I'm currently using a Montane Superfly as my waterproof shell.
It's a marvellous jacket when it's actually raining but it weighs 458g in Medium and is pretty bulky, taking up a fair bit of room in the pack. I'm looking for something lighter and more compact for 3-season backpacking and am tempted by the Quick-Fire as it appears to be quite a bit lighter (claimed 320g in Medium) than the Superfly and also, presumably, packs down smaller.
Does anyone have experience of both jackets and is able to confirm what the differences are in practice? It's likely to spend more time 'in the pack' than 'on the back' (there's got to be an advertising slogan in there somewhere) so the most obvious difference of the lighter fabric on the Quick-Fire is unlikely to be an issue.
I've tested both, the Quickfire's basically a stripped-down SuperFly in a slightly lighter fabric. Packs smaller and sounds pretty much ideal for what you're after. I also think the cut on the Quickfire is a lot neater than the latest model SuperFly - not sure which version you have.
Breathability is still very good, the only real thing you lose, other than the lighter fabric, is that only one of the two pockets will take an OS map. There's a review of the Quickfire in the reviews section of the site if you want a more detailed take on it.
I have a QuickFire (my wife has a Superfly). I bought the Quickfire because I wanted an eVent waterproof as light as possible for outside winter in Scotland (where it has been raining for the last fortnight!). It certainly is very light, and very breathable. The ventilating pockets are great - a Montane design feature since the Extreme Smocks - and were one of the reasons I bought it. As the weather changes you can open them and let some air across your chest. But that does compromise what you can put in the pockets, so have a a think first. I don't put my map in my jacket pocket (or anything much), so I'd rather have the ventilation. The jacket is cut very short at the front - too short really - great if you are bent over a bike, but annoying if you are wearing a pack and reach up - it can pull up out of your waist belt. The back is very long though - again great for cyclists, but a bit bizarre for walking. And the bottom of the pocket zips are covered by a rucksack belt. The material is crinkly. The fastenings on the sleeve are fiddly. So, while I don't think there's anything as breathable and light at the price (they are widely discounted), I wouldn't say it's perfect. Check the fit with a pack on and your arms lifted as though you were scrambling. I think it's also fair to say that while event seems to be more breathable than goretex it feels colder - your sweat goes straight out, taking body heat with it. That is exactly you want in summer of course, but in lousy weather I sometimes feel I want more mid-layer than I would in a gore shell. On the other hand, because it does breathe better, I find I keep it on when the rain stops but it's still windy or cold. A contender for a 'keep it in the pack' jacket would be a Haglofs Oz - just over half the weight of a Quickfire. Since you've already got a Superfly, wouldn't the Oz let you save a whole load more weight for the same kind of money?
There an in-between model coming out from Montane in a few weeks, a QuickFire XT if you will. Might be worth holding on for that, although it's not all eVent. It's got stretch panels of that other stuff they use.
I like the QuickFire better than the SuperFly. the SuperFly I got last years was a bizarre pre production thing that I really liked and bore no resemblance to what ended up in the shops.
I'm finding that the difference between Proshell and eVent isn't worth bothering about, go for features rather than fabric. And like ALS says above the Oz can't be beaten for pack szie and usable design.
Jon Doran - I've read the review - it bears out my own experience of Paclite - too much like wearing a bin liner in anything heavier than a shower.
ALoveSupreme - thanks very much for the advice. The ventilating pockets would be fine - my Superfly has the same feature. Your experience of the cut (too short in front, too long behind) sounds bizarre. I've always found the Montane cut to suit me very well. I'll have to try one on with a pack, as you suggest.
I appreciate the link to the Haglofs Oz Pullover but it is made of Gore-Tex Paclite and I replaced a Berghaus Paclite jacket with the Superfly because it just wetted out in a couple of hours of moderate rain.
ptc* - thanks for the heads-up on the Quick-Fire XT.
Jake - I reckon it was designed by a cyclist. For walking it is bonkers, but I can live with it. Your bum - the biggest lump of muscle in your body - is amply covered, whilst round the front your tender manly appendages, that need all the circulation, warmth and protection they can get, are cruelly exposed to the oncoming wind and rain. If they cut about 3 inches off the back and stuck it on the front it would be a lot better for me, and my bits. But it's worked pretty well for me in some bad weather on the tops in Scotland - I matched it with some RAB Bergen trousers.The lot cost me about £200. Integral Designs do some interesting eVent jackets too - you can get them here. I tried an Oz - also very short on me, especially the sleeves, with cuffs that are hard if not impossible to seal. Brilliantly lightweight, ideal for running, fine for an hour or two, but I wouldn't want to spend all day walking in the rain in one, though I'm sure it can be done. But you already have a Superfly so you can make different choices. Interestingly I might have bought a Superfly, but they stopped the ventilated pockets that yours has, and messed up the fit.
A 'large' Quickfire is a comfortably close fit, a 'large' Superfly is cavernous.
I was prepared to hate my Quickfire as I normally wear Paramo but I've found it very useful - totally waterproof, scrunches up small and I like the hood.
What I do find really annoying is Montanes poor use of velco cuff fasteners - the Quickfire & SuperflyXT fasten in opposite directions, are fiddly and the Superfly design is pure stupidity.
A £250 jacket that has velcro which is straight on the cuff but the tab is curved, it's also not very grippy and the tab is too rigid so it's always coming undone.
I bought the Quickfire to wear when a Paramo Peak jacket wouldn't cut it and I've ended up using the Quickfire all the time.
