Surefire Right Off the Box

Hello Guys,

Years ago I hang here a lot and had about 18+ Surefire lights. One day, I sold them all except keeping an A2. Years after, I just purchased a LX2 and it arrived yesterday.

excited as I switched on the light, It doesn't appear to be as bright as I expected. From images of reviewer online, their light seem brighter. I am not sure if it is the camera that smoothed out some layers of light and made a huge hot spot. Mine hot spot doesn't seem as big. Now I don't have variety of Surefires handy to compare the light brightness but I sure is brighter than my old A2 but not sure if it is as bright as a LX2 should be.

My question is, have you ever had experience of a Surefire that right off the box and you noticed it is off the spec? or generally Surefire quality is pretty standard right off the box. For whatever reason I expect the LX2 to be much brighter got no lights to compare hmm....

I don't buy Surefires because they're the brightest or most efficient lights. I buy them because they're dependable and tough. If you want some wow factor on the cheap that's still a great light, go buy yourself a Solarforce L2* host and a Manafont UltraFire 3-mode XM-L drop in. Total cost: $30-50. Then compare it to your LX2...

I'm sure your surefire is as it should be. Surefire is not the brightest but they are pretty tough. The LX2 should have a tight long throwing hotspur due to the TIR optic.

DimeRazorback has some great beamshots here:

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb...2-U2-M60-W-M30-TK11-RRT-1-M30-M20-Jet-III-6PL

Scroll down to post #5, you can compare the A2 and LX2 beamshot pics and then compare them to your lights. See if they match up.

Check your batteries and make sure that you're getting both levels. Surefire lights come with the tailcap in different states. My first Surefire was an E1B and the tailcap was locked out. I was pretty upset until I realized that it wasn't broken, I just had to tighten it up. If your batteries are fresh and you're getting low and high, it's nearly impossible for us to say whether it is objectively within specs.

Otherwise, you may be right in thinking that the photos you saw misrepresented the hotspot. Taking beam shots is very difficult and if the exposure isn't exactly right, they can make beams look different than they do in person.

It's probably fine. As mentioned, make sure you have hi/low working (which I'm sure you would have checked), and then test it at night. The LX2 does not appear that bright sometimes because of the optic is throwing the light down range it's not all scattered in front of you. Give it a little range test outside at night.

If you want a barn burner... check out DRB's recent Surefire UB3T Invictus LED purchase.

If you want a lot of light near field, and some throw by the brute force of the output look no further than the ZebraLight SC600 (you'll need to use a 18650 Li-Ion rechargeable battery). If you need more throw, but still want some flood go for the Fexix TK35; 4xCR123A cells or 2x18650 Li-Ion.

I just checked this image against mine. As the beam shot above, I see a really solid clean Hotspot like sun then there is a even outer rim. Mine at the same distance, the hotspot is def is smaller than above and not as evenly round on edges. There is a mid tone btw the hotspot and outer rim.