Night-Ops Gladius or Surefire

Hi

I am new to this forum. I just was after a decent flashlight, I am a bit undecided between and glaidus or a surefire. Have been looking at surefire 6p tactical and some other surefires. Is the Glaidus worth the extra money. Please any info is appreciated.

I would definitely get a Surefire. Mostly bacause of the warranty:"You Break It, We Fix It"

How much are you wanting to spend?

I never had a Gladius light before, so I cannot comment on it. I have the 6P and got a Malkoff M60 LED drop in for it. I cannot be happier.

If you the disposable income and don't mind spurling a little, you could consider the Surefire Optimus (UA2) that's scheduled to release the end of this month or early July. The UA2 looks very promising, but comes with a price tag of $279.

Anyway :welcome:

I have about $200 dollars,

Why surefire besides the warranty. is it more superoir than galdius

i have over two dozen SF lights - all incredibly nice.

i have an original Gladius, and a Typhoon II ($139 at Botach Tactical) which is essentially the same as the Gladius, but with an upgraded LED (120 lumens vs. 80 lumens for the org. 'Glad').

so, at $139, it's in the same price range as many SF lights.

unless i could bump the spending limit up to $279 and include the SureFire U2 as a suggestion, if you are gonna' have only one light, i'd go for the Typhoon II first as it's more flexible.

if you go with a SF light, i'd suggest a newer two output level LED SF light, e.g. E1L, E1B, E2L, L1, E2DL. the slightly older, pre-Cree (no Cree/SSC version yet that i'm aware of) L2 is very nice two-level light if you want bright and medium output levels, instead of bright and low output levels that the other, newer version i mentioned provide.

the U2 was my very first SF light (i figured that since i would never own another SF light, i'd go for what i perceived at the time of purchase as the brightest and most flexible for my purposes) and i used it and EDC'd it for close to a year before i started acquiring more SF lights.

another rugged choice in the same price range is the NovaTac EDC lights (~$124 for the 120E, ~$134 for the 120T, and ~$170 for the programmable 120P - i believe LightHound.com might still have some 85E, 85T, and 85P versions available for $99 - at least they still "list"/appear on the LightHound website).

Novatac 120P sells for about $120 over at www.yourcornerstore.com
It's a great light if you want to consider lights outside of Gladius or SF.

half-watt said:

[snip snip] another rugged choice in the same price range is the NovaTac EDC lights (~$124 for the 120E, ~$134 for the 120T, and ~$170 for the programmable 120P[snip snip].

Click to expand...

I'll second that choice for a Typhoon II or a 6P with Malkoff M60 in it!

Thanks guys

I like the look of the typhoon 2, which i havn't really heard about until you guys told me.

is there extra stuff you can buy for them to make them brighter.

I own a Gladius and a 6P.

Bought the Gladius from a dealer aquaintence who's having money problems. Bought the 6P just to use its tailcap on a project light I'm putting together. The 6P is simple to use and rugged. The tailcap on the Gladius seems more like an after-thought. Mine has a nice, tight fit. I've seen other tailcaps that were loose on Gladius lights. And you need to keep the instructions handy, just to change the batteries. The light will also very slowly drain the batteries, even when turned off. The 6P doesn't suffer from any of those issues.

Both lights are old-school, and better choices are out there. Out of those two lights, I'd go with the Surefire 6P with a good aftermarket LED drop-in. (You can't just toss a brighter LED into the Gladius). The excellent Malkoff M60 has already been mentioned. If you can't get your hands on one of Gene's creations, there's also the Wolf-Eyes Cree Q5 LED drop-in. (Just be sure to order the optional spring so that the W.E. drop-in will work with a Surefire light).

Here's a link ~
http://www.pts-flashlights.com/products/product.aspx?pid=1-139-114-125-6435

For sheer brightness at a lower price, consider getting the Fenix TK10. Over 200 lumens out the front, no need to buy a seperate LED drop-in, good price tag. The clip is absolutely useless. But since the Gladius and 6P don't come with pocket-carry clips, that shouldn't be a problem for you.

Depends on your uses. If your needs match the purposes for which the Gladius was designed, in my opinion SureFire currently doesn't offer a better light - provided you get the SSC emitter. The Invictus and Optimus may change that result, by the way, but they are going to be big $ and aren't available right now.

xcel730 said:

I never had a Gladius light before, so I cannot comment on it. I have the 6P and got a Malkoff M60 LED drop in for it. I cannot be happier.

If you the disposable income and don't mind spurling a little, you could consider the Surefire Optimus (UA2) that's scheduled to release the end of this month or early July. The UA2 looks very promising, but comes with a price tag of $279.

Anyway :welcome:

Click to expand...

what is the expected battery life for the UA2?

i am confused a bit. but looking at the specs the typhoon 2 now looks better than the surefire and the gladius. so i guess i should change my question is Typhoon 2, I have also seen a surefire L2 which is in my price range

rmorgan84 said:

what is the expected battery life for the UA2?

Click to expand...

who knows. don't like guessin', but if it's usin' a Cree/SSC emiter, then figure that it might(???) be +80% to nearly 2x what the U2's burn-times are for a similar output. so, the max 200 lumen o.p. level on the UA2 might(???) burn for the same length of time as the max 100 lumen o.p. level does on the U2, and so on down the scale, so to speak (meaning, the light's selector ring).

obviously, this is just a guess. i guess that we might have some surprises.

So guys should it be Surefire L2 or Insight Typhoon II,

I do like the idea of the strobe effect on Typhoon II.

