Surefire L1 Gen 5 Red

I am new to the forum and have started a small collection of lights and recently purchased what I understand to be a Gen 5 Surefire L1 in the Red beam variety.
I really like the build of the light and size and design but am not "sold" on the choice of a red beam and my use. I am only looking for a general purpose light and might consider this an EDC and otherwise am thinking I may be better opting for a traditional white beam especially as this is my one and only Surefire.

I would like to hear opinions on pros and cons of keeping this in red and otherwise if this is the type of thing that might make sense to list in the WTT section. do people trade these things out for color typically...? Or should I just sell it and re buy if I decide not to keep it?

Thanks in advance.

Trip; You've done well to find one of these ! - you will need to register at the CPF marketplace to offer this for sale - I think you will find it snapped up quite quickly. (In fact, if you do list it there I would be interested myself).

Welcome to CPF !

The entire L1 flashlight line has been discontinued. Since the versions with color emitters are somewhat less common than white, and the red is typically more popular than others (blue, green), it might not be too difficult to find a willing trade

Ok thank you both for the information. I guess that answers my question. I did not realize that the light was necessarily that uncommon or not available. So it sounds like I have some options. Since these are discontinued can one buy say a new white emitter and swap out as needed? I suppose they may be hard to come by now as well but that seems like perhaps a nice option. Will heads from other versions of this light work on this one or do I have to source the same "vintage" of head for it to work?

Thanks again in advance for the advice.

Trip

Trip Miller said:

Ok thank you both for the information. I guess that answers my question. I did not realize that the light was necessarily that uncommon or not available. So it sounds like I have some options. Since these are discontinued can one buy say a new white emitter and swap out as needed? I suppose they may be hard to come by now as well but that seems like perhaps a nice option. Will heads from other versions of this light work on this one or do I have to source the same "vintage" of head for it to work?

Thanks again in advance for the advice.

Trip

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Emitter swaps on these aren't easy, and although I do believe that you can use different vintage L1 heads on different bodies, a head on its own is harder to find than complete light. You would be better off selling or trading this and getting a white output L1. FWIW though, to my eyes, my white output gen5 appears dimmer than my red Gen5. Both lights are known for their crazy long runtime on low (Angelofwar from these forums has a post somewhere where he ran a red l1 for 144 hours with useable light), but its 22 lumen high mode for 1 and a bit hours makes me cry. For this reason, I prefer the Gen6 L1.

Alternatively, you could get a Surefire EB1T, as these are a current Surefire light that operates in a similar fashion to the L1, but with a 200 lumen high mode.

Take a look at the gen6 L1 white. Very nice light. But as has already been mentioned, the modern equivalent is the EB1T. Has two stage operation like the L1 with 200 lumens of high output & 5 lumens on low.

Ok sounds like a plan. Thanks for the advice very much,

Trip