yaesumofo
Flashlight Enthusiast
HI guys. I finally received my E1B today.
I had ordered and anticipated receiving mine weeks ago but I had some bod luck.
Anyway I am holding a new E1B serial number AO1476.
My first impressions are that the light has a FAT head compared to the rest of the
light (or other similar lights).
The High on first UI is cool.
Unless you need it the light comes on in high mode. If you need less light just click 2x.
If the light has been OFF for more than a moment the High mode is the next level to
come out the front.
The Beam is ALL hotspot. There is a vague side spill.
Mine is brighter than my Novatac, as well as many (most) other single cell lights. including Mc Gizmo PD-s, novatac 120P, orb, hds edc (60), Surefire L1 (older) and kl1(non Cree) based single cell lights.
With all of it's energy concentrated into the beam it is not surprising.
A note about the size of the E1B.
As you can see it is a little longer than many of the single call lights. The E1B doen NOT have any knurling. it does have some grip ridges. it also has this little extra length. the Bely clip also helps with grip.. My point here is the little extra length is a good thing. I have plenty of tiny hard to hold mini lights. The E1B has a very professional TOOL GRADE formfactor.
Hell just look at who amoungst us CPF'rs are now carrying this little gem. That in and of itself speaks volumes about how nice the E1B is.
Heck even I am going to EDC an E1B for a while.
I will post some beam shots though I believe that they are redundant as so many have been posted already and mine will simply illustrate the same thing. The E1B is an industry leader in this form factor.
IMHO the use of TIR optics has come a long way. There are virtually NO imperfections in the beam. Those imperfections which are there I believe to be an image of the actual emitter. A close look at any emitter will show that none are perfect.
I used to have an surefire L1. The one I am referring to was a generation behind the
current L1's being sold. It was not a Cree based light.
The E1B is a much more impressive light than that "OLD" L1.
The beam is much cleaner the tint much whiter and the bright level much brighter.
The E1B was a simple replacement of that L1 which I traded for an A2.
I traded the E1B head with a MULE head on an ALEPH setup.
When the E1B head was placed on the Aleph body it operated perfectly.
The Mule head operated perfectly on the E1B body.
The E1B will work just fine when playing Surefire Legos.
The 2 level UI of the head worked perfectly on the Aleph body.
Most of this has in fact been said by others so I am mostly repeating what has been
said. The simple fact is that the E1B which was looked a little early (prior to the SS).
Was an instant hit. For good reason.
The E1B is a solid performer. I am impressed with the Size to performance ratio of the
E1B it is mighty bright for it's size.
There is a lot to like about the little E1B.
To be sure there are brighter single cell flashlights. There are lights with wider beams too.
The fact is that the engineers over at Surefire have created an optical system which does a great job of concentrating the energy from the emitter into a very nice tight beam. I am highly impressed.
BTW in case you are wondering. My old L1 had a curved lens in front. It is/was a lens. The NEW system is completely flat in front. The bezel is slightly crenelated so that if placed lens down while on light will escape indicating a light which is on.
A couple of small down sides to this light is that there are no real lanyard attachment points and there is no ability to tail stand.
I have been able to solve this on demand by replacing the switch module with an aleph tail switch which both tail stands and has attachment points.
Some would argue that these are unnecessary on a light which has a clip as this one does.
I don't believe that the presence of a belt clip precludes the need for an attachment point or the ability to tail-stand.
A word about the clip.
I like it. It functions perfectly for me. Some won't like it I happen to like the bezel up belt carry mode if I am carrying the light that way.
The UI is very cool. LOW is there on demand. The thing is that you have to demand it.
If you don't need it you don't have to spend any extra clicks bypassing the Low level. It
goes right to the high and most likely most used level.
This is an important feature. Some people want low first. IMHO the target end user of this light being a PO will likely want to use this light in it's hi mode 90% of the time.
I plan on EDCing the E1B for the length of my next film. A lot about how this light holds up to the rigors of EDC will come out in the next two months. I will report here my longer term impressions.
