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

SWEET!

@ mortuss
Thank you for the info & clarification. :beer:

Thanksā€¦ I am too. :+1:

Yay! My wife has been asking me about that every few days.

Hmm I received the original group buy coupon and abstained from the XPL version in favor of the SST-20 versions and now that the SSTs are out, we had the whole lens gate ordeal and now the switch feel is worse. There have been so many micro changes over time. Does anyone know the future of the switch and what kind of switch feel I will be getting if I were to order one now? Iā€™ve heard a lot of complaints regarding the new switch.

/\ā€¦. Just buy one and take what you get. If you donā€™t have another one to compare it to youā€™ll never know the difference.

They are pretty much all good, just very, very slight differences as far as switch goes.

Pull the triggerā€¦. :wink:

Finally I received mine :smiley:

  • FW3C 219c 4000K carclo optic + lens
  • FW3A SST-20 4000K temporary optic without lens.

The temporary optic can be easily scratched with finger nail.

FW3C came with something green :confounded: but can be easily cleaned up:

Here is comparison for moonlight, 1x7135, 8x7135 and turbo. 219c on turbo are 15% brighter than SST-20.

Album with all pictures

The sst20 looks brighter in the pics to me. It definitely has more throw than the 219C in my night walks. I checked out the album and loved the ā€œFirefly mode engagedā€ pic.

Nice. Howā€™s the tint on the 219C? I canā€™t seem to find any info on itā€¦ I might consider a 3rd FW3 with 219 if it doesnā€™t have a green tint.

219C in FW3C are definitely more rosy @350mA than SST-20 FB4. SST-20 in FW3A are better than FB4. Comparing 219C in FW3C and SST-20 in FW3A, 219C seem to be a bit warmer and less green than SST-20 (up to 8x7135). On turbo however, SST-20 looks more rosy. Butā€¦ tint preference is personal thing.

Sounds good to me. The rosy tint on the SST-20ā€™s are great at but itā€™s not enough for me personally because itā€™s visible only on the least used modeā€¦ I want a good tint on the ramp. So I might just pull the trigger on the 219C variant.

The SST looks brighter to me in those pictures too. Maybe itā€™s just a little throwier.

On my FW3A SST-20 4000K I removed the one piece Lumintop optic and replaced it with a Carclo 10507 optic & the glass lens Neal sent.
That combo creates a stellar beam!! :+1:

Of courseā€¦ ymmv. . :slight_smile:

I absolutely agree. That combo is great, and even though I am not really a tint junkie, the tint is great, and I love it. I still donā€™t like the lower brightness compared to the XPL though.

It depends on how the lumens are spread. Higher lumens spread over a bigger area will seem dimmer. A lower lumen light that is more focused will seem brighter. Itā€™s all about the intensity. Since the SST-20 is a smaller die, it makes a smaller hotspot and looks more intense.

You see this when you have the same flashlight and you swap between a xhp70.2 and a xhp50.2. The 50.2 has a smaller hotspot but 600 lumen (measured) from it looks about the same brightness (intensity) as 1000 lumen (measured) from the 70.2.

Still, the moon mode comparison in the pictures seems odd. Are they both at level 1? Maybe the SST-20 is in stepped ramp mode where itā€™s moonlight is level 20?

I absolutely agree on both points. A single emitter hotspot, even in a tube light SST-20 like the Convoy S2+, has a much more intense hotspot than the FW3A.
Also, yeah, that moon mode seems oddly bright.

Wow!

Green looks awesome ā€¦

Yeah it does! :heart_eyes:

Did you have to remove the o ring in the bezel for the lens to fit over the 10507?

Thanks