SF L7 - on the job review?

Hi:

Any LEOs out there who are using the SF L7 as their duty light? I am a soon-to-be LEO (if everything goes well with my process).

I havent come on here in a while - did a quick search but didnt find what I was looking for. I have my SF 8AX-BK and I upgraded it a while back with the L7-BK.

The L7 is a nice piece of kit. It's regulated and dependable (no bulb to blow). Yet its output no longer impressed my biased eyes anymore. I guess my eyes are so used to my 3D SuperMags which pump out 900+ lumens, heheh.

I wanted to ask LEOs out there who have real-life experience using the L7 and are willing to quickly share their two cents worth.

Using it as a primary light would involve both indoor and outdoor applications plus those ever-present threat-assessment conditions... so I would like to hear how LEOs find how the L7 measures up during a typical shift.

Is the 5-watt Luxeon LED of the L7 good enough or lacking, generally speaking, for typical police work?

Should I stick with the stock incan bulb and bezel?

As an aside I've been contemplating upgrading to the KT5-BK Turbohead for the benefits of an incan bulb with more throw.

... fyi, apparently for my "non-flashlaholic" friends the L7s output and beam quality is still top-notch in their eyes... =)

Tks
CQB

Personally, I havent tried it but have tried most other surefire Led's as well as custom Led setups that are noticeably brighter and I always went back to an incandescent. Having said that, I think the L7 would make an excellent backup and/or vehicle/med. size room search light. Led's just dont have the throw and contrast that an incandescent bulb brings. This goes for ALL leds. You will see this when illuminating the interior of a vehicle with occupants as youre walking up to it. Checking bushes, shrubs and the like also is better suited for incandescents. Im sure others will post and with similar experiences. Even with the turbohead you would still have the same Led shortcomings but with more throw. Basically what im saying is that IDENTIFYING and assessing threats means living/dying in this job, and I see and feel much more comfortable using an incandescent. If you dont see it, you cant counter it. CPD 8 years-1 Deadly force encounter-Im still here, He's not.
As a side note, I almost purchased the L7 but after trying many other similar and stronger Led lights I decided that it wouldn't serve my purpose at work and would probably sit on my nightstand which already has several lights too many on it. Good luck and Be safe.

Pete, thanks for sharing your experience, much appreciated.

From what I've read so far and from personal experience, I have to agree with you re: LEDs. I find the L7's beam much nicer all around, especially for indoor "wall-watching" and general non-critical tasks.

But when I really need to ID what I am looking at then yes I much prefer a high o/p incan - which is why I've been playing with the 8AX COmmander's stock incan bulb again.

And the KT5-BK Turbohead is an incan bulb as well, with more throw. I think that would be a great upgrade for my kit.

Of course not having to worry about blowing a bulb in an untimely manner is also something to think about. I met a member recently at the local Police surplus shop and he showed me his SF 9AN Commander. Inside the bezel was shards of glass from the bulb that literally "blew up" due to a fall.

What kind of fall? His light rolled off of the changeroom bench to the floor!

Yeah, i know. So even with the better contrast and higher output, I hate knowing that incans are still vulnerable in ways that LEDs are not.

ANd if there are any other LEOs out there who have first hand experience with the SF L7 please share. Again, much appreciated.

CQB

To address the bulb issue, just get a m3 or m4. They both have shock isolated bezels. For the record I've been carrying a 9p for my entire career and have dropped it many times and have only destroyed the bulb once. Its soon being replaced with a night-ops falcata 9v which is brighter and shock isolated. I also carry an m4 for when I need more distance.

It's my primary light and its brighter then all my other surefire LED's. I love it!

I can't speak as a LEO (yet), but I would also agree with pete with choosing an incandescent for police work. I think color rendition and piercing light is very important. As stated earlier, the whole identifying your subject thing is VERY important especially with all those night time traffic stops. You want a light that can cut through the car's glass.

The next thing I'd consider is rechargability. LEO's use their lights A LOT as you already know. I like how streamlights can just drop into a charger in the car or at home, while the Surefires must be disassembled to be charged (other than 10X). It would not be practical to diassemble your light WHILE on duty. I suppose you can charge before your shift, but I would be shaky as far as relying on one charge for an entire 12 hour shift. I would feel much more secure dropping my light into a cradle after each usage and knowing its topped off. I recommend the Strion or Stinger if you feel the same way.

One last thing I would consider is durability, and this is where you gotta consider trade offs. What happens when you drop incandescents on concrete/asphalt? With this in mind, would it be wiser to buy an M series surefire with their shock isolated bezels? Is it worth giving up the rechargability? I can't answer this one, it's a tough decision.

My dream light- Shock isolated bezel + externally rechargable + incandescent + LiIon.

city cop said:

It's my primary light and its brighter then all my other surefire LED's. I love it!

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CityCop - tks for the reply. I am glad you like your L7. I KNEW there had to be at least ONE LEO somewhere that uses it while on duty.

I have used it for security work and for the most part, I feel it does a great job for general applications, indoors & outdoors.

But for those critical moments, I found it didnt throw far enough and the beam wasnt able to give me the kind of "detail" I would have wanted - while my C3 did... and my Mag951 definitely did...

