Hello.

I see some people saying that they found 9v lights are too blinding for use indoors. I'm not sure what to use for home defense... I don't think I will be out there chasing the perp outdoors. But on the other hand it will be better to have more powerful light to blind the opponent.

Assuming that the light will be used mainly inside a house or close quarters in urban environment, which light (6v or 9v) would you choose? I'm not planning to do any patrol duty by the way

I like my 9v 962 indoors and out.

I just took these.  You can be the judge:

[img]http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid89/pe35797587546a6c3e58e7ab6e1820043/fa7aff53.jpg[/img]
[img]http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid89/p39039773f46f626cf8df8473911350c1/fa7aff4f.jpg[/img]

Ive heard some complain about it being too blinding against white walls.  Well color me goofy but I dont shine my light at walls.  I strobe dark spots looking for vermin.

Thank you very much for the pic.

Hmm...that doesn't seem too blinding to me.




There goes my excuse for trying to get smaller M952 over M962.

Mere ounces in weight seperate the the 962 from the 952.  Theres no reason to have the 6v IMHO unless you absolutely need compactness, like on a 11.5" upper for example.

Have the best of both worlds and get the 9v.  Blind someone at close range and still be able to reach out if you end up outdoors.

Lumpy196:  Hey, I noticed that your beam is a perfect circle.  Mine is sorta oblong.  Is your light an older one?  I think I read somewhere here that SF's newer lights have the oblong (football-like) center, whereas the older models have a perfect circle.  What gives?

well its going to be hard to figure how much your lights going to affect your night vision from pictures.  

I find my 6 volt lights to be plenty good enough for indoor use and have never been tempted to try 9 volts.  Keep in mind that surefire sells a 120 lumen head for their lights as well so you could buy and try and if you think its a problem go back to the 60 lumen head.

I have recently converted from the philosophy of flashing and moving to just turning the light on till i'm done so i'm not so concerned with affecting my night vision just not blinding myself off of glass or shiny things.  Of course any light is going to blow your NV.

9v, because more is better...

Seriously, the 6v are probably plenty for indoor work, but the 9v gives you so much more output for a minimal increase in weight that you might as well have it.  

The biggest complaint was dot washout against light backgrounds.  The Trijicon Reflex was famous for this.  Just adjust you dot with the light on, and remember the setting (2 down from max works for me).  If you are using irons, no worries at all.

I close my lense cap on my Aimpoint and turn it into an OEG when working inside.

I have a couple of SF M3's made about 2 years apart and I too have noticed that the newer one casts an oblong beam.

The oval beam is common on 9V lamps from SF.  It is much more obvious in the 105 lumen lamps than the 200/225s.

I agree with Lumpy: unless the length is an issue, the additional output of the 9V is a almost a freebie with SF.  All my serious SF lights are 9V.  For indoors, I recommend a tip-off beamshaper or blue filter.  The beamshaper diffuses the hotspot, and lights a larger area more evenly.  One flick of the finger, and you can return to a standard beam immediately.

The 120 lumen 6V P61 lamp has the same spot intensity as the 65 lumen P60-- it spreads it's greater output over a larger hotspot.  The 105 lumen P90 has a stronger, and smaller, hotspot than the P61.  I find the beamshaper on the P90 gives me two beams, one diffuse, one long-range intense, and both better than the P61.  YMMV.  Plus, the P61 cuts the runtime of a 6V light from 60 to 20 minutes.  In reality, the useful output will be shorter.  The P90 runs for 60 minutes using only one more cell-- more cost effective.