Review: Solarforce L2T with a Solarforce three mode XM-L dropin.

Yes I know others have reviewed this light (no doubt better than I can) but I figured one more review can’t hurt, right?

I have always wanted a SF C2 since I first saw one but just couldn’t justify the price (I have bought a car for less for goodness sake) So when I I found BLF and Foys rave reviews of Solarforce I knew I had to get a L2T. Along with the L2T host I also bought a three mode (high, medium and low, no disco modes) 3.7-8.4V XM-L dropin and a pocket clip/lanyard ring.

Fit and finish
I don’t need to tell you how great the machining or finish is on this light, it is typical Solarforce perfection we BLFers have came to expect. The lens is crystal clear, the threads are well lubed from the factory and the dull matte finish is smooth while still offering a surprising amount of grip.

The head
The head is nicely knurled, not so aggressive that it would cut up your pants or skin but still aggressive enough to assure you won’t be dropping it under even the most extreme conditions. The bezel ring is nice but just sticks out too far, cutting off a bit of the usable spill so I switched it out with a flush silver bezel ring off of my solarfarce L2m (fake), it isn’t perfectly flush but it is close enough.

The body
Their is not much to say about it, the finish is smooth and clean. There is no knurling on the body, rather the light depends on two rubber rings for use in a “cigar grip” or Harries grip, depending on if you use your thumb or the ball of your hand to trigger the forward clickie. Of course the light is still plenty comfortable to hold in a standard reverse hammer or hose grip (those are the names I made up and I am sticking with them :stuck_out_tongue: ) due to the rings being made of rubber rather than scalloped aluminum like some other lights of similar design.

The tail
Now I know there are people who do not like forward clickies like this light has but you need to remember, this light isn’t really intended to be a multi-mode, multi-use EDC. This light is designed to be used in a Harries grip in conjunction with a sidearm, with the protruding forward clickie used to flash the light for room clearing and target ID. Surprisingly with the Solarforce dropin I bought the memory is fast enough that even when used with a Harries grip it doesn’t switch modes during my dry runs through my house. again, the knurling is nice and the forward clickie is smooth.

The dropin
As I mentioned earlier I purchased a three mode XM-L dropin with high, medium and low outputs that has a voltage range of 3.7 to 8.4 volts. I primarily intend to run this light on 18650s but the ability to run it on 2 CR123s or even 2 16340s if needed is a plus in my eyes. The modes are very well spaced (100, 50 and 10% according to Solarforce) and the memory is very fast but still slow enough to easily switch between modes before it kicks in.

Here are some beam shots with a few common lights (taken with my cellphone with the same/locked settings)
Solarforce L2T XM-L on high

Tmart Ultrafire C8 XM-L

And the good old Maglite 2D incan

The clip
The clip is nice and springy, well finished and fits perfectly. The only gripe I have is the lanyard loop reverse of the clip pokes me in the side when I carry the light in between all the other junk in/clipped to my pocket so I will be chopping it off.

Thank you for checking out my review.

So that is my review. Any questions, comments, recommendations, gripes, ect?

Thanks for the review paraframe! As it so happens I’m salivating for 2 L2T’s but the morons at Paypal have decided to stop believing I’m me, so now I’ve gotta wait 5 business days before probably more nonsense. |( . You’re not helping :wink:

Harris grip ?
Please elaborate.

I like “standard reverse hammer or hose grip” and assume they’re opposite to each other ?

Harries technique (with the help of a 10 second delay on my camera and Mr. S&W 4059)

“reverse hammer”

“hose”

It just so happens that after reading a lot about these hosts that a particular person on this forum has a preference to, left subliminal messages in my head going on and on and in my sleep last night I must have bought one as there is a bill in my Pay Pal account for this very host. Is the lanyard loop a wire or flat steel? if it was flat steel it could be filed of.

Flat steel, I already ground it off with a bench grinder. I try to wait at least a day before I start drastically modding things I buy, but sometimes I fail. >)

And yes, it is all Foys fault.

Is that his name. He's cost me a lot of money over the short period of time that I've been here. Do you have any current readings of this particular drop in?

Yeah, I just checked, high 1.24A, medium .54A and low .12A with an unprotected sanyo 2600 mAh 18650. Apparently the driver in this dropin quite underdrives the XM-L. I am still happy with it though, it is plenty bright for my uses and should give longer runtimes then I expected due to the lower amp draw.

The other plus also only being driven at 1.24 amp is you should not have a problem with heat. I have a drop in here with a 2.8 amp 7135 driver that puts out 2.5 amps on high and .7 amps on medium. High is orsm and medium not that far behind.

Thanks.
I guess we can add “cigar grip” and “pencil grip”…

Nice review and awesome pics……I own a couple and love the look and finish of both. If i may ask why did you get a 3 mode when the L2T uses a forward clicky, did you change out to reverse for the 3 mode.

hey pal. nice review.
i love my L2T also. Currently running a SF 3 mode drop in. works well…

alfreddajero, I actually prefer forward clickys. I don’t know why, I just do. It is just as simple to me to soft press before clicking as it is to soft press after clicking to choose modes plus I like the ability to momentarily activate the light and the memory is fast enough that it doesn’t switch modes unless you want it to.

The reason i asked is because i got the new M3 with the L2p combo on the way………and the L2p is a forward clicky, guess i am just from the old school frame of mind that with mode changing a reverse would be better. Might have to get used to it when it gets here is all.

So that’s what it’s called. The “Harris” grip. Thank you very much, sir.

nowIknowFoy

It is actually called the Harri e s method/technique/grip not Harris. I had it wrong.

notedFoy

Very nice review, thanks! Frontpage’d and Sticky’d.