Surefire G3 LED - What are the doing?

[Toothbrush]

Normally, I am a large Surefire supporter and advocate but I am baffled by their most recent release.

For those who don't know, Surefire just released their G3 LED, a move which I saw coming after the release of their G2 LED. What I didn't expect was a more expensive flashlight which has performance less than that of its little brother.

Owning a G2, I know they are great lights, and from what I have read and heard the LED is even better. More lumens and a much longer run time at a good price. The G3 LED on the other hand, has equal lumen output while using and extra battery and runtime which is shorter by almost three hours. Can anyone explain this to me? I am completely baffled, as I hoped and expected when the G3 LED was released it would be better either in output or runtime, not worse.

Thanks for reading my rant.

www.surefire.com/maxexp/main/co_disp/displ/carfnbr/0/prrfnbr/24460/G2supandreg-sup-LED

www.surefire.com/maxexp/main/co_disp/displ/prrfnbr/24505/sesent/00

[Clampitt]

The G3 probably just has a longer tactical run time. Having the extra battery will let it run at a higher capacity for a longer time, but at the same time, will lower it's overall operational length by draining more of the battery quicker. Usually that tends to be the difference in other flashlights like that.

I could be wrong, but that's about the only thing i can think of right now. In all honesty though, I don't think the Surefire company would be stupid enough to release something that a cheaper flashlight of their own could outperform it that badly.

[Enkidu]

clampitt is on the right track. The G2LED doesn't list the length of "tactical-level light", but we can assume it to be fairly low. Also, the G2LED isn't microprocessor controlled like the G3LED is (according to a close reading of the product specs), which means it's time of "tactical-level light" will be significantly less than the 2/3rds-the-G3LED figure you might expect from the difference in battery space.

I'm guessing you'll get painful brightness for about 2 hours on the G2LED and then another 10 of useful light - decreasing in an exponential intensity curve over those hours. So there's your difference.

[Toothbrush]

Thanks a lot guys, what your saying makes perfect sense and is a great example of the need for looking at the details provided.

[Enkidu]

toothbrush said:

Thanks a lot guys, what your saying makes perfect sense and is a great example of the need for looking at the details provided.

I doubt if even a close reading of the specs on the webpage would help your average consumer. They're misleading by omission, and I had to make a number of techy assumptions to come to any kind of conclusion that matched what I expected. Yeah, this is highly unscientific, but I figure I'll give Surefire the benefit of the doubt on that one.

[Motown]

I carry the U2 Ultra at work as my tac light and it's "dial down" feature illustrates perfectly what Enki described.

At the highest (100 lumen) setting I can let it run for about 4 hours constant, after those four hours however, the beam starts to "stutter" unless you dial it down to each decreasing level. After so much use, it'll only be functional and "non-suttering" at the minimum 2 lumen setting.

IMO it's a great system because unlike the original surefire lights, when the batteries were done, the light just crapped out (with very little/no warning). With the LED's you're at least left with pretty decent amount of light and you know when you need to swap batteries.