Would you buy a Surefire LED light with guaranteed tint?

cernobila · Mar 25, 2006

OK, so I have now owned and used a reasonable number of LED compact high performance lights. What I learned is that quite often you don't know what you are going to get when you receive your "cant wait for it to arrive" light.

I think that HDS has overcome the uncertainty and a "stab in the dark" approach by alerting its customers in what they will get when they put their money down......GT model is "guaranteed tint" (white) and XR is "extra run time"......This way you already know what you are going to get when you order your light....no complaints.

Surefire could have the following categories;

L2 or L4 or L5 etc:
L2..............not sure what you are going to get
L2GT..........guaranteed tint (white)
L2DF..........donut free (no darker centre, even beam)
L2GTDF......guaranteed tint (white) and donut free (no darker centre)

Yes, there would be a price difference between these models, this is understandable......This way you will know what you are going to get when you open the box.

Given the LED variations, all manufacturers should give their customers the choice of product up front. If you are fussy and prepared to pay the extra than that's fine....and if you don't care and prefer to save a bit of money than you will get the basic model.

The result would be, fewer complaints with less traffic of lights to and from the manufacturers because of LED quality issues.

What do you think......can we make this happen??....or am I dreaming?

thesurefire · Mar 25, 2006

I would be very angery if companies started doing this, unless the pricing was right. IE a L2GTDF was 165 (like normal L2's are now) and then the other ones were cheaper, where as the 'basic' L2 was like 100 dollars.

If they charged 165 for the basic and more for the others, well thats not fair. now you have a change to get DF and GT, but if they had DF and GT tint you would have to PAY for it. not have a chance of getting it, but FOR SURE not get it. That would suck.

dizzy · Mar 25, 2006

thesurefire said:
I would be very angery if companies started doing this, unless the pricing was right. IE a L2GTDF was 165 (like normal L2's are now) and then the other ones were cheaper, where as the 'basic' L2 was like 100 dollars.

If they charged 165 for the basic and more for the others, well thats not fair. now you have a change to get DF and GT, but if they had DF and GT tint you would have to PAY for it. not have a chance of getting it, but FOR SURE not get it. That would suck.

I agree with thesurefire. The prices they have now should be for guaranteed quality and the ones that are not up to snuff should be available at a discounted price.They would need to have their own designations though so people with substandard lights would not return them for repair to upgrade to the guaranteed specs for free.
Honestly, this may open a whole new can of worms as far as what is the standard for guaranteed tint. What is appealing to one persons eye may not be satisfactory to someone else's.

I'm starting to give myself a headache with all of this!!??

Must stop rambling.......................

voodoogreg · Mar 25, 2006

I wish they would do something, I love SF stuff, but i only buy at a dealer
with good stock, because I have had to return a KL-1 and a KL-3 with pi$$ poor green tint's.
I agree about the Primo tint's should be the main line and then 2nd's. VDG

cy · Mar 25, 2006

you can already buy a surefire with a guaranted tint

this is my prefered method. purchase a surefire on b/s/t in mint/new condition. simply ask the seller what the tint is.

you are already paying a for a premium light, so you have the right to get one without paying extra.

Luxeon bins have improved hugely from the days, when you almost always got a greenie from a low dome.
now days you can specify a reel of TXOH and almost everyone will be pure white.

want proof... almost all first run fenix lights were spec'd with RWOH luxeons. so almost all fenix have excellent tints. rarely do you hear of a fenix with bad tint. don't get me wrong it does happen, but not a lot.

please note this not the case for 5watt luxeon. those still veri far and wide for consistant bin codes. hince Surefire's problem with getting a consistant tint for 5watt lights.

voodoogreg · Mar 25, 2006

cy said:
you can already buy a surefire with a guaranted tint two ways.

1. purchase new and send it back to surefire if you are not happy with tint. I've never heard of anyone being turned down by Surefire customer service.

QUOTE]

Hello, my name is Greg. now you have met someone turned down by SF/CS.
VDG

cy · Mar 25, 2006

OK, thanks... about feedback re surefire customer service.

edited accordingly. thanks,

everytime I've called they have indicated it would be no problems.

270winchester · Mar 25, 2006

voodoogreg said:
cy said:

you can already buy a surefire with a guaranted tint two ways.

1. purchase new and send it back to surefire if you are not happy with tint. I've never heard of anyone being turned down by Surefire customer service.

QUOTE]

Hello, my name is Greg. now you have met someone turned down by SF/CS.
VDG

Click to expand...

LOL. That's why I buy mostly small builder's lights, so I know what bin is going in my light. I had a few pe-green SF LEDs but had good luck when I bought my KL4 on CPF... THen again a 25%succes rate is a good reason to go CPF modder's offering/

chevrofreak · Mar 26, 2006

Yes, but not if they charge $20 for the guaranteed tint upgrade as some manufacturers do. That $20 is more than it would cost if you payed the already inflated prices on CPF to buy a nice tint bin..

