Some thoughts on the new Surefire L4

Just got my new 120 lumen L4 today, and had to share some thoughts for those wondering about purchasing one of these lights, as they are so different from the other Surefire's I have. My E1L, E2L, E1B, and E2DL are all variations on the same theme, lights with nice warm tints and lots of TIR throw, with a little useful spill. The L4 on the other hand has very wide and bright spill, still a wall of light, but with decent throw too, I would say on par with the E2L on high. I wasn't expecting this much throw, thought this light would be more for close range work :thinking:, but it really does reach out there pretty well, while still having very nice bright spill. It takes a lot of power to get this much spill and throw together though, so runtime is only about 40 minutes on two Soshine RCR 3.0 volt batts, and it does get warm, but that's ok for the amount of light its putting out, lumen-wise its probably on par with the E2DL. :twothumbs

The light from my L4 is very cool white, rather cold looking compared to my Cree based Surefires. Colors look more vibrant and alive with my E1L, E2L, ect. I have another SSC P4 based light that has this same type of output, so cool output may be characteristic of the P4. If you are coming from Fenix or Nitecore lights into Surefires for the first time, the L4 might be a good choice if you want output similar to those lights, though with even brighter spill than most of them. For me anyway the tight spot output of the TIR Surefires took some getting used to after using Fenix and Nitecore lights with more spill and less throw. The L4 is also shorter than the E2L. Not a bunch, but enough to notice. Overall, I am very happy with the L4. I could go for a warmer tint and two stage operation to save battery life, but its a great light as is. Would make a great light to search a large area with like a field ect. and very comforting to walk around with if you don't know where you are exactly going or what's out there

I would like an L4 head as well. A single mode super bright tactical type e-series led head is what I really like. Surefire seems to have turned their other led heads into camping lights, which is a bit discouraging. I hope the LX2 is different.

I haven't bought a new version of the L4 head because the tints are too cold. I want something with a 5A tint or warmer. The colder tinted led heads are generally brighter, but the light they put out causes a lot of glare and depth distortion. The Cree Q3 5A's are really nice as they filter a lot of that garbage light out. But as I mentioned I could go even warmer than 5A, something around 3500K would be nice.

ampdude said:

I would like an L4 head as well. A single mode super bright tactical type e-series led head is what I really like. Surefire seems to have turned their other led heads into camping lights, which is a bit discouraging. I hope the LX2 is different.

I haven't bought a new version of the L4 head because the tints are too cold. I want something with a 5A tint or warmer. The colder tinted led heads are generally brighter, but the light they put out causes a lot of glare and depth distortion. The Cree Q3 5A's are really nice as they filter a lot of that garbage light out. But as I mentioned I could go even warmer than 5A, something around 3500K would be nice.

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This light sounds like a clear winner as i'm one of the few who prefer a colder tint, always liked that car headlight HID look.
However as my light collection has grown i've become spoiled.
I like long runtimes at least 90 min regulated and single cell capability so i probably wont be getting this light.

maybe..

I do wish they had warmer tints on these. I also wonder why there isn't a single cell version. The new LX1 will be TIR, so not a lot different than what I already have with my other TIR lights. Why not a single cell w/reflector and SSC P4?

Marlinaholic said:

Why not a single cell w/reflector and SSC P4?

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They will have one, it's called the Titan T1A.

You can't run the new L4 head off of a 17670 or IMR16340?

ampdude said:

You can't run the new L4 head off of a 17670 or IMR16340?

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My understanding,no.
It needs 6V.. maybe someone else can chime in.

I screwed my L4 head on an E1L body and it works fine with one 3.7V RCR123, just like the newer KX2 A and B version heads do.

Marlinaholic said:

I screwed my L4 head on an E1L body and it works fine with one 3.7V RCR123, just like the newer KX2 A and B version heads do.

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Well that's good to know.
The output was the same?
If so then you could get double the runtime with a 17670 cell.

The output is close, but not as bright as with two 123's cells. Tried my E2DL head and same story, it works, but not quite as bright.