I take it you can get strobe for L2. and also can you upgrade the typhoon II as easy as the surefire.

Please help, i am gonna make a decision quick so I can get it ordered

Don't have that information yet. SF only disclose the runtime for the minimum setting. We'll have to wait and see.

rmorgan84 said:

what is the expected battery life for the UA2?

Click to expand...

Summy said:

i am confused a bit. but looking at the specs the typhoon 2 now looks better than the surefire and the gladius. so i guess i should change my question is Typhoon 2, I have also seen a surefire L2 which is in my price range

Click to expand...

L2 seems rock solid. you won't get a LOW-lo out of it, but maybe you don't need such (or you could buy another light, even an inexpensive 9V battery powered Pak-Lite for task/proximity lighting and super long burn-times).

both the Glad and Typhoon II are very well made. the beam characteristics make the Glad' more of a shooter's light (tiny, VERY BRIGHT spot), whereas the Typhoon II, while the reflector appears similar (identical???) to the Glad', the LED makes up for it and give a bit more spill (or, maybe its just that the Typhoon II is 50% brighter overall, i.e. Lumen output).

the only part of the Glad/Typhoon that doesn't instill the same level of robust confidence as the rest of the light is the tailcap. my Glad' tailcap has none of the aesthetic issues that someone else mentioned. it fit tight with no wobble at all - perfect, IMO. zero complaints. my Typhoon II is the straight tailcap "flavor". yeah, it "pockets" better, but it looks like a very thin, anodized somewhat flexible sheet aluminum was "kludged" onto the tailcap in place of the lower portion of the standard tailcap (which my Glad' has). it appears cheesy, but in actual use hasn't been an issue at all (except, see below).

the part of the tailcap that might concern some is the plastic-like selector ring and button on the tailcap. could it crack if dropped from a height? don't know, but it just doesn't instill the same level of confidence in its robustness that the L2 tailcap does. however, i haven't had any trouble with either Glad or Typhoon II tailcap.

i will say that the Glad' tailcap has no trouble at all "locating" the "pin" in the groove before commencing tightening (i.e. screwing) the tailcap onto the body. this *MUST* be done on both Glad' and Typhoon or you can badly damage the tailcap. however, my particular (all????) Typhoon II with the straight tailcap is a bit of a challenge at times to get the pin "located" such that it slides into the groove. i've even "notched" the aluminum straight tailcap, using a small file, to make this easier and marked the pin's location also inside of the tailcap. the problem is that this kludged sheet aluminum lower portion rotates freely around the original portion of the tailcap and isn't fixed. even lining up my "index marks" doesn't always guarantee success the first attempt should any misalignment occur as i try to replace the tailcap. however, with my "index marks", i don't often miss more than once gettin' everything aligned.

one last point, the tailcap on the L2 is a classic SF tactical twisty tailcap, not a clickie if that makes a difference to you. at 100 lumens on HI, the L2 is PLENTY bright.

Half watt.

Sounds like the typhoon and gladius don't sound very robust with the tail cap issue. can i make the L2 have a stobe option easily, and also low level doesnt really bother me. i want a bright beam really

Summy said:

Half watt.

Sounds like the typhoon and gladius don't sound very robust with the tail cap issue. can i make the L2 have a stobe option easily, and also low level doesnt really bother me. i want a bright beam really

Click to expand...

There's no "tailcap issue" anymore with the Gladius. There were some minor problems when the light was first introduced -- mostly just "user error" and a QC problem, but those have long been resolved.

The Gladius/Typhoon (it's the same light, made by the same manufacturer) is a fine light. I have two of them, and it's the nicest multi-mode interface out there, still.

As are Surefires. Surefires tend to have a simpler user interface and less options. It's personal preference, really. I personally really like the two-level user interfaces on the Surefire lights (L1, L2, A2 etc.).

please don't misunderstand me. by robust, i meant (aside from the obvious user-error issue) that there's some plastic-like material used in the selector ring and button. dropping these from a great height might(???) result in a failure or at best a crack. that's all i meant.

i haven't dropped either light myself though.


i've had absolutely NO RELIABILITY ISSUES with either my Glad' or Typhoon II.


sorry, i don't know of anyway to get the L2 to strobe.


please don't let me scare you away from a Typhoon II. it really is an impressive light, IMO.

despite it's larger tail diameter, i'd get the standard tailcap versus that kludgey straight tailcap that i purchased. i like the standard tailcap on my Glad' much better. however, if you're really gonna' put it in non-cargo type or non-bellows pants pockets, then you ought to get the straight tailcap.

my favorite EDC right now though is the NovaTac 120P or the less expensive 120T. if you must have a strobe, then the 120/120E is NOT for you. the 120T has strobe standard and the 120P is easily programmed to have a disorienting strobe directly accessible from the button. all NovaTac EDC lights are very robust. dare i say Surefire-ish robustness? ok. there. i said it. i've dropped my 120P a bunch of times (i'm a bit of a klutz, i'd have to admit). no damage resulted. once, i even dropped it (waist-to-chest high, i forget) and then stepping forward to bend down to retrieve it, i kicked it and sent it flying off the rock and down a rocky embankment. it was daylight, so i was able to find it. no problemo. it still functioned fine. just one "nick"/gouge in the light's body.

okay

Thanks for the advice half watt,
so its a choice between Novatec 120T, Typhoon II and the Surefire L2.

I know 2 have strobes and the latter doesn't but for overall beam brightness and robustness what do you reckon.

Thanks for the help half-watt