Thanks for the FW3A Color Choice Poll Neal!!

It’s a tough choice…..

The Purple is a given, gotta have it. But it’s a tough call between the Blue & Army Green…. I like them both.

The SST-20 in TK’s photos looks very green. I’ve never seen one that looks that bad, though they certainly don’t look good next to the 219B sw45k I have in my FW3A.

Tint beamshots are hard. Cameras capture colors differently, automatically post-process colors differently unless the photographer shoots in raw and does it manually, and displays display them differently. When I tried to get beamshots of the Armytek Prime XHP35, which is very rosy according to maukka’s testing, it just looked neutral. The beamshot in maukka’s review looks a little rosy, but doesn’t really capture it.

Anyway, I wouldn’t like SST-20s my eyes see the way TK’s camera does, but the FB4s I have don’t look nearly that bad. The FA3 supposedly being offered for the FW3A should be considerably better. I have FD2s on the way, and I have some Lee 801 minus green, which makes FB4 look great. Filters are a lot easier than sourcing emitters with nice tint the way the LED market is going lately.

Yeah. They look extremely green.

 Wow what a dreadful tint. I like the throw on it but I don't know if I want a different batch 219C or an SST20 that may be 3500k or 4000k. I was trying to choose until I found out that the 219C version does not exist and I cannot add it to my cart. I will take the maybe bad DUV and swap if I need to. Good luck to everyone hope we all get a good one!

We can at least all agree that its relative to the other LEDs. It was not "as green" before, but it is relatively so. I am coping hard because I hope that its a good DUV now. -_-

 Now if I order it, it should be here in in about a month. So exciting!

SamHaLeKe wrote:

teacher wrote:

/\ .. Where did the picture come from??

I think that here at BLF most just forget that this is a collaboration between TLF and BLF.

So there are efectively TWO comunities ACTIVE for this flashlight.

TLF is even holding a “official” poll on wich collor it should be! One can only choose two colors for fisrt run …

Seems that the communication is one direction these days?

- SAM -

But when someone (you in this case) posts pictures (now deleted) with no caption or informarion besides…. “tint choices “ …. It is kinda natural (for me anyway) to want to know where they came from. Especially since these light are not on the market yet.

So…. I’ll just now figure they came from TLF.

As far as the “one was communication” you mention… I have no idea?? But now that I really think about what you said, it does seem BLF gets quite a bit of 2nd & 3rd hand info.

But… at least we get it. So it’s all good…. …

People need to stop comparing to 219B, it’s too far under the BBL to make a good comparison for 99% of LEDs

TK’s SST-20 pictures aren’t that far off from what I experience when I turn on my SST-20 95-CRI lights on lower power settings. They look VERY green.

Installing a Lee minus green filter helps a lot… but the Lee #279 filter I’m using itself has major disadvantages (14% reduction in output, color temp gets noticeably warmer. Not a Zircon filter so excessive output will damage it.).

At lower power settings the green of the SST-20 is instantly noticeable. Indoors and outdoors. And even if you don’t have a less-green light on-hand to compare it to.

I have some SST-20 FW3As on order and I’ll post colour output results whenever they arrive.

Nice, we’ll look forward to it.

I got some gitd filament, made a diffuser with it.

Looks interesting with the lightning flashy.

I should be getting a really nice red later this month.

djozz wrote:

No SST-20 4000K 95 CRI I have ever seen in reality looks remotely so green.

It looks great if I turn it up high enough to activate the FET… in other words, 1000+ lumens. It makes an awesome 4000K white light. At the lower levels I actually use though, it’s not even close to white.

PBWilson wrote:

That sand/oiled bronze/gold color is fantastic!

You mean the green one?

The color samples show olive green, blue, pinkish purple, and white.

It looks like it may be somewhere between “olive” and “olive drab”, somewhere between the food and the military color.

About the purple one, I’d ideally make it a bit darker… sort of a candy grape purple or midnight purple. But this pinkish purple is good too.

SamHaLeKe wrote:

Surely hoping TK is getting one!

I hope so too!

I like purple, and I want a moonbeam button.

I hope the logo is okay. I think people were expecting me to put my avatar or “TK” or the button, but that just seems tacky. I’d rather have some sort of simple geometric design, so I made one. “Press here for moonbeams”

SamHaLeKe wrote:

I think that here at BLF most just forget that this is a collaboration between TLF and BLF.

So there are efectively TWO comunities ACTIVE for this flashlight.

TLF is even holding a “official” poll on wich collor it should be! One can only choose two colors for fisrt run …

Seems that the communication is one direction these days?

It’s more that Bluzie at TLF is actively engaged in the ongoing FW3A process, and … I’m trying not to be. Now that it’s released, I mostly need to focus on other projects. And maybe a nap.

I think the ‘TK Moonbeam Button’ looks great on the ‘FW3A-TK’….
.

I’m just not seeing the green. It looks more brown/bronze. Maybe it’s my screen colors deceiving me.

Is that other one white? I didn’t think you could do white anodization. I though it was a light silver that looked a bit whitish due to the camera.

I see more dark bronze.

And it DEFINITELY says “yanny” in turbo mode.

ToyKeeper wrote:

[…] About the purple one, I’d ideally make it a bit darker… sort of a candy grape purple or midnight purple. But this pinkish purple is good too. […]

I completely agree, and I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not overly keen on the type of purple like the one pictured. We’ve already seen lights in thst shade of purple that looks almost like fuchsia (e.g. Astrolux A01 with its horrible next-mode memory). Personally, I prefer the darker tones with a higher blue component such as Cadbury’s Purple. Or if we stay with warmer tones, maybe a dark plum / wine red. There are so many shades of purple, so why stick with what is so common? That particular shade seems over-used to me – not just in flashlights but also in other products, which imho makes it look ‘cheap’. Let’s be a bit more adventurous!