Yaesumofo
I had ordered and anticipated receiving mine weeks ago but I had some bod luck.
Anyway I am holding a new E1B serial number AO1476.
My first impressions are that the light has a FAT head compared to the rest of the
light (or other similar lights).
The High on first UI is cool.
Unless you need it the light comes on in high mode. If you need less light just click 2x.
If the light has been OFF for more than a moment the High mode is the next level to
come out the front.
The Beam is ALL hotspot. There is a vague side spill.
Mine is brighter than my Novatac, as well as many (most) other single cell lights. including Mc Gizmo PD-s, novatac 120P, orb, hds edc (60), Surefire L1 (older) and kl1(non Cree) based single cell lights.
With all of it's energy concentrated into the beam it is not surprising.
A note about the size of the E1B.
As you can see it is a little longer than many of the single call lights. The E1B doen NOT have any knurling. it does have some grip ridges. it also has this little extra length. the Bely clip also helps with grip.. My point here is the little extra length is a good thing. I have plenty of tiny hard to hold mini lights. The E1B has a very professional TOOL GRADE formfactor.
Hell just look at who amoungst us CPF'rs are now carrying this little gem. That in and of itself speaks volumes about how nice the E1B is.
Heck even I am going to EDC an E1B for a while.
I will post some beam shots though I believe that they are redundant as so many have been posted already and mine will simply illustrate the same thing. The E1B is an industry leader in this form factor.
IMHO the use of TIR optics has come a long way. There are virtually NO imperfections in the beam. Those imperfections which are there I believe to be an image of the actual emitter. A close look at any emitter will show that none are perfect.
I used to have an surefire L1. The one I am referring to was a generation behind the
current L1's being sold. It was not a Cree based light.
The E1B is a much more impressive light than that "OLD" L1.
The beam is much cleaner the tint much whiter and the bright level much brighter.
The E1B was a simple replacement of that L1 which I traded for an A2.
I traded the E1B head with a MULE head on an ALEPH setup.
When the E1B head was placed on the Aleph body it operated perfectly.
The Mule head operated perfectly on the E1B body.
The E1B will work just fine when playing Surefire Legos.
The 2 level UI of the head worked perfectly on the Aleph body.
Most of this has in fact been said by others so I am mostly repeating what has been
said. The simple fact is that the E1B which was looked a little early (prior to the SS).
Was an instant hit. For good reason.
The E1B is a solid performer. I am impressed with the Size to performance ratio of the
E1B it is mighty bright for it's size.
There is a lot to like about the little E1B.
To be sure there are brighter single cell flashlights. There are lights with wider beams too.
The fact is that the engineers over at Surefire have created an optical system which does a great job of concentrating the energy from the emitter into a very nice tight beam. I am highly impressed.
BTW in case you are wondering. My old L1 had a curved lens in front. It is/was a lens. The NEW system is completely flat in front. The bezel is slightly crenelated so that if placed lens down while on light will escape indicating a light which is on.
A couple of small down sides to this light is that there are no real lanyard attachment points and there is no ability to tail stand.
I have been able to solve this on demand by replacing the switch module with an aleph tail switch which both tail stands and has attachment points.
Some would argue that these are unnecessary on a light which has a clip as this one does.
I don't believe that the presence of a belt clip precludes the need for an attachment point or the ability to tail-stand.
A word about the clip.
I like it. It functions perfectly for me. Some won't like it I happen to like the bezel up belt carry mode if I am carrying the light that way.
The UI is very cool. LOW is there on demand. The thing is that you have to demand it.
If you don't need it you don't have to spend any extra clicks bypassing the Low level. It
goes right to the high and most likely most used level.
This is an important feature. Some people want low first. IMHO the target end user of this light being a PO will likely want to use this light in it's hi mode 90% of the time.
I plan on EDCing the E1B for the length of my next film. A lot about how this light holds up to the rigors of EDC will come out in the next two months. I will report here my longer term impressions.
Yaesumofo
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