Recieved my Surefire L4 from Jo at ODS the other day, what an amazing little torch.
Impresions:
For those who dont know, the L4 is the new 5watt LED version of the previously very popular L1 1 watt LED. It runs on a pair of Lithium 123a batteries, which can now be has for about £1.25 each from places like www.7dayshop.com (click here). This new 5watt luxeon star LED is the first that surefire considered powerful enough to be used as a weapons light - and it certainly is bright. Surprisingly so, for it's diminutive size - shorter than a mini-mag, but a little fatter.
The "throw" of the light, isn't qite as far as a comparable incan bulb (P6, E2E etc), but not far off. However, the field of light is much larger. With the incans, you tend to get a spot effect, with the LED, it's more of a flood. The light output is supposed to be the same.
One striking difference is the quality of light. If you own a surefire, you'll know they use a kind of orange peel reflector, which evens out all the dark spots and uneveness you typically get from an incan bulb. They are very high quality torches, which provide a very high quality beam of light. The striking difference with the L4, is in the colour of light. It's almost a pure brilliant white, not the yellowish light you get from incans. I cant emphasise enough the quality of this light, or the whiteness of it - maybe I got lucky with the LED or something (they can and do vary from torch to torch). It makes my old LED (Surefire L1) look positively purple in comparison. It may even be bright enough to stun rabbits.
I found this photo on the web, which I would say is a pretty good representation...
One nice new addition to the range, as well as having the usual momentary on/off rubber button at the back, the L4 now has a dual function button - a clickie - soft press for momentary on/off, press untill it clicks for permanent on/off. This should be on all the models.
Battery Life:
The L4 lasted about 4 hours in total on a new set of batteries. I got well over an hours worth of full regulated brightness before the torch went into moon mode (slowly decreasing brightness), which is tons more than an incan bulb. After 4 hours, the L4 was about as bright as a photon. I turned it off and there wasnt enough juice to re-ignite it. However, I swapped the L1 head onto the same set of batteries and to my surprise it lit up - quite bright too, certainly brighter than the newbeam mini-mag mod. It also stayed lit for a further 5 hours, before I determined the light output wasnt of any use and binned the batteries.
Basically, you get a good hour to hour & half of full regulated light from the L4, then at least a further 2-3 hours of slowly diminishing output on one set of batteries. Pretty damned good.
However, as the L1 showed, there is still quite a lot of juice left in the batteries, long after they fail to light up the L4 at all.
The L1 runs for about 12 hours on one set of new batteries, with the first 3-4 hours in regulated mode, then the rest in diminishing moon mode.
To put it in perspective, the opalec newbeam, modded to fit the E2E body and ran off 2x lithiums, probably delivers about 150 hours of useable light, before the batteries are so sucked dry, they are utterly drained. That's a phenominal burn time, but a paltry light output from the start.
The L4 would be a good, superbright backup to something like a petzl tika on a camping trip (but would not replace it). The L1 would also be a good (albeit less bright) backup, with about 3x the battery life.
For an EDC, where battery life is less important (you dont have to carry them) the L4 rocks. Beautiful, large pool of defect-free, very bright, white light - the best I've ever seen on any torch.
ya pays ya money, ya takes ya choice.
The only worrying thing, is ARC - the makers of that marvelous little AAA torch and the only other LED rival for the Surefire L1, are going to release their LS4 - a 1watt luxeon LED torch which will have the same brightness as the Surefire L1, but that will be switchable between dim & bright (think battery life), will run on 1x 123a or 2x 123a or 2x standard AA batteries. This last feature will make it a extreme gear must for high tech junkies as lithium AA's are now available, and having a battery size that works with all your other gear, has obvious benefits. Look out for it, it'll be hellishly expensive.
What I would love to see - the L4 5watt LED, inside an A2 Aviator instead of the incan bulb, making it 100% LED, no bulbs to worry about, with an option to drive it from 2xAA batteries.
Impresions:
For those who dont know, the L4 is the new 5watt LED version of the previously very popular L1 1 watt LED. It runs on a pair of Lithium 123a batteries, which can now be has for about £1.25 each from places like www.7dayshop.com (click here). This new 5watt luxeon star LED is the first that surefire considered powerful enough to be used as a weapons light - and it certainly is bright. Surprisingly so, for it's diminutive size - shorter than a mini-mag, but a little fatter.
The "throw" of the light, isn't qite as far as a comparable incan bulb (P6, E2E etc), but not far off. However, the field of light is much larger. With the incans, you tend to get a spot effect, with the LED, it's more of a flood. The light output is supposed to be the same.
One striking difference is the quality of light. If you own a surefire, you'll know they use a kind of orange peel reflector, which evens out all the dark spots and uneveness you typically get from an incan bulb. They are very high quality torches, which provide a very high quality beam of light. The striking difference with the L4, is in the colour of light. It's almost a pure brilliant white, not the yellowish light you get from incans. I cant emphasise enough the quality of this light, or the whiteness of it - maybe I got lucky with the LED or something (they can and do vary from torch to torch). It makes my old LED (Surefire L1) look positively purple in comparison. It may even be bright enough to stun rabbits.
I found this photo on the web, which I would say is a pretty good representation...
One nice new addition to the range, as well as having the usual momentary on/off rubber button at the back, the L4 now has a dual function button - a clickie - soft press for momentary on/off, press untill it clicks for permanent on/off. This should be on all the models.
Battery Life:
The L4 lasted about 4 hours in total on a new set of batteries. I got well over an hours worth of full regulated brightness before the torch went into moon mode (slowly decreasing brightness), which is tons more than an incan bulb. After 4 hours, the L4 was about as bright as a photon. I turned it off and there wasnt enough juice to re-ignite it. However, I swapped the L1 head onto the same set of batteries and to my surprise it lit up - quite bright too, certainly brighter than the newbeam mini-mag mod. It also stayed lit for a further 5 hours, before I determined the light output wasnt of any use and binned the batteries.
Basically, you get a good hour to hour & half of full regulated light from the L4, then at least a further 2-3 hours of slowly diminishing output on one set of batteries. Pretty damned good.
However, as the L1 showed, there is still quite a lot of juice left in the batteries, long after they fail to light up the L4 at all.
The L1 runs for about 12 hours on one set of new batteries, with the first 3-4 hours in regulated mode, then the rest in diminishing moon mode.
To put it in perspective, the opalec newbeam, modded to fit the E2E body and ran off 2x lithiums, probably delivers about 150 hours of useable light, before the batteries are so sucked dry, they are utterly drained. That's a phenominal burn time, but a paltry light output from the start.
The L4 would be a good, superbright backup to something like a petzl tika on a camping trip (but would not replace it). The L1 would also be a good (albeit less bright) backup, with about 3x the battery life.
For an EDC, where battery life is less important (you dont have to carry them) the L4 rocks. Beautiful, large pool of defect-free, very bright, white light - the best I've ever seen on any torch.
ya pays ya money, ya takes ya choice.
The only worrying thing, is ARC - the makers of that marvelous little AAA torch and the only other LED rival for the Surefire L1, are going to release their LS4 - a 1watt luxeon LED torch which will have the same brightness as the Surefire L1, but that will be switchable between dim & bright (think battery life), will run on 1x 123a or 2x 123a or 2x standard AA batteries. This last feature will make it a extreme gear must for high tech junkies as lithium AA's are now available, and having a battery size that works with all your other gear, has obvious benefits. Look out for it, it'll be hellishly expensive.
What I would love to see - the L4 5watt LED, inside an A2 Aviator instead of the incan bulb, making it 100% LED, no bulbs to worry about, with an option to drive it from 2xAA batteries.
