This was my second light from the Surefire company. I thought at one time that I was only going to buy LED powered lights. How wrong could I be, I would miss out on lights such as this one!

Features

Light is supplied fitted with 2 off surefire 123A batteries. (Good job as well for all that money!)

Pushbutton operated lockout tail cap switch with momentary push for on two stage operation. The light is supplied with the tail swich locked out. So pressing the swich does nothing. You must first turn the tail swich body clockwise until the light comes on, then back it off half a turn and the button is now ready for use. Pressing the button partway in causes the light to come on in low power LED only mode. Pressing it in further will cause it to go into high power mode operating the incandescent bulb as well as the LED's. If you wish to keep the light on, you can just rotate the tail cap clockwise again until the light comes on in the relevent mode. After use the switch can be rotated anticlockwise as above to prevent inadvertent operation. This is important as this light gets hot when in use in high power mode.

The light sources consist of 3 off Nicha white LED's and a Surefire incandescent bulb assembly.

The Light given off in low power mode is typical Nicha LED white / blue in colour. Suitable for low level illumination tasks such a reading, navigation of internal rooms, tent illumination. Because of the low power drain at this level of light the batteries should last a long time. Surefire quote 20 hours! But their graph shows useful light output for over 40 hours!

The beam given off by the LED's is reasonably smooth with a flower petal effect at the edges. It has a central hotspot but does not throw light very far.

In high power mode this is a completely different light. It will throw a bright beam of light long distances. This comes at the expense of runtime from the batteries, which only last for 50 minutes in this mode. The beam is very smooth with a bright central hotspot that will seem yellow in colour after seeing the light that the LED's give out.

Because of the two different light output modes the light can be used in many different situations. It can be used for walking at night in low power mode and it will not destroy your night vision. If you then need to see something at a distance you can, by just pressing the button harder. Very neat and very simple. Plus only one torch you have to carry. (This could be seen as a disadvantage by certain people see www.candlepowerforums.com for details :-) )

The power from the batteries is controlled by power regulation electronics when in high power mode. This makes it different from most incandescent or LED lights in that the light output is not effected by the battery voltage dropping as they become discharged. What it does is gives a constant voltage to the bulb at the expense of drawing slightly more current from the battery. So you get a shorter runtime on the light but constant light output for the whole time. On a normal non regulated light the light output drops as the batteries discharge so when half empty the light may only give of half the light output that it did when the batteries were new. Once the A2 batteries drop to a low enough level the regulation circuit can no longer function at this point the light will still function but at a much lower light output. But remember you will always have several hours of LED Light to fall back on. Because of a feature of LED's which means they become more efficient at lower voltage / current levels, this now means that the light will work at this lower level of output for some considerable time.

The light is extremely well made with each part CNC machined from solid aluminium bar. Each part is then type III hard anodised. This gives a very durable and hard wearing finish. Surefire claim you can saw through lesser quality lights with the knurling on the body of the
light. (Not tried this. Not when it cost this much money!) If I want a saw I'll buy one. Each part is then assembled using o-rings or washers to seal the light against moisture ingress.The body of the light has a spring steel pocket clip which has also got a lanyard attachment point. A new lanyard type Z60 is soon to be available from Surefire. This will attatch to the recess cut into the rear of the light as many people prefer this attachment point.

The batteries this light uses are CR123A Lithium. This means that from an average UK shop they are expensive (£8-£10 each!). To buy batteries this way would make this light ridiculously expensive to run. The best way to buy stuff is off the net, either from the US or the UK. I will list several suppliers at the end of this article. Surefire market their own batteries and they are excellent value, but shipping them from the US to the UK can be expensive.

Ok, now hopefully your interested where can you get one?

UK Dealers

outdoorsuppliesuk.com At last a great UK supplier with LOW prices for Torches, Knives, Outdoor Equipment and more. (Still under development but please email them for prices.)

US Dealers

www.meridiantactical.com

UK Cheap 123A Batteries

www.7dayshop.com