Surefire L7

I am looking into getting a Surefire L7. I would welcome any
opinions and beamshots that might give me an idea how this light compares to a Surefire L5. I have a Nuwai AXL-352L and if the beam were similar there would be not much point in getting one as I use Pila 150s in my Nuwai.....Thanks in advance.....William

The Surefire L7 has output characteristics very much like the L5 [almost identical].

It is much larger than the L5 and uses Surefires rechargeable batteries. IMHO Surefire rechargeable batteries have high self-discharge rates, and are not of much value unless you use the light very regularly [and likewise recharge it frequently].

Hello FlashlightOCD,

I believe SureFire has fixed the problems they had with the B90 rechargeable batteries and the charger.

I recently got an 8NX that uses the same batteries. I am in the middle of doing a test on them. The 8NX draws just over 2 amps. I have been testing them at 2 amps thinking that is close enough for comparison. I believe the L7 draws under 2 amps, but I am not sure. At any rate the test results should be similar.

This is what I have found so far:

Hot off the charger I get 57 minutes.
After letting the battery sit for a week I get 50 minutes.
After letting it sit for 2 weeks I get 48 minutes.

I am a few days away from the 4 week data point and will post the results in the battery forum towards the end of next week.

Now it is true that NiCd's have some self discharge, but I would hardly classify loosing 9 minutes of run time in two weeks excessive...

Tom

FlashlightOCD: Thanks for beam info

SilverFox: Thanks for runtime data....this amount of time would fit my plans...45min nightly walks with a G2 KLH3 red led & Inova XO3 in poor light to almost total darkness...william

[ QUOTE ]
SilverFox said:
I believe SureFire has fixed the problems they had with the B90 rechargeable batteries and the charger.
...
Now it is true that NiCd's have some self discharge, but I would hardly classify loosing 9 minutes of run time in two weeks excessive...

Tom

[/ QUOTE ]

I would agree with you. I did buy some newer ones but not directly from Surefire so they might still be old stock, because mine seem to lose more like 9 minutes per day.

I haven't really formally tested like you, but mine seem to be relatively useless after about a week. After a week, if they light up at all, the light goes noticibly dim in a matter of a seconds.

The L7 draws something around ~1.8 amps from the measure off of my KL7 head.

Loved my L7 and used as my duty light until issued a Stinger XT. Sold it here - wish I had not.

Great light but the lack of clickie constant on tail cap did make it not so practical for my use sometimes.

Inova has updated their T series lights. Take a look at the T4 and T5 as they are similar to the L7. Another competator would be the Pelican 7060.

KeyGrip said:

Inova has updated their T series lights. Take a look at the T4 and T5 as they are similar to the L7. Another competator would be the Pelican 7060.

Click to expand...

The Pelican 7060 is basically a polymer L7, but with up-to-date components such as a Cree emitter and a li-ion battery. Also has a cradle car charger and dead-flat regulation.