My first "real" flashlight was a SL Scorpion LED, and it is still my EDC light. I'm surprised it's not more popular than it is. Yes, there are things I feel could be improved on it, but heck, for under $50, you get one heck of a light. A comparable Surefire light will cost you far more (6P flashlight = $60, KL3 LED head = $60, Z49 clickie tailcap = $37, total cost = almost $160) for admittedly better construction and better battery life, but comparable throw and brightness. The big question is whether or not that build quality is worth an extra hundred bucks to you. For an everyday LED light with a top-notch warranty, a Scorpion LED is a fine choice.
As far as the Scorpion incandescent goes, it's a perfectly acceptable light. You can find it online for $30 easily, and the replacement bulbs are only $5 online, and it even comes with a spare ($17 or so bucks for a replacement lamp assembly still makes me cringe, and I don't even have a SF light yet!). The big problem with the bulbs used by SL is that they are the bi-pin type and can become unseated and stuck inside the head when you remove the head assembly to replace the batteries. My solution was to remove the small o-ring from the head that helped keep the bulb centered. While the bulb tended to not be centered after removing the o-ring, it had no effect that I could notice on the quality of the beam, and the pins provided enough friction that I could not make the bulb pop out of the base despite repeated attempts to do so. So, with this minor fix, the Scorpion becomes a perfectly usable light, with build quality that's good enough for most uses, and a typical incandescent beam (i.e. bright and throws a decent ways).
Someone earlier in the thread was dismissive of SL because they use plastic reflectors and their build quality wasn't up to SF levels. For 80-85 percent of SF build quality and beam quality at half the price, I'm more than willing to accept a few rough edges here and there. The novice just getting into acquiring a high-quality flashlight isn't going to typically jump into getting a SF for sixty plus bucks; a SL is a fine choice for a first-timer getting into the flashlight obsession. I'd point someone towards a Scorpion over a G2 simply because of the price difference between the SL bulbs and the SF lamp assemblies -- if someone can only afford to spend 30-40 bucks on a light, can they really afford to spend almost 20 every time the bulb blows?
In short, I greatly respect SF for what they produce and what they've acheived, but I recommend SL for first-timers hands down. For 95 percent of the people out there, and SL will do everything they need a light to do, and then some.
