I've had mine a couple months now. It has really good throw. Up close, like 10 feet in front of you, it's almost too bright when pointed at the trail. (I use my Tika+ for 90% of camp and hike related illumination.) The greatest thing about the E2L is: It's really good for spotting "eyes" in the dark...Big eyes or little eyes, they all shine. (If you can't see their eyes, they must be walking away, so no problem.) I've never tried it on bear, moose, mt. lion, wolves, or sabre toothed squirels, so I can't comment on it's effectivness as a defensive tool.
Good run time, SF quality, and fairly small size make it one of the lights that is worth packing.