Layman’s Flashlight Reviews

Form follows function. This timeless philosophy defines the pragmatic design of the Lupine Tesla TL 1200. Its understated form belies the power concealed within its diminutive frame. Does its lack of aesthetic pomp detract from the overall experience, or can it prove that quality is more than meets the eye.

Lupine Tesla TL 1200

Meat and Potatoes

Affectionately named after one of the worlds most iconic authorities on all things electric, the Tesla TL 1200 set its sights high from the start. With its unpretentious attire, Lupine has instead turned its focus inward toward quality and power. The body of this torch is actually a proprietary battery pack, yielding 2.5Ah at 7.2V from two lithium ion cells of unknown proportions. This allows the TL 1200 to be significantly more compact than if they had instead chosen two equally capacious 18650‘s, the usual suspect cell in lights of this caste. It is simply the smallest light I have used with this kind of power.

Lupine Tesla TL 1200

You have oft heard me tout the benefits of a textured reflector. Its orange peel like surface randomizes the emitted light just enough to remove beam artifacts left by the LED or imperfections in the reflector’s polish or shape. Lupine takes that concept a step further, utilizing instead an array of precisely aimed facets on their reflector. Each minute hexagon is specifically positioned to provide an optimal beam pattern and exceptional smoothness. They have eschewed the traditional beam profile designed to focus the light into as tight of a point as possible, for distance illumination. Instead they believe that you are carrying a flashlight mostly because you are interested in seeing what you are doing in the dark, so they have chosen to light up everything nearby with a widely focused flood beam.

Faceted Reflector

TL 1200 Beamshot

Sitting behind that gem of a reflector is the equally beautiful Luminous SST-90 LED. This enormous, single-die power LED allows the TL 1200 to be driven at incredibly high levels producing huge quantities of light. Its copious surface area also assists in producing the lights beautiful wide-angle beam. The downside to using such a powerful emitter and high amount of energy is that it tends to create quite a bit of heat, the natural enemy of electronics. Thankfully Lupine has already addressed this issue with active thermal management that monitors temperature levels and steplessly throttles back the power to the LED until heat is no longer a concern. The TL 1200 even has a unique soft-start that quickly ramps the light up to maximum instead of just immediately switching on. I am not certain what purpose this fulfills, but it is an interesting feature none the less.

Lupine Tesla TL 1200

Though not a “fully” programmable light, the Tesla TL 1200 does allow you to set one of several preselected output modes. Lupine also allows you to decide on a couple of other minor settings for the light such as whether it turns on in low or high output for those modes. The choices are not by any stretch all encompassing, and the “Low Start” mode is a little confusing (more about that later) but they are definitely enough to give this light a wide variety of usefulness. There is even a rather unique soft-start to the light that ramps the light up to full power when you turn it on rather than immediately blasting 1200 lumens with no warning. I am not sure about the purpose of such programming, but it is an interesting addition none the less.

Lupine Tesla TL 1200

The machine work on the Lupine Tesla TL 1200, though very simplistic, is superb in quality. Every portion of this light positively oozes quality. The anodizing appears to be one of the thickest and most nicely textured of any that I have seen. All of the accessories that come with this torch are also comparably premium. The Lupine Charger One is, hands down, the highest quality battery charger I have ever used. It is nothing short of magnificent and I wish it would work with the rest of my Li-ion cells. The rugged nylon compartmentalized carrying case has all the room you could need for the TL 1200 and accouterments. It is even the only light I have reviewed thus far that comes with an actual leather holster.

Lupine Accessories

Constructive Criticism

Of minor mention here is the fact that this light has definitely one of the more complex user interfaces that I have seen. It is one that you are going to want to explain carefully if you need to hand the light to someone else to use or they will quite possibly start randomly changing modes and get stuck in one that is less desirable. This is a little easier to handle when using the battery pack that has the various modes printed on the side, however only one of the two batteries my light came with was attired as such. The other pack was a much more simply adorned unit sporting only the Lupine and Tesla logo and nomenclature. As such I found it more attractive, but somewhat less useful. I would propose some method that bridges the gap providing the programming legend while somehow making it less obvious.

Battery Differences

Also, relating to the user interface, in the light settings section there is an option to make the light start on low. In my experience, this setting is confusing. In mode 3(2-step Flash), and 6(1-step) it behaves exactly as I would expect it to, starting with the strobe or not changing anything. However in modes 1(2-step Low), 2(2-step High), and 4(3 step SOS) it behaves a little uniquely. Instead of starting directly in the secondary output, it starts at absolutely the lowest brightness it seems capable of (a nice “moon” mode actually) and then gradually and barely noticeably fades up to that secondary output over the course of a minute or two. In mode 5(4-step) it starts in the second brightest output and cycles down in the same manner as usual. Because of these peculiarities, I find the light makes much more sense to operate with the “Low Start” mode deactivated.

Operation Legend inscribed battery

Conclusions

The Lupine Tesla TL 1200 is a light that is simply designed to be used. It has no aspirations to be the prettiest light on your shelf. It doesn’t try to put the brightest spot on a squirrel 400 yards away. Its host of features including many I haven’t mentioned (Battery gauge, voltage readout, etc.) are all designed to make this a light that you want to carry with you.

Lupine

Provided for review by Lupine.