Going to get a SureFire, tired of junk lites

[gswitter]

Unless you can find a Leef second hand, currently there is really only one choice, the FM one.

The joy of Surefire lego is there's always choices...

• Leef E head/C tail 2x18650 tube (Lighthound has those) and a E2C adapter
• Bore an M4 tube
• 2x18500 tube plus one cell extension
• etc...

All that said, I'd still go with the FM tube. I have one, and I like it.

 

[RobertM]

I'm going to have to agree with some of the above posters...
If you're going to swap out the body, lamp, and batteries, why buy a SureFire?

Don't get me wrong, I'm all in favor of playing SureFire lego, but I would play lego with SureFire parts if reliability is the ultimate thing you are after.

With all that being said, after owning a bunch of LED flashlights, I bought my first "real" incandescent last Friday--a SureFire G3. I bought it after reading some posts about color rendition and after comparing the two, incandescents may become more plentiful in my collection It's amazing how much better you can see in the woods at night with an incandescent over an LED (output being the same).

Some more food for though...
First, I'll admit that I'm a SureFire fan and they are my favorite brand by far. With that being said, my brand new SureFire G3 only lasted 15-20 minutes Friday night before it quit working. Any flashlight can break or malfunction.

I recently blogged about both my color rendition test and my failed G3 experience if you want to check it out before deciding on a light:
Lithium Flashlight Reliability - SureFire G3 Experience
Lithium Flashlight Color Rendering - Incan vs LED

Me personal, if I were to run rechargeables, I'd just get the light weight SureFire G3 and run 2x17500 cells and call it a day. It would be a good, simple setup using nearly all original SureFire parts (minus batteries) and you have option to run it on 3xCR123 primaries when in a pinch.

Good luck in your choosing a light! :candle:

 

[etc]

I pretty much made up my mind on 9P with some extended tube. Of course, I can still run 2x17500 in the original 9P tube. Or run 9P with orig tube and 3x123s.

Re: color rendition. I am so used to the unnatural white glow of the LED, I expect it.

 

[Bullzeyebill]

I'm going to have to agree with some of the above posters...
If you're going to swap out the body, lamp, and batteries, why buy a SureFire?

Don't get me wrong, I'm all in favor of playing SureFire lego, but I would play lego with SureFire parts if reliability is the ultimate thing you are after.

With all that being said, after owning a bunch of LED flashlights, I bought my first "real" incandescent last Friday--a SureFire G3. I bought it after reading some posts about color rendition and after comparing the two, incandescents may become more plentiful in my collection It's amazing how much better you can see in the woods at night with an incandescent over an LED (output being the same).

Some more food for though...
First, I'll admit that I'm a SureFire fan and they are my favorite brand by far. With that being said, my brand new SureFire G3 only lasted 15-20 minutes Friday night before it quit working. Any flashlight can break or malfunction.

I recently blogged about both my color rendition test and my failed G3 experience if you want to check it out before deciding on a light:
Lithium Flashlight Reliability - SureFire G3 Experience
Lithium Flashlight Color Rendering - Incan vs LED

Me personal, if I were to run rechargeables, I'd just get the light weight SureFire G3 and run 2x17500 cells and call it a day. It would be a good, simple setup using nearly all original SureFire parts (minus batteries) and you have option to run it on 3xCR123 primaries when in a pinch.

Good luck in your choosing a light! :candle:

I read your blog account of the G3 failure. Are you planning on starting a thread with the same content? You would get a lot of responses, though the issue of malfunctioning SF LA's has been discussed here on CPF many times. Your argument for carrying an extra light is a good one, and I would carry three lights, and an extra LA for my incan Surefire.

Bill

 

[firefly99]

I am fed up with junk products I have been getting ... All the incarnations of Chinese made lites. Yet another failure today. Fenix. Okay, I EDCed it for a year and used every day. Never abused it, only put the best NiMH I could find. The driver itself failed and it does erratic things in some kind of a morse code configuration. Just p1sses me off. Cannot imagine what would have happened if I actually needed it in a 'situation'.

These Chinese made lites aren't all that cheap, go for between 60-100 and a poor value at that. I am certainly not going to rely on it ever again.

Well said. Can you imagine having 6~7 maglites of various sizes from AAA to 6D failing on you (all due to battery leakages). I am so sick of junk lights.
I have never look back since I got my surefire.

You say you want surefire reliability, yet you are replacing the lamp with an aftermarket lamp assy, the body with an aftermarket body, and the battery with aftermarket cells.

All you are using is the head and tailcap.

Hard to know how you expect to get 'Surefire reliability' from that, although no doubt it will run extremely well for you, it's just not really a surefire anymore.

The tail 9P cap doesn't need to be recessed, as you untwist it to lock it out.

I'm going to have to agree with some of the above posters...
If you're going to swap out the body, lamp, and batteries, why buy a SureFire?

I guess it would be easier and cheaper for you to get a leef body and other 3rd party components to build your ideal light. It is definitely not a Surefire and only god would know about its reliability.

 

[Gator762]

If you aren't going to call in warranty on your Fenix I'll take it off of your hands.