When it comes to your hiking flashlight, not only do you want to have a high quality light, you most definitely NEED to have a backup light too!
It was a Friday afternoon after work when I decided to pick up my current SureFire G3 (which I love for hiking) from my local outdoors store before hitting some trails that evening with some friends. Upon getting the light home, as any good flashlight enthusiast, I immediate compared its output to a family member’s SureFire G2. I was underwhelmed; my new G3 (105 lumens) was dimmer than the G2 (65 lumens). I thought this was odd, but it wasn’t going to keep me from taking it out into the woods that night.
While on a trail in the woods, I suddenly noticed that the light began to dim substantially. Over the course of about 20-30 seconds, it faded into nothing and went out. I was surprised and at first suspected that the batteries had died even though it had only been ran 15 minutes at the most that night (non continually). Luckily, I had my SureFire E1B LED flashlight which I carry daily in my pocket (ironically, it’s actual full name is E1B Backup). Now granted, I was with a group of people and we probably had 6-8 flashlights in total, but having my E1B was extremely convenient when my 15 minute old, brand new flashlight dies.
Upon getting home, I tested the lamp for continuity with a digital multimeter—it was dead. Now I must say, that most would definitely agree that my SureFire lamp dying that quickly is definitely a fluke and an extremely rare event (what luck!). SureFire makes some of the best flashlights in the world and even with this experience, I still firmly believe in SureFire’s illumination tools. The point is that ANY light by any manufacture can have a fluke failure. Be prepared in case it happens to you.
So remember, ALWAYS have more than one flashlight when you’re on the trails at night (and spare batteries/lamps would be a great idea too). When it comes to your hiking flashlight, two is one and one is none.
Stay safe out there.
-Robert
3 years ago
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1 note
For those looking for a hiking flashlight, there seems to be a lot of commotion on the Internet about SureFire’s upcoming and first ever headlamp, the “Saint.” For a hiking flashlight, headlamps are obviously useful tools to have and the upcoming SureFire Saint looks promising I must say.
The new headlamp features a white LED with user selectable brightness ranging from 0 to 100 lumens. Another first for SureFire is it’s ability to run on either 3x CR123 lithium batteries or optionally on 2x AA alkaline batteries which will give owners nice flexibility in using whichever batteries they have on hand. SureFire claims a total runtime on high of 6 hours and 144 hours on low (1 lumen) and an SOS mode that can run for days.
The SureFire Saint is made of aerospace-grade aluminum and will weigh only 8.7 ounces. It supposedly will be available in October/November 2008 and will carry a suggested retail price of $185. Keep an eye on SureFire’s website for more information and to see when it becomes available.
-Robert
3 years ago
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Notes
As an avid Geocacher, by default, I’ve become a bit of an avid hiker. But even more so, I’m quite the flashlight enthusiast and a member of various online flashlight communities and discussion forums. Naturally, I’ve found a liking for hiking and Geocaching at night since it combines two of my hobbies. If you are like me and do some hiking at night, by the end of this blog post you will know about one of the most amazing hiking flashlights I’ve ever tried!
My fiancée and I have owned a variety of SureFire LED, Fenix LED, and Nitecore lithium flashlights and have been using them for our hiking adventures, but we just recently tried out a SureFire incandescent for our nighttime hiking outings. We tried out the SureFire G3 Nitrolon flashlight—and it is awesome!
First, let me tell you a little about it…
It’s actually quite small and lightweight, which is great when you’re carrying around your flashlight along with other equipment while hiking. The SureFire G3 measures 6.5 inches long and weighs only 5.5 ounces due to it’s Nitrolon (polymer) body. If you are used to carrying around a big 2D-cell aluminum flashlight, you’ll definitely welcome the reduction in size and especially weight. It is powered by 3xCR123 lithium batteries and has a runtime of 60 minutes.
Alright, so it’s lighter and smaller than a 2D-cell flashlight, but so are a lot of other flashlights. Yes, but most other flashlights that are smaller are usually pretty dim and worthless. In comparison, my SureFire G3 puts out 105 lumens of light which is over 5 times the output of a big and bulky 2D-cell flashlight! I’m definitely not going to be lugging around one of those big things anymore. In all honesty though, some may actually find the G3 to be too bright, and if that is the case, I would strongly urge you to look into the G3’s little brother, the nearly identical SureFire G2 (65 lumens on 2xCR123 for 60 minutes).
Like I said above, I do own quite a few high-output LED flashlights too. To be honest, there are definitely LED flashlights that are smaller, as bright, and run for longer than my newly acquired G3. So why do I love the G3 so much for hiking after owning so many LED flashlights? Simple, it comes down to color rendition. Xenon incandescent flashlights give you much better color rendition on the trail which translates into better vision, easier to locate items (Geocaches), and more vivid colors of your surroundings. I’ve also found them to be easier on my eyes.
Don’t get me wrong, I still love my other SureFire LED flashlights. But I offer this challenge: if you go hiking with an LED flashlight now, try an incandescent of equivalent brightness. I highly doubt that you will go back. With that being said, I do keep my SureFire E1B in my pocket as a backup while hiking with my G3. If you’re already into hiking and often find yourself hiking at night then you already know the importance of having backup lights so I don’t need to go into that.
So there you have it. Be sure to check out the SureFire G3 lithium flashlight the next time you are at your local outdoors store or online if you’re in need of a good hiking flashlight. Stay safe out on the trails!
- Robert
3 years ago
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