600 Lumens for 295$ LMAO

I’m in the same boat and think you nailed it 100%. One important note, I’ve never paid MSRP for Surefire—deals are out there.

Surefire keeps their products at a very high MSRP because they have a lot of government contracts. They are ripping of the government and ultimately the troops who are using these lights that are generally crap. I hate to think a $600.00 flashlight would fail at the moment of truth when that Marine kicking in a door needs that light to see what is waiting for him on the other side.
I saw an earlier post that there were some fellow Marines who couldn’t give them away. Maybe they should collect as many of them as they can and when returning from deployment sell them on eBay as a “used in battle and failed, or worked”
Streamlight is another high priced flashlight. However, in my opinion Streamlight is much more reliable that Surefire. Just my opinion.

Streamlight is also quite a bit cheaper than Surefire. Not as budget-friendly as the reliable Chinese brands that we’ve come to love in this forum, but still.

Aye, I find myself chuckling when I come across ads for a weapon mounted flashlight for $500. Bucks. Not just Streamlight, but many others. I think many are selling a name and not a reliable product. Just sayin’

No surprise there. That’s exactly what the big 3 (Mag-Lite, Surefire and Streamlight) have been doing for years now, banking on brand recognition and misplaced nationalism to keep raking in the Benjamins. Helps that the average joe thinks any LED light is the cream of the crop, no matter how outdated or inefficient the guts inside the host… :person_facepalming:

Not a fan of Surefire or any overpriced flashlight at all, but I think since these are for military or LEO usage they are trying to employ the K.I.S.S (keep it simple stupid) idea here.

Like my trusty ’502? :smiley:

Big triangular threads, but screws together like premium plumbing fixtures, smooth as glass and no grit. Simple D26 drop-in with XP-L and no-µC inside, just 7135s. Short of just a crappy array of parallelled resistors, it’s as reliable as you can get.

All premium parts, still probably <30bux.

All I’d need to do it pot the drop-in to make it all but bulletproof.

this 300 bucks light does basically same thing $20 convoy does. i have a feeling SF developed very friendly relations with defense dept, and have contracts with gvmnt who does not care much about price.

Close, very close. Convoy’s equivalent host to the overpriced junk in the OP is the M1, and you can get it in 7135x8 and 1A cool white for maximum luminosity AND the super-versatile Biscotti firmware for $21,66.

If you want an EDC flooder instead of a “P60 host”, you can get an S2 in this exact same configuration for $16,80. It does more than the SF, for less than a Jackson. And it’s brighter. :person_facepalming:

Oh you bet there’s some beak-wetting in there somewhere… :cowboy_hat_face:

Pfft, that’s nothing.

How is THIS a $1300+ light?

Surefire Dominator

It has a fancy selector ring thingy, and built in charger, but $1370? Yeah, no.
I’d rather have my trusty Convoy L6 which was literally 95% cheaper, with 1400 more lumens.

For every required CR123 battery you can pretty much get a Liitokala 100 charger. :smiley:

Eugh. If I want a fancy light with a fancy mode selector ring, I’ll just shell out the dosh for a big Acebeam.

So how many of you went with that budget Hi-point 9mm for self protection? Or a good Chinese pacemaker that works most of the time. Surefire and Streamlight make and sell the “IT’S GOT TO WORK EVERYTIME” stuff. I’ve seen gear used in methods not intended like as a club and still work. We are budget light as a hobby not for life and death situations. I enjoy my Convoy and Jetbeam but understand it’s Streamlight on the pistol because Olight has no proven track record for when it counts. Government agencies set up some pretty crazy abuse, shock and vibration test. Put your Acebeam in the dryer for 20 minutes and see if it still works. Try getting warranty repair while under fire or in a hurricane.
A little disclaimer I’ve carried some pretty questionable lights at work in the past. Now PFlexPRO is my carry light and back up light. Streamlight pro tac is in the car also.

Why so defensive? :disguised_face:

I’m not gonna put my torches through the wringer anytime soon, and even if I did, it’d be a Convoy. I’m sure it’d deliver beautifully.

And I don’t own any guns, gubmint won’t let me until the disarmament act is repealed, so the comparison doesn’t fit. And even if I did it wouldn’t be an American brand.

(Also I don’t own a dryer, way more than hot enough in the tropics for a clothesline to do the job in very little time :smiley: )

Maybe the led emitters used by Surefire are top secret ultra high tech designs or just generic Chinese made led’s.

I hear ya, but go’n’goggle “glock torture test”. Soak it in seawater, bury it in a wet mix of sand’n’salt, do all sorts of unspeakable things to it, and after a quick hosing-down it’ll still fire off a full clip without blinking. I don’t recall Glocks being 10× (or more) the price of similar form-factor wundernines.

Point being a decent light can be made to “work every time”, and fairly economically.

Alas, if it’s a locked-in market, you can charge whatever prices you want. (And believe me, they do.)

Glocks are way over priced at $500-$600. I can get a new Hi-point for $171, Bersa for $150 or a Cobra Arms Freedom .380 at $127 they all work the same most of the time. What is a locked-in market? Are you talking about vendor lock-in? Only a few companies build to pass MIL-SPEC, MIL-STD testing to get that. That does limit who can sell items requiring those specs. It is expensive to get those certification. However all manufacturers are free to try MIL-PRF cert.

Unfortunately Surefire own quite a lot of useful flashlight patents.

I would be much more confident carrying a Surefire than a Convoy if I was in law enforcement / military.

Each light has its purpose and price.

Surefire for self defense, Convoy for play. I appreciate both and would fork out the big Surefire price tag for peace of mind without any hesitation if I were in a military /law enforcement situation.

Amen to that!

There are quite a few characteristics/features of flashlight besides just the lumens per dollars as the OP stated. And I have several Surefires, and I didn’t pay MSRP for any of them. This year I’ve bought 10 lights: Surefire, Malkoff, Novatac (older made in USA), ITP, Niteye, Crelant, Jetbeam, and Nitecore. I agree that each light does have its place and purpose. Since collecting/using so many lights from 2009 forward, I will say I have yet to have any of my Surefires, Maglites, and other USA made lights fail me, high-pitch squeal, or flicker. Trustfire, Ultrafire, Fandyfire, Pantsonfire, —fire, have all failed, flickered, and squealed etc. I think the worst one was a drop of about 18 inches onto my carpet that stopped a light from working. Perhaps a wire or solder joint broke off on the board? $70 down the drain on that one I can’t “Trust” in that fire.

I’ve been eye-balling this light since late May of this year, so when I saw it was down to $150 shipped from its MSRP of $295, I reactivated an old thread here to give a heads-up to what appears to be very few interested. I didn’t think I’d see so many jump on the bash SF bandwagon. And if I’m not mistaken, Surefire pioneered/started the whole compact/high-performance flashlight industry. I don’t think it was Maglite, Brinkmann, Eveready, etc. It sure wasn’t a Chinese brand. Since I’m just one of many flashlight enthusiasts, I choose to pay homage and respect our flashlight elder - Surefire…

My 2 cents worth.