Surefire vs. Fenix

I have Fenix, Surefire, Novatac.

I use the Novatacs the most because they are small and handy and produce a huge amount of light.

They will also take rechargeable cells.

My Fenix L2D also works perfectly on rechargeables.

This is the main reason I dont use my SF. I cannot understand why SF is so backward in this area.

Rechargeables make sense from every angle. SF needs to get on this and pronto!
 
fair enough, though usually you can find 123's in any walgreens, cvs, home depot, ect. granted that you probly cant get them at the local quicky mart. so yeah, if I was going around the world or something I would bring my single cell AA fenix with me as well as one of my surefires.
 
Kind of like the 123's. They work, even after sitting in the glove box during temperature extremes for years. Too many times, I've reached for the flashlight, only to find that the temperature extremes have caused my 2 year old alkies to die.
 
pvicenzi said:
Kind of like the 123's. They work, even after sitting in the glove box during temperature extremes for years. Too many times, I've reached for the flashlight, only to find that the temperature extremes have caused my 2 year old alkies to die.
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Agreed. I always hated finding my maglite dead in the truck before I knew what a good flashlight was.

I have EDC'd a surefire for a long time and have never had any problems. My E1B has been through the wash twice now and came out working just like it did before. It has been dropped many times, left out in freezing cold weather while camping and is carried on a construction site every day. It has never skipped a beat. I will stick with the Surefire. If I lost my E1B tomorrow, I would have another one on the way to me by days end.

Also, for those comparing lumen ratings from manufacturers, it has been well documented that Surefire always under rated their lights while most other brands over rate theirs. Something to consider. I would suggest candlepowerforums if you really want to investigate the world of lights, but be careful, it can be every bit as addicting as knives, if not worse.
 
Buffalohump said:
I have Fenix, Surefire, Novatac.

I use the Novatacs the most because they are small and handy and produce a huge amount of light.

They will also take rechargeable cells.

My Fenix L2D also works perfectly on rechargeables.

This is the main reason I dont use my SF. I cannot understand why SF is so backward in this area.

Rechargeables make sense from every angle. SF needs to get on this and pronto!
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All those brands you mentioned are small and very bright. What are you going to do when your rechargeable batteries die? Find an outlet?
 
This is a topic that gets beaten to death among light geeks [I'm one of those geeks]. I'm sure Fenix makes a decent light, but SureFire makes exceptional products and their customer service/warranty is legendary. I don't care for anything made in China [when I have choice] so I'm not interested in Fenix. The brightness argument [Fenix has more high-powered lights for less $] may be valid, but I can assure you that SureFire makes plenty of bright lights for a reasonable price. SureFire is slow to adopt new technologies, but they test, test, test b/c they know that a lot of people rely heavily on their products [military, SAR, police etc]. The threshold nowadays is around 100 lumens, that's a ton of light! Their E2D LED puts-out a retina-searing 200 lumens for ~$140. Yeah they use CR123, but as mentioned earlier, lithiums are essential in cold climates, are smaller, run longer, and have a shelf life of 10 years. You will not be disappointed with a SureFire and if anything happens, you'll be taken care of no questions asked.
 
Surefire and Fenix both make wonderful (and VERY different) lights. I've got a number of models from each. Add in Nitecore D10, a couple of JetBeams, Malkoff LA's, and numerous others.

Surefire was my introduction to quality lights, but fast forward to today and other makers have engineered much more versatile and attractive lights which are offered at much lower prices. Biggest issue for me with Surefires is the requirement for most of their models to be powered by lithium primary cells. These are a great power source, but get weaker with every use and must be thrown away in time... much less desireable to me than li-ion rechargeables, which many wonderful competing models are able to be powered by.

With rechargeable li-ions you can start every day with fully charged, 4.2v of potent power. Li-ions aren't for everyone, but for those who want to understand and use them... they're a godsend power source! And pretty much all I use to power about twenty five different flashlights with, ranging in size from AAA-size to AA-size, RCR-123, 14500, 17670, and 18650. Li-ion. It's the future, today.

Overall top choice/bottom line for me (and numerous others here and over at candlepowerforums.com) is 4Sevens Quark series. And of all the Quark models (most of which you can lego til your fingers go numb) the Quark AA model sings the sweetest. You can power this with a AA-sized 4.2v Lithium-ion rechargeable for amazingly bright output, AA-sized NiMh rechargeable, AA lithium primary (about 16 year shelf life!), and even the lowly (and ubiquitous) AA alkaline cell. The Quark has a brilliantly bright turbo mode, a pip-squeeky wonderfully low "moon" mode, several levels in between, warm and cool color LED options, and a couple of emergency oriented modes. Quark heads, body tubes, and tail caps interchange galore for forward clicky, reverse clickie, momentary, etc. This is an amazingly well designed system of flashlight components brought to us by a great company for very reasonable prices. 4Seven's Quark. Check them out!
 
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Very interesting thread. I have both, 4 Fenix/ 1 Quark w 3 bodies, 3 Surefires.
Fenix company is light and nimble. It is innovative and can bring products to market quickly. Quality is very good.
Surefire is slower to develop products for several reasons. Research and testing. Products used by mining industries, petrochemical industries, DOD and Federal LEO agencies are tested in extreme conditions. This also adds to the expense of the products. Imagine all the lawyers involved in developing a federal contract.

