The L3 L10s I ordered showed up today. I found they came from three different batches, and one came with a very nice surprise.
First, the pink one: XP-G2 model from 2012. Old stock; apparently not many people buy the pretty-colored ones. Has a rather off-center emitter (common on old 2012 models), and it looks like the head’s O-ring (between pill and bezel) may have squished out just a bit where it shouldn’t be. Both are easy to fix by taking it apart (and I was planning to take it apart anyway, to swap pills).
Second, the red one: XP-G2 model from 2012. Old stock again. Off-center emitter but otherwise flawless (and a gorgeous color!). Am planning to swap pills on this one too, to get a Nichia 219 into a body with a nicer color. Centering the emitter is pretty easy by simply wedging the emitter centering disc over after opening.
Third, the black one: Nichia 219A model from 2013. Basically flawless (and the head twists down all the way, unlike most other L10s), but it had a scrap of aluminum inside the body. Pulled that out with tweezers.
Fourth, the grey one: Nichia 219B model from 2014. That’s right, 219B — the upgraded model with higher output and a slightly cooler tint. This is a wonderful surprise for me! I didn’t even know the original L10 was available with a 219B. The emitter seems a little off-center, but I’m planning to swap pills and do minor fixes anyway.
I hope the pills will be easy to unscrew, but I won’t have time to try it for a while. It wasn’t too bad on my other L10s. The plan is to keep one or two for myself and give the others away as gifts after I fix them up a little.
Got my L3 Illumination today with the Nichia 219. How can you tell when it was made? BTW, mine came with an off center LED but it doesn't appear to affect the beam at all..
The serial number should specify. For 2012 models, it’ll be “SN:2012blahblah”, for 2013 models, it’s “SN:2013blahblah”, and for the latest 2014 models it says “L4A2blahblah”. Looks like you have a 2014 model, probably with the 219B emitter.
I hope you get the latest version as well. BTW, mine is the natural finish. It looks a bit darker in the photo than it does in person, at least on my monitor it does. I'm really loving this thing!
Oh yeah, thank you Calvin and Craig for the great price and super fast shipping!
FWIW, the first two L10 pill swaps went well. I had to heat one up to melt the glue, but it wasn’t too bad. Centering the emitter can be a little finicky though, for the last little fraction of a millimeter. I found it works reasonably well to stick a sliver of paperboard between the edge of the MCPCB and the inside edge of the pill, if the emitter keeps falling to one side. It’s just floating in there on a layer of thermal paste, with the reflector holding it down. The most time-consuming part is probably just scraping off the old glue before putting it back together.
Seems unlikely. As far as I’m aware, the L10 has never been on sale before a few days ago, and I hear the margins for it are already pretty low at regular price. I wouldn’t be surprised if IS took a loss on that sale.
Regardless, I find my $25 L3 L10-219 more generally useful than my $64 ZL SC52 or several other pricier EDCs. It’s already a good deal at regular price.
It can't hurt to try to get the same price I paid for the first one. I should have purchased more than one, but to me it was an unknown entity until I actually had one to play with. Now that I know how good the L10 is, I want to buy some more in different colors at the same price if possible...
Well Calvin certainly doesn’t owe us anything and if he said no to extending the sale, there’s no way I could fault him, but I would love to get in on that too.
It can't hurt to ask. I was never implying Calvin owes us anything other than the great service they've been giving us. It's the reason I've been a repeat customer for well over a year.
