Heh I went from never even glancing at Surefire to owning one! Got a surprise gift from my father in law:
Very interesting little light. Here's some of my thoughts (as a none surefire guy)
UI and brightness levels are purpose made. I'm fine with that, even though I don't really carry a light for their purpose. Tint isn't bad. Cool white, hint off yellow/green corona but only on a white wall.
Beamshape is great! The MaxVision thing is what they're calling a faceted reflector but it only has horizontal facets, almost like steps:
Results in a unique beam pattern, unlike optics, reflector or mules. It has a traditional hotspot but with a very bright spill. Extremely functional for EDC and up close work while retaining a bit of throw
E1B MV:
Compared to a standard reflector:
Or a triple optic:
Great beam, love it!
Build quality of the head feels very sturdy. It's a wide head with a smaller reflector
so it's a bit wasted space but I guess all that space is potting or just thick walls? Feels very sturdy.
Has an interesting + spring design with a plastic battery bumper
Threads for the head are a bit shorter than I'd like
But I think this is due to the light being designed to have the battery replaced from the head only. You can unscrew the tail but you cannot insert a battery there.
Tail threads are longer and as you can see, unanodized
Yet through a neat design inside the tailcap there's a mechanical lockout by unscrewing tailcap half a turn. I really like that design.
You can also see above it has a two way clip, securely attached but I don't believe it to be removable.
Threading does't feel as smooth as something like a McGizmo
or HDS but it does the job well.
Overall it's a neat little light. I got it as a gift and I'm glad, it's not something I would've purchased so it's nice to have a chance to experience it. It does its job well.
Due to all the crap Surefire gets for being overpriced, I purposefully played with one and wrote this little write up BEFORE looking up the price. If asked what I thought it cost I would've said it's a good buy at $80, MSRP around $120. Seeing what it really costs makes sense. It isn't as disgustingly overpriced as some would have you believe and if someone with $149 and the appropriate use case asked me what to buy, I'd have no trouble recommending this.
when the battery runs down. No flickering or step down to low mode. Jose Marin's chart posted above is consistent with my experience. However, I get significantly less than 30 minutes on high with the same Fenix battery. An older AW RCR123A lasts only a couple of minutes on high due to the current load but will reset and run for a while longer after cycling the power. I need to find an IMR 16340 and see how that cell does under the high load. Oh wait, I just realized that I have a 4Sevens Mini Mk II in my pocket with an AW IMR, I'll give that cell a try.
