TK, most BLFers don’t like a super-smooth-and-shiny look on their flashlights. That’s probably a big reason why these aren’t. But, I agree with you that a nice dark (and a bit bluer) purple would actually look good with the super-smooth-and-shiny finish! :heart_eyes:
Story time. Like six months ago, Neal sent me that picture… or at least, a copy of it which had been recompressed several times and was a bit blurry. It had lost the intentional clues I put in to show it was photoshopped. Specifically, the pattern extends past the edge of the light… on purpose. But that was no longer visible.
Anyway, Neal was really excited. He told me he found something amazing, and asked if I knew who made it or how to get one.
So I crushed his dreams. … sigh.
Time passed.
Just last night, he sent me the picture again. Apparently he has been talking to manufacturers to see if anyone could actually make it look that way, and got one to at least agree to try.
Unsurprisingly, the method they mentioned was water-transfer printing. Because that’s probably the only way to actually do it. But this method is, in the end, just paint. It won’t stick or take abuse like anodizing. And it may need a clear coat to protect the paint. And it may run into issues with keeping the pattern aligned when threading parts together. Probably not great for thermal performance either.
But I thought I should at least mention it, because it seems Neal wants one of these badly enough to talk to manufacturers about it.
Well, that exact swirl is probably not going to be possible in ink, dye, or paint, but a rainbow anodize should be possible with a little creative engineering. IIRC, the color of the anodize isn’t directly related to the anodizing itself. It is a separate dye added in a (somewhat) separate part of the process. (again… IIRC) So, a motivated person could use several different colors of dye applied with ink-jet in rapid succession, during the normal colorizing part of the anodizing process, to get a rainbow of colors in the finish. It would mean installing an ink-jet machine in place of the color process machine they use for ‘regular’ single-color dyes. And, a bit of R & D to figure out the best work flow to get decent results.
The new colors are cool, but I can’t really say I’m excited about it. I already have 18650 tube lights in red, green, blue, silver, bare, grey, black, brass, and titanium. And some slightly shapelier ones in copper. And more colors in other battery types. So it’s still cool, but I’m kind of swimming in lights already.
Like the purple. I think a LOT of manufacturers overlook how popular optional colors are. Many lights that come in black only could boost sales with colors like Convoy offers.
The new colors look great. I still prefer my flashlights in (boring) black. So that would make the S2+ available in black, grey, silver (clear), blue, red, green, tan, orange, purple, and cyan. Wow!
I agree with Persechini above, I wish they were available with a rubber boot. I’ve always wanted to match lighted tailcaps to the various S2+ colors. A lighted tailcap with a metal switch does not work as well.
I think they all look good, but my favourite is the cyan. However, I think slightly deeper shade would look even better. The cyan D4 is my all-time favourite flashlight colour.