My first quality light

After at least three hours reading about flashlights on this forum. I was able to make an intelligent purchase. I needed a light that would be reliable, work in a emergency, bright, and small enough to carry.

If you want quality, looks like you have to step up the the CR123A format that I was not pleased about. However I discovered if you purchase at least 2 dozen the price is comparable to AA lithium batteries.

I ordered the Surefire E1B in black. From what I read the tir optic makes this light fun to play with outside, and has usable side spill as well.

Illumination tool my butt. Last time I checked the dictionary still calls them flashlights unless you drive on the wrong side of the road in England and they call them torches.

After all my research on here, I don't understand why any body would bother with any other brand except for RA lights. In the past other good brands were out there, but it looks like they don't make them anymore. All the other brands seem to be what you would find at Walmart.

RA lights and Surefire is the way to go if you need the best. The tir optic was my deciding factor over the Ra light.

Grats on your light. That said, there are plenty of reasons to bother with other brands of lights.

Most people don't need a light that can survive a nuclear strike. I mean, you paid 140 bucks for an 80 lumen light. This is pretty poor cost-effectiveness. In fact, that is awful. My tiny keychain produces over 200 with an RCR123.

I am pretty amazed that a whopping 3 hours of forum reading was all it took for you to decide that all our other brands are 'walmart quality' and only 2 brands are worth looking at.

However for you, it is very likely that you need and want the extreme toughness and reliability of the surefire. (from what I've read anyways). So I am sure it was a good buy and I'm glad you are happy with it.

Wow, only took you 3 hours.....how many hours until you proposed? How'd that work out?

I own an E1B and it does out throw the Novatac EDC 85-T ...but the Novatac has more spill and if you buy the Novatac at Light Hound now you can get 2 of them and a handfull of batteries for $140.

I like the fact that there is no pocket clip on the Novatac and its not as slippery as the E1B.

There are a lot of quality lights out there.


Oh, and the LOW in the Novatac lasts for something like 240 hours. Yes, once your eyes get adjusted you can move around in the dark with it.

joe1512 said:

Grats on your light. That said, there are plenty of reasons to bother with other brands of lights.

Most people don't need a light that can survive a nuclear strike. I mean, you paid 140 bucks for an 80 lumen light. This is pretty poor cost-effectiveness. In fact, that is awful. My tiny keychain produces over 200 with an RCR123.

I am pretty amazed that a whopping 3 hours of forum reading was all it took for you to decide that all our other brands are 'walmart quality' and only 2 brands are worth looking at.

However for you, it is very likely that you need and want the extreme toughness and reliability of the surefire. (from what I've read anyways). So I am sure it was a good buy and I'm glad you are happy with it.

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When the plane hit the twin tower I was in felt like a nuclear strike. I also got 24 free batteries and free shipping so seems cost effective to me. Plus a lifetime warranty. Seems like the other lights have lots of quality issues.
The only negatives I got from Surefire was the cost. Not a lot of threads talking about my surefire failed. I also should admit I like the snob appeal of surefire. I am still not done reading yet about flashlights on this forum.

Get something with a really low low. Chances are you are not going to have a pocket full of batteries with you in an emergency.
Any LED can fail and it doesn't matter what you paid for it. If it stops working you are not going to fix it or replace it in an emergency.

I thought my EDC 85-T had some issues but it seems it was just an ancient battery that came in the light.
(I need to go post in my last post about that issue.)
NO, I don't work for Light Hound and I hope posting this link is not a violation.... I have not been around this forum all that much in over a year and it seems things have tightened up some... but here goes:

http://www.lighthound.com/NovaTac-E...with-SSC-LED--HA-III-Black-Finish_p_1339.html

I need to find a cheap way to carry one 123 cell in my pocket.
That titanium thing on the forum here is awesome... but I can't justify that expence
If you are going to carry that E1B you too need to carry another battery.

Lexus1 said:

RA lights and Surefire is the way to go if you need the best. The tir optic was my deciding factor over the Ra light.

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That's absolutely right! :thumbsup:

The Tir optic is something different, I have an E1B myself and a few Clickys, they can't be compared beamwise. The E1B offers a huge hotpsot and not much around it, probably more throw than the Clickys.

If you need something with a more universal beam however, the Clicky is one of the best. I preffer the wider beam, the narrower offers slightly more throw though.

Enjoy your E1B! :welcome:

Lexus1 said:

After all my research on here, I don't understand why any body would bother with any other brand except for RA lights.

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Because you can get a quality light without having to pay a premium for it. Look at brands like 4Sevens, Fenix, Maratac, and so on. Even the humble Maglite has been vastly improved in the last year or so.

There is certainly a bit of snob appeal that comes with buying a Surefire, RA, or McGizmo, but don't look down your nose at other brands because you might be surprised at the quality you can get for less than $75.

the.Mtn.Man said:

Because you can get a quality light without having to pay a premium for it. Look at brands like 4Sevens, Fenix, Maratac, and so on. Even the humble Maglite has been vastly improved in the last year or so.

There is certainly a bit of snob appeal that comes with buying a Surefire, RA, or McGizmo, but don't look down your nose at other brands because you might be surprised at the quality you can get for less than $75.

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After all the reading I did. If you invoke the Surefire name somebody will have to tell you, you can purchase an economy light that works just as well.

Then a week later you can read about how it does not work any more.

That extra "toughness" of some lights does come at a premium. Not only price, but size, too. I really prefer smaller and hopefully cheaper. Yes, there are plenty of other good lights if being bulletproof is not required.

Geoff

Lexus1 said:

All the other brands seem to be what you would find at Walmart.