UKSFighter · Mar 26, 2006

I love Surefire, but I do hate the Luxeon lottery. The tint has never been an issue for me, but the occassional donut really does get to me. I do agree that you can get better quality LEDs today, but I don't think we should have to pay extra to be guaranteed a good light. I own and use SF lights as well as sell SF lights, but I believe that they and others will need to step up with some guarantees of LED quality if they are to remain on top of the LED light market.

Steven

zespectre · Mar 26, 2006

Nope, wouldn't pay more for GT et al.
With the reputation Surefire is claiming, and the prices they ask, ALL of their LED products should be GT, otherwise they aren't really "the best" are they?

CLHC · Mar 26, 2006

What Zespectre said—

That's why I'm stuck on my one and only LED SureFire Digital LumaMax L2. This particular one I have is BRIGHT and WHITE BIG time! No observable "holes" from this torcher. That's all.

PJD · Mar 26, 2006

I agree with what's been said already. With SF, you're already paying a premium price for what's supposed to be a premium light. When buying SF LED lights, more times than not, I've been a loser in the luxeon lottery. The only SF's that I'll buy straight from them or from a dealer are incans...the last couple SF LED lights I've bought have been purchased right here on the B/S/T forum. LED tint is really the only "bone of contention" that I have with SF...for the prices that they charge for their products, IMHO, the tint should ALREADY be guaranteed. What some of their QC folks see as an "acceptable" tint quite frankly baffles me!

PJD

Flash007 · Mar 26, 2006

thesurefire said:
I would be very angery if companies started doing this, unless the pricing was right. IE a L2GTDF was 165 (like normal L2's are now) and then the other ones were cheaper, where as the 'basic' L2 was like 100 dollars.

If they charged 165 for the basic and more for the others, well thats not fair. now you have a change to get DF and GT, but if they had DF and GT tint you would have to PAY for it. not have a chance of getting it, but FOR SURE not get it. That would suck.

I agree totally.

I love really machinery, finish, and all other caracteristics on the Surefire models, I consider them "premium of the premium lights" but I don't like the Luxeon lottery.
For a company like Surefire, in all their LED models, Luxeons must be selected to mount only the best binned and tinted Luxeon's, to offer only "premium luxeons in premium flashlight". It sounds totally normal to me.

Price must be the same, not more expensive than now, because we pay already a few $ for "premium lights" at Surefire.

Concerning other companies, I prefer, if they offer this possibility, always to pay a little more $ to have the best binned and tinted Luxeon.

BentHeadTX · Mar 26, 2006

I don't own any Surefires since they run on lithium primaries. Is the tint problem that large with SF?

cernobila · Mar 26, 2006

To those that have commented so far, thank you. Yes I went through the LED tint lottery myself....I ended up with an acceptable light, but it was inconvenient and costly. Don't get me wrong, I think that Surefire lights are generally very good, but the only way I would buy another LED Surefire is if the dealer would guarantee the tint, this means testing it before sending.....this is not very likely as most come in sealed packages.

The most important thing is; I am quite sure that "Surefire" threads are monitored by their PR people. SO HAVE YOUR SAY.

I don't know how to set up a poll here, but I would like to see one that would go something like......

"When you buy a LED Surefire light, do you expect a guaranteed tint? Yes or No"

If most of us here don't care, fair enough, but if we do care, then perhaps we can make a difference.....its up to you.

AlecGold · Mar 26, 2006

Just my idea, but I was under the impression the Luxeon lottery was getting less and less? the differences and the variaty getting smaller?

W4DIZ · Mar 26, 2006

I have orderd a 2nd U2,L7,and a KL6 head form my local b&m store.
One thing I have noticed is that Suerfire must have some realy good Lux5 bins right now.All of them are very white to my eyes.I have not seen any new from the factory Lux5's with bad tint latley.I think we are starting to see the end of the Luxeon lottery.YMMV.
I dont think I would pay more for GT.

ianb · Mar 26, 2006

I have done pretty well with my Surefire tints having owned pretty good, U2, L2 and L6. Having said this, a guaranteed tint would be something I would pay for, but only standard price, I would not want to pay a premium compared to current prices. Although I don't think it would suit Surefire to discount other tints, thats not the image I have of them.
Ian B

ViReN · Mar 26, 2006

Would you buy a Surefire LED light with guaranteed tint?

No, No and No in any case. Reason, they are way too expensive for me...
Only Military could afford $6000 price flashlights

my illumination requirement is not that 'mission critical'

as long as there is light, and i could see comfortably, i am happy. it should turn on and off reliably to some extent. simple twisty and cluster 5 mm's are also ok for me

Would you buy a Surefire LED light with guaranteed tint?

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