Pistol Weapon Lights Reviewed

 

Let's review and compare some pistol lights! 

So I was randomly messaged on facebook one day, This guy asking me to review a light/laser combo. I was skeptical at first, but I eventually gave in and agreed to review his light. Now normally i would never buy a light like this. It is a $50 light on amazon called the Feyachi LF-58 Light/green Laser. But I got the light for free, so fuck it lets review it! i'm going to talk about other lights i own too.

The lights we were going to be talking about today are: The Feyachi LF-58, Inforce ALP, LAPG XWL, Streamlight TLR-1 HL & the TLR-7A. Testing took place at 9pm at a soccer field in my local park district. shining these lights at a tree exactly 100ft away. I measured it, used a tripod and the same camera settings for every shot. This first picture is what it looks like without any lights.

The Feyachi LF-58 

So this guy is a knock off of a TLR-2 slightly bigger too. The green laser is pretty bright. visible from well over 10 yard in the daytime, 300 yards at night. but fuck lasers! Let's talk about the light. it's advertised at 200 lumens, but in typical chinese quality control it's probably brighter than advertised. The light has a pretty decent focus and it's pretty good for spotting but if you're looking to shine a large area this isn't the best light. controls are nice, up/down toggle switch with a momentary and constant on. Not going to lie, this little fucker surprised me. not bad for a $50 light

The inforce APL

This light retails for around $130 and has been discontinued. Its advertised at 400 lumens. Man I really want this light to be the best, it looks so fucking cool! But practically always beats looks. (I'm looking at 1 specific person when i say that, you know who you are) this light is bigger than most and is only 400 lumens, the flood of the light is ok but the focus and distance is ok at best. The paddle system on this light is cool, gives you a momentary on and constant on setting. Problem i find with this, and i'm borderline nit picking at this point but when you hit the switch you are pushing the gun sideways. 

SO let me elaborate on that a little more. When you hold a pistol you want everything to line up perfectly. Any kind of horizontal or vertical movement will affect your shot. Now in theroy all of these lights will fuck with aiming, but in my opinion it's easier to work with vertical movment vs horizontal. However if you TRAIN with any of these lights long enough you will be great with anything. 

Inforce at night. 

The LA Police Gear XWL weapon light. 

So this is LAPG's copy of a TLR-1. This light is 800 lumens, comes in 2 models 1 with strobe and 1 without. I personally don't like strobe lights so I have the constant on light. This light cost $70 but LAPG is constantly having sales on it for $50-60. This light is almost an exact copy of the TRL-1. Flood is great, focus is good, horizontal toggle switches. This light I think is the best bang for your buck. 

The Streamlight TLR-1 HL 

This is one of the most popular lights on the market. Available in many different options. This is the HL ``high lumen" model at 800 lumens. great flood light, great focus, overall the best performance of any of the lights i've tested. momentary on and constant on switch. There is a reason lots of people use this light. There are adapter pieces to change the switches or even mount pressure switches if you use this on a rifle. this light cost around $140.00 

And last the streamlight TRL-7A 

This is the little brother to the trl-1. It's a compact 500 lumen light. Once again streamlight gave this light a good flood effect and good focus. The switches on this light are different from all the other lights because you do not push the switch vertical or horizontal. you actually push the switch forward towards what you're aiming at. Is this better than the other switches? that's a preference thing, but it does work good.  

Here are all the lights at night side by side. 

So all of these lights utilize CR123 batteries. the inforce and tlr-7 use 1 battery while the other models use 2. 

Let's talk about holsters, because that plays a lot into my decision making. The streamlight tlr-1 and the Surefire x300 are the two most popular lights for pistols. Lots of companies already make holsters to fit those 2 lights and common models of handguns: Sig, Glock, S&W, Beretta, CZ ect. so I will break it down like this. 

-The LF-58 has the least amount of options for holsters, it's the biggest light in this review and the laser just complicates things. 

- The LAPG XWL. Even though it's a copy of the Streamlight, the mount sits just a tiny bit higher and completly fucks itself for fitting in all TLR-1 holsters. sad sad day. I have an older model and do not know if this has been fixed but it is one of the only negative things i have to say about this light. 

-The other 3 lights all have lots of holter options. They are all smaller than the x300 so they will work in MOST holsters that work for that light. 

So which light is my favorite? This is hard ranking some of these but here it is. These are all my opinions.

1. The Streamlight TLR-1 is the best. Offering the most options for holsters, being the brightest and easiest to use and fit a huge array of guns. 

2. The Streamlight TRL-7 is my second favorite. for honestly the same reasons as i like the TLR-1 but if just didn't perform as good at the TLR-1. The compact size does make it good for a low profile holster set ups or on sub/micro compact guns. 

3. The Inforce ALP. even though I talked the most shit about this light and think it was out performed by almost all the others. because it's still a decent light and fits in my holsters. It's my 3rd pick. 

4. The LAPG XWL. If this light fit in holsters it would be tied for my number 1 pick. Such a small detail they missed. This is however my overall pick for best budget light. 

5. the Feyachi LF-58. Even though this is my lowest ranked light, it holds its ground pretty well against all these others. I haven't tested this light up against recoil and I expect the mount to fail quicker then the other options. If Feyachi makes a small light only unit I'd be interested in testing it. I do want to point out that even though this light is lower lumens than the inforce, i think it out performs it.

Honorable mentions I need to talk about are Surefire lights and Olights. I do not own any lights from these companies but Surefire is arguably the best and Olight is making a name for itself. I used to talk mad shit about Olight but I had a handheld light from them for an old job and that thing was pretty nice. might try and get my hands on 1 for a review. 

Lights are dope. you should get one. I hope this helps a little bit and if you're confused I can make a post going deeper into lights.