Awesome Hiking Flashlight - SureFire G3 Lithium Flashlight
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
