Newbie about to buy first Surefire; few questions...

Hello everyone, I've been doing a bunch of research on here for about a week now and think I've decided on what to purchase, but have a few questions for you guys.

Here are qualities that I'm looking for:
-Surefire (the folks over on GlockTalk.com have really turned me on to them)
-LED
-Brighter the better
-Decent battery life (at least 1.5 hrs regulated output)
-More throw than spill (I live in the county and would like a light that can light up objects pretty good at 50-100 yards)
-Enough spill to walk through the woods or other dark walkways though
-Small enough for EDC (I work in IT and will occasionally need it when working on computer hardware in dark areas)
-Not too expensive (<$200)

I'm strongly leaning towards the 6PL, but also considering the L1, L5, and E2L. Which do you guys think fits my needs the best?

I really like how the 6PL has about 3 hours of good output (~75-80 lumens) but also provides many additional hours of so-so output (like if you're in the woods and need additional light to get back to camp, even if its only a small amount of light).

Main question: is the 6PL a decent "thrower"? Any drawbacks to the 6PL or problems that anyone knows of?

Thanks in advance everyone,

Robert

The 6PL is a decent thrower. My one gripe with the light, though I do not own one, is that it's not designed from the ground up to be an LED, and it has what I consider to be some heat sinking problems. The L5 will be the best thrower of the bunch due to it's reflector, and should give the runtime you need. One thing that might be a problem is working up close. When working on that computer hardware in those dark areas, are you close to what you're looking at? The L5 might be too bright for this. Because of that, I'd also suggest the L1. Not as bright, but much smaller and it comes with a high and low. Good throw for it's size, and more usable flood than the previous L1.

KeyGrip said:

The 6PL is a decent thrower. My one gripe with the light, though I do not own one, is that it's not designed from the ground up to be an LED, and it has what I consider to be some heat sinking problems. The L5 will be the best thrower of the bunch due to it's reflector, and should give the runtime you need. One thing that might be a problem is working up close. When working on that computer hardware in those dark areas, are you close to what you're looking at? The L5 might be too bright for this. Because of that, I'd also suggest the L1. Not as bright, but much smaller and it comes with a high and low. Good throw for it's size, and more usable flood than the previous L1.

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What kind of issues would be associated with lights that aren't originally designed to be LED? Are heat sinking problems a common issues for all incandescent-made-to-be-LED lights?

As far using the light on the job in IT, it would probably be at close distances (0.5-2 ft.), but the occurrence would be rare enough that I can overlook this is favor of the other attributes I'm looking for (listed in first post).

If I were to get an L1, what should I look for to be sure I'm getting the most up-to-date version?

Does anyone have any good night pictures of the 6PL, L1, L2, or E2L?

Thanks for all the help!

Welcome to CPF Robert. I love my 6P, but I also love my L1. They both have great qualities, but are two completely different lights. To me, the 6P would be the one I would recommend according to what you need. It is a more versatile light, in that it can be used both as Incan or LED. Easy to upgrade. There are many, many LED and Incan drop-ins for it. The 6P can run on rechargeables or primary's. Right now I have a 380 lumen Lumens Factory incan 9V bulb in mine which throws like hell, and yes I have to wear sun glasses when using it. The other drop-in I like, because it gives me 2 brightness levels is the Wolf Eyes D26 Digital Q2 Cree LED 3.7-6V *2-Mode (High & Low) 190 lumen drop-in. With the 6P, you can also play Leggo, because it is compatible with many other Surefire parts(bezels, tailcaps, etc.). It is larger than the L1, therefore not as easy to EDC, which is no problem for me, because I either carry it in a holster or the right leg thigh pocket in my carpenter jeans. Like I said....I love my L1 also....so I would have to recommend buying both. With the CPF discount over at www.BatteryJunction.com, you can get both for $184.30 with 14 free batteries and free shipping. So, you can have both those great lights for under your $200.00 budget. I say go for it....You will be very glad you did.

Rob Bond

PS....If you follow the link in my signature, I have beam shots posted there.

I have a couple of nice Wolf Eyes that would also fit your needs for sale over HERE at the Market Place.

My question is always, does it have to be (Name of company)?

There are many other options then Surefire. Two comparable companies are Dereelight(I'd say the CL1H, a really good thrower from what I've heard, and you can get a multimode module) and Wolfeye. The Rapidfire Spear (or even the AA powered Nitecore Defender, no production sample review though) might also be a good option but there aren't any reviews yet.

If you want something much smaller, the Novatac 120P might be a good choice.

If you really want throw, the Dereelight DBS is , from what I know, the best throwing stock light.

From what I've seen, even 40 lumens is overkill at 1-2 ft distances so you might want a multi output level light.

:welcome:

I agree Gunner. There are many options out there, and there is nothing wrong with suggesting other lights besides Surefire. But, if you notice in the OP's original post, he was asking specifically about options in the Surefire line of lights. So, I guess I don't see anything wrong on giving him answers specifically about the lights he was asking about either. I sure hope that this doesn't do the usual thing and turn in to a Surefire against the world thread just because someone expressed an interest in and got answers about Surefire.

Rob

Gunner12 said:

My question is always, does it have to be (Name of company)?

There are many other options then Surefire.

:welcome:

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With his criterias in mind, the 6P should work fine.

The L1, E1L and E2L might have a more prominent hotspot(more contrast between spill and hotspot) but much less spill. But non of them are as bright as the 6PL(Which also out throws them).

