The SureFire A2L thread

[DimeRazorback]

The LX2 is definitely brighter.

The two have different beam profiles.

The LX2 has a large hotspot, while the A2L has a smaller and not as bright hotspot.

The LX2 has a smallish amount of spill, while the A2L has a very wide spill due to the reflector.

 

[Death's Head]

Great info. Thanks! I can live without the brighter hotspot.

 

[DM51]

It would be good to see a side-by-side comparison between an A2 and an A2L.

 

[DimeRazorback]

I haven't done a side by side yet.

I have beamshots in my thread, directly above/below from one another, and plan on doing some outside ones tonght... I will also add a side by side beamshots outside :thumbsup:

The beamshots are also in my review :thumbsup:

 

[FredericoFreire]

Has anyone tried some AW rechargeables on it? :thinking:

 

[subiedriver1990]

How is the low beam outside? Or say in a dark room, will the low red LEDs light up the room?

 

[Phredd]

I got my A2L white and while it's a very, very nice light, its flood is not as smooth or wide as the A2. I think the 3mm LEDs are recessed too far. So, now I have to choose between A2L's 2.5 hour runtime versus 45 minutes (using the 120 lumen bulb) and A2's really nice warm (bulb that burns out after 20 hours) beam and almost full hemisphere flood.

Phredd

 

[DimeRazorback]

In a dark room it will light it up well.

Outside it isn't very useful over a few meters... the colour get washed away in the green of grass

 

[subiedriver1990]

Thanks for the info. I use a red beamcover on my lx2 and I don't really get enough flood to make it really useful for up close use. It works nicely on far objects, and kills my batteries because I have to keep it on high to get any semblance of flood from it. I'll be picking an A2L up here soon! Overall DimeRazorback, are you satisfied with the A2L?

 

[DimeRazorback]

I most definitely am!

It really is awesome in my opinion!

Not for everyone I don't think, but it must be for me



:thumbsup:

 

[DuckhunterInTN]

I got my A2L white and while it's a very, very nice light, its flood is not as smooth or wide as the A2. I think the 3mm LEDs are recessed too far. So, now I have to choose between A2L's 2.5 hour runtime versus 45 minutes (using the 120 lumen bulb) and A2's really nice warm (bulb that burns out after 20 hours) beam and almost full hemisphere flood.

Phredd

Thanks for the info. I was wondering how the white A2L was going to perform. I really expected it to have a better/brighter flood than an old white A2...

 

[RWT1405]

Not what I wanted to hear about the flood/spill. I was afraid this was going to happen.

My .02 FWIW YMMV

 

[Sgt. LED]

Way too blue tinted for me. They were close to getting my money but using the same blue Seoul from the P60L is a big deal breaker.

 

[batman]

I can't believe it's taken so long for someone to ask this..is the low beam on the a2l white as purplish/bluish/angry tinted as the original a2? That was one of the suckier aspects of the original low beam white.

 

[youreacrab]

Way too blue tinted for me. They were close to getting my money but using the same blue Seoul from the P60L is a big deal breaker.

Have to agree...

Surefire has abandonded the philosophy of use of the origial A2...just for the sake of stuffing an LED into an aging light. One would think that decent color rendition is especially important for an aviators' light used for inspections, at distance, upon which people lives will depend greatly. They shoulda stuffed her with a high-CRI P4 and driven it a bit harder. On an aviators' light, I would think enhanced throw and color rendition outweigh the need for extended runtime. Sorry SF, ya goofed! Love my LX2 though!

 

[zven]

Have to agree...

Surefire has abandonded the philosophy of use of the origial A2...just for the sake of stuffing an LED into an aging light. One would think that decent color rendition is especially important for an aviators' light used for inspections, at distance, upon which people lives will depend greatly. They shoulda stuffed her with a high-CRI P4 and driven it a bit harder. On an aviators' light, I would think enhanced throw and color rendition outweigh the need for extended runtime. Sorry SF, ya goofed! Love my LX2 though!

To be fair, I don't really think SF intended the A2L to completely replace the A2. Sure their marketing department has concentrated more on the A2L, but I don't think we've seen any signs they're discontinuing the A2. And as long as the A2 is around, they're not abandoning the user base that needs the color rendering. As I see it, the A2L is for a different user base that wants the different high/low beam patterns and colors, but needs more runtime than the A2.

That said, I'm a little disappointed in what I'm hearing of the A2L as well. I was hoping that its output on high would at least be in the ballpark of the LX2, and that if it wasn't it would at least be a better tint than the P60L. Also, I knew it wasn't going to throw as well as the LX2, but I was hoping for a bit better than it turned out.

Oh well. Looks like I won't be needing an A2L. I'll wait for a review of the white version, but I think I'll get an LX2 instead.

 

[tussery]

I must be one of the few people on CPF that can actually make out colors well under sickly blue light... Or some people just blow it way out of proportion.

 

[mwaldron]

I must be one of the few people on CPF that can actually make out colors well under sickly blue light... Or some people just blow it way out of proportion.

I can make out colors under normal LEDs, but I choose not to. I shouldn't have to work in order to see.

Thankfully, the LED companies are finally catching on to this and they're giving us options. Yes, they're certainly (comparatively) inefficient, but the efficiency gets better by the day.

I don't need a 1000 lumen 2-cell light (i do WANT one! ) but as traditional emitters approach that it will become very economical to run WW emitters at ~250 lumens. Yes, they will still be comparatively inefficient, but they'll be good enough that we just won't care.

The Surefire A2L: my future host for a WW P4 mod.

 

[jonesy]

No love for new SF A2L?

Seemed that this light was all the talk of CPF for quite some time, and now that it's here it's fallen off the radar. I saw the review of the red led version, but have yet to see a photo of what the regular white low led's look like, or a size comparison to other lights.

What's the general consensus? I was originally curious in buying one, as it would be a poor man's lunasol for me, but now I'm not so sure.

 

[CGD08]

Re: No love for new SF A2L?

but now I'm not so sure.

haha what irony

Sorry man, I can't help you. Don't know about the light. The least I could do is reply to your thread, thus ing it up so it can at least be seen by more people.