FW3A, a TLF/BLF EDC flashlight - SST-20 available, coupon codes public

No problem.

Thanks a lot for the updates still!

:+1: :beer:

But a light like this, aren’t all the emitters just tied in parallel, with nothing to balance the current? Mixed emitters would likely have varying forward voltages, which means that the lower Vf device would tend to hog the current.

Yes… but usually this is not a problem when mixing the same type of emitter in different tints. They have the same Vf.

I’ll take two.
One of each led set.
One of each finish.
Preferably ‘clear’ anodized aluminum over raw.

Nice job Fritz & team !

There is only one finish. No clear/raw. Just the darker gray.

Please put me down for 1. Thank You.

I’d like one please. Thank you

>>>LH351D may happen a few weeks after XP-L HI, due to lead time in sourcing parts.
>>>Anodizing is dark grey.
>>>Unanodized bare aluminum might happen later, but this isn’t determined yet. <<<

I am simply saying that I would like to show interest/buy a second FW3A in a finish of raw/clear aluminum if/when available.
I did this with the FireFlies E07. 1st a Grey anodized XP-L Hi 5000K at release.
Then got a clear aluminum (SST-20 4000K Hi CRI) when that finish option came out later.

Okay, but raw/clear aluminum is not part of this group buy.

I send my Proto4 to my friend Andreas for beamshots.

Beamshots from Andreas

Thank you Andreas for your great work. :+1:

Thanks Bluzie and Andreas! It surely shows how the beam looks like, and i’m liking it :wink:
BTW, that is with a 10508 Carclo, not the originally intended 10511 which will give a different beam with more hotspot, not so wide!
I do like it this way too, though as there are no beam artifacts :wink:

Wow, the gray anodization has a bit more blue in it than I realized.

Maybe these pictures were taken under a bright light. (Probably, maybe it’s due to a certain temperature of light that adds a blue tint)

Perhaps the blueish tint is most probably the result of lighting (which affect the tint of the gray finish) when the photos were taken.

I have posted this photo elsewhere, and as an example of that effect, to show the change of gray to blueish, of the same light and time of photo-taking ( the right photo is the real gray finish of the Avaritia NA40SE) are the photos below:

More photos from this thread: HERE

Certainly not being the best person to brag about his photographic skills,
but I think that every person involved has shown us a photo with a different color of ano.
And I can’t imagine that LT fills a fresh bath of ano for every copy they send.

Is it possible to send one of the last specimen to a professional photographer, like DBCustom?
Or is it advisable to publish only photo’s of the FW3A in the company of well known lights?

/\ … THIS … /\

Agreed, thanks tatasal. . :+1:

They don’t do this themselves. It’s outsourced, afaik.

The exact color doesn’t matter to me. They all look good. :partying_face:

Amen!! . :+1: . :beer: :beer:

yes i agree with others all colors so far looks good.

Regarding emitter options: I’d actually prefer SST-20 over LH351D in this light. In fact, I’ll be installing some regardless. I know that means my vote shouldn’t count for much, but at least consider my reasoning.

It’s true that the SST-20 are dimmer than either the LH351D or the XP-L HI, and almost certainly have worse tint than the XP-L HI. However, let’s not get bogged down with comparisons to the XP-L HI since that’s an excellent choice and is getting produced either way. And the SST-20 isn’t going to have significantly worse tint than the LH351D; they’re both known to have fairly green binning on average if you don’t shop carefully.

The LH351D is a much floodier emitter than theSST-20 (which throws more like the XP-L HI), and in an already-floody 20mm triple TIR it’s going to be wasteful. You’re going to need to run a higher brightness level to light up a particular distance away. The SST-20 is much less efficient in an integrating sphere, but especially in a ramping light you aren’t going to ramp up to the same number of lumens on both options and then complain about how much hotter the SST-20 is getting - you’re going to ramp to the same number of lux on a particular target, because that’s the brightness you can perceive. And the SST-20 will be using less power than the LH351D to get there, not more.

If you care mostly about tint and efficiency, the XP-L HI is still your choice. But if you’re concerned more with CRI (especially R9), in actual use the SST-20 is a great option. I’ve got them in my Emisar D4 and their tight beam makes the light far more useful than the numbers would suggest. And, for a back-to-back comparison, I pulled the SST-20 out of my D4S and installed LH351D’s, because in that larger head they were too focused.