Might be too much for close range work though.

The L1 would be good for close range work.

RobertM said:

As far using the light on the job in IT, it would probably be at close distances (0.5-2 ft.), but the occurrence would be rare enough that I can overlook this is favor of the other attributes I'm looking for (listed in first post).

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0.5-2 ft? That's pretty close, so you could go with pretty much any light, but I'd make sure it has a LOW mode (10-20 lumens) because if you have something running at 65 lumens or more and are using it at that close of a distance you will need sunglasses.

You don't want to end up with this problem :

No one's mentioned the U2 yet! I love mine - it's pretty much EDC alongside the L1. Lots of light, not a ton of throw but great area coverage. Goes dimmer than the L1 too. Extremely simple to operate. SF got multi-level right on this one!

Gunner12 said:

With his criterias in mind, the 6P should work fine.

The L1, E1L and E2L have a more prominent hotspot but much less spill. But non of them are as bright as the 6PL.

Might be too much for close range work though.

The L1 would be good for close range work.

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My 6PL has a more prominent hot spot than my E2L. It also out throws it by a large margin.

Thanks for all the feedback and help everyone; I really appreciate it. My fiancèe and I are both going to buy Surefire lights for Christmas. After all of your comments I think we are both going to get 6PL's. The 6PL seems to be the best combo that fits our needs. Maybe I'll try to get an Arc AAA Premium for my IT work. Although, down the road I might have to get one of those Dereelights or build a monster thrower too

I'm already seeing how this may become an addiction

Before we buy our 6PL's, does anyone have night pictures of unmodified ones?

Thanks again everyone!

By pictures do you mean pictures of the actual light or beamshots?

Considering you said night shots I am assuming beamshots.

Here are mine:

Aperture Value f/2.8
Shutter Speed Value 1/1 sec

6PL


E2L


for kicks
L4


Sorry about the tripod leg shadow...

Thanks to everyone's help, my fiancée and I ended up getting SF 6PL's for Christmas for each other. We are both quite impressed with our lights and we are very happy we bought them.

We also bought a SF G2 (incan.) for a family member for Christmas and she is very happy with it too.

One interesting thing we noticed though--the 65 lumen incandescent G2 is out-throwing our 80 lumen 6PL's. How is this? Are the reflectors different or something?

Thanks again for all the help on deciding everyone. I really appreciate it!

I'm too late, but for the straglers:

Get the L2.

http://www.surefire.com/maxexp/main/co_disp/displ/prrfnbr/1141/sesent/00

Less than $200.

Has a low setting for when you are fixing computers and it's got a high setting for the throw that you asked for.

But the 6PL is pretty good too. I got that one and I like it a lot.

RobertM said:

Thanks to everyone's help, my fiancée and I ended up getting SF 6PL's for Christmas for each other. We are both quite impressed with our lights and we are very happy we bought them.

We also bought a SF G2 (incan.) for a family member for Christmas and she is very happy with it too.

One interesting thing we noticed though--the 65 lumen incandescent G2 is out-throwing our 80 lumen 6PL's. How is this? Are the reflectors different or something?

Thanks again for all the help on deciding everyone. I really appreciate it!

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My experience has been that incans provide better throw than LEDs and 15 lumens of output isn't that much more to the eye.It may also have to do with color rendition or contrast.While I find LEDs to be vastly superior indoors I find that incans provide better contrast with the environment outdoors.
Fair warning ,this has been the subject of heated exchange on CPF in the past.:candle:

On fresh SF batts the incan G2 will initially produce more than 65 lumens, I have heard figures of near 100 lumens. Keep in mind though, that the G2 incan is not regulated, and the initial higher burst of light will not last very long. It would be interesting to repeat the throw test between the P60L and incan after about 20-30 min of use on the batteries.

RobertM said:

One interesting thing we noticed though--the 65 lumen incandescent G2 is out-throwing our 80 lumen 6PL's. How is this? Are the reflectors different or something?

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Lumens measures total light output, not amount of light output to a given area. The 6PL has more of a flood output (light spread out) while the G2 is more focused, which results in further throw.

It is not just the type of reflector, it is also the light source - Seoul Leds produce light in a lambertian pattern which is a fancy way of saying the light is spread out - as a result lights with Seoul leds tend to be floodier than incandescents.

If you want to switch back and fourth, you can get P60 incandescent units for your 6PL, which are the same light assemblies as in the G2. They are not cheap though (~$25 for ~30 hours of life), so it will feel wasteful since your led module should never need replacement. Similarly you can buy a P60 Led from Surefire or others and turn the G2 to a Led light.

Oh and welcome to CPF. You will learn a lot here (and probably spend a lot of $).

Another quick question for you guys...

Is it normal for the SF tailcap to move forward when you push the button? The entire tailcap moves slightly forward when pressing the button. Only one of our 6PL's we bought do it though. Also, it seems as if you must apply a LOT of pressure on the button on that one or the LED will flicker.

Anyone else experience this or feel that it's normal? Should I call Surefire?

Thanks everyone!
Robert

Yes, all of my tailcaps move slightly forward on my 6P's, my 9P, and even my 3P. The only ones that don't are the E-series bodies.

I've lived with that for nearly 18 years - and it doesn't bother me. It's fine.

Of course, you can call SureFire - they will likely send you a replacement tailcap.

-Steve