Hmmm, seems like a rotary switch in the tail. If not, it’s a lot of extra work just for cosmetics. I’m not even sure that’s related to the FW3A. It looks like another brand entirely.
If you look close you can see the wider part that is the tail cap on the v1 is now all one piece with the body tube. What you’re calling a “rotary switch” is just the retainer for the tail parts (with some added flair) .
I think this is a good update that should help to reduce some of the tail cap issues.
Having said that, I 100% agree this is a different light and should be named something else, afterall FW3A = Fritz Works and this is no longer his design…
As mentioned, I got the pics and caption directly from lumintops Facebook, posted about 12am EST 11/18/19
You say that as if it means something. Not every picture they post on there means it’s their own design or brand. They would need to say “New prototype, what do you think?” Or something that confirms it’s from them. I try not to jump to conclusions.
I think the opposite , but that’s taste for you lol! I love it - trouble is every time I think, ‘oh, I’ll have that one’, they bring out another! I hope it’s a 21700 quad
Maybe the ‘XXX’ around the front part is a bit yucky, better off with knurling.
I’d like to run a lexel aux board but don’t have the know how / skill to reflash the driver so bypassing the driver is what I did. Unscrewing the head doesn’t cut power to the aux board until the springs lose contact with the battery.
Hence a tail lockout would’ve been preferable to me.
I got my FW3A TK edition in the mail today and went to work on it! I swapped in some LH351D, one each in 2700K/3500K/5000K. I have about a half-dozen FWxx variants that I’ve done some emitter swaps on but I wanted to do something different with this one. (Sorry for pic-heavy post!)
I picked up a SS bezel from Neal’s and tried my hand at heating it with a torch to get some color. It’s a bit inconsistent and I heated it too much in some spots but overall I’m satisfied with the result! I also tried the same with the clip but I had a very hard time getting any color out of it. I assume it’s plated, probably with nickel. I didn’t really feel like sanding and polishing it so I just heated it until it was glowing cherry red and ended up with a nice bronze color. Not too bad! Hopefully I didn’t weaken the steel too much.
I typically like to use drilled optics with trits but I tried it this way and I think I prefer this method. It looks much better from the front. I also swapped out the factory 10511 for a 10507 because I expected the LH351Ds to be quite floody.
Three different color temp 90+ CRI LH351D.
My other FW3x’s have “FW3A” printed on the MCPCB and the hole for the alignment screw is not drilled all the way through like this one. Functionally it makes no difference; it’s just something I noticed.
FW3A TK edition; FW3T Stonewashed; FW3A OG Grey
It’s very difficult to capture the color of the emitters while shooting directly into the head of the light. This is about the best I could do after merging five exposures.
The LH351Ds under the 10507 are very floody. The hotspot is about twice as large as the SST20 with 10511. The LH351D hotspot has a very clearly defined edge where the SST20 blends smoothly into the spill. This might be due to the different optics.
The color temperature has a very cozy warm appearance with a slightly rosy tint. Unfortunately I don’t have a spectrometer, but I do have Cine Meter II and a Luxi sphere (calibrated). I can’t measure CRI but I can measure CCT and tint. Tint values seem to be on some arbitrary scale, but it’s fine for making qualitative comparisons.
Here are the measured CCT and tint values for this light with some others for comparison. Tint values are given in amount of green, so more positive is more green and negative is more magenta. Measurements were taken at about the middle of the ramp, so 1x7135 for the FW3As (I never run my lights on turbo).