Grrrr... L1 disappointment

My Dad asked me to get my Mom a Mini-Mag for X-mas because she keeps running off with his. I figured I'd do one better and get her a good LED light. My first inclination was to get her an L4, as I'm very impressed with mine. But then it occurred to me that the L4 might be too much light for her needs. My folks are in their mid 70's, and she would need a light to maybe find something in a kitchen cabinet, or to look for something that fell on the floor. I decided an L1 might just fill the bill.

I bought one today at my local gun shop after verifying it functioned (in the brightly lighted store). However, now that I am home, and the sun has set.....

While it's certainly bright enough on the second stage (bright setting), the light color is horrendous. A blue-violet spot surrounded by a pale green halo, then a thin white ring, and another pale green halo. This is about 1 meter from a white wall in a darkened room. Yuck! And on top of that, the first stage (dim setting), while o.k. for it's intended use (map reading, etc.), is probably unnecessary for my Mom.

Needless to say, I'm not going to give it to her for X-mas. Heck, I don't even want to keep it for myself. I don't know if I can return it, but I'm sure going to try.

Sorry for the rant. I just had to tell somebody.

Mod it with a high dome and you will be much happier. I've done a few of these mods for others and the difference is remarkable.

Hi CM...

PM sent.

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

CM,

You forgot the Fraen LP ! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

[ QUOTE ]
CM said:
Mod it with a high dome and you will be much happier. I've done a few of these mods for others and the difference is remarkable.

[/ QUOTE ]Thanks CM. But for a $100 flashlight, I shouldn't have to do any modifications. The bigger issue with me is, if going with a high-dome alleviates the coloration, why in the hell doesn't the SF engineering department catch on to this? While over-priced, I do own several other SF products, and they have never let me down. But the L1 needs redesigned or just dropped from their line.

CbusRog,

When the L1 was designed, the HD's weren't on the scene. Although the color variation in the older Low Domes are no longer very satisfactory in light of the newer LED's, they still provide viable illumination. I would not be surprised to see a revision to the L1 in 2004. The L1 is not a main stream flashlight to be sure! I don't think it was ever intended as such either.

I am not a big sure fire fan, but I love the L1. Its bulletproof and just right. With an R2H mine actually beats my arc lsh-p by a hair. Surefire needs to be as picky about the luxeon quality as they are about the rest of the package.

Huummm,sorry to hear that about the l1. I handled one at a gun show and got E1E with KL1 instead, mainly due to it's smaller size. It's my only sure-fire at the moment and has worked flawlessly with a great beam. Been thinking about KL4 head for my E1E. I love small and bright.
I hope surefire will work with you on this.
Keep us posted, please?

CbusRog,
I would also be very disappointed with such average quality hardware for such a high price. That's why I decided not to buy one after I started hearing about the purple beams by others on this CPF board. SF did a lot of work recently to come out with three excellent 5W lights but have neglected to make a much simpler change to a HD in the L1 even thought the HD's have been available for a while now.

Franken,
You may want to consider a full L4 instead of trying to find KL4 head separately. That way you have the option of either a two cell light at full brightness, or a one cell with less, but still quite impressive brightness. Just a thought (may be your plan already).

Erik.

Thanks for the advice eric, I guess the L4 will be the next light I in my collection!
or a 3watt on the wal-mart peg?

[ QUOTE ]
CbusRog said:
...the light color is horrendous. A blue-violet spot surrounded by a pale green halo, then a thin white ring, and another pale green halo.

[/ QUOTE ]
Hi CbusRog,

I fully understand what you meant and I empathize with you.

When I first got my KL1 for the E1e, I was shocked by the magenta cast it produces too but as I used it in the outdoors where jungle terrains with green leaves and brown trunks are concerned, I realized it does better than a pure white light or slightly bluish light. It sounds weird but it sort of pulls out the details from the object I shined on.

Regards,

Andy Ho
My Photo Gallery

[ QUOTE ]
CbusRog said:
Thanks CM. But for a $100 flashlight, I shouldn't have to do any modifications. The bigger issue with me is, if going with a high-dome alleviates the coloration, why in the hell doesn't the SF engineering department catch on to this? While over-priced, I do own several other SF products, and they have never let me down. But the L1 needs redesigned or just dropped from their line.


[/ QUOTE ]

Ahh, you probably haven't heard we're modding $220 dollar L6's then /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Surefire still does not use 1W (or 3W) high domes in conjunction with reflectors. I suspect that over time the NX05 optic along with the batwings will be obsoleted. It just takes a bit of time for these things to catch on. Take a look at Arc, they have just finally obsoleted the batwings from their line.

CM

I just took a look at my L1 beam, and it consists of a bluish-white central hotspot with a white corona outside that. It's about as good as you can get out of a LD Luxeon and a NX-05 optic. So I'm guessing that CbusRog got a bum L1, or maybe I got an exceptionally good one. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif

My white L1 has the worst color of any of my 1W LS lights, exactly as CbusRog describes, that said I still use it more than any of my other 1W LS lights. I really like the low output option, many times for me it's just the right amount of light (significantly less than an ARC AAA), especially when your eyes are dark adjusted.

I got a terrible KL1, with a purple hotspot surrounded by a green corona. I decided to play the lottery again and sent it back to SureFire. They replaced the LS with another one. The replacement is still unsatisfactory, but it is a major improvement over the other one.

I guess modding it would be the best way to go, but that should not be necessary at the cost of the light.

make sure you tried those LEDs before you pay the $$$...

I cheated in the luxeon lottery - selected 1 out of 4 /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif
sorry about your L1

The beam of my L1 is slightly blueish, but otherwise it is perfect.

The central part of my L1's beam is slightly bluish too, and the beam around it is essentially perfect.
The picture on my website shows that characteristic "rotten cat urine green" color to the beam, but that was caused by the camera, and not the L1 itself. And I think I have that stated under the picture.

My page about the L1 is right here if you're interested.