What's the best Surefire A2 replacement?

The Surefire A2 has a great flood and a great spot! I like the incandescent bulb, but not the cost and failure, so I'm looking for a similar light with a primary LED. The Surefire A2L looked promising, but the flood is horrible, perhaps due to the 3mm LEDs and their low placement in the reflector. Is there another light that can match the great flood of the A2?

Surefire Kroma - The mil-spec has a terrible flood and the plain Kroma is only blue or red. The low white is just the primary LED. Can the blue or red LEDs be replaced with white LEDs?

Surefire AZ2 - This looks like it should have a good flood. I couldn't tell from any of the beam shots I could find. Has anyone done a comparison with the A2?

Surefire UAR Aviator - This looks like it will suffer from the same ringy flood of the A2L. Although it has 5mm LEDs, they're still very low in the reflector. Has anyone seen one yet? It's also very large, about 3" longer than the A2 and it looks like it might be very expensive. Anyone know a price?

Anyone know of another potential replacement?

Phredd said:

The Surefire A2 has a great flood and a great spot! I like the incandescent bulb, but not the cost and failure, so I'm looking for a similar light with a primary LED. The Surefire A2L looked promising, but the flood is horrible, perhaps due to the 3mm LEDs and their low placement in the reflector. Is there another light that can match the great flood of the A2?

Surefire Kroma - The mil-spec has a terrible flood and the plain Kroma is only blue or red. The low white is just the primary LED. Can the blue or red LEDs be replaced with white LEDs?

Surefire AZ2 - This looks like it should have a good flood. I couldn't tell from any of the beam shots I could find. Has anyone done a comparison with the A2?

Surefire UAR Aviator - This looks like it will suffer from the same ringy flood of the A2L. Although it has 5mm LEDs, they're still very low in the reflector. Has anyone seen one yet? It's also very large, about 3" longer than the A2 and it looks like it might be very expensive. Anyone know a price?

Anyone know of another potential replacement?

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Two lights. Or one of the A2 sized TIR surefires + a diffuser would be better than going up to 3" longer &/or a half inch bigger head. That's a downgrade unless you're specifically seeking it! I say Lx2 or E2DL + an F04 beamshaper, or + a tiny floody single cell, like an E01 that would disappear in your pocket. Hey don't you have a T1a? I've been thinking a Titan + an LX2 would be the ultimate SureFire carry combination.

If it has to be one, won't anyhting bright enough, even with a floody beam profile, still match the a2 in throw considering it isn't exactly a powerhouse thrower anyway? Otherwise I don't think there is a strict replacement for what the A2 does exactly. A2L's gotta be somewhat close. That much nastier a beam than the original? Becuase the A2 doesn't exactly have the most uniform beam with it's ring of LED's either. Maybe look into modding the A2L's ring of auxillary led's? Better than doing something rash like converting your A2's incan to an led (don't do it)! But I think a modder around here has done both so far. Probably the customs subforum is your best bet. Good luck & let us know if & when you find it!

I don´t have a A2 (yet) but today I made comparsion beamshots of some of my Surefire lights. The AZ2 is among them. I really like the light for it´s floody, spotless low beam and the tight spot on high with a nice spill. Maybe these pictures will help you with the AZ2 (distance to the wall is about 6m). The last two shots are to compare the LX2 and AZ2 with their different beams on low.







Eric

Phredd said:

Surefire AZ2 - This looks like it should have a good flood. I couldn't tell from any of the beam shots I could find. Has anyone done a comparison with the A2?

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It is very floody, with a small intense hotspot in high for decent throw. And the 5mm LEDs have a very nice tint, almost neutral white, instead of the usual purple/blue. Same for the Luxeon K2 that's the main LED. Since I got a AZ2, I've hardly touched my A2. And I love the A2.

Maybe I should pick up an AZ2 since they're also discontinued - I think. Are the AZ2 and AZ2-S both just as good, at least for the good flood and tint?

I recently picked up an AZ2-S on clearance, and I think the light is everything the A2L should have been. The low is really nice and floody and the high throws really well... not as good as my LX2 or E2DL, but still pretty far. The A2L is a nice light, but for just two levels of flood, I prefer to do as Leon suggested and put a diffuser on one of my other lights (or bring one of my L2s out of retirement.)

The AZ2 is still in production, but the AZ2-S has been discontinued, the -S version has a strobe, which I am not really a fan of, but it is an easy enough feature to ignore. One thing to keep in mind is that the AZ2 is larger than the A2L, both in length and in bezel diameter.

P.S. I have a half dozen A2's as well, half with white LEDs in a couple different body shapes, and the other three are different LED colors (all but blue.) Not all flood is created equal with those... the red looks like the Target logo!

When I saw the title thread I thought for sure someone was going to, once again, ask for an LED replacement for the A2's lamp assembly:hairpull:

ebow86 said:

When I saw the title thread I thought for sure someone was going to, once again, ask for an LED replacement for the A2's lamp assembly:hairpull:

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Now that you bring it up...

