I was joking when I suggested a black pocket clip would be contentious, but that generated a couple pages of discussion anyways, and now weāre fretting over the transformation of the light to include an engraved logo on the button cover
I also enthusiastically vote for a bare button if Lumintop can be talked into it for the group buy, but letās not get carried away.
As far as I know the project history, the big changes were:
Tapered tube - Fritz reported this was a good change for use with a pocket clip.
Emitter evolution - XP-G2 > XP-G3 > voted XP-L HI + voted LH351D > SST-20. My take is the evolution was generally positive, except the change from LH351D to SST-20 has mixed pros and cons, and the response was muted as a result of that and widespread desire not to delay the light further.
No longer a bare or clear finish - this was intended to be part of the character of the light, so the most significant of the aesthetic changes. But it still is an aesthetic change.
And even those changes werenāt really that big. Itās still:
Smaller than all but a handful of 18650 lights (eg - DQG Tiny, CNQG Beauty)
1+7+FET driver
Triple emitter
Tail e-switch
Ramping UI (although changed from Narsil to Anduril)
Very affordable compared to its feature set
I recognize sometimes small changes add up to more than a given personās interests may allow, so Iām not surprised to see a handful of people drop out of the group buy. Overall, however, this still looks like an excellent fit for most of us.
Personally, I'm going to be happy with this light as long as it functions as intended. Put a bunny or a turd on the switch, I don't really care. I appreciate the work others (and not me) have put into the design and internals and if the manufacturer puts a pretty discreet logo somewhere on the light who am I to bitch about it? I haven't spent a dime yet and if I don't like it I don't have to buy it. But I will buy at least the two I've put on the list because it looks like it's going to be an absolute winner for an EDC light. Thank you again to everyone that spent their spare time to make this light happen, I appreciate you.
Again, not sure if our emitter choices are taken into consideration when posting on this thread for this purchase, but Iād like to change to XPL-HI. 2 total. Thanks.
I totally agree with your conclusion and the rest of your message i removed from the quote to avoid a long quote.
The initial project has externally changed significally for me, but those changes are not the main reason for my decision.
The main reason is that it was a BLF/TLF project made by lumintop. Lumintop is only the manufacturer but in no way it is a Lumintop flashlight.
Why would they put their logo on it while they could not conceptualize, design and manufacture such a flashlight on their own. Why would they take all the credits with their logo ?
If I will purchase the 4 units I asked for, the implicit message would be that Iām accepting all those inabilities, their messes and above all the logo which is an unilateral change that IS not part of the project.
They canāt do whatever they want with this project that is not their.
They canāt put their logo on it while they canāt make this right on their own without assistance for every stages of the project !
Really, they canāt figure how to put a driver properly (proto4!) to make a functionnal flashlight ?
Without BLF contributors, Lumintop would still manufacture tacticool flashlights with mechanical clicky and stupid low, med, high, strobe, SOS user interface.
Jason asked me I was thankful to them for making it ? Certainly not, because they would have never think of it without the BLF/TLF team. It still doesnāt even exist in their mind to the point that they are unable to make it properly even when you serve them on a plate.
Iām only thankful to the BLF/TLF team and most particulary to Fritz for the original design and to ToyKeeper (and Neal) for keeping the baby alive.
I donāt need or have to be thankful to a manufacturer that is only here to take the good ideas from a project to make profit and benefit of a transfer of technology. They should be thankful by respecting the project.
I will only buy it without logo OR if it has to have a logo : a TLF/BLF logo and/or a ToyKepper logo.
If the production version is manufactured with the Lumintop logo, Iām asking to be removed definitely from the listā¦even if I had tons of sandpaper and waterstones up to grit 30.000 to remove their logo.
My bad english doesnāt help but I hope that it is more understandable now.
Your acting very entitled, like the world owes you something. I wish you would stop and realize that this is a group effort and Lumintop is the one investing tens of thousands of dollars to get this project into mass production.
Iām acting like, but not considering itā¦to a point that you have no idea.
NB : Lumintop would have spare some money before making and sending the proto4 just by using a ruler.
I have curiosity based, but ultimately meaningless question, for those whose guesses are better educated than mine; how much do you think this light will sell for, retail, after the group buy has been fulfilled?
It has been an interesting and exciting day, but we should perhaps step away and cool off for a while now that Bunnygate has been resolved. It sounds like people will probably be able to get a smooth tail or a bunny tail, depending on whether they order as part of the group buy or wait until afterward.
The only other news I have is that Neal is still looking for a good tint bin for SST-20. The FB4 J5 bin is in stock but it doesnāt look very good, so heās still looking for something with lower duv (higher duv = more green, lower duv = more red). Ideally itād be FA1, FA4, FD1, or FD4 in a J4 chromacity binā¦ but that may be impossible to get. Hopefully it could at least be FA or FD something though, instead of a FB or FC bin.
Hereās the image I sent to communicate which bins are desired:
Crazy I tell ya, crazy. Itās out of control. My uncle saved his whole life to buy a Ferrari. Them Italian idiots put, FERRARI, right there on the back of it so everyone could see it. Can you imagine? Why would they want anyone to know who made it? Itās almost like they wanted other people to buy one. I donāt know what they were thinking.