L4 Authenticity Question

As posted elsewhere, I just purchased my first Surefire, an L4. And I have a question for everyone.

The laser-engraved label on my L4 seems to be upside down. If you look on the Surefire website, the label on the L4 as pictured is correctly oriented for reading with the bezel of the flashlight to the viewer's left. Mine is reverse from that -- the label is correctly aligned for reading with the bezel at my right.

Given Surefire's reputation for quality, this surprises me. Does anyone else have a Surefire with the label engraved (seemingly) incorrectly?

Between this and the noticably yellow color of the beam, I'm beginning to wonder....

I believe it is that way for photography purposes.

.....DELETED.....

Hmm, the Surefire label, serial number, L4 Digital Lumamax and patent number are all on the same panel on mine. Maybe they're not consistent with their labeling?

They're all on the same side on mine too, and it's oriented like yours. It was obtained very recently. Things change...

If an outside source could machine and build a KL4 efficiently, I think we would see them being sold under the companies name and not offered up as forgeries! With your warm tint to the LED, there is a good chance that you have a brighter than typical LED, if that is any consolation. You will also probably find that your light is better at illuminating targets in the red spectrum than the cooler white LED's.

I would guess that your bezel got in the engraving rack upside down; likely no conspiricy or forged part.

That's certainly consolation, Don. Thanks!

I'll be ordering a two-stage tailcap in about a week, once my wallet recovers!

While I wouldn't describe mine as "yellow" (the one that matches bonvivantmike's markings) it certainly lacks any of the blue/violet I have in all my other white LEDs. Next to them, it is a warm and creamy tint. From time to time, it looks a bit yellow, but it seems to bring that tint out in some paints- some walls in my house look yellower in the reflection from this beam than they do under other light. Try shining it on the ceiling, or against paper, instead of the wall.

I'm impressed with mine, it's a very "natural" tint. Seems very bright indeed to me, but I have no framework of reference to compare it to- next brightest Luxeon I have is 1W, that just doesn't compare (and is very violet).

It's safe to say that Surefire is somewhat "inconsistent" regarding labeling. Example: For a long long time, Surefire wrote the word millennium correctly on the Millennium Series lights. Just recently I saw an M6 (new style bezel) that had the word millennium spelled millenium. Well, there's an N missing, but how can that happen? Was that M6 a fake? Definitely not, they just don't pay very much attention to these things.

Pila, L4 and McGizmo Tailcap

Thanks to everyone here, I feel reassured that my L4 is authentic. McGizmo is right -- if someone could produce this high quality a light, they would market it as their own brand. Yellow tint aside, this is far and away the best quality flashlight I own. The fit and finish is absolutely perfect. That kind of quality is very hard to fake.

On another subject, I'm going to be running this on Pila rechargables, and want a two-stage tailcap. Given that the Pilas are different voltage from CR123s, I would expect it to function differently on Pilas.

Does anyone have any direct experience with this, and can recommend a resistor value? I would like the low beam to be sufficient for dark-adapted eyes, and bright enough (but not too bright) for patient care, since I am an EMT.

To make things clearer, here are some pictures of my L4 that I received on 01-29-04:




Hope this helps.

It looks like all the L4's mentioned in this thread are fakes - please send them my way for correct recycling. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon15.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/nana.gif