I just ordered an AZ2-S for $170 (and I bought a spare A2 for $129) but I'm still interested if there are any other good flood/spot lights. Any other companies make them? Maybe 4Sevens should make one.

Eric, thanks for the beam shots!

One thing to keep in mind is that the AZ2 is larger than the A2L, both in length and in bezel diameter.

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And hopefully he wasn't too attached to his a2's clip, & much lower low. It's just too bad the A2L didn't measure up, carrying the Aviator namesake.

Ive got the opportunity to buy a used A2 is it worth a punt? Also how easy is it to replace the led ring? Sorry to hijack the thread.

Acid87 said:

Ive got the opportunity to buy a used A2 is it worth a punt? Also how easy is it to replace the led ring? Sorry to hijack the thread.

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Well, typically I would say yes with no hesitation whatsoever. However, it all depends on whether or not you are one of the people that can recognize and appreciate what the A2 does so well. If you want a fully regulated soft starting incandescent flashlight that puts out a beautiful white 100CRI long throwing beam, and in addition has a set of floody LED's for general tasks, then yes the A2 is most certainly worth it. I have 2 A2's, and my newest addition, an older four flats short clip with white LED's just came in the mail this very morning.

Everybody has their favorites for whatever reasons, but I feel the A2 is the greatest flashlight ever made, read this review here before using the A2, get a better understanding of what it does, and why it does it so well and you maybe able to appreciate what it does so much more. Buy it, you won't regret it. Just don't come asking for an LED replacement for the incan lamp

Oh, and yes, the LED rings are extremely easy to swap out, there have been several people design aftermarket one's, however, there's new one's being sold here by calipsoii and they look to be the best by far.

ebow86 said:

Well, typically I would say yes with no hesitation whatsoever. However, it all depends on whether or not you are one of the people that can recognize and appreciate what the A2 does so well. If you want a fully regulated soft starting incandescent flashlight that puts out a beautiful white 100CRI long throwing beam, and in addition has a set of floody LED's for general tasks, then yes the A2 is most certainly worth it. I have 2 A2's, and my newest addition, an older four flats short clip with white LED's just came in the mail this very morning.

Everybody has their favorites for whatever reasons, but I feel the A2 is the greatest flashlight ever made, read this review here before using the A2, get a better understanding of what it does, and why it does it so well and you maybe able to appreciate what it does so much more. Buy it, you won't regret it. Just don't come asking for an LED replacement for the incan lamp

Oh, and yes, the LED rings are extremely easy to swap out, there have been several people design aftermarket one's, however, there's new one's being sold here by calipsoii and they look to be the best by far.

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Sold. I miss my e2e and recently bought an e1e so I'm on a bit of an Incan drive. Cheers for the link to the review the search on this forum runner app doesn't work with CPF.

Steven

Acid87 said:

Sold. I miss my e2e and recently bought an e1e so I'm on a bit of an Incan drive. Cheers for the link to the review the search on this forum runner app doesn't work with CPF.

Steven

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There is a wealth of information here as well http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?199396-The-SureFire-A2-Thread-Index

If you love incandescents, as I do, then you won't regret it for a second.

Acid87 said:

Ive got the opportunity to buy a used A2 is it worth a punt? Also how easy is it to replace the led ring? Sorry to hijack the thread.

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If you don't even have one A2 yet, then YES! The only downside is having to replace the bulbs.

Phredd said:

If you don't even have one A2 yet, then YES! The only downside is having to replace the bulbs.

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This isn't as big of an issue as some people make it out to be. Lumensfactory sells a replacement that not only is better than surefire's MA02, but is cheaper as well, only around $19. And in addition to that, the soft starting in the A2 means that the bulbs last for a very, very long time. See this thread here , particually post #3 and #6. Replacement lamps are the farthest away thing in my mind when using my A2, I'm not sure why it gets brought up all the time.

ebow86 said:

There is a wealth of information here as well http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?199396-The-SureFire-A2-Thread-Index

If you love incandescents, as I do, then you won't regret it for a second.

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Thanks for the link to the awesome thread.

Phredd said:

If you don't even have one A2 yet, then YES! The only downside is having to replace the bulbs.

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That isn't too bad I suppose it's the joy of incans.

Acid87, if this helps any, I had an A2 years ago and sold it to cover the cost of (at that time) the latest, greatest LED. Last summer I bought a replacement A2 (with FM Strion kit) and haven't looked back since. (also on the waiting list for a warm white LED ring mentioned above). Go for it.

So, to the OP, I'll give the cheesy response and say the answer is another A2!

Phredd said:

Now that you bring it up...
I just ordered an AZ2-S for $170 (and I bought a spare A2 for $129) but I'm still interested if there are any other good flood/spot lights. Any other companies make them? Maybe 4Sevens should make one....

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Hmmm ... how about an LS27 ? :devil:

Phredd said:

I just ordered an AZ2-S for $170 ...

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Phredd, can you free up some PM space? I've got a question to ask. Thanks!