Much like the toaster, the microwave and the sandal, the
flashlight hasn't changed an awful lot since being first engineered in the late 1300s. Thankfully, we're finally seeing a little innovation in the space with Hammacher Schlemmer's Infrared Flashlight Video Recorder. Upon first looking it over, it's hard to tell that this thing is different from any other heavy duty tactical flashlight; underneath that matte black finish, however, are 17 infrared LEDs and a video camera capable of capturing footage (with audio!) up to 13 feet away from the device itself. Both video and snapshots are captured in VGA (640 x 480) quality, and while only 15 seconds can be logged on the 128MB of built-in memory, the miniSD expansion slot opens that up immensely. The rub? Nah, it's not the absurd $399.95 price tag, it's the "three C-sized batteries" requirement. Drat.
[Via
OhGizmo]
posted Apr 3rd 2009 7:53AM
wasnt this on attack of the show like a long long time ago?
Three heavy, lead-filled C cells in a metal tube - there's a reason that torches aimed at security officers are this size, shape and heaviness. It's a legal-carry club.
Since when are C cells filled with lead?
Since Sledge Hammer decided he needed beating power worse than illuminating power?
Great. Poorly-lit grainy videos guaranteed to be shot upside-down.
Poorly-lit? It's attached to a flashlight.
Upside down? That's what software is for.
first
Greg, have you ever been introduced to the little red button on the top right side of your post? I think you are about to get very acquainted with it...
Idiot...
First to DIE!
3 Dcells are a bummer. you just can't bash heads the same without D cells.
And now you get video of sky ground sky ground.
damnit, meant 3 C cells, where that coffee?
Why did they not make this an LED flashlight with the InfraredLEDs around the standard LEDs? I'm sure they could have avoided the C-Cell battery requirement. It would look bad ass too... ahh well, maybe next time?
Look very careful at the picture. maybe is just be but the light is being projected by LEDs just not at the same level as the infrared ones.
THROW SOME D'S ON IT
I beg to differ.... the flashlight has changed quite a bit since the late 1300's
The discovery of electicity and batteries in the late 18th/early 19th century might have helped cause that change.
I agree. Saying that flashlights hasn't changed much shows that they really don't know much about flashlights at all. We have seen HUGE changes in just the last 5 years.
3 C batteries do not a tactical flashlight make.
Tactical fleshlight records late night...
Using C-cells, however, is incredibly more useful than the current trend for putting expensive and short-lifespan CR123s in every "high-intensity" light. I have a 1W LED light powered by 3 AA cells, and it's unbelievably bright - plus the batteries are cheap, easy to find and buy, and last for months of occasional use. CR123s last for what ? Less than an hour at full output compared with 8 hours or more from standard cells A,C and D-cells ?
So microwaves came out in the 1300's? The more you know indeed....
bought one of these about 2 months ago for £100 from Maplins - can't understand the $400 price tag!
I use it in paranormal investigating and it's very good
the image is a little grainy, but it automatically switches the ir lights on when light levels are too low for normal recording.
Isn't grainy good for paranormal "investigating". Otherwise people would be able to clearly see that there isn't anything there.
This reminds me of an article from The Onion:
http://www.theonion.com/content/news/brookstone_scientists_10_years
That's pornographic.
You obviously are no flashaholic. Your 1W LED flashlight is not "unbelievably bright" -- I have a homebrew 12W LED Maglite conversion, and I can believe yours is less than 1/12th as bright. :p
The CR123s are good, inasmuch as they're lithium, unlike any C or D cells I know of; they have much higher current capability and longer life than alkalines. In AA, alkalines are predominant, but lithiums are available, too, so that's the only real contender. (There are virtually no A-cell flashlights -- A being the length of a AA, but substantially wider; some CR123 lights can be used with A cells.)
The reason high-powered flashlights have pathetic runtimes compared to 8 hours on C cells is that the "normal" flashlights (yes, even your 1W LED) have pathetic brightness. You can have good runtime or good brightness, but you don't get both in anything smaller than a 3D body. (Incidentally, there are flashlights around that size using about ten CR123s, and getting either high output and moderate runtime, or moderate output and long runtime, depending on what bulb you use.) The actual capacity at low rates (that is, rates alkies can handle) is pretty much comparable.
The real answer for most people is to use rechargeables, in _whatever_ size you use, and high-powered LEDs instead of incandescents. The cell size matters a lot less then. (My P7 Mag is a 4D, and runs for 190 minutes at constant brightness on NiMH rechargeables, and then for another hour or two at progressively dropping light level. It lasts _five_ minutes on alkalines before the brightness starts falling off.) But if you're stuck on primaries (as most casual flashlight users are for no reason, and _some_ professional users with very good reason), alkalines really can't hold a candle to lithiums, so C cells are a mistake for anything meant to be bright. A slew of AAs (with the recommendation to use only Lithium AAs or rechargeables) or CR123s are really much better.
Reply FAIL; fate is against me.
The above comment was _intended_ as a reply to Chris.
We reviewed this a few months back and it's made by Swann. You can check it out here: http://www.gadgetreview.com/2009/01/gadget-review-swann-surveillance-flashlight-dvr.html
This will never fly. The LAPD will never want to catch themselves in the act of beating defenseless homeless folk and minors.
Peeping Toms would never want to be discovered. Unless of course they mod it for infrared...but then, why not just use a camera.
Seriously though it looks bulky and unbalanced. I can't see any practical use for it. Might as well give the security guards a camera hat or a set of Street BJ glasses.