The Quickfire was designed by Julie Greengrass, who is a walker, climber, mountain biker and runner. The reason it has a droptail is to protect your arse doing any of those activities and, additionally, to make it easier to use a harness with it when climbing / racking gear / stepping up. I don't remember the droptail being particularly exagerated to the point of it being an issue, but it's all relative to torso length anyway, so it may or may not seem too long to a particular individual.
If you want a serious droptail, take a look at Alpkit's Filo down jacket which has a proper butt-flap sort of thing going on, though it's nice for sitting down on cold benches, rocks etc
The front is 14cm shorter than the back. That makes the front of the jacket shorter than say a Montane Jetstream windshirt, and shorter than many fleeces. As a result, a fleece worn underneath can easily stick out the bottom of the jacket and get wet, and your loins, including those bits that guys have but Julie doesn't, are much more exposed to the weather than your bum. I reckon it would be a better jacket for walking if it was as long at the front as the back - it's just as windy and rainy at the front of you as at the back, if not more so. Girls have relatively shorter torsos and bigger bums than guys, so perhaps that's why Julie designed it the way it is. Don't see that it needs to be so short for using with a harness - it wouldn't be a first choice for climbing anyway, and all the other Montane climbing-type jackets are longer at the front. If you reach up in it, the front rides up over the top of your trousers - not really what you want when you're climbing. I still think it's a good jacket, that's why I got one, but it could be better.
It's aimed predominately at fast movers, viz, runners, mountain bikers etc, rather than walkers. Runners, for example, want a short cut jacket so as not to interfere with leg movement. But yes, the end result is that it's not cut as long as a walking-specific jacket.
I think your gender-based ramblings are wide of the mark btw. It's not a women's jacket and Julie along with other outdoor designers, is quite capable of designing for people other than herself. Do you have a longer than average torso relative to your height? The answer to fit questions is generally simply to try before buying.
Last time I wore my Quickfire I was indeed running - around 900m high as it happened - though whether it was fast was debatable - and I did indeed try it on before I bought it, with a pack, and bought it well aware of it's advantages and disadvantages. For me the advantages outweigh the disadvantages, but other folk might not want a fleece to stick out under their jacket, cuffs that do up an unusual way and so on. For me, I'll put up with the akward cuff fastenings because I think it's great to be able to roll the sleeves right up. And the ventilation advantages of the mesh pockets outweigh the disadvantage of them therefore not being very good pockets! But because the jacket is so short at the front, you end up wanting to put waterproof trousers on sooner than you otherwise might which makes you become a slow-mover rather than a fast one. A Montane Jetstream windshirt is presumably similarly aimed at "at fast movers, viz, runners, mountain bikers etc, rather than walkers", but is actually longer at the front!
I did find the front of the older Superfly too short for me, the sleeves as well. I know lots of folk who fit the SuperFly perfectly though. Them's the breaks, Montane's notional average bloke isn't me. In fact few UK brands fit me well.
Interestingly, all of Haglofs clothing is currently designed by women I'm told.
Hey .. my criticism is nothing to do with the gender of the designer .. women are far more intelligent, talented, creative and imaginative than us slow-thinking guys .. just some of the design features of the Quickfire. I am sure there is a reason why the bottom of the pocket zips is covered by the belt of my rucksack, as is anything I've put in the same pockets. Just wish I could figure out what the reason was. Means I end up tugging the front of the jacket up to get at the zips, which makes it even shorter. Guess my shape is like ptc*s - tall, slender and magnificent I like to think - which means we share problems with too short arms and so on. My feeling is that since weight has become such an issue, bits of fabric are getting shaved off to save a few grams to the detriment of the product. My wife's Superfly fits her immaculately - the old model - a bargain for £75. Interestingly,Crux make a point of not using demographic averages for their products' sizing.
You might just have short legs and a long torso Crux stuff is designed for rangy climbers, Adam van Lopik, who used to work for them was about six foot tall and as skinny as a rake and it all fitted him perfectly. To put that in perspective, their overtrousers were cut so narrow that I needed to wear a large - I have a 31-inch waist...
Montane kit generally is aimed at athletic-built people rather than the national average, but I suspect at average height people rather than giraffe-alikes...
Going back to the original post, coincidentally, I just spoke to Julie, ex of Montane - and she pointed out that the basic cut of the Quickfire is identical to the original Super-Fly. She also suggested that for a jacket that's going to be mostly packed, the Atomic might make sense. Lighter, cheaper and still very breathable.
ALS - you are right about Superfly's short front but I have always liked the way that it doesn't hamper leg movement and put up with a damp crotch (getting on a bit now, might as well get used to it) as the trade-off. I got rid of my Berghaus Mera Peak because the longer cut at the front was too restrictive, especially moving uphill. I guess it's just a matter of personal preference.
The fit of a jacket varies hugely from person to person. If you have a bulky chest/shoulders/upper back, the jacket will be a shorter fit; vice versa for a more slender individual. I have always found Montane upper body garments to suit me extremely well. I'm short with an 'athletic' build (the sport in question being, unfortunately, pie-eating) and I find that a Medium Superfly does not ride up at all when I raise my arms vertically (the sleeves are quite a close fit right up to the shoulder) nor are the pockets obstructed by rucksack straps. However, I can quite see how a taller person with a 40" chest would have a problem with the jacket being just too short generally.
Anyway, Montane bods - don't change the cut. It's great for me!
Jon D - thanks for the tip about the Atomic but I really like eVent; it seems to suit my perspiration level.
Crux stuff is designed for rangy climbers, Adam van Lopik, who used to work for them was about six foot tall and as skinny as a rake and it all fitted him perfectly. To put that in perspective, their overtrousers were cut so narrow that I needed to wear a large - I have a 31-inch waist... 
