As a long-time Streamlight fan, when they introduced the ProTac Series of flashlights

Because I carry my EDC flashlight in my shirt chest pocket; balancing size, weight and brightness used to be a hard to do and pretty much limited me to a pen light. It was during this time that I developed a particular liking of the Streamlight Stylus Pro LED Pen Light that still lasts to this day. At 5.3 inches in length and.6 inches in diameter the Streamlight Stylus Pro LED Pen Light fits nicely in the pocket and is powered by two plentiful and inexpensive triple A batteries. Yet at 24 lumens output there were times that I found myself wanting a brighter flashlight. (Streamlight has since upgraded the Stylus Pro to produce 48 lumens of light, which made a great pen light even better!)

I bought a Streamlight ProTac 2AA LED Tactical Flashlight for my EDC flashlight. With two brightness levels and strobe mode I found the ProTac 2AA to be much more versatile and at 120 lumens on high, a lot brighter than the Stylus Pro light. The only down side with the Streamlight ProTac 2AA LED Tactical Flashlight for me is that at.90 inches in diameter at its thickest point and 5.97 inches in length it's just a little larger than I prefer for carry in my shirt pocket. The ProTac 2AA LED flashlight would probably be better suited for belt carry in the nylon holster that comes with the flashlight or in a cargo pocket or pouch.

Recently 5.11 Tactical introduced their new ATAC line of flashlights and I picked up a 5.11 Tactical ATAC PLx Flashlight. At 2.2 ounces with batteries, the triple A battery powered ATAC PLx is 5 inches long and.7 inches in diameter, which is very close in size to the Streamlight Stylus Pro Pen Light. What sets the ATAC PLx apart is that it has a 69 lumen output, almost a 45% increase in brightness over the current Stylus Pro. So far I've been very pleased with it in the role of EDC flashlight. The beam obviously isn't as bright, nor is it as focused as the Streamlight ProTac 2AA LED Tactical Flashlight but so far the reduced size has been worth the trade-off.

All three of the flashlights that I've mentioned above will work very well in the role of EDC flashlight. All three are well-built flashlights from reputable companies with great warranties and customer service departments. So which flashlight should you choose? That depends on how you plan to use and carry your EDC flashlight. As I mentioned, I carry mine primarily in my shirt pocket, which dictates a flashlight that is sized accordingly. If you carry your light in a different way or have different lighting requirements than I do you may want a larger or smaller flashlight. The Streamlight Stylus Pro LED Pen Light and Streamlight ProTac 2AA LED Tactical Flashlights have both proven to be very durable and capable and I have no reason to doubt that the 5.11 Tactical ATAC PLx Flashlight will perform as well. Many of my self-defense students have questions about flashlights. As with most categories of equipment that fall within the tactical or self-defense genre, there are simply too many options to truly capture the whole topic with a short article. What I would like to do, however, is hit some of the more general topics that are not common knowledge for most people. This article does not cover every possibility or situation; I'm only trying to give enough general knowledge to enable someone who has no experience of any kind to feel like they can begin looking for the right light.

Let's start with a brief sum-up of why flashlights make such wonderful tools. Most people think of a tactical flashlight and immediately think of the big MagLite that can be used to knock out a Yeti. I would like to point out that in the event someone is attacking me, I'll be all too happy to hit them with just about anything I can get my hands on. While a large MagLite is an option, a good flashlight can be used much more effectively, and it won't have to be something that you need a backpack to carry. A good flashlight can be used to control, disorient, and confuse an attacker in low to normal light situations. So, indeed, it is the light part of flashlight that is the key to making it a wonderful tool.

When shopping for a flashlight, you will find two main types of lighting methods - incandescent and LED. Incandescent is the light that most people are used to seeing. It consists of a single filament light bulb that sticks through the head of the light at the base of the lens housing. The bulb is protected by a plastic or glass cover. These flashlights can, in fact, burn quite brightly; but remember that in a way they are burning. They produce a lot of heat and can be a little fragile; their filaments may not take much abuse. These lights will flood an area with light that's almost yellowish in color. The beam usually can be focused or unfocused to achieve the desired light ring. The versatility of the size of beam is a good feature, but the user needs to know how to quickly change the focus for a given situation. There are exceptions to every rule, but generally speaking, simple, incandescent lights will cost a little less to purchase.

Light-Emitting Diode (LED) flashlights are the other readily available type. The engineering of the light is beyond the scope of this article, but you do need to know how to compare the two lights. If incandescent light could be compared to a normal 60W light bulb, an LED would be compared to the light emitted by the screen on your iPhone. Therefore, there are usually multiple LEDs in the head of the flashlight. LED flashlights give off light that has a slight bluish tinge. Because there are more individual light sources, the light emitted is usually a little more evenly distributed throughout the beam, and very little heat is produced while these lights are on. Another big bonus is that they are a little harder to break with a bump, hit, or shock of some kind. For this reason, you'll find that a great many weapon mounted lights are LED since they handle the shock of the firearm discharging rather well.