I hate "thrower" beamed lights. There, I've said it, I think the entire flashlight industry has lost its way! Oh, I hate modes too :lol: So, since almost all the weaponlights and combatlights on the market right now are very tight beams and getting tighter with less spill with each release, I've been looking for good solutions to solve this issue. One thing I was excited to find was the surefire F04 Diffusor accessory. I forgot to take a picture of the thing itself, so you'll just have to google for it. When it arrived, I was very glad that I had paid only $10 for it as this this is VERY simple. It's merely a rubber ring that has a bit of an interference fit with a 1" diameter bezel so the rubber stretches slightly as you push it onto the light and thus holds it tightly in place. The business end of the thing is merely a thin piece of acrylic with frosted vinyl on one side. As you're about to see, it's GOOD frosted vinyl!
The F04 is obviously meant to be used on Surefire lights, and I think they specifically meant it for their E-series lights. However, it'll fit anything they make with a 1" diameter bezel. I bought it with the intent of using it on my X300 weaponlight. In the pictures below, the exposures were NOT held constant! They were normalized to produce the same EV reading at the measured reference point (front of the stack of crap) since this will more closely mimic what your eye thinks about things. They were then given the same processing so that the comparison between the beams would be as informative as possible. The distance from the light to the near edge of the cabinets is about 8'.
This is the Surefire X300 by itself:
This is the Surefire X300 with the Surefire F04 Diffusor mounted on it:
As you can see, it's a huge difference. To give you a better idea of how big of a difference it really makes, I moved around to get a longer/wider test environment. The concrete block is about 35' away from the light and camera.
This is the Surefire X300 by itself:
This is the Surefire X300 with the Surefire F04 Diffusor mounted on it:
Those two pictures most closely represent how the eye perceives the difference. However, I thought you might be curious about an "absolute" comparison between them. This is a picture of the X300 with F04 but at the same exposure as the "bare" shot. As you can clearly see, by spreading the light around, you lose intensity in any one spot. Again, the pictures above this more accurately represent they naked eye's impression, this is just for an additional data point.
Now, of course there's no reason to confine this to the lights Surefire intended it to be used upon. One of the things I was curious about was its performance in front of the Surefire Z2X. The bezel on the Z2X is far too large to fit into the F04, so I just set the diffusor in front of the light for these pictures.
Surefire Z2X "bare":
Surefire Z2X with Surefire F04 Diffusor:
Then I tried it on the Fenix LD20+. The LD20's bezel is far too small for the diffusor to fit snugly. However, this is easily fixable by just wrapping tape around the light until it becomes the necessary diameter.
Fenix LD20+ "bare":
Fenix LD20+ with Surefire F04 Diffusor:
Every single flashlight became wonderfully floody with the addition of the F04 Diffusor. Whatever Surefire is using as the frosted laminate is magic. With all 3 lights, there was absolutely ZERO hotspot left. Just a pure, unbroken wall of light. To me, this represents a significant improvement for the intended purposes of everything except a dedicated thrower. There's a lot of lights around 200Lm these days, and this diffusor makes them all into great tools. Even so heavily diffused, they still reach far enough for easy jogging, working around the house or yard, etc. Only if I needed to reach out considerably farther, such as riding a bike or looking for animals in a large field, would I feel like these lights no longer reached far enough.
The F04 is obviously meant to be used on Surefire lights, and I think they specifically meant it for their E-series lights. However, it'll fit anything they make with a 1" diameter bezel. I bought it with the intent of using it on my X300 weaponlight. In the pictures below, the exposures were NOT held constant! They were normalized to produce the same EV reading at the measured reference point (front of the stack of crap) since this will more closely mimic what your eye thinks about things. They were then given the same processing so that the comparison between the beams would be as informative as possible. The distance from the light to the near edge of the cabinets is about 8'.
This is the Surefire X300 by itself:
This is the Surefire X300 with the Surefire F04 Diffusor mounted on it:
As you can see, it's a huge difference. To give you a better idea of how big of a difference it really makes, I moved around to get a longer/wider test environment. The concrete block is about 35' away from the light and camera.
This is the Surefire X300 by itself:
This is the Surefire X300 with the Surefire F04 Diffusor mounted on it:
Those two pictures most closely represent how the eye perceives the difference. However, I thought you might be curious about an "absolute" comparison between them. This is a picture of the X300 with F04 but at the same exposure as the "bare" shot. As you can clearly see, by spreading the light around, you lose intensity in any one spot. Again, the pictures above this more accurately represent they naked eye's impression, this is just for an additional data point.
Now, of course there's no reason to confine this to the lights Surefire intended it to be used upon. One of the things I was curious about was its performance in front of the Surefire Z2X. The bezel on the Z2X is far too large to fit into the F04, so I just set the diffusor in front of the light for these pictures.
Surefire Z2X "bare":
Surefire Z2X with Surefire F04 Diffusor:
Then I tried it on the Fenix LD20+. The LD20's bezel is far too small for the diffusor to fit snugly. However, this is easily fixable by just wrapping tape around the light until it becomes the necessary diameter.
Fenix LD20+ "bare":
Fenix LD20+ with Surefire F04 Diffusor:
Every single flashlight became wonderfully floody with the addition of the F04 Diffusor. Whatever Surefire is using as the frosted laminate is magic. With all 3 lights, there was absolutely ZERO hotspot left. Just a pure, unbroken wall of light. To me, this represents a significant improvement for the intended purposes of everything except a dedicated thrower. There's a lot of lights around 200Lm these days, and this diffusor makes them all into great tools. Even so heavily diffused, they still reach far enough for easy jogging, working around the house or yard, etc. Only if I needed to reach out considerably farther, such as riding a bike or looking for animals in a large field, would I feel like these lights no longer reached far enough.
