sales tax on a surefire yet *almost* indistingishable.
The light here is not of the same build quality as a surefire, but it is about 100 times brighter than the brightest surefire light. There really is no basis to compare the two.
Also, Surefires are all LED lights, there's nothing wrong with that and most of my lights are LED based, but there are several areas (like throw and total light output) where LEDs fall very short.
Reply to this comment
Honey, don't shine that flashlight in your sister's eyes.
Reply to this comment
@The Oracle, your comment
"Surefires are all LED lights, there's nothing wrong with that and most of my lights are LED based, but there are several areas (like throw and total light output) where LEDs fall very short."
is simply not true. I have several tactical Surefire products and not one of them is an LED model. Take a look at their product lineup. They do have a few LED lamps, but for aviation, tactical and law enforcement products is incandescent all the way.
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As in...; "...it's OK honey I have some fuel in the boot with us.....damn it's dark out here...AAaahhh, here's Dad's new torch..."
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Whoops, it accidentally turned on while:
In the car trunk or glove box.
On the grage shelf next to everything flamble.
In the kitchen drawer; for/causing emergencies
In my back pocket; my biskets area a burning.
I love the concept, and it obviously have it's purpose, but a flashlight is for lighting things and not burning things. If it doesn't throw tons of light on an area or thorw it a long way, it usefulness is limited to "I don't have a match right now".
Reply to this comment
The LED flash light is cool,and I also found a lot of creative LED application like led light bars http://www.ledlightbars.org
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