surefire lights

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den9

Inactive
i cant decide between the a2 or the l2. there is so many differences i like and dont like i cant pick!

a2, led's and xexon. i dont like xexon but the light is shorter and i like the leds for maps

l2, 2 settings high low, brighter, leds, red filter for map reading. longer

any1 have both, or 1? help me decide. if they were 20 bucks id buy both
 
I think they are both a bit too long for EDC. I've had both. I still have the L2. The xenon bulb on the A2 failed in the first 3 days, with minimal use and no apparent trauma.
More & more I find myself going to LEDs.
 
I love my L2; works great. I love the fact that I will never have to replace the bulb. I once was holding it in my mouth, and it fell onto concrete (6 foot fall). The light didn't even turned off, and the finish was unharmed.

I think the L2 is one of surefire's best. The 15 lumen low is nice for in home; non emergency lighting. The 120 lumen main beam will light up an entire house.
 
i just went with the a2, i got the green leds for map reading and stuff, i was gonna get the red but it didnt look bright at all. i just didnt like how the l2 was so long, and i didnt light the halogen on the a2, but it seams pretty indestructable, better be for 195 bucks
 
den,

I think you might have made a mistake. I have the L2, a 6P, and a G2. The L2 is a little bigger than the A2 (only half an inch), but it is also much brighter (100 lumens vs. 50 lumens). Trust me, the extra 50 lumens makes a huge difference, especially for "tactical" purposes (temporarily blinding an attacker). The lower light output from the L2 (15 lumens) is more than sufficient for reading and other normal tasks and way brighter than the lousy 3 lumes the leds put out. The L2 is far mure durable due to the LED bulb rather than the xenon. I have the L2 and I don't have a problem carrying it in my back pocket. Besides, the L2 would work better as a kubaton due to the extra length. Besides, the L2 is $20 cheaper. If you can change your order, I would.
 
I'm kind of a gear junkie. I've got the time and disposable income to test out a fair bit of gear. Flashlights are one of my favorites, and over the years I've picked up quite a few Mag-Lights, Inovas and Sure-Fires. I own an E2E, an E2D, more than one G2 (I've actually lost count of where all of them are hiding), a M2, a 6P, a bunch of weapons light...and an L2. Unless I'm in workout gear, a suit or my dress uniform (where I carry either the E2E or E2D, or sometimes my X200 weapon light) I always have the L2 on me. Even though it's the most akward to carry (except for the M2), and has worn a hole in the pocket of my jeans because of the slightly crenallated bezel, NOTHING beats it for versatility. I like never having to replace Xenon bulbs (which happened all the time when I was carrying incandescent Sure-Fires) and the batteries seem to last a whole lot longer in the L2 compared to the other lights.
 
In defense of the bulb of the A-2, I will say that the experience of Tim Burke of it blowing inside the first 3 days is extremely rare.

The A-2 uses a regulation system that provide a soft start to the bulb (it is not a surge to the bulb as with all others incandescent lights) and in the experience of people that sell the lights, is very uncommon to have a blown bulb.

A friend once called the dealer to inquire about a bulb for a spare, and was passed to the owner of the store that wanted to know WHY he needed an A-2 bulb.

I have another friend that has an L-2 and doesn't have any problems wearing it somewhere in his 300 pounds frame. For me it is a little too long for EDC, and I much prefer my A-2.

Some of my lights:

fivesurefires.jpg


Regards
black bear
 
In defense of the bulb of the A-2, I will say that the experience of Tim Burke of it blowing inside the first 3 days is extremely rare.
Click to expand...

The same thing happened to my budddy Carl within 45 minutes of his A-2 arriving to us in Iraq. The side LEDs would continue to light, but the main bulb had gone completely dead. He emailed Sure-Fire and they politely requested he ship it back to them for testing to see what was wrong...and let him know that regardless, there was a replacement on the way free of charge.

Although we never found out what the issue was with the first one, the replacement worked like a champ out of the box.
 
To be fair, I should say that Surefire sent me a replacement bulb right away at no charge, and it seemed to work fine after that. I had previous experience with the fragility of the halogen bulbs; I thought that was what I was experiencing. I was not aware of the improvements in circuitry that black bear 84 describes.
 
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