JasonWW wrote:

Is that other one white? I didn’t think you could do white anodization. I though it was a light silver that looked a bit whitish due to the camera.

If I understand correctly, white ano is made the same way as silver ano, or virtually any other color except “natural” — by adding dye. Natural ano is without dye, silver can technically be done without except it’s extremely thin, and the common type-II colors (including silver) just use different colors of dye.

With type-III ano, the natural color is strong enough to make lighter dye colors look bad… so those are usually natural or black or dark grey.

Anyway, it does seem to be white… or at least a pretty light grey. We should find out more soon.

Flying Luminosity wrote:

... Let's be a bit more adventurous!

I agree.  I hope they end up with something close to the Cadbury purple.

.
I never knew there were so many different shades of “Purple”… all with a different name.
And the ones below are just a small fraction of them….
.

.
Or…. ‘we’ could just go with ‘Barney Purple’…..
.

Convoy’s violet S2+ is a gorgeous shade of purple. I’d love to see a shade very similar to this used on the FW3A.

ToyKeeper wrote:

JasonWW wrote:

Is that other one white? I didn’t think you could do white anodization. I though it was a light silver that looked a bit whitish due to the camera.

If I understand correctly, white ano is made the same way as silver ano, or virtually any other color except “natural” — by adding dye. Natural ano is without dye, silver can technically be done without except it’s extremely thin, and the common type-II colors (including silver) just use different colors of dye.

With type-III ano, the natural color is strong enough to make lighter dye colors look bad… so those are usually natural or black or dark grey.

Anyway, it does seem to be white… or at least a pretty light grey. We should find out more soon.

I like the plum color, would want even a bit more red/darkness added to give it some depth. And maybe marmorize it with a little bit black.

Klayking wrote:

Convoy’s violet S2+ is a gorgeous shade of purple. I’d love to see a shade very similar to this used on the FW3A.

JasonWW wrote:

ToyKeeper wrote:

JasonWW wrote:

Is that other one white? I didn’t think you could do white anodization. I though it was a light silver that looked a bit whitish due to the camera.

If I understand correctly, white ano is made the same way as silver ano, or virtually any other color except “natural” — by adding dye. Natural ano is without dye, silver can technically be done without except it’s extremely thin, and the common type-II colors (including silver) just use different colors of dye.

With type-III ano, the natural color is strong enough to make lighter dye colors look bad… so those are usually natural or black or dark grey.

Anyway, it does seem to be white… or at least a pretty light grey. We should find out more soon.

From what I remember, the white dye particles were too large to fit inside the etched surface you get with aluminum which is why we never see white anodization. Anyway, maybe they figured out a way to do it.

I have a white Emisar D4 that is quite nice. It has a grainy surface though. Not sure what the surface texture is on the white FW3A.

Firelight2 wrote:

JasonWW wrote:

ToyKeeper wrote:

JasonWW wrote:

Is that other one white? I didn’t think you could do white anodization. I though it was a light silver that looked a bit whitish due to the camera.

If I understand correctly, white ano is made the same way as silver ano, or virtually any other color except “natural” — by adding dye. Natural ano is without dye, silver can technically be done without except it’s extremely thin, and the common type-II colors (including silver) just use different colors of dye.

With type-III ano, the natural color is strong enough to make lighter dye colors look bad… so those are usually natural or black or dark grey.

Anyway, it does seem to be white… or at least a pretty light grey. We should find out more soon.

From what I remember, the white dye particles were too large to fit inside the etched surface you get with aluminum which is why we never see white anodization. Anyway, maybe they figured out a way to do it.

White anodization is definitely possible.

I have a white Emisar D4 that is quite nice. It has a grainy surface though. Not sure what the surface texture is on the white FW3A.

I wonder if we can get Lumintop to comment on the white finish.

contactcr wrote:

People need to stop comparing to 219B, it’s too far under the BBL to make a good comparison for 99% of LEDs

As a (subjective) aside, I see little or no green in the high CRI SST 20’s (of unknown bin) in my Emisar D4S, even at low levels, although I accept that, objectively, they are above BBL. And when I light up the ship half-model above my desk, which has blues, reds, and wood tones, the SST’s are significantly richer in color than the XP-L HI 3D’s in my FW3A.

An interesting question: why do humans prefer magenta light over green?

I like the burgundy / maroon one on the left. The metallic purple 2nd from left looks a bit richer, less “lilac” than the 2nd from right.

Teal looks pretty nice too.

Original: I like the 3rd one best here, the pinkish purple.

Gotta go with the second one here, a darker purple. I like all of the colors though.

Flying Luminosity wrote:

Gotta go with the second one here too, the darker more vivid magenta. The wine color on the left is nice, too.

xevious wrote:

I don’t know what we’ll actually get, but I’m liking these darker and more vivid purples people made.

I just love colorful lights! What about orange or to be different a neon type yellow? I’d LEGO a blue and yellow together for sure!

Different body colours are perfect to distinguish between different led types…
Will the code also work for those lights? If so, I will wait for them and order once, they are available…

ToyKeeper posted:…………. Flying Luminosity posted:… xevious posted:

Toykeeper wrote:
I don’t know what we’ll actually get, but I’m liking these darker and more vivid purples people made.
…

teacher wrote:
The burning question is……. which one is closest to the ‘Gold Standard’???
.

Barney Purple

But, in the final analysis (as much as possible with LT); ToyKeeper (IMO) should have the say so as to what Purple to use. .