Review of the Surefire E1B

Hello everyone.

I realize that to many the Surefire E1B is old hat at this point, however, I find that there doesn't appear to be anything that does quite what this little light does. That being the case, it still seemed a good light to review and consider. So... click here for my short review and video.

Thanks for looking.

Nice review. I have the same watch! Seiko Altas!!!!

SuperLightMan said:

Nice review. I have the same watch! Seiko Altas!!!!

Click to expand...

Ditto on both counts!
There is a seiko-citizen watch group , if you are interested I can PM it to you.
What a great board for flash light collectors,
I once thought it was just me and Andy Rooney , who showed some of his collection on TV.

You have some very nice videos. Keep it up! I have been wanting a back up for the longest time and waiting to get that perfect deal on one.

Just got an e1b. So far i love it.

Photon Joe said:

Ditto on both counts!
There is a seiko-citizen watch group , if you are interested I can PM it to you.
What a great board for flash light collectors,
I once thought it was just me and Andy Rooney , who showed some of his collection on TV.

Click to expand...

I'd be interested. Thanks!

I like mine so much, I'm considering buying another. A black one so I can mix parts with my silver.

Great light overall, but the clip really makes it awesome. I carry mine bezel down in my front pants pocket. Would really like to be able to buy extra clips so I could slap one on my E1e and upcoming E1L.

Love my E1B. Best Single CR123 light I own. Amazing throw and perfect size and build.

My silver E1B kicks ***!!

Just a question: I was a little disappointed cause my silver E1B clip is scratching against the silver tailclickie, so I pull the clip for the outer side, forcing it and bending it just some milimeters. Now it can´t scratch anymore (good thing), but I´m afraid I damaged something inside, in the area where the clip is attached in the light, because I doesn´t feel strong attached anymore.

How strong do you guys think it´s the clip attachment ? Maybe I don´t damaged at all...

I now have three of the newest e1b's and to be honest the performance of the light sucks. I love the shape and build quality but so far they all have really crappy tints, mostly towards the green side, lots of inclusions in the beam patterns and not really that bright compared to whats out there especially at this price range. I bought them to mod so the performance is not really an issue for me but if I was buying one to run out of the box I would have returned these and stuck with my good ol Fenix PD20. You just cant beat this lights peformance and size ratio. Its sad to say this seems to be the norm for the SF's I have bought in the last couple of years too. Great hosts but thats about it for me. To each his own just my .02 since were talking about them....

Now throw a good Q5 or R2 in them with a decent driver and a IMR 123 and you have an awesome little pocket torch! Thats basically what my current EDC is.

I don't know Pontiaker. I would probably feel similarly if my example were poor, but as things are mine is about perfect as far as tint and beam.

I have specific uses for mine, so keep an eye out for any other lights that would fill the same role. Up to this point though, there doesn't seem to be anything that puts out the throw this one does in the same size package. I realize other lights may put out more lumens, but this one seems to collect and focus them much tighter than other lights in the same size range.

Pontiaker said:

I now have three of the newest e1b's and to be honest the performance of the light sucks. I love the shape and build quality but so far they all have really crappy tints, mostly towards the green side, lots of inclusions in the beam patterns and not really that bright compared to whats out there especially at this price range. I bought them to mod so the performance is not really an issue for me but if I was buying one to run out of the box I would have returned these and stuck with my good ol Fenix PD20. You just cant beat this lights peformance and size ratio. Its sad to say this seems to be the norm for the SF's I have bought in the last couple of years too. Great hosts but thats about it for me. To each his own just my .02 since were talking about them....

Now throw a good Q5 or R2 in them with a decent driver and a IMR 123 and you have an awesome little pocket torch! Thats basically what my current EDC is.

Click to expand...

Not really that bright?.....That's disturbing.
Anyone else feel this way?

Also, the latest Surefire catalogue lists the lumens as 110 instead of 80. The website spec is unchanged.....Does this represent a real change or simply a change in the published spec without any performance change?

I love my 2 E1Bs. My first one has a really nice tint. A bright white.
The second is a little warmer, hinting at Green, but not quite there.

The first one is my work/EDC beater light.
2nd is mounted on my paintball marker.

hatman said:

Not really that bright?.....That's disturbing.
Anyone else feel this way?

Also, the latest Surefire catalogue lists the lumens as 110 instead of 80. The website spec is unchanged.....Does this represent a real change or simply a change in the published spec without any performance change?

Click to expand...

I think - I hope - they have put a better emitter inside , like they did with the E2DL - rated for 200 lumens instead of 120 lumens - and that was a change : throw increased from 6,700 lux to over 9,000 lux according to Chao's datas.

