With well over 70% of all potentially lethal use of force encounters occurring during hours of reduced visibility or in low light circumstances, it’s glaringly obvious that any law enforcement officer on the street today should always have a flashlight on their person. Remembering the military axiom that “Two is one; one is none,” it’s a good idea to have two. But you need to ensure you have a quality light with good design features, good light delivery, good battery performance and easy to use design features. Enter the NEXTORCH TA30C and the TA30C Max.
This article appeared in the November/December issue of OFFICER Magazine. Click Here to subscribe to OFFICER Magazine.
We had the opportunity to field test both lights and put them through both standard use testing plus rigorous abuse field-testing. Let’s take a quick look at the published specifications for each, and then we’ll discuss the testing process (that they both passed). For simplicity’s sake, recognize that both lights have a few common features. The control knob and tail-activation switch operate the same. The crenelated bezel on both has ceramic strike tips for use in breaking windows for rescue or emergency access needs. Both have NEXTORCH’s patented one-step-strobe technology (more in a moment).
The TA30C: With a maximum light output of 1600 lumens, whether activated intermittently using the touch pressure tail cap, or used in strobe mode by pushing harder on that tail cap, the TA30C is more than sufficient for tactical work. If, however, you want the light to stay on, the rear located control knob allows for full power (1600 lumens), medium power (330 lumens) or low power (20 lumens) until you turn it off or until the battery dies. At high power, the published battery life is 2.5 hours; medium output battery life is 4.5 hours and low output battery life is 50 hours. Throw distance is 303 meters on high power, 130 meters on medium power and 24 meters on low power. Under 5.5” long and just under 1” in diameter (light body), it’s a very handy tool that offers plenty of versatility in performance.
The TA30C MAX: As compared to the “standard” TA30C, the MAX almost doubles the light output up to 3000 lumens when activated by the tail cap or pushed through to activate the strobe. If you use the control knob to turn it on high, you get that same 3000 lumens for 2.75 hours and a throw distance of 390 meters. On medium power, the light output is reduced to 520 lumens and a run time of 5 hours with a 160-meter throw. On low power, the tool produces 70 lumens for 35 hours with a throw of 60 meters. The light is just over 6” long and the body just under 1.5”. Again, a very handy sized tool with great light delivery and excellent versatility of design.
For testing, we took the lights out and used them for hours during overnight operations. Each light lasted at least as long as the published material said that it should. After recharging the batteries, we set both lights on low power and left them to sit to see how long it would take them to burn out. The TA30C lasted two full days and then a little more (published life is 50 hours as noted above) The TA30C MAX lasted not quite two full days, but we got in excess of 40 hours on low power even though the published information says it offers 35 hours.
During the field-testing, the lights were used as expected, but also dropped, thrown and submerged in puddles (published material says 2-meter submersion, but we only got them saturated to a depth of about two feet). The lights performed without fault and we at OFFICER Media Group are happy to award both our Review Labs “Tested—Field Rated” designation. Learn more at www.nextorch.com.
