L4 in dark buildings

I've been looking at the L4 for some time now, as I explore abandoned buildings a lot, and the floody beam seems to be an attractive feature. I've seen beamshots of the light, but never any lighting up a dark corridor or empty room.

I use an A2 with a 6P as backup, which both work fine, but still present the off chance for a bulb failure, and being in dark buildings with no lights in a bad situation.

What's the true effective illumination range on an L4? I saw that SF claims it now puts out another 20 lumens of light, and I assume it's still a rather floody beam. But I need something that can light up areas a decent distance away (20-40 yards) as homeless people can sometimes be in these buildings and the last thing I want to do is aggravate them because I didn't see them...Does the L4 comfortably put out enough light to do this?

I used to do the same thing when I was in college. Very dangerous and kind of foolish, but fun and scary (if you're into that kind of thing). Got some great photos of weird stuff though, and it definitely gets your heart pumping sometimes. If I were you I'd bring a friend along everytime you go, that's what I would do and I would recommend you do the same if you're not already.

Now back to lights - The L4 would be great and so would the L2. But if it was me in the same situation today I would upgrade your 6P. Get the Malkoff M60F (that's the flood version). Brighter than the L4 and runs longer by a little bit. I got a M60F recently and it blows my mind indoors. I think it would be the best bang for the buck. And with the $100 you save you can buy some spare batteries to bring along so you never run out of light, oh and a SF spares carrier for the batteries.

That's my $.02. Just stay safe and be careful!

Might want to make that M60LF so you would have the longer run time, Being inside with no ambient light you could probably get away with the lower lumens and longer runtime.

The L4 gets too HOT and the runtime is a bit short to explore the really good buildings without doing a battery swap while there.

Use the 6P you already own as an LED host. I reccomend the M60WLF for hunting thru the more interesting areas! :thumbsup:

The L4 puts out a great wall of light, but there may be situations in old buildings where you might actually want a little throw, like in old elevator shafts , long corridors and such.

On a side note, use common sense as I'm sure you know, make sure you are not alone, carry spare lights and batteries, and have your cell phone fully charged. A camera is nice to have to document old buildings as well.

Thanks for the replies. The Malkoff assemblies seem to have a good reputation behind them, and I'll look into one of those, while keeping the A2 for throw and the LEDs on it as a backup to the backup.

I carry along my Nikon D90 (Digital SLR) and a bunch of gear, including spare batteries (for both the camera and flashlights) in addition to a tripod. I never go alone, for both safety reasons, and some buildings are just downright scary alone! Always 2 others and we all have phones.

I feel the urge to buy even more lights coming on, too. Feels like you can never have enough when you're in pitch black spaces...

:thumbsup:

I have an L4 and it's been my EDC for about 3 years now and I can't imagine being without it. When I know I am going to need a light though I do tend to grab something a bit bigger and have the L4 as backup. It's a great light, don't get me wrong, but it doesn't give me the same sense of security that a 9P running a P91 does, or a magcharger. When it comes right down to it I still need a big, bright burning thing to feel safe, like the burning torch of yore!

Sounds like you are already packing quite a bit of gear, but I would certainly consider taking something a bit bigger along if it were me, or perhaps you could persuade one of your friends that an upgrade is needed?

I'd say the L4's range is around 50 feet with detail retention, and around 200 for just seeing things. Unless you really need the size though I'd suggest a C2/6P with malkoff flood. The L4 has apparently gotten updated specs on surefires website, it may now be equipped with a current gen LED, but no one knows if the beam profile is still floody or they've just used the KX2c optics (narrow spot beam).

do you have a video camera? This would be cool to see on a video, kinda scary yet exciting, like Ghost Hunters!

I don't have enough hands left for a video camera :thumbsdow Light in one, tripod in the other. I've heard some weird things in these buildings and fumbling for a light is the last thing you want. Usually turns out to be nothing (That I see...) but enough to keep me on edge.

On the subject of the L4. I'm anxious to see what the updated one has for a beam profile, but the Malkoff seems like a good alternative, and it'll save some money for more camera equipment :naughty:.