My Trip to the Balkans was fantastic, but that will be a post unto itself.
Some time ago I wrote about Solarforce lights as a reasonably priced everyday carry light. The L2 lights are one of my favorite carry options, but they can be a bit large and a little on the heavy side. The are basically the legos of lights, being quite customizable. Recently, Solarforce introduced a new polymer body. So I ordered one from solarforce-sales to test out.
First the bad- the polymer body is not compatible with any of my other L2 aluminum body parts. However, they have an awful lot of good things going for them and I suspect this light is going to make it into my carry rotation quite a lot.
Emitter options are quite broad with the L2 sized body, and for this light I went with LC-XML 3.7-8v single mode power plant. Even though this emitter rates 3.7v as the minimum- I've had no problems running 18650 3.7 rechargeable in it with great brightness and adequate battery life. I haven't done a full discharge yet, so I can't comment on total life span, but so far I'm very pleased. The focus ring is tight enough to get some good range, but there is sufficient flood to actually see what you are doing in most any setting.
I will say that I had to change the spring around the emitter to get it to run in this body, switching to an older (and shorter) spring around the emitter body. This is of little consequence to me as I have tons of spare parts around for these lights, but not everyone has a spare parts bin for all of their assorted hobbies, so be advised it could be an issue.
The polymer L2 body is noticeably lighter than the aluminum body, and does have a forward clicky / temporary on tail switch like I prefer. However, it does not balance on the tailcap like the H3 caps I prefer on the aluminum light. Being almost a half inch shorter though than the aluminum body, I think I am starting to prefer this light already over the aluminum counterpart.
Obviously, this light is solarforce's competition to the surefire G2 body, ironically, it is one of their more expensive body options, costing upwards of 20 bucks at the time of this writing. Realistically, I would consider buying one of the kits where an emitter is included instead of buying them individually - as the combination packages generally seem to offer better pricing.
At right you can see a close up of the tail-caps. Unlike the surefire G2, which turns to constant on if you screw the tail-cap down completely, the L2 polymer body allows for full thread engagement and only uses the tail-cap clicker to turn on the light. I much prefer this style, as the G2 I've played with engages accidentally far too often for my liking.
Unlike with a stock aluminum L2 body, the Polymer does not come with a crenelated bezel. I consider this a bonus, as I used to have to sink another couple bucks into each light to switch to a flat bezel that did not cut into my pockets.
The polymer L2 comes with a white opaque plastic insert to keep cr123a rechargeables and primary batteries from rattling within the body. I find that the tube is not necessary (nor compatible) with my protected 18650s, but it does work well with the primary and rechargeable cr123s I have tried.
Overall, I'm a big fan of this new body. I think it would be a no-brainer at 15 bucks, but for 20, I think it is just barely overpriced. the combo emitter / body packages though are actually pretty good deals, with good emitter, body, and belt pouch packages hovering right around 50 bucks shipped.
Teaser pic below of the next thing to be reviewed, I know blue is excited.
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