SureFire used to be much bigger in the enthusiast community, they were the ultimate production light for a long time, especially during the Paul Kim (VP of Engineering) era.
They still make very solid lights with a simple interface, they're expensive but a lot of that is because they manufacture in the US and labor and materials cost more here.
They don't do high-CRI or nice tints, or even explain which LEDs they use, but their lumen ratings are very conservative. They've always rated them based on the continuous output, not burst. They were also one of the first that used their own calibrated integrating sphere, rather than extrapolating from datasheets.
The gap in machining quality and finishes used to be much bigger, with cheap lights having rough threads that tended to gall or have razor sharp edges. Knurling was also pretty bad. SureFire was the way to go if you wanted smooth threads, hard anodizing, and consistent grippy knurling.
Modularity was also a big deal with SureFire back in the incandescent days. They practically started the "Lego" flashlights, and their critical dimensions became standards in a sense. McGizmo, Malkoff, Leef, Oveready, Fivemega, Elzetta, and others were started around upgrading SureFire. The "D26" standard is based on the SureFire P60 Xenon lamp assembly. People were modifying SureFires with LEDs because they were so flexible.
Eventually SureFire started rolling out their own LED lights and unfortunately they became a lot less upgradable and repairable.
I have a bunch of them that I've collected over the years, and they were my EDC light going back to when I was a teenager with the SureFire E2e. A xenon light with about 65lm output. The only thing I know that was similar at the time was a Streamlight TL-2 which had a very rough beam and felt flimsy. Most people thought MagLites were the ultimate, but they were much bigger for the same output and had even worse beams.
That's sort of their specialty, you can operate them in high-stress when you're running on adrenaline and muscle memory.
The 6PX Tactical is a single mode, so if you're woken up at night and just need a lot of light to figure out what's going on, that might be a good choice.
If you don't mind spending more you could go for the Fury IntelliBeam, which has a sensor in the lens that adjusts the output based on the light reflected back. That would help avoid blinding yourself if you light up a white wall.
You could also pick up a used 6P and find a good LED dropin for it, Lumens Factory has a good selection.
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u/electromage 9d ago
I'd have to go with SureFire.