Manufacturer:-
www.surefire.com
UK Distributor :- www.edgar-brothers.co.uk
Recommended Retail Price :- $125.95 / £78.72 (You will get it cheaper
see links at the end)
Size:- 118mm long 29mm Diameter at widest point.
Weight (With Batteries):- Not known yet
Battery Type / Qty :- 1off CR123A (Surefire, Duracell, Panasonic or similar)
Battery Life :- 5 Hours at full power or 50 Hours at low power
LED Type :- 1W Luxeon
Rated Output:- (Manufacturers Figures) 15 Lumens or 0.65 Lumens at low power
Estimated LED Lifespan:- Over 100000 Hours (That's an awful lot of expensive
batteries)
Colour:- Blue
Reflector Type :- Luxeon Optics
Lens Material :- Pyrex
Electronics:- Digital regulation to ensure constant light output for the
length of the battery life + 2 stage Hi Low operation
Body Material :- High grade aluminium alloy with type III hard anodising
This is my third Surefire light. After already owning the ARC LS First Run and having the LSH on order I thought that I must try a different colour Luxeon Torch.
Features
Light is supplied fitted with 1off Surefire 123A battery.
Two stage pushbutton operated tail cap switch with momentary push for on low power or push harder for the second stage full power mode. The tail switch can also be rotated to turn the switch off altogether to prevent inadvertent operation. Or turning the tail switch the opposite way will cause the light to come on and stay on in first the low brightness then the high brightness mode.
The light source is
a 1Watt Luxeon LED. In low power mode I have found it makes a good night
time reading light as long as you don't need to see true colours! In high
power mode it will put out a surprising amount of light. I am wondering
if this has some UV content as anything that is painted in fluorescent
paint will glow very brightly. The tips of the chronograph hands on my
Omega watch glow bright orange/red.
The beam given off by the light is very smooth and even in pattern with
a square hotspot in the centre. The optics are I think made by Luxeon
and will be similar to many found on similar Luxeon LED lights. What is
different though is Surefire fit a Pyrex or heat treated glass lens in
front of this. This will protect the plastic lens from scratches and dust
and helps to make the light more water resistant. I would not want to
drop it onto a hard surface though as the lens could very well crack.
The power from the battery
is controlled by power regulation electronics. 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 Luxeon LED 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 L1 battery drops 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. 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 lower light output mode can also be activated by using the light in
low power mode (See above) giving over 50 hours of light!
.
The batteries this light
uses are CR123A Lithium. This means that from an average UK shop they
are expensive. 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 Distributor :- www.edgar-brothers.co.uk
US Dealers
UK Cheap 123A Batteries
More info this and other lights here