Surefire L4

You guys are mean! :laughing:

AFAIK = As Far As I Know

I bought an L4 a few weeks ago and i love it, ive also got a P3D and a cree drop in for my 6P and i think the L4 easily holds up to those 2.
The L4 is definitely my favorite out of all the them. Its a brilliant durable light that is different to all others in its beam quality and flood!

Danos0012 said:

I bought an L4 a few weeks ago and i love it, ive also got a P3D and a cree drop in for my 6P and i think the L4 easily holds up to those 2.
The L4 is definitely my favorite out of all the them. Its a brilliant durable light that is different to all others in its beam quality and flood!

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I agree. At a certain point newer LEDs doesn't always mean better. I have a number of Cree-based lights but I keep coming back to the L4 for a useful light that I can trust on.

For one thing a simple search of this forum will yeild many threads concerning the KL4 or the L4. Ne reel need to create a new one. I see that you are new. Here is a hot tip. if you have a question pick the key words and google those words in the CPF search engine. if you are not able to get an answer then create a thread. this should be SOP for your first month or two or more here untill you gain a bit of experience.
That said.
The SureFire KL4 head is famous for it's WALL OF LIGHT effect.
It is simple and effective. some of the heads are able to be used as single cell powered lights...some can't.
If you look around you should be able to find a used KL4 for 45.00-$60.00 DOLLARS. ofcourse ou will need a bod to go along with it. complete l4's sell for about $100 used a little more if perfect.

The real point of all of this is the question of wether or not ou need to buy one. Of Course you should. It is just about the only wa you will know if the light is right for you. If it isn't just sell it for about what it cost you.
It is an inexpensive lesson.
So My advice is to skip all BS have a look at which dealers offer deals to CPF'rs ((man do there is a list for the looking) spend the dough and get the light. Better yet get two of them so you can begin to determine what your prefrance in beam tint is. because there is little doubt that if you bu 2 lights the color of both beams and possibl even the presence of a donut. To be avoided. Color pick is subjective but there is another topic ou can do some searching on in order to learn about emitter tints.
Just do it. Have fun.
Yaesumofo

Re: Surefire L4 AFAIK

many thanks for the discussion of classified, top-secret AFAIK.

had me chuckling from the "get-go".

some time i'll have to tell y'all about "industry standard flag charts" and how the USN/USMC and US Army really think there's something called a "flag chart", when i started it as an innocent joke for a project that i was working on as technical lead 'bout 1990 time frame.

oh...then there was another that actually got me chewed out by the VP of Engineering.

i was lead architect of a system in the applied R&D phase. it used some AI software from Georgia Tech called HARPO (Heuristic Automatic Route-Planning Oracle).

Obviously, the rest of the project which i was technical lead for had to follow suit. So, for the various functionalities which needed to be added to HARPO to make a functioning system, i chose

GROUCHO = Graphical Real-time On-line User Controlled Helicopter Oracle
CHICO = Computerized Helicopter Interface Control Oracle

all connected together by ZEPPO networking = Zero Error Pulse-encoded Protocol Operon.

Of course, the whole project was called MARX (Mission Analysis Real-time eXperiment).


took me ~5min to come up with these names one morning (i was "on my game" that day, as they say). it sure felt good to have earned a day's pay by 0805!!!


however, all did NOT turn out well....

even if the boot fit, the Army was not gonna' fly into battle with the MARX brothers!!

so, after gettin' chewed out, i was actually forbidden to come up with any more acronyms without the approval of my boss, the Chief of Advanced Research and Development.

true story.

oh...so, what did the "powers that be" finally call the project since they didn't appreciate MARX?

DNAPS = day-night adverse weather pilotage system.

now you tell me which is better MARX or DNAPS?

sorry, for the Thread hijack.


many thanks for the discussion of AFAIK. y'all are pretty clever.

one question. someone alluded to the L4 beam pattern being a flood and similar to the L2 beam pattern.

is this true that the L2 and L4 are similar?

i already own a L2 and would purchase a L4 if there were a compelling reason to do so - like totally different beam patterns and uses.

however, if the L2 essentially covers the functionality of the L4, then i'm happy with the L2 (and it's two light levels).


any advice from y'all on L2 vs. L4 and the need to add a L4 to my L2?


many thanks in advance for your advice.

