Maybe I’m wrong, but those shiny copper FW3A’s seem to be going away. I went looking last weekend and fleabay was the only place I could find them. Just checked, and it still says one left, same as when I ordered, but I ordered two, and the shipped notification email has arrived…. Notice it is from Shenzhen.
The bead blasted copper didn’t seam to take off, you can still get them.
Maybe I’m wrong, but is that prototype FW3A V2 Lumintop’s first production light with tritium slots? (assuming it does go into production.)
Edit:
It looks like it’s got both a (magnetic?) brightness adjustment ring, and an on/off switch.
IMO, this is not a flashlight for “many”. It should be owned only by “freaks”, who have the necessary knowledge to deal with it safely. There’s way too many reports of melt-downs due to a variety of speculative causes.
It’s a very nice-looking light, but potentially much more dangerous than most other lithium-ion lights. The design is inherently bad for the kind of manufacturing tolerances used to produce it cheaply. And, add to that, firmware which has some dubious safety issues in recent months (D4v2). Maybe not the version used in this light, but who knows what other bugs are waiting to be discovered?
People should be careful with this light. It’s a fun light, but don’t leave it on some paper and go to bed, even if it’s “off”.
I totally agree with you. This light is a danger to muggles and noobs. If twice as much was invested in the light it might have been a different story. I love my FW collection…
For a few days i was suspecting shenanigans from La Poste as the parcel status was bouncing from "has arrived at the site for distribution" to "deposited in the recipient's mailbox" and back again several times but it eventually reached my mailbox for real !
There are a few difference with my first FW3A that was from 1st batch.
Pros :
the most obvious at first sight is the smooth SS clip wich i like better than the original one
new Anduril version with the 2 levels momentary lockout (nice move !)
retaining ring added for the tail pcb
Cons :
the switch action doesn't feel right and the button sometimes stay stuck in the pressed position
The switch problem was easily solved thanks to JaredM's post about the "o-ring, no nubin" mod so everything is perfect now but as much as i love this torch i have to agree with the people saying that, with that kind of issue, the FW3A might not be for everyone.