This tactical flashlight potentially offers a substantial advantage over other lights.
Streamlight provided this flashlight to the author for the purposes of review.
Most modern tactical lights are white brilliant, penetrating, brain-drillingly white.
A reliable light is as critical as your firearm during periods of limited visibility. A powerful light helps you identify potential threats, and if needed, put accurate rounds on target.
The color white is the lightest color on the visible spectrum.
It has no discernible hue.
Snow, milk and chalk are examples of things that are just naturally white.
The Stinger Color-Rite (top) is one of a wide variety of tactical lights offered by Streamlight. As a larger light, it makes an excellent flashlight for home defense or keeping in your vehicle.
White objects scatter all visible wavelengths of light.
White is the opposite of black.
Black absorbs color, while white reflects it.
Streamlight includes a charging cradle with the Stinger Color-Rite flashlight. It is compatible with older Stinger flashlight chargers making it an easy upgrade for owners of prior versions of this flashlight line.
However, under certain circumstances, bright white might not be the ideal solution for a hard-use flashlight.
On the outside, the Stinger Color-Rite looks like a pretty typical high-end utility flashlight.
There is a single thumb switch on the top.
Color of light can make a big difference in how we perceive objects. Natural color brings out contrast better than a pure harsh white.
The chassis sports longitudinal grooves to enhance purchase.
The built-in nickel-metal hydride rechargeable battery charges via an included cradle.
This cradle grips the light firmly and can be mounted on either a flat surface or a vertical wall.
The author found the Stinger Color-Rite aids in detailed examination of objects under conditions of marginal visibility. The natural color of the light is what separates the Color-Rite from a typical flashlight.
Streamlight Stinger Color-Rite Performance
The Stinger Color-Rite offers three intensity modes as well as a strobe.
High mode projects 500 lumens for 1.5 hours on a charge.
Medium is 275 lumens for 2.5 hours.
Low is 140 for five hours.
Strobe mode runs for around three hours on a full charge.
A light press to the master switch offers momentary operation.
A full press yields an audible click and produces constant operation at full power.
Holding the switch down cycles the light through its three intensity modes.
That sounds more complicated than it is.
[To better understand these specifications, read our article oncandela vs.
The Stinger Color-Rite light is IPX-4 water resistant and impact-tested up to a meter onto a hard surface.
Expect a 50,000-hour total service life out of the LED.
That will undoubtedly outlive me.
The light is 8.4 inches long and weighs 12.4 ounces.
All that stuff is frankly boilerplate for a top-quality Information-Age hard-use flashlight.
What really sets the Color-Rite apart, however, is, well, its color.
[Learn runtimes.]
The visible spectrum for artificial light typically ranges from 1,000 to 10,000 measured in kelvins.
Commercial and residential interior lighting typically hovers between 2,000 and 6,500 K. Paradoxically, low temperatures are considered warm.
Higher temperatures are cooler.
To understand why color is described this way, imagine a blacksmith heating up a piece of steel.
This is actually called the Planckian locus, and the details are very complicated.
Higher numbers equal a brighter white.
Another component of artificial lighting is its Color-Rendering Index, or CRI.
This scale runs from 0 to 100.
A CRI of 100 is the closest to natural sunlight.
The LEDs used in the Stinger Color-Rite have a CRI of 90.
A higher CRI causes an objects texture to stand out.
Industrial fluorescent lighting usually has a low CRI.
What that soft color gets for you is less eye strain and greater ability to assess detail.
Truth be known, Im red-green colorblind myself, so my perception is perhaps a bit skewed.
However, the Color-Rite flashlight is still a pretty interesting experience.
Ruminations on the Stinger Color-Rite
There are lots of high-tech flashlights out there.
The Stinger Color-Rite is currently running about $130 on Amazon.
The thing is thoroughly hard-core and would make a decent club in a pinch.
The Streamlight Stinger Color-Rite is the next best thing to a pocket full of sunlight.
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