Home Forums Hunting & Shooting AR and Tactical Rifles Wyoming Arms / High Lumen Light Evaluation

John Burns recently sent me one of his Wyoming Arms Fenix lights for T&E and I thought some here might be interested in my review / comparison.

For the evaluation of the light itself I compared it to three other commonly used weapon lights-the Surefire X300U, Surefire Scout M600U and the Streamlight TLR1. The TLR1 isn't known for high lumens, but I thought it was good for comparison purposes to show how much of a difference these high lumen lights make.

The TLR1 and Surefire X300U are nearly identical in size and weight. The X300U is slightly longer and the TLR1 is slightly larger at the lens.
The TLR1 is advertised at 300 lumens while the X300U is advertised at 500 lumens.


The Surefire Scout M600U (500 lumens) and Fenix PD35 (850 lumens) are also nearly identical in size and weight. The M600U used in this test is equipped with a Haley Strategic mount.


Method Of Testing
All of the lights in this test use CR123 batteries. I put fresh batteries of the same make in each of the lights prior to testing.

I adjusted my camera's settings for each set of pictures so that the photo resembled what I was actually seeing during the test.

Rather than post 20-something pictures in this thread I put them together in a video. Since it would be cumbersome to add notes about the test to the video, there are a few things worth noting here.
-I used three subjects for most of the tests. The middle subject held a white sheet of paper and the two subjects on the edges held blue and green paper. It was interesting to see which lights threw enough light on the subjects to be able to discern the color differences in the blue and green paper.
-For the outdoor pictures there was faint ambient light, but not enough to see the subjects clearly (if at all).
-The indoor pictures were taken in total darkness, although I did take one photo with the overhead lights on so that you could see what the room should look like with illumination.

The large room was approximately 24'x30'. I stood approximately 40' from the middle subject. The subject to the right (blue paper) was 8' from center and the subject to the left (green paper) was 16' from center, both were at 90* from the center. In a large room like this, all of the lights left portions of the room unilluminated, but the lights with tightly focused beams left large parts of the room dark.

The small room was approximately 12' square. The focused beam of the two Surefire lights was incredibly bright in this room and caused a lot of light to be reflected back at the light / shooter.

The first outdoor test was at 25 yards. All three subjects were in line with each other. The subject to the right (blue paper) was 15 yards from center and the subject on the left (green paper) was 7 yards from center.
-This test was very surprising. Even at 25 yards, the two offset subjects almost couldn't be seen with three of the lights. The subject to the right was actually farther from the center, but because of his clothing and the background he was more visible that the left subject.

The second outdoor test was at 50 yards. Only two subjects were used for this test. At 50 yards the usefulness of the higher lumen lights really started to become evident. The TLR1 illuminated the subjects, but the green and blue colors aren't easily discernible.

The last outdoor test was at 100 yards. Again, only two subjects were used. At 100 yards, the TLR1 barely illuminated the subjects at all. Until this test, the two Surefire lights were nearly identical in performance. But at 100 yards the more focused beam of the M600U was very useful.

At the end of the video I included two battery life tests for the Fenix PD35 and the M600U. Both lights were left running for thirty minutes and then brought back outside for comparison. During the battery life testing the Fenix light seemed much brighter.



My final impressions.....
I'm currently using the TLR1 on a patrol rifle and have been shopping for a brighter light for a while now. I'm likely going to switch to the Fenix light. For general purpose / patrol work I like the throw of the Fenix beam much better than the Surefire options. In the large room test the Fenix light illuminated much more of the room. 25-50 yards the Fenix light illuminated the target as well as the more focused beams but also cast a wider beam on the surrounding area, an important consideration for patrol work. For someone using their rifle for hunting I could definitely see the same benefit. At 100 yards the Fenix light gave up some illumination to the M600U with fresh batteries, but after 30 minutes of use the Fenix light was better up close and at distance. If all or most of your light needs were for 100 yards and beyond I could see a case being made that the M600U being a more suitable light. But for me, the benefits of the Fenix inside of 100 yards and the battery life the Fenix has made it a worthwhile trade off for me. In my opinion the Fenix light is only inferior to the M600U at beyond 100 yards (and even the advantage the Surefire has isn't much) when both lights have fresh batteries. After some use the Fenix's illumination is clearly better in all situations in my opinion.

If you're not wanting or needing 850 lumens, the Fenix is adjustable for 10-45-170-450 lumens. 450 lumens is still 50% brighter than the TLR1 I'm currently using and Fenix claims a battery life of two and a half hours at that setting.