Hi all,
Well, I know we were all eagerly awaiting the arrival of my Surefire A2 Aviator with Yellow/Green LEDs. It finally arrived, and I have a mini-review and some beamshots.
First, my impressions. My first thought upon seeing it was "Holy crap, that's small!" It was much smaller than in my head, and I wondered how bright something this small COULD be. My fears were soon put to rest.
Upon the first press of the button, the slightest (and I do mean slight) pressure on the switch and the Yellow/Green LEDs lit up. In daylight, they are unimpressive, and at 3 lumens they are not supposed to be.
A note about the Y/G LEDs. I'm not sure why I got this model, as the literature pretty much states that Y/G was developed for use with Night Vision Gear (NVG) by the military. But one or two of you said it might be the best balance between brightness (green) and color rendition (white), so I went with it.
I like the color, it is nice (pictures later) and fairly bright. In a dark closet with your eyes night-adapted, it does pretty well for showing you whats around you. You could probably navigate through a dark house (or stairway, etc...) with no problem with the LEDs (haven't tried it yet).
The flashlight itself is very well made, as most Surefire products are I've heard (my first!). The threads are excellently machined, and the tail switch rotates smoothly. I'm a little concerned about how far you have to turn it to lock it out (as far as waterproofing) but I'm sure it is watertight. The O-rings are substantial and pre-greased, which is a nice touch.
The switch itself is a work of art, and it operates very smoothly. As I said, the slightest pressure will turn on the leds, with a little more ooomph needed to get the incandescent on.
All in all, I am very happy with the light. It is extremely well-made and when comparing it to my other flashlights......there is no comparison. I highly recommend it to anyone needing a versatile, multi-level light that is small enough to fit comfortably in a jeans pocket.
A few issues:
1) during my test, I used new Batterystation brand CR123a's in both lights. About 10 minutes into the test, the light began strobing between a high (normal) and low level incandescent beam. I believe this to be a heat issue with the BS cells, because when I took them out they were smoking hot. I replaced them with partially depleted (about 10 mins usage) SureFire brand cells and continued the test. No strobing, etc.... was noticed with the SF123a's.
2) It seems the regulation is there for the incandescent, but once the light drops from regulation, in opposition to what I have read, the incandescent stays lit and behaves like a normal direct driven light. As you will see in the beamshots, the A2 output stayed well lit, but once out of regulation the incan declines to the point where the LEDs outshine it, but <b>the incandescent is still lit!</b> I don't know if this is wrong or a new type of circuit for the A2, but it definately does NOT behave the way it says it does on Quickbeam's site.
Without further ado, the beamshots. The test was done with the A2 and a Brinkmann Maxfire LX. The Maxfire is the only other 2 cell 123 Xenon light I own, and the runtime and brightness are similar enough I felt it would show the regulation of the A2 fairly well. Again, the A2 is using Surefire brand cells, the Maxfire is using BS brand cells.
In all the shots, the A2 is on the left, Maxfire on the right. The distance away is around 2 ft, give or take, and the camera is on the little candlelight setting on the dial (
) with no flash. The small little hotspots beside each corona are the reflections of the lights off the white surface (my spare freezer ). Hopefully these won't distract you too much.
Shot 1 - 10 minutes
Shot 2 - 20 minutes
Shot 3 - 30 minutes (here you can see the Brinkmann on the right begin to dim, the A2 stays the same)
Shot 4 - 40 minutes (I know the lights moved a bit....damn cat)
Shot 5 - 50 minutes (more pronounced fading visible here with the Maxfire)
Shot 6 - 60 minutes (seems the Maxfire gets a little brighter here, but still not as bright as A2)
Shot 7 - 70 minutes (further reduction in Maxfire output)
Shot 8 - 80 minutes (at approximately 75 minutes, the A2 went out of regulation, which bests the published runtime of 60 minutes) It should be pointed out that the incandescent does not turn off, like some have said about it once the regulator stops functioning. In this shot, the A2 incan is still operating, but at a very low level. The LEDs are brighter now at 3 lumens than the Maxfire, but you can notice the incan beam is still present in the A2's beam.
Shot 9 - 90 minutes (at this point the Maxfire is almost totally dark, while the LEDs are very bright) The Incandescent for the A2 is still lit, although very dark.
At this point, I removed the batteries from the A2 and inserted them into the Brinkmann. According to other reviews, the batteries should still have about 25% of life left in them. So I put them in the Maxfire and this is what they looked like after 10 minutes....
Approximately 5 minutes later, the light died. So after the incan in the A2 is done, I got 15 minutes or so of usable light from the Maxfire.
So thats it. The regulation for the incandescent seems to work, and the LEDs are a nice feature. The Y/G LEDs are a nice color, and seem to provide enough light for low level activities.
I really like the light, I'm happy I bought it. It will take some getting used to, as it is my first real high quality light. But I think it has convinced me to buy another Surefire, probably a LED like the L2.
I welcome any comments as this is my first review/beamshots post, if you have any suggestions to make it better / easier to understand let me know.
