Besides Surefire, what's are some other excellent brands?

As the title says I'm looking for brands other than Surefire. I'm not disappointed by my Surefire lights in any ways, but I know there have to be some good competitors out there.

So what brands would you all recommend looking into?

Thanks in advance!

Wolf-Eyes. SOLIDLY built lights in a variety of sizes (2 cell to 4 cell primary or rechargeable). Available in incans, Cree, and Lumens Factory lamp assemblies. Lumens Factory makes an excellent selection of additional high powered lamps to go with Wolf-Eyes own excellent selection. Top it off with reasonable pricing and you have a pretty good combination of good points to work with. Available at Pacific Tactical Solutions.

Are you talking incandescents or leds? What are you going to be using the light for? Do you have specific monetary amount you are going to spend?

Check out Fenix, Wolf Eyes, and Lumapro. Specifically the Fenix P3D, Lumapro Lumahunter M1, and the Wolfeye's HO dropins are all great.

GreySave said:

Wolf-Eyes. SOLIDLY built lights in a variety of sizes (2 cell to 4 cell primary or rechargeable). Available in incans, Cree, and Lumens Factory lamp assemblies. Lumens Factory makes an excellent selection of additional high powered lamps to go with Wolf-Eyes own excellent selection. Top it off with reasonable pricing and you have a pretty good combination of good points to work with. Available at Pacific Tactical Solutions.

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okay thank you!

They have a huge selection, so I'm just wondering what would you recommend? Right now I'm looking at something like the SF U2 Ultra and as such I'd prefer a bright LED light but looking at the huge W-E selection I'm kind of overwhelmed :/

depusm12 said:

Are you talking incandescents or leds? What are you going to be using the light for? Do you have specific monetary amount you are going to spend?

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Preferably LED for this one. As to what I'll be using it for, I'll be using the light for general stuff. And I'd like to keep it under $250.

tman11 said:

Check out Fenix, Wolf Eyes, and Lumapro. Specifically the Fenix P3D, Lumapro Lumahunter M1, and the Wolfeye's HO dropins are all great.

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okay I'll check those out

The only brand of LED flashlights which can truly compete with SureFire is the Novatac. It is made in the USA too, unlike these 2nd class brands that some folks are recommending. Those are not real competitors of SF at all.

Check it out: www.novatac.com

Pelican is pretty good also. Oh, and how can we forget McGizmos' stuff? Thats' custom stuff though...

Without trying to make a long list, I would say that most brands that cost you more than $5.95 are very respectable and differ from Surefire only in ways and degrees that only discerning enthusiasts can tell. I've been extremely pleased with "no-name" (not recognized by general public) Asian brands such as Fenix and Amilite, and new ones appear nearly every day that appear to be of the same general quality.

Of course, the old standards such as Inova, Streamlight, Pelican, Mag, Arc, and others continue to be well respected. In the approximately 5 years I've collected lights, overall product quality and innovation has improved tremendously, taking away much of Surefire's dominating position, particularly in the LED segment.

Outdoors Fanatic said:

The only brand of LED flashlights which can truly compete with SureFire is the Novatac. It is made in the USA too, unlike these 2nd class brands that some folks are recommending. Those are not real competitors of SF at all.
Check it out: www.novatac.com

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I am a LEO and I use both SF and WE on duty. As for WE and others being second class I don't agree at all. No they aren't SF's but they fill a niche SF doesn't lower cost flashlights that are still pretty damn good and I use all 3 brands. As a matter of fact a WE 9DX is on my duty belt as my primary incandesant, a SF Z2 with a BUG LuxIII drop-in module in my patrol bag and a Fenix P3D in my pocket. So IMHO regardless of what you have said I think all of those mentioned are good lights for the money. I am contemplating purchasing a WE D26 (170 lumen 3.7-13 v) HO Cree drop-in for my Z2 or my M2.

i agree with alberto,,,,,


but lets not get into another sf vs. fenix vs, ect discussion here,,,

It's not Lumapro but Lumapower... some of the mentioned brands are chinese lights and are very good for the money and even exceed expectations most of the time. Fenix, Jetbeam, Lumapower are some of the popular ones here.

For US made, Surefire, Novatac (formerly HDS Systems), Night-ops/Blackhawk have winners in their range, although some of them are not using the latest Cree/Seoul LEDs yet. Quality and interface wise, these US lights are worth the extra dough.

This thread can easily blow-up into a Surefire vs. other lights or US made vs China made thread, so let's just keep it objective, shall we ?

All the lights mentioned so far are top of their respective classes, and because the Chinese lights are quite a lot cheaper, when they exceed expectations, they are viewed as comparable to the more expensive brands like SF etc...

Expectations tend to be lower for these so-called 'second-grade' (which I don't agree with) brands, so they blow you away when they exceed your expectations and for SFs and stuff, they are expensive so you expect a lot and may end up disappointed in some aspects, giving yourself a skewed psychological impression.

So, if it's not a SF or HDS, it's "2nd class" and not worth mentioning :ironic: ? Whatever.

Search for Fenix, Huntlight, Lumapower, Streamlight, Inova, Pelican, and the Night-Ops Gladius.

You'll most likely be quite happy with a Fenix L1D-CE, L2D-CE, P2D-CE, or P3D-CE, or something like a Streamlight ProPolymer 4AA Luxeon or Survivor LED.

www.fenix-store.com
www.bright-guy.com
www.fox-intl.com
www.lighthound.com

Try browsing those sites.

GreySave said:

Wolf-Eyes. SOLIDLY built lights in a variety of sizes (2 cell to 4 cell primary or rechargeable). Available in incans, Cree, and Lumens Factory lamp assemblies. Lumens Factory makes an excellent selection of additional high powered lamps to go with Wolf-Eyes own excellent selection. Top it off with reasonable pricing and you have a pretty good combination of good points to work with. Available at Pacific Tactical Solutions.

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GreySave is giving you some very good advice, my choice would be a Wolf-Eyes Raider with either the 170 lumen Cree drop in or for incan the lumens factory EO-9 380 lumen bulb. Actually the standard WE bulb that comes with the Raider is very bright and usable.
Norm

Outdoors Fanatic said:

The only brand of LED flashlights which can truly compete with SureFire is the Novatac. It is made in the USA too, unlike these 2nd class brands that some folks are recommending. Those are not real competitors of SF at all.

Check it out: www.novatac.com

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I understand why you think this, but what about Arc? They too are made in the USA and are built like tanks.

Often overlooked are Pila, Pelican, and Peak LED Solutions.

peak has great quality, McG is the absolute best in my not so humble opinion, but pricey.

cmon now Maglites are tough , they can still work after being shot and run over by a truck , just put a led drop in and its a beast

To cover a few not mentioned: Streamlight and Tektite on the large-selection side, Heliotek and Central Tools on the not-large-selection side. I really don't see how us listing companies helps you much, though.