Also , another member has recently noticed that the E1L is rated now for 60 lumens , up from 45 lumens .
It's just a matter of time untill some of us will buy the new versions and see if there's a change in the output

radu1976 said:

Also , another member has recently noticed that the E1L is rated now for 60 lumens , up from 45 lumens .
It's just a matter of time untill some of us will buy the new versions and see if there's a change in the output

Click to expand...

Well this makes sense. There had been a few posts by people saying their E1L was as bright as the their E1B. And given that Surefire understates their lumens (I belive SureFire's marketing is meant to say that any particular light will not go below the stated lumen figure) I doubt there were many genuine 45 lumen E1Ls anyway. I recently purchased an E1L and in ceiling bounce tests, neither I nor anyone else can detect a diffence between it's high output and my NovaTac 85 on the 85 lumen setting.

So, if the newer E1Ls really warrent the 60 lumen rating, and the older E1Bs were rated at 80, I'm not so surpised that some E1Ls are as bright as some E1Bs. Bigchells found the E2L (also rated at 60 lumens, well maybe it's upped, now) output 110 lumens in his integration sphere. So these newer E1Ls are probably putting out as many lumens as the 80 lumen rated E1Bs. I would guess the new E1B's rated at 110 are probably putting out 120-140 lumens.

The E1B seems like a nice light. The only thing, besides the price, that makes me hesitant is the apparent frequency of not-so-great tints in these lights (which, honestly, I think folks have complained about before). I'm not so concerned about beam cleannes in one of these TIR lights...they're all about throw, and outside, when I'm lighting up someting at some distance, I don't notice the artifacts. But if it's too blue, or tending to green, I'd be pretty unhappy at this price point. Of course, it would be a good excuse to blow some more money and put in a warm white emitter....

The body design and clip should make it much more pocketable than the E1L. While I like my -L, I must admit, the clip is pretty much useless. That clip design works OK on the E1E, but the E1L's head is so much bigger, it really neads a differenct clip style, or just no clip, at all. The clip on the E1B seems pretty close to perfect. Bi-dierctional, dead carry, and looks to be pretty snag free.

BigBluefish said:

The E1B seems like a nice light. The only thing, besides the price, that makes me hesitant is the apparent frequency of not-so-great tints in these lights (which, honestly, I think folks have complained about before). I'm not so concerned about beam cleannes in one of these TIR lights...they're all about throw, and outside, when I'm lighting up someting at some distance, I don't notice the artifacts. But if it's too blue, or tending to green, I'd be pretty unhappy at this price point. Of course, it would be a good excuse to blow some more money and put in a warm white emitter....

The body design and clip should make it much more pocketable than the E1L. While I like my -L, I must admit, the clip is pretty much useless. That clip design works OK on the E1E, but the E1L's head is so much bigger, it really neads a differenct clip style, or just no clip, at all. The clip on the E1B seems pretty close to perfect. Bi-dierctional, dead carry, and looks to be pretty snag free.

Click to expand...

I just recently got a new E1B off of eBay. The tint is pretty good, definitely cool with some blue. Extremely bright light with very good throw.

The pocket clip is definitely one of the best I have used. The first time I slipped it into my pocket it felt like it was custom fit to those pants! :laughing:

Also, the clip does not rub on the tailcap of the light. So, I don't know if I got lucky in that respect or if SF redesigned the clip to ensure it has a few mm of clearance. My silver E1B is definitely one of my favorites and is one SF I will never get rid of.

Late to the party guys but can anyone comment re. a NEW 110 E1B?

Specifically, has the 110 E1B been CONFIRMED & a TENTATIVE release date?

Quote:
Originally Posted by brian250f
That date is right, as well as the 110 lumen backups that day.. Lx1 and Ub3 June 1. e2L-AA, Stratum, z2-S, 200 lumen Scouts and 170 lumen X-series coming this month..

The answer to the question likely will have to come from Surefire.

As we speak, the website still lists the 80 lumens spec while the cataglog lists the 110 lumen spec.

All dealers that I can find still list 80.

This qustion has been raised elsewhere. I have yet to see an answer.

I wouldnt be suprised to find the same thing happening that occurred with the e2dl, that the later versions have the new emmiter and surefire just changes the labeling. we need to compare one of those red camo e1bs to a current 80 lumen e1b to be sure, come on, some one with a red e1b step up

we need to compare one of those red camo e1bs to a current 80 lumen e1b to be sure, come on,
some one with a red e1b step up <<<< THIS