Surefire L5 Characteristics

Hi guys,
Im thinking of getting a good, fairly powerful LED of about 100 Lumens + with good throw and moderate sidespill. At the moment, I have a e2L which I love, but I am finding that the beam is not as bright as I'd like.

Im looking at an L5 at the moment, but I am not sure what the beam characteristics are. Is it throw or flood? Also the website seems to say that the L5 is 100 lumens, but the KL5 is only 65...... whats up with that?

Any other suggestions are also welcome.

Thanks

1. Forget about any manufacturer's Lumens ratings. Since many exaggerate this, Lumen comparisons are meaningless.

2. Study the "Output & Throw" charts on the great FlashlightReviews.com website. They'll tell you almost everything you need to know... along with the runtimes plotted in the individual reviews.

3. The SF L5 is a bright/wide flood light... with decent throw. It's throw/reach is comparable to your E2L, but the L5 beam is about 3 X as wide as the E2L's tightly focused beam. The L5's beam as a beautiful thing to behold.

4. There's no free lunch. The L5's only (relative) shortcoming is its runtime: about 1 hr. @ full bright, plus 20-30 min. decent-to-declining. that's the trade-off for its intense output. The narrow-beamed E2L's forte, however, is its long (3 + hrs.) runtime. It's also a good "battery drainer" for CR123s that become too weak to run most other lights.

The L5 is my primary night-walk light. It's great beam yields fantastic situational-awareness and security benefits. The E2L is my ever-reliable EDC/pocket back-up light. Combined, they're an unbeatable combination.

anything the KL5 can do the KL6 can do better

Theres a great beam shot comparison that just showed up on the forums... i don't know the link because i'm not on my home computer... i would highly recomend finding it because it will show you a comparison between the u2, l6, l5, e2l, and some others!

I would look into the U2... it has a nice flood/spot beam... completely adjustable, and its VERY bright... you can get it to stand on the tail and use filters...

however any HDS u60 will blow any surefire product out of the water when it comes to value, quality, and features...

Protaeus said:

good, fairly powerful LED of about 100 Lumens + with good throw and moderate sidespill. . . .

Click to expand...

Kinda sounds like a Gladius description. Have you checked that out?

Scott

beezaur is right... the gladius's LuxIII gives great throw and spill.... the HDS has less throw but its beam pattern is more of a EDC beam rather just massive throw w/ some spilll....

and the size of the two lights is like apples to oranges

jar3ds said:

however any HDS u60 will blow any surefire product out of the water when it comes to value, quality, and features...

Click to expand...

I will second that. I have many surefires, and since I found the HDS they do not get used very much.

I can't beleive I forgot about the McGizmo lights. The Aleph 3 or HD 45 are great throwers with some spill.

I just came in from a night walk with my Gladius, guess I had Night-Ops on the brain.

Scott

I have an L5 and an L6 . . . maybe I'm going blind, but I can't see much difference between them. That being said, both have very white, flawless beams with a nice central hotspot and a useful flood area. A lot of people talk about Surefire's beams, and they are correct in my opinion...very nice indeed. The L5 is a good thrower for an LED, I think. It's also fairly compact. I love mine, and I also love my L6. I should, as I had to wait a real long time for them.

The newer KL5's can support 6-9 volts in regulation, so you can run three CR123's, two RCR123's, or two Pila 150s size LiIon's (3 cell body). They also do quite well on one 168s LiIon.

Bill