Going by memory here in the daylight, I would say the L2 high beam and the L4 are similar in throw and coverage. The L4, however, is approximately 1/5th of the overall length of the L2. OK, so that's an exaggeration......but if you own an L2 (a great light, btw) you know what I mean...

the L4 is one of my favorite lights
123 cells cost too much here in australia, so i bought two pila 168s Lithium Ion cells for it, that worked great for about 2 years, one in the light, 1 spare
then i got a surefire U2, still worked, 1 in the u2, one in the L4
then one of the Pila's finally died after working hard (being flattened and recharged at least once every week, normally once every day or 2)

my L4 has a set of Primary lithiums in it and lives on my bedside table as a "what was that" light as it puts out an awesome wall of light
when i order my novatac i will also be getting an 18650 for my U2 and another cell for the L4 along with a bunch of other stuff

seriously - get an L4, even though they are an old light, they are still great
i love mine and would buy another if i lost this one

yaesumofo said:

For one thing a simple search of this forum will yeild many threads concerning the KL4 or the L4. Ne reel need to create a new one. I see that you are new. Here is a hot tip. if you have a question pick the key words and google those words in the CPF search engine. if you are not able to get an answer then create a thread. this should be SOP for your first month or two or more here untill you gain a bit of experience.

Yaesumofo

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Very good advice indeed. While I may be new to this forum. I am not new to forum use in general. I am familiar with the search funtion, but I wasn't finding the information I was looking for. And being that this light isn't brand new, there was an overwhelming ammount of information. As far as just buying the light to see if I like it. Well that may work for some, but if I am going to spend more then $50 on a flashlight, then it better damn well be what I am looking for. I'd would rather put in lots of hours of research than go through the hassle of selling something I don't want.

Oh, and I also realize that this is an older flashlight and that there are newer lights with newer technology. That being said, I am still seeing that this is one of peoples' favorite/most used flashlights. That is what I want. Something that I am going to be able to use not only for work, but for anytime I could use a flashlight. I have a Pelican 7060. While I love the light. I just think that it's a tad too big for my practical use.

I know I am somewhat repeating what others have said, but I love my L4 even though I have my CREE lights. The L4 for being so small really puts out a HELL OF A LOT of light for it's size. I can absolutely light up my rather large back yard with it. Mine has pretty decent throw out to maybe 30 metres and HUGE spill light. I know there are many people who prefer throw over spill and I tend to be one of them, but it is important to keep in mind how valuable a really good pocket flood light that produces literally a WALL of light can be. The L4 truly has to be seen in action at night to be appreciated.

Is the head of an L4 essentially the same as a Surefire X200B weaponlight? Similar beam pattern? I have an X200B, but I haven't seen an L4 beam in person.

Yes. I have both and they are virtually identical.

beavo451 said:

Is the head of an L4 essentially the same as a Surefire X200B weaponlight? Similar beam pattern? I have an X200B, but I haven't seen an L4 beam in person.

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JimmyB said:

Yes. I have both and they are virtually identical.

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...but the L2 is longer, and has two stages. The difference in brightness is a non-issue, IMO.

Strange, not one post on how after 5 minutes of constant on, it is almost impossible to hold in the bare hand. (Heat)

I sure do like the SF products. But the L4 is a very impracticable "using" tool.

Montauk3 said:

Strange, not one post on how after 5 minutes of constant on, it is almost impossible to hold in the bare hand. (Heat)

I sure do like the SF products. But the L4 is a very impracticable "using" tool.

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I have no problem using it for prolonged period of time when holding it in my hand by the body. You didn't decide to hold it by the bezel did you?

Your hand can conduct surprisingly large amount of heat away from the light. Don't just set it down on a table and walk away.

Turned it on, Put it on the desk. Five minutes later I was going to turn it off. It BURNED my hand. I had to get a towel from the kitchen to pick it up to turn off. The whole light was hot.

I asked e-mailed SureFire if it was possible that the battery's might explode. No reply from SF.

$165.00 for a "shelf queen" is a bit much.

um, that's why you *hold* the light. cuz your bloodstream and body act like a small(or large?)scale liquid cooling system(like in the IMAX things) and since your body transfers/dissipates heat a lot better than the air or the table, it would naturally feel hotter if you pick it up after setting it on a table, rather than if you just were holding it the whole time.
HAGO,
Flash

The L4 and L2 definately can be said to emit a "wall of light". Between these two lights and the new L1 or E1L/E2L, you basically have two opposite styles of lights, the latter being good for throw. What I want to see is an LED light similar to the L4 in size that will have a beam in the middle between flood and throw. Something similar to the G2L beam but in a smaller form factor. Two stage would be sweet. No optics.

Montauk3 said:

Turned it on, Put it on the desk. Five minutes later I was going to turn it off. It BURNED my hand. I had to get a towel from the kitchen to pick it up to turn off. The whole light was hot.

I asked e-mailed SureFire if it was possible that the battery's might explode. No reply from SF.

$165.00 for a "shelf queen" is a bit much.

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that's why it's a hand-held light and not a desk lamp.

high output, low heat, small size. choose two.

ask Wilky about his L4 and see if he thinks it's a "shelf" queen...