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Hey, guys. Richard, from GunsHolstersAndGear.com here. Today, I want to talk to you a little
bit about the new Streamlight, it's the TLR-2 G, 'G' standing for 'green'; in this case,
the green laser. What it is, is it's a combination light and laser package. It's got your typical
LED white light up here. It's very bright, about 200 lumens, and if I remember correctly,
about 6800 candela. Basically, what that means is that it's going to throw a lot of light,
but it's going to be more in a more confined area. Great for room-clearing, but shooting
long distances, candela's not really up there; it's only 6800. We're talking about your backyard,
fine. Across a long field or something like that, probably not going to be what you're
looking for. What we're talking about, especially on handguns, we're not talking about those
distances anyway.
It also, like I said, has a green laser. A lot of the lasers in the laser and light combination,
generally the laser package is down here on the bottom. What happens is you've got your
light up here, and then you've got your laser emitting down here. Not so on this one. The
TLR-2 G, actually, the laser-emitting diode is back here behind the reflector that's used
for the white light. That means that instead of being all the way down here, we've moved
it up here, moving the actual aiming point, the laser, closer to the bore of the firearm.
You're going to have less variation at distances.
What you have is like sighting in a scope, you're going to have a specific distance that
you sight that laser in for, where the bullet and the laser both are going to be pinpoint
on the same dot. You may set that up at 7 yards, at 15 yards, whatever the case may
be. When you get off of that very specific distance, you're going to have the bullet
impacting it at a different point, either higher or lower, than from where the actual
laser beam is.
For the most part, if we're talking about handgun distances and we're talking you've
sighted this in, it's somewhere between 7 and 15 yards; your variation's not going to
be a whole lot, maybe a couple of inches, maximum, again, at handgun ranges, out to
20 or 25 yards. The problem with that, of course, is if you're looking for that precision
shot, it may not give it to you. If on the other hand you're looking for something that's
just going to be combat distances where you're looking to get effective hits on the center
mass, probably work very well for you.
The real key with the green lasers, though, is not that it's something neat and different,
but rather, the green actually appears a lot brighter to the human eye. For the same actual
measured output between a red laser and a green laser, the green actually appears much
brighter to the human eye. There's a variety of reasons for that, well beyond the scope
of this video. If you think about some of the bright fiber optic sights, for example,
that people mount on their shotguns or on their pistols, a lot of times, that green
shows up, or it seems brighter than a red fiber optic. Different colors do that. It's
just the eye picks up, or the human eye is more sensitive to certain colors, just like
different animals are more sensitive to different colors. Certain animals maybe can see a broader
spectrum, or a more shallow spectrum than humans can. Green is just one of those things
that appears much more brighter.
With the green laser, it's going to appear much more brighter, which is great, because
in daylight conditions or in conditions other than complete darkness, that green is going
to give you an advantage over a red laser. You take a red laser out in daytime; you may
not necessarily be able to see that, especially in bright, full sunlight. Green laser on the
other hand, you're going to be able to see that. You'll be able to pick that up. At nighttime,
it's even brighter. At nighttime, that green laser jumps out at you. It's very impressive.
What this has is if you're familiar with the TLR series of weapon lights that Streamlight's
come out with in the past, it's very similar. You've got a switch down here at the bottom.
I don't know if we can see that or not. There's a switch down here on the bottom that toggles
back and forth; left, center, and right. What that does is that sets that up so this other
activation switch here, that's actually going to give you a choice. The bottom one's going
to give you the choice between the light, the laser, or both light and laser at the
same time. This other switch up here that toggles up and down epending on what side
of the pistol you're shooting on, it's ambidextrous; is either going to give momentary, or constant-on
situation. If you double-tap the momentary, it's going to give you a strobing effect.
If you double-tap and then click the constant-on, it's going to leave a constant-on strobing
effect. The strobe effect works both for the light and the laser. If you've got both on,
or you've got just one on, you can hit that strobe effect and it's going to give it to
you.
