The Surefire L4 in a word, is "perfect". Yet, it is clearly not, but it does a very good job of convincing you otherwise.
Without a doubt, the most striking thing about the L4 is its beam. Aside from being extremely bright, brighter than a Mag 3D even, it's also a very nice, if not cool, shade of white, and a wide yet flawless beam.
Did I mention it was bright? It's indeed temporarily blinding, about on par with flashing yourself with a cheap laser pointer. As for self defense use, well, to misquote Ahnold: "Between your Surefire L4 and my Glock 9mm, I'll take my Glock." Flashlights ain't protection from armed attackers, folks.
Also notable is the fit and finish of the light. Well made and rugged, it just looks good with its HA aluminum body. The clip is sturdy and I just don't see it breaking on the whole.
So, it's a well made, bright little light. But, all is not perfect. Here's why:
HEAT: This sucker gets hot-- very hot. After you leave it running a while, gripping it by its head WILL burn you, but if you grip it by its body you'll be ok, although you will certainly feel the heat. Heat is a sign of ineffeciency, which leads me to my next point.
SHORT BATTERY LIFE: "65 minutes at 65 lumens" the manual tells me, which isn't a terribly long time for $2.50 in batteries. In fact, it's the same as Surefire's incandescant models. You can feel that a lot of the energy here is being released as heat. There's definately some inefficiencies at work here, and progress to be made.
NO USER BRIGHTNESS MODES: You get super bright, then the light drops into "barely a flashlight" rather quickly. All in all, not much "useful" runtime imo. I'd like a way to dim it a bit as you simply don't need 65 lumens in every situation.
SERVICE LIFE: The LED is rated at "500 hours", and isn't user replacable. While for most people that's $1000 in batteries, I'm disappointed a LED has such a short maximum life.
HIGH COST: Even at the cheaper end, $130 is a lot for a flashlight. (plus the $70 I spent on a LiIon battery for it)
In the end, the L4 is a small, very bright flashlight good for brief use. Some label it "tactical" which seems to imply it's small, dark colored, and hideously expensive. It is. I doubt the military or police would use it due to the runtime and cost, but I could be wrong.
The L4 is a light that's very good for doing what it was intended to do. Unfortunately, with a little foresight it could have been a much more versatile light, even with today's technological limitations.
If you use a bright light briefly, and have a lot of money to spend, the L4 may be for you. But if you need something with more stamina or shy away from flashlights that cost more than an image intensifier, look elsewhere.
I cannot fault Surefire for today's techonological limitations. But I will ding them for not having a user adjustable brightness.
My rating: 9/10
Without a doubt, the most striking thing about the L4 is its beam. Aside from being extremely bright, brighter than a Mag 3D even, it's also a very nice, if not cool, shade of white, and a wide yet flawless beam.
Did I mention it was bright? It's indeed temporarily blinding, about on par with flashing yourself with a cheap laser pointer. As for self defense use, well, to misquote Ahnold: "Between your Surefire L4 and my Glock 9mm, I'll take my Glock." Flashlights ain't protection from armed attackers, folks.
Also notable is the fit and finish of the light. Well made and rugged, it just looks good with its HA aluminum body. The clip is sturdy and I just don't see it breaking on the whole.
So, it's a well made, bright little light. But, all is not perfect. Here's why:
HEAT: This sucker gets hot-- very hot. After you leave it running a while, gripping it by its head WILL burn you, but if you grip it by its body you'll be ok, although you will certainly feel the heat. Heat is a sign of ineffeciency, which leads me to my next point.
SHORT BATTERY LIFE: "65 minutes at 65 lumens" the manual tells me, which isn't a terribly long time for $2.50 in batteries. In fact, it's the same as Surefire's incandescant models. You can feel that a lot of the energy here is being released as heat. There's definately some inefficiencies at work here, and progress to be made.
NO USER BRIGHTNESS MODES: You get super bright, then the light drops into "barely a flashlight" rather quickly. All in all, not much "useful" runtime imo. I'd like a way to dim it a bit as you simply don't need 65 lumens in every situation.
SERVICE LIFE: The LED is rated at "500 hours", and isn't user replacable. While for most people that's $1000 in batteries, I'm disappointed a LED has such a short maximum life.
HIGH COST: Even at the cheaper end, $130 is a lot for a flashlight. (plus the $70 I spent on a LiIon battery for it)
In the end, the L4 is a small, very bright flashlight good for brief use. Some label it "tactical" which seems to imply it's small, dark colored, and hideously expensive. It is. I doubt the military or police would use it due to the runtime and cost, but I could be wrong.
The L4 is a light that's very good for doing what it was intended to do. Unfortunately, with a little foresight it could have been a much more versatile light, even with today's technological limitations.
If you use a bright light briefly, and have a lot of money to spend, the L4 may be for you. But if you need something with more stamina or shy away from flashlights that cost more than an image intensifier, look elsewhere.
I cannot fault Surefire for today's techonological limitations. But I will ding them for not having a user adjustable brightness.
My rating: 9/10