Supernam said:

I can't speak as a LEO (yet), but I would also agree with pete with choosing an incandescent for police work. I think color rendition and piercing light is very important. As stated earlier, the whole identifying your subject thing is VERY important especially with all those night time traffic stops. You want a light that can cut through the car's glass.

The next thing I'd consider is rechargability. LEO's use their lights A LOT as you already know. I like how streamlights can just drop into a charger in the car or at home, while the Surefires must be disassembled to be charged (other than 10X). It would not be practical to diassemble your light WHILE on duty. I suppose you can charge before your shift, but I would be shaky as far as relying on one charge for an entire 12 hour shift. I would feel much more secure dropping my light into a cradle after each usage and knowing its topped off. I recommend the Strion or Stinger if you feel the same way.

One last thing I would consider is durability, and this is where you gotta consider trade offs. What happens when you drop incandescents on concrete/asphalt? With this in mind, would it be wiser to buy an M series surefire with their shock isolated bezels? Is it worth giving up the rechargability? I can't answer this one, it's a tough decision.

My dream light- Shock isolated bezel + externally rechargable + incandescent + LiIon.

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Supernam - great points!!

There are at least a few departments here in the Vancouver area that uses the SF 8AX for their duty lights, from what I've seen.

I agree just dropping a light into a cradle to top it off sounds more convenient than having to change batteries when needed. The counter to that is if say, the SL Strion gets low or goes dead on you while you are out and about doing something when it's needed, you have to drop it back into the cradle to charge it again. That or you can change the battery if you happen to have a spare that's already charge.

With the 8AX you can carry as many spare batts that you want (like magazines) and so you are never left without backup power for your flashlight. And as long as you arent in too hairy a situation, you should be able to manage changing the batt, it's quite simple. So you arent forced to return to your cruiser to drop in your light for a quick charge.

So pro's and con's for both systems really.

Yes I agree, a rechargeable, shock-isolated, incan would be great. I am hoping that using the SF 8AX with a Turbohead would suffice for my needs if & when I make it myself.... (*crossing fingers*). THen I would plan to carry at least one more batt stick as a backup. So there would be one in the flashlight already (50 minutes runtime), one in the car's charger (another 50 minutes runtime) and one more on my bat-belt (another 50 minutes runtime). Carrying one batt stick wouldnt be too intrusive I would imagine...

The SF 10X is just too out of my budget (for now) while I would find it a tad large for regular duty carry. Am also checking out those Wolf-Eyes lights too. Many are rechargeable and they appear to be quite bright for their size...! And they "say" they have shock-isolated bezels as well... something to look into perhaps?

CQB

I like my portable L4 LED for personal daily carry. It's light, durable, and I like the spread of the light.

However, on duty I carry a 8NX, along with a G2 for battery back-up. In my duty bag I have extra batteries, charger, and a 8AX. I believe the "punch" of the incan. is important. Is it less durable than an LED? Yes. Carry back-up...

Roger that TENNlumens ! Thats why I carry my trusty M3 and Pentagon X3.

pete7226 said:

Having said that, I think the L7 would make an excellent backup and/or vehicle/med. size room search light.

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For a backup light I think buying a rechargeable light would be overkill...

For backups, run primarys...unless your main light is prone to fail

Personally I use the Scorpion [xenon] as main, XO3 as backup and Dorcy Super 1 watt as backup's backup, but thats just me....absolutely nothing to do with the present topic.

Hello CQB,

Shameless Plug Mode - On...

We are working on an improved battery pack for the 8AX, 8NX, 9AN, and L7. Our first prototype is giving us 90+ minutes run time with the 8AX and 8NX, and 60+ minutes run time with the 9AN. An extended run time battery pack could reduce the amount of packs you need to have available for daily use.

With your 8AX and 3 of these improved battery packs you could get nearly 6 hours of constant light, if you happen to be near your car after the first pack runs out and put it on to charge. It would be nearly ready to go by the time you ran through the other two packs.

You can monitor our progress in this[/rul] thread.

Shameless Plug Mode - Off

I am not a LEO, and I don't have an L7, however I have used my U2 in industrial applications. I find the 8NX (which I prefer over the 8AX for hard use) gives me a more "natural" color rendition of what I am looking at. I think this has to do with the color of the surrounding light, but have no data on that. The incandescent light seems, to my eyes, to render things better. However, the warmer LED's (those tending more toward yellow/green) are close behind.

The L7 has a nice deep reflector which may give it decent punch. The final decision may come down to how well your eyes work with the LED vs the incandescent tints.

Tom

Keep in mind that the L7 is rated 75 lumens. Comparing the punch and reach of that to a Mag951 900+ lumens, or even the 8NX or 8AX at 110 lumens, or the 9AN at 140 lumens really isn't a fair comparison.

It's always trade-offs: size, weight, run-time, durability, cost, etc.

Hello MoonRise,

On the SureFire web page, the L7 is rated at 100 lumens.

Tom

SilverFox said:

Hello MoonRise,

On the SureFire web page, the L7 is rated at 100 lumens.

Tom

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Surefire underrates their lights, we can expect more than 100 lumens from the L7 if thats the case

Miscellaneous ramblings about incan's

For primary lights, I think rechargable and incandescent is the way to go.