Thanks,
dragoman
Well, I know we were all eagerly awaiting the arrival of my Surefire A2 Aviator with Yellow/Green LEDs. It finally arrived, and I have a mini-review and some beamshots.
First, my impressions. My first thought upon seeing it was "Holy crap, that's small!" It was much smaller than in my head, and I wondered how bright something this small COULD be. My fears were soon put to rest.
Upon the first press of the button, the slightest (and I do mean slight) pressure on the switch and the Yellow/Green LEDs lit up. In daylight, they are unimpressive, and at 3 lumens they are not supposed to be.
A note about the Y/G LEDs. I'm not sure why I got this model, as the literature pretty much states that Y/G was developed for use with Night Vision Gear (NVG) by the military. But one or two of you said it might be the best balance between brightness (green) and color rendition (white), so I went with it.
I like the color, it is nice (pictures later) and fairly bright. In a dark closet with your eyes night-adapted, it does pretty well for showing you whats around you. You could probably navigate through a dark house (or stairway, etc...) with no problem with the LEDs (haven't tried it yet).
The flashlight itself is very well made, as most Surefire products are I've heard (my first!). The threads are excellently machined, and the tail switch rotates smoothly. I'm a little concerned about how far you have to turn it to lock it out (as far as waterproofing) but I'm sure it is watertight. The O-rings are substantial and pre-greased, which is a nice touch.
The switch itself is a work of art, and it operates very smoothly. As I said, the slightest pressure will turn on the leds, with a little more ooomph needed to get the incandescent on.
All in all, I am very happy with the light. It is extremely well-made and when comparing it to my other flashlights......there is no comparison. I highly recommend it to anyone needing a versatile, multi-level light that is small enough to fit comfortably in a jeans pocket.
A few issues:
1) during my test, I used new Batterystation brand CR123a's in both lights. About 10 minutes into the test, the light began strobing between a high (normal) and low level incandescent beam. I believe this to be a heat issue with the BS cells, because when I took them out they were smoking hot. I replaced them with partially depleted (about 10 mins usage) SureFire brand cells and continued the test. No strobing, etc.... was noticed with the SF123a's.
2) It seems the regulation is there for the incandescent, but once the light drops from regulation, in opposition to what I have read, the incandescent stays lit and behaves like a normal direct driven light. As you will see in the beamshots, the A2 output stayed well lit, but once out of regulation the incan declines to the point where the LEDs outshine it, but <b>the incandescent is still lit!</b> I don't know if this is wrong or a new type of circuit for the A2, but it definately does NOT behave the way it says it does on Quickbeam's site.
Without further ado, the beamshots. The test was done with the A2 and a Brinkmann Maxfire LX. The Maxfire is the only other 2 cell 123 Xenon light I own, and the runtime and brightness are similar enough I felt it would show the regulation of the A2 fairly well. Again, the A2 is using Surefire brand cells, the Maxfire is using BS brand cells.
In all the shots, the A2 is on the left, Maxfire on the right. The distance away is around 2 ft, give or take, and the camera is on the little candlelight setting on the dial (
) with no flash. The small little hotspots beside each corona are the reflections of the lights off the white surface (my spare freezer ). Hopefully these won't distract you too much.Shot 1 - 10 minutes
Shot 2 - 20 minutes
Shot 3 - 30 minutes (here you can see the Brinkmann on the right begin to dim, the A2 stays the same)
Shot 4 - 40 minutes (I know the lights moved a bit....damn cat)
Shot 5 - 50 minutes (more pronounced fading visible here with the Maxfire)
Shot 6 - 60 minutes (seems the Maxfire gets a little brighter here, but still not as bright as A2)
Shot 7 - 70 minutes (further reduction in Maxfire output)
Shot 8 - 80 minutes (at approximately 75 minutes, the A2 went out of regulation, which bests the published runtime of 60 minutes) It should be pointed out that the incandescent does not turn off, like some have said about it once the regulator stops functioning. In this shot, the A2 incan is still operating, but at a very low level. The LEDs are brighter now at 3 lumens than the Maxfire, but you can notice the incan beam is still present in the A2's beam.
Shot 9 - 90 minutes (at this point the Maxfire is almost totally dark, while the LEDs are very bright) The Incandescent for the A2 is still lit, although very dark.
At this point, I removed the batteries from the A2 and inserted them into the Brinkmann. According to other reviews, the batteries should still have about 25% of life left in them. So I put them in the Maxfire and this is what they looked like after 10 minutes....
Approximately 5 minutes later, the light died. So after the incan in the A2 is done, I got 15 minutes or so of usable light from the Maxfire.
So thats it. The regulation for the incandescent seems to work, and the LEDs are a nice feature. The Y/G LEDs are a nice color, and seem to provide enough light for low level activities.
I really like the light, I'm happy I bought it. It will take some getting used to, as it is my first real high quality light. But I think it has convinced me to buy another Surefire, probably a LED like the L2.
I welcome any comments as this is my first review/beamshots post, if you have any suggestions to make it better / easier to understand let me know.
Thanks,
dragoman
