s.wilkinson
Reviewed in the United States on March 6, 2025
I believe this is the best compact weapon light on the market. Even though it is only rated 500 lumen it is far brighter than the 800 lumen Olight (which I returned). The green laser is daylight visible at 20 yds and quite easily picked up. At night it’s really good.I have had issues in the past with TLR-8 lasers being difficult to zero and not holding well, but that’s to be expected from a compact light/laser.
Art Vandelay
Reviewed in the United States on February 7, 2025
I read many reviews concerning light/laser combos for the Sig P226 before selecting the Streamlight TLR-8A with the green laser. Bottom line up front - this is a great laser/light combo. Sturdy construction. Allows ambidextrous control. Choice of switch trigger type. Bright, steady light and easy to see laser. Holds zero very well (I didn’t think that at first, but it was because you have to mount it TIGHTLY.). I’ve only run ~100 rounds with it, but it seems to be holding up just fine. After tightening the unit, I zeroed at ten yards using a rest. If I had thought about it, I could have taken a picture to post with the outstanding unsupported results. Consistent tight grouping. I would happily recommend this to anyone who has a need like mine.My plan was to use my P226 as my “nightstand gun”, replacing the Colt Combat Government Model 1911 that served that purpose for decades. I wanted a reliable light for identifying what is downrange at night, and a laser for quick acquisition if it turns out to be a target.At first, I was disappointed. Streamlight does one thing that they should, and there’s another thing they do that they shouldn’t. They should NOT take the UNIV 1 rail adapter off of the parts tree and ship the unit with this already mounted. That makes it look like you are receiving a returned item. At the price that you pay for new, you should always get new. This ties in with the thing that they should do, and that is put a seal on the package. You cannot tell if your item has been opened. I went to a local dealer and asked to examine Streamlight packaging, and none of them had a seal. Just be aware that there will be an adapter mounted on the unit, and no seal on the package when it arrives.I can’t address battery life. That isn’t a consideration for me as I would not use the pistol as a regular flashlight, only to illuminate whatever might be moving about in my house at night. The spec says 1.5 hours.Hope this helps.
Paladin
Reviewed in the United States on February 8, 2024
This is a pricey unit - probably twice as much as the equivalent competition. It's durable, compact and well made (and water-resistant - IPX4), and the LED (500 lumens) and laser are reasonably bright. But you expect it to be for the price. It comes with multiple plates, so will fit almost any gun, and the flexibility of different actuator (hi/lo) buttons is nice. You can also customize it easily - 9 buttons presses to activate the double-tap strobe function (for some odd reason it doesn't come set up from the factory), laser-only, light-only, or laser/light combo, switched by pressing the actuator buttons. It's also possible to switch from steady-on, to on with button-hold only, all with a combination of button presses. And the buttons are located in an ideal position for trigger finger or off hand, without getting in the way of finding the opening in the trigger guard, and work with a push as well as downward pressure. Made of - mostly - machined aluminum with poly switches, and well under 3 ounces. Not bad reported run-time of 18h continuous for the laser, 1.5h for laser/LED combo, and the readily-available CR123 batteries are swappable from the front without removing the unit or losing zero. The battery disconnect (to avoid "vampire drain") is a simple twist of the light lens for long-term safe storage. And the light lens is an actual hard glass lens, not plastic.It's a well-made, well-engineered, well-finished unit that does pretty much everything you would want in a weapon-mounted laser/light combo.The one failing in this otherwise excellent package is the apparently (sometimes) random sizing of the hex wrench included for adjusting windage and elevation in the laser sight. In my original light it was .0480", measured with a precision Fowler digital micrometer (the actual size of the adjustment screws appears to be 0.050"). This is enough tolerance to strip the screw, or the wrench, or both, particularly with the amount of torque required for the initial adjustment of the light and the tiny size of the wrench. This has been previously reported as an issue by some users, and benefit of the doubt to Streamlight, probably a bad run of accessories at some point. Better QC should catch this, and with the number of less than positive reviews on problems adjusting zero on these lights with the supplied tools, I'm sure it will. The immediate fix for users is to measure the included wrench if you have the capability, or just buy a GOOD quality 0.050" hex wrench and use that (my suggestion). Recommended, with comments.
Sam
Reviewed in the United States on October 12, 2023
Simply put, I dont know why they even still make the TLR2 that I came from. This thing kicks more ass, is substantially smaller, tougher, and just overall is much higher quality. My only complaint is that the battery life isnt great, but thats because it only has 1 battery instead of 2. That disadvantage comes with a great silver lining though; The tlr2 had to be removed from a handgun to change the batteries as they went in through the back, while this one the battery is inserted through the front, so no more hassle, no more worry about zero point, it just works. Another thing to note about the quality, when I was looking at the pictures there were several piece that I thought were plastic, such as the back cap, but upon inspection, are also metal, just with a different finish/coating. The unit has as much metal as possible, with the only noticable exception of the buttons, which seem to be plastic, but a high quality one.My only minor complaint is that the laser has a decent amount of artifacting around the edges in low light, but this seems to be necissary to achieve the brightness to be seen in high brightness outdoors situations.The light itself it very nice, there is a hot zone in the middle as expected, but outside of this, with a smooth transition is a very uniform and widespread throw, almost a floodlight; very wide cone. The lens over the light is smoth so cleaning of carbon or mud will be fast and easy.Would highly recommend.