It’s mentioned elsewhere, and it would probably turn up in a search without too much effort… I’ll attempt a summary here.
Lumintop had some difficulty getting the original Carlco optics from their supplier in the volume/time frame they needed.
Lumintop found another supplier that said they could make similar optics. These were “ok” by most reports (these lost some lumens, but the color was ok) but they were a one piece lens+optic combo. The bad thing here is that you don’t get the glass lens, and it isn’t a super standard size. If you got the new non-carlco optic, you couldn’t just pop in a Carlco unless you had a lens already (or bought the sapphire one).
Neal started this thread to give us options.
I think the sapphire thing was just another customization option like the glow gaskets. Sapphire is used on watches for durability, and some people wanted their FW3A lens to be more durable for EDC.
As far as I’m aware, the 10511 is frosted (more floody/diffused) and the 10507 is clear (less floody, more defined hotspot). “Better” is subjective here… get what you like. The “new” optic is more similar to the original than the 10507.
The tritium optics are just standard Carlco tir optics, where the support legs have been drilled out for tritium vials. if you preferred a specific model Carlco and couldn’t find it in Neal’s store or from here , you could modify one yourself (they can be purchased stateside for less than $2/ea). Here is a tutorial.
From reading the descriptions, it looks like the most floody optic would be the 10509. Do you think that’s right?
I desire a very floody beam for my light. I searched for some beam shots but didn’t turn up much. I would love to know how the 10509 compares to the S41S’s beam (more or less floody).
I’m going to look for a mod that turns the light into a mule. Maybe that’s trivial?
Edit: I found post #354 from the mods thread with the 10509. That looks like what I want. I’ll have to drill it out and put trits in!
I have a 10509 (no trits), and it is very floody. If that’s what you’re after, you will love it. I like the 10507 the best, and the original 10511 next best. I don’t have one with the new optic yet.
I’ve never seen an S41 in person, so I can’t compare the two. The 10509 sounds like a winner though. If you wanted to try them all, it’s easy to swap them. Get one of each and experiment, then modify your favorite one.
Anyone in this thread that asked for the option A or D that hasn’t received a shipping notification/tracking number/status “Fulfilled” on Neal’s website?
I mentioned my preference and got a response at one point, but it has been a long time and people are getting their lights already while mine says “Unfulfilled”. Am I alone (possibly overlooked) or am I just not patient enough?
I am just looking for some confidence from other BLF’rs that it’ll work out. I have purchased from Neal before and though he seems super busy, I got exactly what I ordered and it came in a reasonable amount of time. Still happy with Neal, and I’m crossing my fingers that I was just on the back end of the list.
Update July 10th
the Carclo 10511 optics arrive today,
Lumintop will start to assembly tomorrow and will ship to me this week
so I will start to ship all the orders from fridayfriday.