Emitter voting already happened and the the team requested that Lumintop produce the two top options: Cree XP-L HI and Samsung LH351D.
I wouldn’t expect large differences in runtime between either of those an the XP-G3. At higher outputs, thermal throttling is going to be the major factor: the sooner and more it throttles, the longer the battery will last. That may not be how you want to get your runtime. Efficiency between the three is quite close when the LH351D is 90 CRI, which is what has been requested. Efficiency of a lower-CRI LH351D is higher than the XP-G3 or XP-L HI, but nobody has seriously advocated that option for this light.
With the shift that XP-G3 leds produce (even 5000K 90CRI), they would make this light a lot less interesting!!!
So, I hope that the leds that won the voting can be put in place! I’ll still try to swap some Luxeon V into it (if I don’t like the Samsung) !
That would be great, if they’re open to the suggestion. I haven’t bothered digging up the tests various users have done to get an idea which should have the higher output between that and the LH351D, but a tiny bit nicer tint and throw compared to the LH351D should make a hoped for high CRI version even better.
TK said earlier in the thread that it’s probably too late to request a different emitter. This would be a DIY swap - either reflow yourself, or hope someone who offers that as a service picks up the SST-20. Mountain Electronics already carries the SST-40, so it seems likely enough.
The LH351D has higher output and efficiency than the SST-20, but a considerably larger emitter area, giving it less throw.
You can also just buy the mcpcb with the emitters pre soldered. I swapped a bunch of Kaidomain mcpcbs with SST-20 95CRI into my flashlights and it is very easy to do. I don’t have to reflow the emitters myself. The FW3A uses Carclo triple optics so the MCPCB should be interchangeable with the Kaidomain and Noctigon boards.
True. I knew the poll results had been passed along, so I guess that’s a bit of a blind wish on my part.
I suppose I’ll wait and see what I think of the light in hand. If I’m not quite happy with whichever emitters are offered, the cost of buying an SST-20 triple board looks pretty reasonable.
On that topic, how does one order this combo on Kaidomain? It looks like I have to add 1 emitter and board, which appears to be priced a bit higher than buying those parts separately (reflow service included?), and then add 2 additional emitters to my cart.
Hmm…I guess that must be it. When viewing the triple option on the page specific to the 4000K emitter, I didn’t think the price seemed right - $6.99 for a populated triple board, versus $11.72 buying the pieces separately.