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Really? That hasn't been my experience.

Sorry but I have to say, typical American snobbery. I have a few Surefire lights and I can tell you that in my opinion, my RRT-0 Jetbeam is better quality and for half the price ( In the UK ). It's also better performing that the Backup and more versatile with battery types.
Now, I'm all in favour of buying 'British' ( or 'made in the USA' in your case ) but I do it to help my home economy and not by some misguided belief that we make far better products than the rest of the world. ( Except for Lummi who do…)

Jay R said:

Sorry but I have to say, typical American snobbery. I have a few Surefire lights and I can tell you that in my opinion, my RRT-0 Jetbeam is better quality and for half the price ( In the UK ). It's also better performing that the Backup and more versatile with battery types.
Now, I'm all in favour of buying 'British' ( or 'made in the USA' in your case ) but I do it to help my home economy and not by some misguided belief that we make far better products than the rest of the world. ( Except for Lummi who do…)

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You pay taxes to the queen of England so she can live in a castle. Drive on the wrong side of the road. I will take typical American snobbery over English stupidity any day. Oh and are you enjoying your American made computer software so you can even be here?

Surefire lights are generally more expensive here than in the US, so the prices can be even more of a turn-off. I have 2 Surefire's and I personally considered them worth the money. My E1L cost me over £100 (GBP) (the cheapest I could find it here).

That said, it hasn't had the effect of putting me off cheaper flashlights at all. I still love my Fenix, Jetbeam, Olight and Solarforce lights, and probably spend a lot less time worrying about them failing than I spend worrying about losing my Surefires.

Lexus1 said:

You pay taxes to the queen of England so she can live in a castle. Drive on the wrong side of the road. I will take typical American snobbery over English stupidity any day. Oh and are you enjoying your American made computer software so you can even be here?

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Hey steady on, we're supposed to be allies!

PS: If you're referring to Microsoft Windows, you're not helping your case.

Lexus1 said:

You pay taxes to the queen of England so she can live in a castle. Drive on the wrong side of the road. I will take typical American snobbery over English stupidity any day. Oh and are you enjoying your American made computer software so you can even be here?

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Actually it costs us each £2 a year to keep the Queen and her entire family around. They are actually very business minded and many of their assets pay for themselves. Offset against incredible amount of publicity, business and international relations this gives us with the commonwealth and in fact most of the world i would say that the price is a pretty good bargain! Something which certainly can not be said for you're choice of light, however high quality and durable I am sure it will prove.

I along with most people on this forum have heard lots about the incredible durability, build quality and performance of Surefire lights. However, that is no reason to start spouting clearly uninformed and biased opinions about other top quality manufacturers who happen to be able to do what they do at a lower price. Surefire may well be a cut above the rest in terms of quality, but imo they are priced out of reach of the majority of users. Their decision to stick with solely uncommon and expensive Cr123 primary cells exacerbating the price difference even further.

EDIT: Also I would like to add the question of how can the british people be driving 'on the wrong side of the road' when it is the UK which is the cradle of the automobile industry? The history of why both of us drive on whatever side of the road is actually quite interesting, it appears the Romans (one of the first western civilisations to make extensive use of roads) chose in their wisdom to drive on the left. http://www.i18nguy.com/driver-side.html

Oh, and are you enjoying using your computer? Of which the concept was first thought of in the UK, and which the first electrical prototype was created during WWII quite a while later. If not, then what about the English language which enables you to communicate with us at all?

Lexus1 said:

You pay taxes to the queen of England so she can live in a castle. Drive on the wrong side of the road. I will take typical American snobbery over English stupidity any day. Oh and are you enjoying your American made computer software so you can even be here?

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Hey up fella no need to insult us UK people.As it happens paying tax to keep our Queen is very nice value for money,we get far more back in what tourists spend than we pay out by a very handsome amount.

We do not drive on the wrong side of the road either just differently to you.

Just to add I also find your post a little silly in thinking all other lights are of no use because you bought such and such a light.

And one final comment us stupid UK folk are shoulder to shoulder to you fighting terrorists in far off desert lands to make the world a safer place for all.

Perhaps you should reflect on the above before making rash comments and please have a look at this video and then decide if we are stupid or true allies.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1ZzRvNar_o

Lets not have a nationality war please, guys.

I'm from the UK and have to admit that all my best custom lights come from several geniuses in the US.

eg. Cool Fall (data), McGizmo, Mac, TB, mirage_man, dark_zero to name some of those custom manufacturers/designers/builders/machinists/modders that I have the utmost respect for.

There is a UK cpfer called Ganp who also has tremendous talent, but he doesn't appear to be as active anymore unfortunately.

Surefire is a top-notch brand and worth the extra expense in my opinion.

The longer you hang around these boards, the more you realize that output is not all that flashlights are about, its how that output is distributed and suited to the purposes for which the light is intended.

Therefore arguments about lumens per dollar are frankly rather immature as far as I am concerned.

I hope you enjoy your SureFire...it is a very nice light. Although increasing its worth in your mind by trying to insult other brands does not fly too well.

Just stick with "SureFire is a very fine light"...no need to trash on others to make yours look better.

As for Surefire...I love mine and do think they are an excellent product. That being said, my wife has an L1 and the tailcap/switch failed...I dont take that as a bad mark on their quality...just consider it "one of those things that happens".

I did email SF and they are sending a new tailcap under warranty...excellent CS.

Lexus1 said:

After all my research on here, I don't understand why any body would bother with any other brand except for RA lights. In the past other good brands were out there, but it looks like they don't make them anymore. All the other brands seem to be what you would find at Walmart.

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