Went flashlight shopping....

[LEDagent]

...at a store for law enforcement equipment, and i came across one of the flashlights on my list, the Streamlight 4AA Pro Polymer. I din't want to spend twenty dollars just to try it out, so the casheir lady showed me how it worked. She got it set up and turned on in a BRIGHT flourescent lit room, and the flshlight was CLEARLY visible 40 ft across the room on a white wall. The only problem i had with it was the ring patern it cast. VERY pronounced dark center, BRIGHT 1st ring, then progressively darker rings after that.

Now,i don't have much experience with lights. Just a few months before finding this site, i only knew high quality lights to be mag-lites and my trusty LSI called spot. (BAD JOKE

)

So anyway, are there any lights with this kind of briliance but with a smoother light output? (in this 'alkaline' category)

Is the UKE 4AA's light output better that the proplymer?

 

[DavidW]

The UKE is an excellent light. It is by no means perfect. But if a (round beam not oval) SF 6P were a 10 I'd rate the UKE an 8 or 9.

 

[Size15's]

I don't say things like this very often.

Just because a beam isn't SureFire in quality doesn't make it a bad beam. It depends on what you want to use it for.

I'm not saying my views are worth anything, but the mere fact that I'm considering getting another 4AA flashlight means they must have advantages...

It's great to demo before you buy!

Al

 

[Joe Talmadge]

I love UKE. Used to have a 4AA, still have two 2Ls and a 2AAA. UKE beams, in my limited experience, all tend to have the same characteristics. a very bright white hot spot, I've never seen a dark spot in the hot spot. Around that is a bright less-than-surefire-smooth bright patch, and then the corona.

I'm willing to go with less-than-smooth, but dark patches in the hot spot really irritate me, to the point that I won't put up with it. I have an E1 with a central dark spot in the corona, and I've stopped carrying it. I'd rather carry my less-bright UKE 2AAA, which has a bright hot spot, with spider-like bright tentacles sneaking out of it, surrounded by the corona. It's not smooth like the SF, but at least the hot spot is white. I'll have to pick up a new lamp for the E1, I guess.

Joe

 

[LEDagent]

Anyone have pictures comparing the 4AA Pro Polymer and the UKE 4AA?