Have Maxfire, need LED equal or greater

I'm pretty new to the light addiction, I have ready alot on flashlightreviews.com, and here.
I have the brinkman maxfire, I carry it at work and on trips. I have beat it to death, and it asks for more. But, I would like something brighter(of course!), I have been eyeing the sf l4, but on flashlightreviews, it seems to be not as bright as the maxfire, is it? If so, what is the led equal of the maxfire or better?
Anyone that owns both, post your thoughts!:rock:

Surefire L2 will give you a half hour of maximum brightness as measured on the Flashlightreviews.com.
http://www.flashlightreviews.com/reviews/surefire_l2.htm
The maxfire will only sustain max outout for about fifteen minutes.
http://www.flashlightreviews.com/reviews/brinkmann_maxfirelx.htm

The L2 is also much brighter though the output is more flood than throw, the Maxfire outthrows the L2 by a large margin.

If it's throw you're after then it's going to be tough to beat the maxfire with a similar sized flashlight in a LED. The McGizmo HD-45 is a powerful thrower though it uses a fairly large head to accomplish it. You'll probably have to go to some of the larger LED flashlights such as the Elektrolumens or the LEDBeam 3C (Outstanding value) to get more throw than the Maxfire.

Golston 7 watt is pretty powerful. I don't know how many lumens or anything though, puts my 3C Diamond Mag to shame though

Yes, the maxfire has impressed me alot, it is the only light I grab. I'd like to give it to the old lady to keep in her pocket book (and gives me a reason to buy a $165 flashlight). About 99% of my work with the light is close up inspecting, which the two-stage clickie would be great for. Anyone have a reason why I shouldn't get it? Anyone thing something else would be better? Cheapest place to get it?
EDIT-How would the L2 be for self-defense? I reeeealy don't want to shoot someone. I'd rather blind them, and drive off, or run.
Also, do they even produce a 7watt bulb yet? I'd almost try the golston, but the website said something about shipping it through customs from china.:huh2:

First of all, welcome!

Luxeons at their best are no where near being competitive with the higher powered incandescents, and your Brinkmann Maxfire LX would certainly be in that category of incandescent lights. If you want that level of output, stay with the incandescents for right now. The closest single emitter contenders would probably the Luxeon 3 based products like the DB3W (in a 3 Cell Mag) and the LEDBeam 3C, but both of those are much larger, and they only approach the brightness level of the 2CR123 Xenon lights, they don't surpass them (except for the Chinese knockoffs.)

chR15 said:

I'm pretty new to the light addiction, I have ready alot on flashlightreviews.com, and here.
I have the brinkman maxfire, I carry it at work and on trips. I have beat it to death, and it asks for more. But, I would like something brighter(of course!), I have been eyeing the sf l4, but on flashlightreviews, it seems to be not as bright as the maxfire, is it? If so, what is the led equal of the maxfire or better?
Anyone that owns both, post your thoughts!:rock:

Click to expand...

The Led Logic Striker VG has the most thow of any LED (besides some very limited specials - that I know of) as listed in FLR. It is 50% more than the Maxfire! It has less spill due to the optic though.

The SF L2 is not bright enough to blind as attacker because of its floody beam. The brightness at any one spot is (what an assailant sees) is not near as bright as the Maxfire. Less than 1/4 the lumens comparing center of spot according to FLR reviews of both lights (the L2 review is updated in the past week).

what about an inova T3 light?

T3 has almost exactly half the throw (measured numerically) of the Maxfire, but since I have both, I can tell you that the visual effect is minimal between them. The Maxfire seems to throw only marginally better than the T3. But this is a known effect of numerically quantified lumens, that the human eye perceives a doubling of lumens as only a small increase. To appear to have double the light, you really need to ~quadruple the lumen output (approximately). Some others may know the numbers far better than me. I'm still relatively new to this, just passing along what I have learned and seen to be true in my experience.

I did not know this. would you recommend anything better with a 2hr of peak brightness and still keep it as the same size?

Maxfire and SF P60 are pretty close. My Streamlight Pro Poly 4AA Luxeon is equal to my P60 Maxfire (what the heck? I had an extra P60 and it fits) and will be as bright as it started for well over 4 times as long. The 4AA is more of a spot with spill while the P60 is flood of light. But out in quality East Texas dark I would go with the SL.

Tough Question.
At MAX brightness, the Inova T3 and X03 are about equal and get ~2 hours. I like the tactical clicky of the T3 better though. Cheapest at Botac.com
Pelican M6 goes 1:30 with good throw.
The Streamlight Tasklight 2L 3W runs 2 hours on max with a little more throw than the T3 and the same as the Pelican M6. Check out the review. This is the one I'd say meets your criteria.
I'd say to get a multi-level light like the SL Tasklight and you will probably use the lower settings more often, saving the high for when you really need it and making your batteries last a lot longer. I like how my SF A2 works, but it gets 50 minutes on Incan.

CyByte said:

I did not know this. would you recommend anything better with a 2hr of peak brightness and still keep it as the same size?

Click to expand...

With a little less throw, but more runtime, there are several options, like the Surefire E2L with newer KL1 head.
Of course a CPF VB-16 from Wit's End here in the Dealer's Corner forum looks good too. I THINK this is a review of the same thing with different name. 2 hours at full with better throw than the T3 again and 16 levels to conserve batteries. No wonder I just ordered one...
Gee the more I look, the more I find. Take a tour of 3 & 5Watt LED's on FLR.