surefire M4 500 Lumens?

I found a nice sight that reviews the M4 stating that it can produce "500 lumens for 12 minues total (not continuous) with the N62." I wanted to verify the validity of that but the surefire website does not sell an "N62" bulb?

Does anyone know if that's true? If so, would be handy, making the M4 capable of 225,250, & 500 lumens output depending on the bulb.

Yep. It has THE best beam of any surefire lights.

Without looking, I think it's 225 and 350, not 225 and 250. I'm sure that was a typo on your part though.

I never knew the M4 had a 500 lumen bulb available. Learn something new everyday!

That bulb was originally used in the discontinued 12Z, which was rated at 500 lumens for short bursts. I have one and it was a neat light. Same general form factor as the M4.


cfb

Oh yes, sorry I meant 350 not 250. Winchester, with the M4 on 500 lumens would you sayit's beam is better than the M6 on 500 lumens? If so, where would you buy an "N62" bulb?

ok we're all posting up simulatneously, cool cfb - given that the 12Z was discontinued are my prospects of procuring an N62 bulb pretty bleak?

I'd imagine it could be difficult to find one, though I can't say for sure having not tried.


cfb

hey if this works, buy one for me!

rikvee said:

hey if this works, buy one for me!

Click to expand...

i'll see wha the status is on that and i'll check around some other places too.

I have a lot of experience using the N62 since the 12PM was the first SureFire I had.

Is the N62 better than the MN21?
No. The MN21 is brighter and whiter for far longer.

However, for the first three minutes the N62's output is amazing for the size/weight of the flashlight!
The N62 is not intended for constant-on use. You may be able to get a few bursts of up to three-minutes runtime between thermal shutdowns but after the first three-minutes the brilliance of the output is reduced. I think its fair to say the constant-on runtime is two bursts of three minutes.
Momentary use - I think 10-12 minutes is viable although it is extremely hard to measure that.
Causing 'thermal shutdown' does damage the batteries ability to provide its juice.

The 12PM/12ZM with the 3" diameter "T" TurboHead and the N62 does produce a fantastic beam. Personally, I perfer the M6 as an all-round improvement although I have a 12PMT with N62 on my bedside table. It's more stable standing on the 3" diameter TurboHead anyway!

Al

the reason why I say the N62 has the best beam is because its beam is circular rather than the oval shape of the MN21. Your preference may vary though...

The N62 draws a lot of amps and cells die quickly. But for the duration of the run the output is very impressive.

bore M4 body out to accept 2x 18650, then insert NM21
if someone could figure out how to fit protection ciruits into space. would be a sweet setup...

beam pattern for turbo heads depends upon luck of the draw. out of the 8 or so turbo heads I've been fortunate eough to own. only one produced a near round hotspot. most produce oval hotspots. this is testing with same NM21 on M6.

great information...i'm thinking about getting an M4 or M6 but the cost of batteries is kinda high. Well, really high actually. We'll see.

batman said:

ok we're all posting up simulatneously, cool cfb - given that the 12Z was discontinued are my prospects of procuring an N62 bulb pretty bleak?

Click to expand...

I have another 500 lumen N62 lamp coming next week from Calvin at Brightflashlights. He surprised me this afternoon when he said he still had them in response to my inquiry! So if you really want the big kahuna N62, he's got them now, but I don't know what his supply consists of so waiting could lead to disappointment. HTH.

Paladin

batman,

Wayne Lagger @ LPS Tactical (lagger-pro.com) provided N62 bulbs to me. "Big Al" (Size15s) had a little better luck with his runtimes than I did. I would have said the first time was under 3 minutes, the second time a bit less, and he is right, the third time may be about it. But it impresses the first few times. I forget how long it took for the batteries to cool down (after thermal shutdown) and go again. It seems to me it was about 3-5 minutes. (Of all the things I've lost, I miss my mind the most!)

Hope this helps.

Yep, the runtime to thermal shutdown has never been more than 3 minutes constant-on for me. But, constant-on is not normal use for the N62. It does take sometimes for the batteries to cool down. I have sometimes had four sets of batteries so three of them can be cooling. It is expensive to use the N62 but if you need a massive amount of light and the flashlight must be compact and light-weight as vital features then the N62 in the 12PM/12ZM/M4/M98/LeopardLight etc are the way to go.

Al

I run this bulb in my D3/A19/TurboHead-setup and it´s amazing bright!