If I had to apply a one word description to each company/product line.
Surefire: Dependable
Fenix: Innovative.
I am glad we have both companies to choose from.
 
LEDs and electronics rapidly evolve, I wouldn't invest in an expensive SF, which sports often out-dated components, when it's going to be outperformed by next month's products . Not to say SF lights are overpriced. To me it seems that a lot of customers are shifting towards Fenix and the like for a reason.
 
chenko said:
LEDs and electronics rapidly evolve, I wouldn't invest in an expensive SF, which sports often out-dated components, when it's going to be outperformed by next month's products . Not to say SF lights are overpriced. To me it seems that a lot of customers are shifting towards Fenix and the like for a reason.
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ya, cause they dont want to spend the coin. I'm not saying fenix lights arent great, they are. but surefire warranties there stuff forever, no questions asked. I had aclip get mangled on one of mine cause it fell out of my truck in a parking lot and got hit by anouther plow truck. found it a month later in a half melted snow bank, took it home cleaned it threw in new cells and it fired right up, still have it. I called surefire for a new clip and told em I had no problem paying for it seeing that the light was hit by a truck, and they said no charge. That kind of service goes into surefires prices. not to mention the durability and fit and finish that they have. Also since sf has to warranty the led forever, they are not going to crank the kind of current through their leds that fenix does because it is going to burn out a lot faster, and then they would have to warranty them. with fenix, you just have to buy another light. which is normally fine because they cost half as much
 
dcycleman said:
ya, cause they dont want to spend the coin. I'm not saying fenix lights arent great, they are. but surefire warranties there stuff forever, no questions asked. I had aclip get mangled on one of mine cause it fell out of my truck in a parking lot and got hit by anouther plow truck. found it a month later in a half melted snow bank, took it home cleaned it threw in new cells and it fired right up, still have it. I called surefire for a new clip and told em I had no problem paying for it seeing that the light was hit by a truck, and they said no charge. That kind of service goes into surefires prices. not to mention the durability and fit and finish that they have. Also since sf has to warranty the led forever, they are not going to crank the kind of current through their leds that fenix does because it is going to burn out a lot faster, and then they would have to warranty them. with fenix, you just have to buy another light. which is normally fine because they cost half as much
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I'm confused. Surefire doesn't want to spend the money to upgrade the components?
 
I would not hesitate to buy a Fenix model that appealed to me. However, I've had good results with Surefire products and their customer service. Long ago I damaged a lens on an old 9Z and they sent me an upgraded replacement, no charge.

I had a Surefire forend on a shotgun for many years. It stayed out in the rain and splashing water all day on lots of two or three-week Western Alaska whitewater trips. Got knocked around quite a bit. It was also pushed through a great deal of heavy bush when hiking. Eventually the switch started giving me trouble. I figured it would cost me $60 or so to have a replacement installed. Instead, I received a brand new unit (the whole darn thing) with all the current features---no charge.

DancesWithKnives
 
jdraizor said:
Also, for those comparing lumen ratings from manufacturers, it has been well documented that Surefire always under rated their lights while most other brands over rate theirs. Something to consider. I would suggest candlepowerforums if you really want to investigate the world of lights, but be careful, it can be every bit as addicting as knives, if not worse.
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Roger that. The flashlight bug is very addicting. I bought the Fenix T1, M30 Triton and was very disappointed with the light throw. Both claimed high lumens, Fenix T1 225Lumens, M30 Triton 8,120, and 700 lumens. My Streamlight Supertac 135 Lumnes blew both away. The lumen ratings can vary greatly. (These 3 mentioned are not edc)

My first good flashlight was the ARC-LS, awesome light, bad company management.
I also own the Fenix P1D,P2D, Preon I & II, Jetbeam MK.II R and the Firstlight Tomahawk LE, Surefire E2D and E1L. All these are great lights, but my Surefire E2D is my edc. I've learned you get what you pay for, that goes for almost everything. I know not everyone can afford $200 flashlights, so Fenix, Jetbeam and Quark are great alternatives. I bought my boys the Fenix P1D's for the quality and low cost knowing they'll most likely lose them. When their more responsible I'll get them Surefires. Surefire quality is hard to beat. +1 for Surefire LED's
 
Josh K said:
I'm confused. Surefire doesn't want to spend the money to upgrade the components?
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My quote was unclear, I was refering to the previose poster saying that people are gravitating towards fenix, quark, and the like rather than surefire. I was commenting that they are probably doing this because of the difference in cost.
 
dcycleman said:
My quote was unclear, I was refering to the previose poster saying that people are gravitating towards fenix, quark, and the like rather than surefire. I was commenting that they are probably doing this because of the difference in cost.
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Ah, that makes more sense now. :)
 
Cost is definitely a good part of it. But other makers are also including some wonderful versatility in output levels, UI, color quality, and powering options that are available on very few, if any Surefire models.
 
I've been quite interested in newer lights with multiple features. Started out with bright lights that were cheap, such as those found on dealextreme and whatnot, but slowly, I've been working towards lights meant to last.

While I do still light playing with Fenix, Romisen, ITP, and a plethora of other lights, my sights have been turned towards Surefire and Inova lately, particularly the Inova X2. A single mode light with a twist for constant on, and a button for momentary, this thing is meant to take a beating. Though it might not be the most up-to-date, it should be able to offer years of use, and if I do somehow break it, the warranty is good to go.
 
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