Streamlight

Scorpion-LED

I have used Scorpion Flashlights with Xenon-Bulb’s for almost 10 years now. Beside the good cost/performance ratio I like the rubber grip a lot. The downside of the Xenon-Scorpion was, that the rubber grip peeled off after extensive use. Sometimes the light had an accidental discharge in the holster, followed by a melted lens and holster and after a long serving time the bulb started to become yellow.

Since the Scorpion is now available with a C4-LED-Chip, I was curious, how the old light with the new light source will perform. As I brought the light home I could not wait and inserted the 2 included CR123A Batteries. It was dim in my room as I switched on the Scorpion. She was shining into the palm of my hand…WHOW ! The light reflecting from my hand was very bright. I was impressed by the power right away. They say on the packing that it has 120 Lumen. That is 40 Lumen more than the old Xenon-Scorpion. It´s easy to see the difference.

The light is more white then from the old Xenon-Bulb, but there is no LED-Typical bluish shine. And the beam has a tight spot with a shade less surrounding. To activate the light you will have to press the switch on the tailcap. Pressing it slightly activates the momentary-on light. For constant-on the rubber switch needs to be pressed very deep, till you hear a sharp “click”. 

An accidental activation will happen much harder now, compared with the old Xenon-Scorpion. I am running the Scorpion-LED now for several months, but I never had a problem like this. But if this should happen anyway, I drought it that a nylon holster could melt. It takes over 30 minute’s runtime before the Lamp head gets hot. But you can still touch it. The lens stays cold all the time. 

But the LED-Scorpion has gained some weight and size. That is 5.3oz for the LED compared to the 4.7oz. Xenon. With 5.7” the LED-Scorpion is almost an inch longer then the bulp-version. If you had a holster with a perfect fit for the old Scorpion, you have some bad-luck now. The new one will not fit. Therefore the LED-Light has a anti-roll-head which I really missed at the Xenon-Scorpion.

Light Test: I have separated the light performance test into 4 parts. But keep in mind that I am a Gunner and not a physician. At first I test the blinding power at 10m /30ft.  Second is the brightness and area covered at 10m / 30ft. and the third tests the brightness and area covered at 30m / 95ft. For the last test, which is an endurance test, I reload the light with a set of new quality brand batteries. The Scorpion-LED is a very bright light. Dazzling indoors even at daylight. At 30ft and 95ft it will illuminate a person and the close surrounding. Objects in the persons hands can be identified easily at 95ft. They say that the runtime is 1.75 hours, whatever that means. After 120 minutes the light output went down a little. At 180 minutes the performance started to be very low and dim. 9 hours later the light gave up after 12hours total. 

Sand Test:  To test the small moving parts on a flashlight I do a sand test. I take a bucket full of very fine sand, drop the light in it and shake it for about 30 seconds. I repeat this procedure 5 times. After the sand test I do a full function check on the flashlight. The Streamlight passed the sand test without any problems.

Heat Test: The next thing I do to the light is a heat test. I sit the light into an oven, set the heat regulator to 60C. / 140F. and let it stay there for one hour. After the heat test I do a full function check on the flashlight. The Lamp-Head was a little hot and the grip was a little soft. But after an hour out of the oven it was back to normal.

Water Test: After the heat test I start with the water test and drop the light into a bucket of water. To get a better contrast for the pictures I added some peppermint-tea to water. So the funny colour you see on some of the pictures, is nothing to worry about.  The flashlight stays in there for 2 hours and finally another 10 minutes with switched on light. Nothing special here. The Scorpion had no problems with the water test.

Cold Test:

The light will go right into the freezer, when it´s still wet from the water test. I let it stay in a bag of ice cubes at -20C. / -5F. for 2 full days. After being recovered from the ice I do a full function check on the flashlight. This was also the end of a unspectacular test, at least for the Scorpion-LED.

Shock Test: To see what the light can take I do two types of shock tests. First I drop it 3 times from 180cm / 6ft. height on a concrete floor and after a full function test I drop it once from 15m / 50ft. on soft soil. Followed by a full function check of course. All the beating did nothing to the Streamlight. No problems at all.

What I really like is the rubber grip. It gives me good control with or without gloves. It feels neutrally in all weather conditions. No more accidental activation and good momentary-on handling due to the deeper pressure point of the switch. Only when carrying the light in the outer pocked of a jacked it could become difficult, depending on the material used inside the pocket. In the worse case the rubber grip will “stick” to the lining. So getting a clean grip could be hard under stress or in a hurry. The LED-Scorpion has no S.O.S. or Strobe-mode. But it has a very bright LED-Spot, it is sturdy and handy. For me it’s a perfect alternative to the old Xenon light. But now I have to get me a new holster. Too bad ;-)

I hope that my review about the Streamlight Scorpion-LED was useful for you.

Cheers,

Gunner