Sep 28

When it comes to a hiking flashlight, just like with the rest of your outdoor gear, you generally don’t want to skimp on your equipment.  Does this mean that you have to spend a forune?  Not necessarily.  I was recently able to checkout a relatively inexpensive SureFire flashlight that is great for hiking.  In fact, by the end of this article, you will know of a great all around hiking flashlight for under $50

So your hiking backpack lacks a good, high quality hiking flashlight.  Obviously you will want a waterproof flashlight that is rugged, dependable, and bright enough to see your immediate surrounding but also in the distance when you need it.  Before you jump to an LED flashlight, I would strongly suggest an incandescent hiking flashlight due to its better color rendition.  LED flashlights are great around the home, but out in the woods, your outdoor gear should really contain a quality incandescent (Xenon).

Based on the above considerations, I’d strongly recommend you give the SureFire G2 Nitrolon a good long look.  It is powered by 2x CR123 lithium batteries and produces a bright 65 lumens of output with a 60 minute run time.  In really dark situation such as out in the woods at night, 65 lumens is plenty sufficient.  The beam it produces is a nice mixture of side spill, which allows you to see your immediate surroundings, with a bright center hot spot to see in the distance.

Be sure to pick up a SureFire G2 for a great hiking flashlight before you set out on your next hiking vacation.  It will complement the rest of your quality outdoor gear that’s stashed in your hiking backpack.

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Sep 11

If you are about to purchase your first lithium flashlight and you’ve done your research, you have probably decided on an LED lithium flashlight. I mean, why not? They tend to brighter, smaller, and run for much longer than their incandescent counterparts. So why should you still be considering an incandescent? Color rendition.

So you’re probably thinking, “What is the world is color rendition?” Color rendering is the light’s ability to render or portray the colors of an object as compared to its appearance under sunlight (or some other ideal light source). Because LED’s produce light in a narrower portion of the light spectrum, LED’s have a lower CRI (color rendering index) score compared to an incandescent lithium flashlight.

Depending on how you use your lithium flashlight, color rendering may or may not be an issue for you. For example, if you work in IT or around electronics and have to regularly determine which wire is red and which is orange, or which is blue and which is purple, having a flashlight with a high CRI may be very advantageous and could possible prevent a catastrophe if you couldn’t determine the wire color correctly.

Below are two digital photos where camera setting were kept constant for both shots. On the top, is a SureFire P60 lamp (Xenon incandescent) and on the bottom, a SureFire P60L LED. Notice the big differences in the color.

I won’t go further into any of the details of CRI and light (Wikipedia is a good place to start if you want to learn more though), but just wanted to bring the topic of color rendering to light for people and how LEDs and incandescents and be quite different.

In closing, LED technology is advancing rapidly and will most likely achieve a CRI score similar to an incandescent in the future, but for the time being, a good-old incandescent is hard to beat when accurate colors are a must from your lithium flashlight.

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Sep 4

Today’s discussion is about a small SureFire LED lithium flashlight that I’ve found to be the best little flashlight for everyday carry.  This small flashlight was released earlier this year by SureFire out of Fountain Valley, CA and it has been carried daily, clipped to my pocket for over 6 months now.  What is the name of this amazing light that I speak of?  The SureFire E1B Backup.

First up, this little Surefire LED lithium flashlight really is small!  The E1B is only 4 in. long (slightly longer than my index finger) and weighs only 2.80 oz.  It is made of aluminum and has a HAIII hard anodized black finish (mil-spec).  It includes a forward-click tailcap (press for momentary light, click to keep on) which activates it’s two modes of light output.  To change modes, you simply turn it off and quickly turn it back on to cycle between high and low.

What’s truly amazing though, is the shear brightness of its LED and its amazing runtime on low.  On high, this SureFire LED produces a near blinding 80 lumens of light–more light than a big 3 D-cell flashlight!  It’s low mode produces 5 lumens of light for an amazing 37 hours.

My Thoughts Over The Past 6 Months

As I mentioned above, this Surefire LED lithium flashlight has been clipped to my pocket and used regularly for over 6 months now.  Here are my experiences and findings.

First, let’s get my only gripe out of the way…
Unlike most other SureFire LED flashlights, it’s aluminum body lacks knurling in the finish which I’ve found makes the light a bit slippery at times.  On the other hand though, it’s lack of knurling is easier on your clothing and other items in your pocket.  I’d say it is probably a fair trade off.

I really like that when I turn the light on, it always come on in its high mode first, then I have the option to cycle to low.  This way, if I’m walking along and see or hear something and need to light it up, I don’t waste time have to cycle to high.  This SureFire E1B utilizes what SureFire calls its Total Internal Reflection (TIR) lens which allows this lithium flashlight to more efficiently capture all the light from the LED emitter and “throw” it further distances than a similar sized flashlight.  I’ve found that it is really is amazing how far you can see with a flashlight of this size.

In addition, it’s TIR lens also makes the 5 lumen low actually useful in my opinion.  5 lumens is really not a lot of light, but when all the light is projected tightly together, I’ve found that it’s actually useful enough to walk around in the dark if you need to conserve battery life.

In closing, I have been extremely happy with my SureFire E1B lithium flashlight over the past 6 months of use.  If you are looking for a great lithium flashlight for everyday use that is compact enough to fit in your pocket, I strongly urge you to look no further than this SureFire LED flashlight–the E1B Backup.

If you own one yourself or have any questions, I would love you hear about you experiences or try to answer some questions.  Please feel free to comment below.  Here is a link to the SureFire E1B Backup.

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