| Tank007 PTL01 | |
|---|---|
| LEP class | N/A |
| Distance / intensity | ? cd / 1,400meters |
| Lumens | 500 lumens |
| Modes | 3 + strobe |
| Avg. Price | $359 |
Tank007 PTL01 is their first LEP flashlight
As far as I know, this is the first LEP flashlight built by Tank007. Yeah, it’s a bit of an unusual brand name, but has been around for probably 2 decades.
The first time I was introduced to the brand was probably around 2009-2010 when I first got really interested in flashlights.
And since they priced the PTL01 at over $300 (and over $400 for EU customers) there must be something special going on.. Well, let’s find out.
First of all, I wasn’t highly impressed by the packaging of it. It’s using a pretty standard cardboard box, with a flashlight, a 21700 battery, a lanyard, a USB-C cord, and a manual.
Not that this is bad in any shape or form, but for the price, I had expected a bit more.
Use, batteries, and more
For carrying you can use the lanyard, or just hide it in a large pocket.
It has 2 switches, with 1 at the rear and 1 on the side. And although the price would let you think it must be very high quality, I was a bit disappointed. It doesn’t look bad, but I probably expected a bit more.
The UI is relatively easy to get used to.
The rear switch is used for power, while the side switch is used for changing modes.
Please keep in mind that a double click brings you to Strobe, and not to turbo mode. 3 clicks does the same. 4clicks however, will turn it into standby mode… go figure..
So that makes it a little unique.
When it comes to batteries, they included a USB-C rechargeable 21700 battery. And you can use a USB-A to USB-C as well as a USB-C to USB-C cable. There is a red light while charging, and turns green when finished. It’s relatively slow though, and charges from empty to full in 4 hours and 15 minutes. I’d recommend getting a separate charger for it.
In case you own any non-protected, flat top 21700 batteries, you can use those as well.
Performance
First, let’s see how many lumens it can produce.
| Mode | Specs | Measured at start | After 30 seconds | After 10 minutes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Low | 60 lumens | 68 lumens | 68 lumens | 64 lumens |
| Med | 200 lumens | 141 lumens | 139 lumens | 132 lumens |
| High | 500 lumens | 452 lumens | 441 lumens | 181 lumens |
As you can see, the measurements were higher in Low mode, but lower in Medium and High modes, compared to specs. And unfortunately, the output dropped relatively quickly in High mode.
But let’s look at the beam distance measurements..
| Mode | Specs | Measured candelas | in Meters | in Yards |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Low | – | 65,600 cd | 512 | 560 |
| Med | – | 130,000 cd | 721 | 789 |
| High | 1400 meters | 390,400 cd | 1,250 meters | 1,367 yards |
Unfortunately, it doesn’t really reach 1400 meters.
The dark blue line is for the Tank007 PTL01. It performs better than the Lumintop Thor1 (18350), Jetbeam RRT M2S Raptor (21700), Nextorch T7L (18650), but is outperformed by the rest. If you look at the line, you can see it throws about 150,000 candelas for most of its runtime. This is about 775 meters or 847 yards. Not that bad when you compared it to a similar-sized LED flashlight. But if you are looking for one of the best performers, perhaps look elsewhere, or check out the list of best LEP flashlights.
