Any reason not to buy a Surefire L4?

Hi guys, newbie here looking to get into a real flashlight. Will be left in the glove box of my car mostly and used for random car installs and outings. I've fallen in love with the L4, its size, and the fact that it's a 5watt with some great output. I know it still uses the "older" style LED, but this doesn't really bother me unless there is an issue with it I'm unaware of.

I also checked out a couple of the Fenix lights and the Jetbeam Mark II. Any other small 3-5 watts I should look at? How do you guys compare these to the L4?

Thanks!

-Dave

Many lights are 1/2 or LESS the cost of a L4 now.Many have similar quality and are more lumens.I would not rush and buy a L4.

FASTCAR said:

Many lights are 1/2 or LESS the cost of a L4 now.Many have similar quality and are more lumens.I would not rush and buy a L4.

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+1
Get a Fenix L2D and pop in some lithium AAs, great car light. Brighter, longer running, mult levels, easy to feed with AA in total emergency, strobe for getting attention etc.

The L4 is a cool light! But gets HOT if you run it for more than 5-10 minutes. Also a little pricy so I'd suggest looking in the Buy/Sell/Trade section here. The runtime is also something that needs to be improved. Only an hour +/- and then it drops off drastically. I really like mine a ton, but for the money other lights can be had...especailly if you are leaving it in the glovebox. It would suck to have someone break into your car and get away with such an expensive investment. If you plan on leaving a light in the car, buy something that won't break your heart(or the bank)if the worst happens. Fenix is a good choice. I don't own any but most owners seen pretty happy with the runtime/output/price. Good luck!

I would try and get a light with the latest led technology in them
as they are about twice as efficient as the 5w luxeon in the L4.

This would be lights with the Seoul-P4-U-bin or the Cree-XRE.

An example that comes to mind is Lumapower's M1 - there is a thread
for this in the Manufacturers' Section.

In about March/April, Surefire will be bringing out a new range of lights
with these new leds if you definitely want a Surefire light, but the Lumapower
M1 seems to have been very well received and is about $80=00 if I'm not
mistaken.

Although I agree with most of the comments already posted, I still think the L4 is worth buying(as long as the price is right). Few other lights put out as much "In Your Face" light as the L4. True, the throw isn't the greatest, but it lights up a room like few others.

There may be more efficient lights available. But I LOVE my L4. With a 2 stage it's about perfect for my uses.

My L4 is simply fantastic. it's a light that screams "sleeper" light.

The beam must be seen to be appreciated. For the time being the Crees and Seould LEDs are too new to have known reliability records and my KL4 is a known quantity.

Oh yeah, did I mention my 100 lumen KL4 is A LOT brighter than my "130 lumen" Cree light?

I would go incan for better colour renderation for use with car issues and outings. But if you want a LED, the L4 is a great light!

Must say that I think the Crees must have gone under some excessive testing allready, and Surefire have allready showed us some of their comming cree-products, they if anybody dont release products on a whim.
I have on the other hand heard some inherited issues with the Luxeon V, that it will have much shorter life than earlier promised. Not sure though, just read it in a thread somewhere here, maybe somebody else wants to explain further.

the life time of the Lux V, when properly driven and heat-sinked ala Surefire style, is going to be roughly 500 sets of CR123 before the output lowers to 70% of original output, which is still a lot of light , I doubt ANY of us would spend that much money on batteries and not consider get a new light.

flilow06 said:

Will be left in the glove box of my car mostly and used for random car installs and outings. I've fallen in love with the L4...but this doesn't really bother me unless there is an issue with it I'm unaware of.

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The L4 is a floodlight and, IMO, is not ideal for outdoor use. I use a Streamlight Scorpion incandescent in my car and it's great -- lots of throw (for lighting up house numbers, for example), good beam quality, clickie tailcap, rubber-clad for good grip, etc. I think another good light for use in a car is a Streamlight Twin-Task 2L -- incandescent for long throw and LED for close-up work, and relatively inexpensive.

Lobo said:

+1
Get a Fenix L2D and pop in some lithium AAs, great car light. Brighter, longer running, easy to feed with AA in total emergency, strobe for getting attention etc.

