Surefire Lexan Lenses..are they coated?

I heard that they were coated, but my G2 is naked. Thanks

Lexan lenses are plain. No coating like the other pyrex lenses on Surefires. Cheap, but durable.

This is an interesting question.

Lexan, generically known as polycarbonate, can be coated as well to improve toughness. I have seen polycarbonate scratch EXTREMELY easily - look at your CDs - and on another popular 2AA light which would get bad, deep scratches on the lens no matter how I babied it.

On the other hand my glasses, also a polycarbonate type material, have been wiped with shirts and god knows what else was handy for years and have yet to show any scratches. These are definitely multicoated - UV cut, high refraction index, hardcoat, and the works. I have confirmed through both my optician and my reading about optical glass that it's possible to hardcoat both plastic and glass with a coating that is so hard it will take silica (sand) crystals to scratch it. There are hardness ratings assigned to these and only an object of higher rating can scratch a lower one (similar to Rockwell scale used for HA and knives).

I didn't make any connection between the two until I received my Surefire SRTH, which is a really nice, exotic Turbohead - with a huge 2.5" polycarbonate bezel. I bought it with certain misgivings, thinking I would have to really, REALLY put in work to care for it.

Glad to say I was wrong. That SRTH is REALLY tough as well as functional. Interestingly, in a corner, there is a tiny little patch that looks as if the coating has come off. That's what tipped me off to the fact that these could possibly be hardcoated as well.

Surefire - it's the engineering you DON'T see, as well as the engineering that you do. Glad I bought my SRTH.


PS: I'm definitely not saying it's invulnerable and you can most certainly scratch it if you try, but at least it is treated to improve scratch resistance and I don't have to handle it with white gloves. For comparison, just try scratching one of your junk CDs or CD-R disks.. heck wipe it the wrong way and you get scratches.

Thanks for the post KevinL! Cleared up a few misconceptions on my end too!

So its coated? Where can I get another one for my G2? I want to keep a plastic lens on it to maintain its indestructiveness

My misconception was that the Lexan can't be coated. I guess I was wrong.

As to what the coating might be, I am not too sure. But from the looks of it, I don't think they are coated. They are tough, but my G2 lens has been scratched up pretty bad. No noticeable change in light output though. I do not know where to get a new one, other than buying another G2. I just ordered a stronger, scratch resistant UCL lens to replace it. You might want to consider that.

Yes, stronger, bur drop it and you're screwed

Maybe. But so far, my E2D, L2 and U2 are holding their end. All Pyrex lenses.

My KL4 dropped on its side from about 3 feet up...chipped on the corner