Now a few words from our resident curmudgeon about the Olight Intimidator Light.We’d like to thank the quadragenarian for taking time out of lamenting his crepitus to give us his opinion.

Grunts: curmudgeon.

Olight’s SR51 Intimidator flashlight is a little confusing. Because, despite the name, it is NOT a tactical flashlight. It’s one hell of a general purpose light, though.

First I’ll list the good things about the Intimidator. Most important thing on the list: this light is bright. One hundred lumens brighter than Surefire’s M3LT. Before turning it on you have to check the earth and moon’s alignment so you don’t accidentally cause an eclipse. I’ve owned plenty of police and military tactical lights, and don’t think I’ve ever had one nearly this bright.

The SR51 Intimidator has two brightness levels (two hundred fifty and nine-freakin’ hundred lumens), and easily switches between them by holding down the power button. Two quick clicks on the button switches the light into strobe mode (which defaults to the high-power setting). Low power, high power and strobe; what more do you need from a light? And you don’t need an engineering degree to program it. It’s a simple system.

Another super cool thing about the Intimidator is its presentation. It comes in an attractive metal lockbox with precise foam fittings, complete with belt case, wrist lanyard, extra o-rings and light-diffusing lens cap.  The flashlight itself is beautifully finished in dark black with crisp silver lettering. It just looks like a good light. This might not matter to some, but care in presentation is often indicative of care in manufacture.

According to Olight’s website, the Intimidator is waterproof to two meters, impact resistant from almost five foot drops, runs for ten hours at low power and one hour fifty minutes on high power. And it’s all contained in an aircraft-grade aluminum housing that’s 7.5 inches long and 14 ounces. Pretty impressive.

On the bad side…well, there’s not much. And by “not much”, I mean, there’s almost nothing. I wish the light was rechargeable instead of being fed by six very expensive CR123s, but sometimes a battery light is more dependable than a rechargeable. That’s not a point against this light though, it’s simply a matter or preference.

Olight claims this flashlight is designed for Search and Rescue “or even tactical missions”. SAR purposes, sure. But considering the size of the light and its lack of a tailcap switch, I wouldn’t use it for “tactical missions”. Nineteen years ago when I first became a cop, I would have; the Intimidator is way better than the huge and not very bright Maglights and Streamlights we carried back then. But with all the advances in tac lights in the intervening years, I just don’t see the Intimidator as a serious contender for military or police use.

But that doesn’t stop me from being happy as hell to have one in the house. And if I ever have the misfortune of being in a major disaster (again), you can bet the Intimidator will be at my side, lighting the way to safety.

We’ll give the Intimidator 10 tacos out of 10 for use according to our strictures.

EDIT: There are now a number of different versions of Intimidator, most available for Prime.