Lumintop FW1A discussion and review

The FW1A doesn’t have a list of literally thousands of people waiting to buy it, so I don’t expect there will be a lot of colors to choose from. Probably just grey. That could maybe change eventually, but it’s far less popular than the original FW3A because it’s a spinoff, so the chance of multiple flavors is probably not very high.

It’s probably also worth mentioning that if the grey one sells well, the chance of multiple colors increases. If the grey one doesn’t sell well, there probably won’t be other colors.

It’s a good light though, so I hope it sticks around.

I don’t know anything about plans for more colors and I agree with TK that they might not come.

I did hear from a little birdie that there might be an option for an add-on bezel of a different material down the road if things go well…

Anyone know if Ti is coming?

This right here, I’d be first in line to buy a FW1T.

I guess the problem here is that most of us are probably holding out for different colours and finishes and therefore not buying the standard grey one, causing Lumintop to think there’s not enough demand and therefore not produce any other variants!

I’ve gotta say my bare Alminum FW1A (converted from a triple) has really been serving me well as my EDC. I’m still using an S2+ reflector with a sliced 4K SST20. If I had a complaint, it’d be the beam was actually a bit too narrow. If there ever is a HiCRI SST40 or SST70, that’d make it perfect IMO as a do-it-all light.

Hmm. Maybe I need to order a basic gray one, too.

Do you have any pictures of that mod? It’s almost certainly more floody than the production FW1A. Sounds like you need to put an LH351D in yours.

Anxiously waiting for mine. I am always a thrower person. Fw3a was never attractive to me just because it is multipla emitter light. Fw1a is perfect to me.

https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/56663/726
(I’ve actually swapped out the SMO for an OP since then)

I have thought about it and may do so. If I come across - or someone points me towards - a known good tint of the Samsung emitter then I’ll do that. For now, I’m mostly content. I have the stock FW3As if I need more flood.

Another emitter option I’ve been tossing around is a quad e21a with a heavy OP reflector.

I’m interested but not gray.

So it isn’t just me. I have two gray FW3As because I bought them both before the colors came out, now I don’t really want another gray one. The FW1A and FW3a share most of their anodized parts, seems like all they’d have to do is start making the same colors of the longer head.

I want the FW1A, but I know as soon I buy one the next day they’ll announce all the new colors.

Seems like the heads by themselves would sell for those that already have one of the FWXX lights.

The bezel and head are both modified, just the body and tail are shared.

I know. I guess I consider the bezel part of the head.

Got my FW1A today… all I can say is wow! I really like this body style, easy to hold and use. Mine is an SST-20 in 4000k and the tint is amazing! The tint on this one is very rosey, reminds me of a Nichia 4000k led! I can find no green in this one, I have really fallen for the SST-20 FD2 bin in the FW3A and this is a better tint or the reflector makes it better. I would love to know if this is an FD2, I suspect the FW3A lights were FD2 after I built a known FD2 for comparison.

I thought this would need a SMO reflector, but the beam is almost to tight with the OP reflector. Just found my new favorite single emitter EDC!

Interesting to hear that the tint is rosier than in the FW3A, which is not bad already. You can see if the tint difference is due to the optic vs reflector if you remove the optic and reflector and shine both the FW3A and FW1A against the wall so see if one is rosier than the other. However, I’m thinking the FW1A with one emitter is driven harder at the same level so it will run rosier than the FW3A.

That’s exactly it. The SST20 has so much tint shift vs If. Single emitter setups look great. Triples at reasonable power levels though are almost always green shifted.

Yeah, that’s my concern about the FW1A too. There’s a good chance I’ll change the LED in mine, since Neal sent me a cool white one… and I’m thinking maybe LH351D if I can get it in a good bin. That should really cut down on how throwy it is. Or perhaps an old XM-L2, since those were also reasonably decent in a reflector and can handle full FET power. Or I think I might have an original XP-L 3D in a parts tray somewhere…

SST-20 would definitely be too throwy, but at least it’d have better tint than in the FW3A.

I will buy a couple when different colours are available. If it doesn’t happen then oh well, plenty of other lights out there.