Maybe the anodizing was not sealed or sealed properly or possibly its not anodizing at all.
My natural lives in the fold of my wallet - still looks brand new. My guess would also be a problem with the anodizing for that batch.
I’m wondering if perhaps the anodization wasn’t sealed. I took a quick look through wikipedia and found that anodizing generally involves the anodization itself, a layer of dye, then a sealing process. So, the metal would still be anodized but the dye could come off if it wasn’t sealed properly.
Regardless, I still want a purple one. They offer every basic color except purple and yellow.
Does anywhere sell this L10 with Nichia 219 anymore?
Direct from L3 Illumination is where I’ve always ordered. Seems to have the 219 in stock in every color as of right now.
And really, the Nichia 219 is the only version to get if you ask me. Although after trying to use the 4-mode version I think I would reconsider the 3-mode, it just takes a lot of twisting to get a decent amount of light out of the thing.
And yes the pocket clip kind of sucks. A little groove machined into the body of the light would solve the issue of the clip sliding off.
I have notice that one sold in SBFlashlight. Although the title says “Nichia 219” but it is actually XP-G/XP-G2 as per written in the description.
Direct from L3 Illumination SBFlashlights, I meant!
And if you look at the title above the picture of the light you’ll see the listing says it’s the 219 version. Further, upon adding it to your cart it will read: “L3 Illumination L10 Colors Nichia 219”. If you select the XP-G2 version you’ll see the cart will say: “L3 Illumination L10 Colors Cree XPG2”.
The specs are written for the XP-G version of the light, I don’t think they’ve bothered re-writing them for either the XP-G2 or the Nichia 219 emitters. It does make ordering a little worrisome, I noticed this very thing as well, but I’ve ordered the 219 version and got what was listed in my cart, so I would ignore the “specs” listed on the 219.
I see. So the price shown in SBFlashlight is including shipping? Do they ship internationally?
From their Shipping information page:
Did someone say clip?
The center of the brass piece was bored out slightly and epoxy mixed with glow powder put in it.
Nice! How did you create (or acquire) and attach the extra pieces?
The clip is a titanium clip from Dark Sucks intended to be used on a Peak Eiger. The brass piece I cut on the lathe. Some assembly required 
Excellent work and neat solution.
Can’t find anywhere what the runtime on medium is. Does anybody know? I’m looking at this light for a friend who will be using alkaleaks and wants a small AA light he can EDC.
Runtime on alkaline will be different than runtime on Eneloops.
However, I’ve heard rough estimates of about 6-8 hours on medium and ~60 hours on low… on Eneloops. I don’t recall where, but I do recall it wasn’t a very strict test so the numbers are not very precise at all. With alkalines I’d expect much shorter runtimes.
see this review for runtime charts (at the end) L3 Illumination L10 (XP-G2 R5 or Nichia 219, 1xAA) Review: RUNTIMES, BEAMS, VIDEO+ | Candle Power Flashlight Forum
In other words, runtime on medium is nearly 7 or nearly 8 hours.
I don’t think anyone has carefully measured the low mode, but it seems to be quite a bit longer than the 30 hours listed in the spec. Probably more like 60 hours.
Alkalines are going to have less runtime though, and are risky. In my experience they end up leaking in at least half the devices I’ve tried.
I’ve run one 49/7.5 hrs on low/med on 1700 mah Eneloops (old) so that’s ~57/9 hrs on 2000mah new ones. Tailcap current readings come out nearly the same, so that’s a good simple check you have a decent multimeter.
An alkaline will beat a NiMh on low and maybe a coin toss @ medium.
Thanks! You’re probably the only person to have published actual numbers for this light. 
I almost mentioned the bit about alkaline on low, since they’re really good at low-current devices like TV remotes… but that’s only if you leave it on continuously for the whole run time. Eneloops have a curious property where they tend to self-recharge a little when low, so if you use one infrequently and only for low current, the usable run time actually goes much, much higher.
As far as I can tell, using an Eneloop this way will greatly reduce its number of full recharge cycles… but still, for casual use, the runtime on low can end up being virtually unlimited. Like, put in a battery, use the light on low for short durations every few days, and it just keeps going until the battery finally goes bad a decade later.
Attempting to use an alkaline battery this way is very likely to make it leak and damage the device it’s powering. Lithium primaries are fine though, and a great choice for infrequently-used lights.