On the first gif, he’s holding a paintball rifle, probably more indicative about the people targeted by this kickstarter.
Not sure that pointing a light with shoulders and torso moves is something intuitive and convenient.
Anyway…probably perfect for weekend soldiers.
wtf? They got half a million dollars for that??? Reminds me of that failed “free water” device that’s basically a dehumidifier which you drink water from. At least it has a use tho. Wonder how much it costs…
That illuminated circle on your back makes a perfect target. Is that really a good thing?
On the positive side, I do like the idea of a “body” light that lets the user “wear” the cells in a larger (than typical handheld flashlight) case. But I think they lost an opportunity by only using 4 x 18650s.
I’m amused by the idea of doing an arm’s length task like working on a car with 700 lumens.
Also, the form factor just strikes me as having so many drawbacks, from how it would be worn with a backpack to the fact that the light aims with movements of your shoulders, but not with your head, and only clumsily with your hands, I have to wonder if even the designers think it’s a good idea, or just one they can market effectively.
The Biolite looks ok from a skim of that page. The floody beam does look too wide, as someone else pointed out, a 69g headlamp does not need a rear battery pack, but it seems in the same ballpark as what Petzl and Black Diamond sell for a similar price.
I’m not interested, but I get why people who buy all their outdoor gear from REI would buy it. Selling 10,000 of them through a well-funded Kickstarter campaign doesn’t surprise. Biolite was an already established company that probably didn’t need Kickstarter to fund their light development, but I could see them trying it as an alternative marketing means.
I like how they market a flashlight that takes 3 18650s and you have to wear like a messenger bag as a universal light that’s good for everything. Yeah, sure, I’ll EDC that to my office job, no problem.
Kickstarter is scam heaven.
Basically all these crowd funded projects are nothing but scams.
I haven’t seen a single project that ended up delivering what was promised.
People either run away with the money, or make some crappy product that doesn’t look anything like the advertised prototype, probably for a fraction of the funds they received.
Same applies to all crowd funding and donation sites.
They need to be banned.
The idea is great, just like communism was, the problem is that it cannot be applied in the real world because of human nature.
It’s basic common sense. If you pay someone in advance he will not work as good as if you pay him after he completes the job.
And these sites are much worse than that because they attract genuine scammers.
Like people with agenda, who intentionally invest in some fancy marketing campaign with cool videos, pictures and stuff, to trick people into funding something that they won’t ever deliver.