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What? Are you on crack? In no way in hell you can compare a L4 to a Fenix! This is the best LED flood light on earth hands down. If you have the money, go with the SureFire every chance you have.

That depends on what you mean by outdoors. For my usage, like hiking, mountain biking, etc, the beam type of the L4 is perfect for lighting up a wide area in front of me. For a lot of stuff outdoors coverage is more important taht a narrow beam. I would have hit quite a few deers on my bike if I were using a conventional throw-oriented incandescent lights, but with the L4 I was able to see them and stop in time. Them antlers hurt!!!!

In a lot of ways the L4 is too bright for close up work despite its wide beam.

Don't get me wrong, I have quite a few Cree lights and a U-bin Seoul in my HDS U__XRGT, which almost approaches the brightness of the KL4 but the L4 is so much more useful in many cases.

GeorgePaul said:

The L4 is a floodlight and, IMO, is not ideal for outdoor use. I use a Streamlight Scorpion incandescent in my car and it's great -- lots of throw (for lighting up house numbers, for example), good beam quality, clickie tailcap, rubber-clad for good grip, etc. I think another good light for use in a car is a Streamlight Twin-Task 2L -- incandescent for long throw and LED for close-up work, and relatively inexpensive.

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270winchester said:

My L4 is simply fantastic. it's a light that screams "sleeper" light.

The beam must be seen to be appreciated. For the time being the Crees and Seould LEDs are too new to have known reliability records and my KL4 is a known quantity.

Oh yeah, did I mention my 100 lumen KL4 is A LOT brighter than my "130 lumen" Cree light?

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Oh yeah, did I mention my 100 lumen KL4 is A LOT brighter than my "130 lumen" Cree light?

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Same here. Again we see the SureFire Lumens VS Some Brand lumens at play.:rock:

270winchester said:

That depends on what you mean by outdoors. For my usage, like hiking, mountain biking, etc,...

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flilow06 was talking about "random car installs and outings", not hiking, biking, and so on.

In a lot of ways the L4 is too bright for close up work despite its wide beam.

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Absolutely correct.

Honestly, I feel like beating a dead horse defending Surefire products from my real world user's experience. Everyday people join CPF and they are drawn to the lower priced stuff and think that's all there is. There used to a lot more folks who share my sendiments who would express their opinions but their voices are frequently drowned by the multiplying spec-commando newbies who look down on us for wasting our hard earned money on a mere "50 lumen" A2, "inferior" L4 and such. Often times these guys never even saw a Surefire but choose to promote what they have and maintain that's the best out there, well folks, numbers aren't everything. People don't buy cars based on it's qurter-mile time alone, you shouldn't buy a light based on its published specs alone, simple as that.

I was responding to you who said the L4 is not ideal for outdoor uses.

he said

Will be left in the glove box of my car mostly and used for random car installs and outings.

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Then again, the poster also said he wants the light to use on car-installations. From my experience on installing random parts on my car, the oil and grease that are black colored take a LOT of power to light up, the light gets soaked up by these oily surfaces very quickly. I found the L4 to be great for that purpose.

GeorgePaul said:

flilow06 was talking about "random car installs and outings", not hiking, biking, and so on.


Absolutely correct.

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Outdoors Fanatic said:

What? Are you on crack? In no way in hell you can compare a L4 to a Fenix! This is the best LED flood light on earth hands down. If you have the money, go with the SureFire every chance you have.

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No, a while since I used crack. Well I gave him a bunch of reasons why it should be a better CAR-light. You havent given him a single reason why the L4 would be better, feel free to enlighten us. Even if the L4 is the best LED flood ligth on the earth, that wasn't the request, a car light was.
And check out these beamshots on the P1D-CE(which is less brigth than L2D but same beam character) and L5(brighter than L4 and same beam character even when not run on 3,7V rechargables). Not really THAT much of a difference. And the P1D CE is TINY.
http://candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=153721
And check out the Red Dragon, then we can talk about the best flood light in the world!

I can think of a reason not to buy an L4 right now. Wait until SureFire remove their fingers from their rectum and actually bring out the Cree-powered versions. These will make the L4 look positively stone-age, and with runtime improvements too!