Streamlight HPL Face-Cap: Twice The Candela For TLR Lights!

Introduction

Streamlight recently released a higher-candela version of their rifle-mounted lights, featuring what they call the “HPL face-cap.” This face-cap just so happens to fit TLR-7, TLR-8, TLR-7 Sub and TLR-8 Sub, and recently, listings have popped up for just the face-cap by itself.

I talked on the phone with a customer service representative from Streamlight who recommended that users stick with the face-cap originally shipped with their lights. He said that if you perform the swap, the runtime will suffer significantly. But that doesn’t entirely satisfy my curiosity, so I still want to get the data.

If it produces as much candela on the pistol light as it does on the rifle light, it would more than double the candela of your standard TLR-7.

Will it perform as we expect? Let’s find out!

Disclaimer

I have not gotten a definitive answer as to whether or not performing the swap will void your warranty. Perform this mod at your own risk!

First Impressions

The HPL face-cap is currently available for pre-order at battery junction. It’s $41.95, and is only available on its own, or attached to one of Streamlight’s rifle-mounted lights. As of the publication of this article, a TLR-7X HPL is not something you can buy direct from Streamlight. Also note that this face-cap is not compatible with anything else besides the lights I’ve already mentioned (so no TLR-1, TLR-2, or TLR-3).

While I’m excited for this upgrade, it has some interesting ramifications for the holster-manufacturing side of my business. This longer bezel breaks compatibility for many of my holsters, so I’ll be gauging excitement about this product to determine whether or not we engineer holster support for it. When you’re done reading this review, be sure to let me down in the comments whether this is an upgrade you’d like to EDC.

I took some photos to help you get a better idea of the length difference. Drag the sliders up and down to compare:

And here’s the length, slide side-to-side:

For me, this size difference is worth it if it’ll truly double candela.

Let’s review the specifications for the upgrade.

Manufacturer claims and specs

Streamlight has not yet published specifications for the TLR-7X HPL, but they have published specifications for the rifle-light equivalent. That is where I got these specs.

Spec	Streamlight TLR-RM1 HPL	Streamlight TLR-7X
Lumens	500	500
Candela	11,000	5,000

Not a whole lot to see here since Streamlight hasn’t officially released the light we’re testing.

Let’s see if we can get the TLR-7X to produce that much candela!

Into the Lab: Lumens, Candela, Runtime

Lumens

The TLR-7X with the HPL face-cap produced a very short burst of 650 lumens at turn-on. This burst was too fast for my lumen meter to record but it was briefly displayed.

I included output curves from the old TLR-7A model using a non-rechargeable battery, as well as the new TLR-7X with a non-rechargeable battery. The longer green and orange curves you see above reflect the fact that non-rechargeable cells almost always have longer runtimes than their rechargeable counterparts.

I did not test the HPL face-cap with a non-rechargeable cell. If you ran it with a standard CR123A, I anticipate you would get those longer run-times.

Both the standard face-cap and the HPL face-cap stopped producing light at an hour and three minutes into the test when running Streamlight’s SL-B9 rechargeable battery

It looks like our sample of the HPL face-cap is under-performing by about 10%. To be fair, last word we heard from Streamlight was that they were still verifying compatibility of the HPL face-cap with their pistol lights.

Let’s get a closer look at the first ten minutes:

Not too much to see here. I appreciate that the output curves appear smooth and well-regulated. This gives the user plenty of runtime with which to resolve a situation.

By the ANSI/Plato sampling standard, the TLR-7X with the HPL face-cap produced 537 lumens.

Candela

Here’s the moment we’ve been waiting for. How much candela does this thing actually make?

Here’s the results:

	Candela (0s)	Candela (30s)
Streamlight TLR-7X HPL SL-B9	10520	9509
Streamlight TLR-7X SL-B9	4488	4067
Streamlight TLR-7X CR123A	3916	3873
Streamlight TLR-7A CR123A	3914	3748

Nice! The HPL face-cap produces 2.3x the amount of candela of the standard facecap: 9,509 as opposed to 4,067. While that’s still lower than the Foxtrot2R’s 14,840, it’s much closer (and considering the Foxtrot2R is just about impossible to get right now, this may be a better option).

Takeaways

For those seeking to maximize the performance of their Streamlight pistol light, this modification doubles performance for only $41.95. While this is attractive on paper, the longer face-cap will likely break support for any holsters you currently have, meaning you may have to go out and purchase another holster if you want to EDC this setup.

If the holster costs $85, the true cost of the upgrade is $126.95.

Is it worth it to you? Are you motivated enough to get that performance gain that you’ll go out and find that new holster? If so, please let us know down in the comments what pistol you’re running. If we get enough requests, we’ll make holsters!