We're outside here. I apologize if we're getting some car noises and whatnot. I'm just in the
process of moving both my house and my office, and as it turns out, my mics have disappeared;
they're in one of the boxes somewhere. Until I get those mics located again, you may have
to put up with a little bit of noise out here.
What I wanted to show you real quick, hopefully this is going to show up well, is show you
how bright the light is. Then also show you a little bit on the laser. We're out here
on my back patio; I'm going to turn around. I've got this setup here, and you see just
the green laser. Hopefully you're able to see that it's fairly bright. We're right here
at a distance of, I'd call it maybe about 15 yards or so. It's exceptionally bright.
Turn that off. Let me click over just the white light, and you can see that we get quite
a bit of white light here.
I don't know how much of this the camera's going to be able to pick up for you to give
you a good idea, but certainly, this is going to be plenty if you're doing any type of room
searching or anything like that. Backyards, it's going to be perfectly fine. Kick it over,
now we've got the light and laser combination. Hopefully you'll be able to see that. The
green light in there is completely visible in the middle of the white light. It's very
bright. We're in dusk conditions here; works even in daylight, as well. If you come over
here, you can double tap and get the strobe. You get the constant-on. You get the momentary-on.
If you double-tap the strobe, then you can click it constant-on and you'll have the constant
strobing effect.
That's the TLR-2 G; again, the 'G' standing for 'green'. It's a lot like the other TLR
models: 200 lumen white light, green laser; all shooting out of basically the same bezel
up here. It's a fantastic unit. There are a couple of issues related to temperature.
Green lasers are more finicky when it comes to temperatures. For this particular model,
if you get below 32 degrees Fahrenheit, in other words the freezing point of water, if
you get below that for any extended period of time, it's going to start degrading the
effectiveness of the laser; it becomes less bright. I tested that. I threw it in the deep
freezer here at the house, kept it in 0 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 minutes, pulled it out,
and it was a lot dimmer. It was noticeably dimmer. It still worked, but a lot dimmer.
I don't think it would be real good for using in daylight conditions at that particular
dimness.
However, even when the unit was still ice-cold to the touch, I left it at room temperature,
about 78 degrees, for 5 minutes, and it looked like all of the brightness had come back on
that green laser. It comes back really quickly. It is something to keep in mind. If you're
a State Trooper working in Alaska in wintertime, it may not be the best for you, especially
if you're out on a snowmobile, you're out doing search and rescues, or you're hunting
for a fugitive that may be out in the woods, it's something that that green laser may not
work for you. Red lasers are not quite as sensitive to that.
This particular unit also is sensitive to high temperatures, but the high temperatures,
I believe are above about 117 degrees. Even here in Florida, we don't have those temperatures.
There are certain areas of the world that may come into effect, but it's not going to
be very many areas. My only concern is going to be the low temperature aspect on this,
and even if you are a police officer working somewhere in a northern climate in winter,
I'm suspecting that most of the time you're in and out of the car. It probably isn't going
to affect it that much, but it is something to be aware of. If you're working in those
conditions, a red laser may be a better choice for you. For most everybody else, a green
laser is working great.
The only other drawback to this is that it is a little more expensive than your red laser
units. Green laser, this MSRPing for $555. It's quite a chunk of change, I understand,
but you are getting an excellent weapon light, plus the green laser, daytime and nighttime
visible. The good news is that the actual street prices for these units are going to
be lower than $550. Based on my experience, Streamlight puts high end MSRPs on them, but
when they actually get to the retailers, retailers are selling them for quite a bit less. Looking
online, I think LA Police Gear maybe had this for $340. I think I saw it for about $350
on Amazon. Figure less than $400 for this unit.
If green laser is something that you're interested in, definitely, it's worth checking out; it's
a fantastic unit. Had it out to the range, shot it quite a bit. It's a durable unit.
I like it a lot. With the exception of the price, with the exception of the cold weather
problems, it's darn-near perfect as far as I'm concerned. If you're in the market, definitely
check it out.
This is Richard with GunsHolstersAndGear.com.