you didn't miss it, unfortunately they were never listed with the other emitters. That is the same listing from when the fw3a first came out is all, that's why it shows all of the emitter options with most of them being sold out, because they have been sold out for probably a year now. You can tell it's not a new listing because if you go to the "blf" tab on NG, Then sort by "date, newest" this listing is not on the first page of search results like it would be if it were a new listing. That's what I'm going with at least lol.
Was there any kind of announcement about this from Martin? I had noticed after his site change, he shifted away from the USA with many more European accessible deals. Then… seems to have dried up.
I do get it. There can come a point where you've delved into flashlights deep & long enough that you're "cooked" on interest. How many flashlights can one person own, anyway? :D I took a break of a few years at one point, because I live in a city and just wasn't getting enough opportunities to put flashlights to a lot of use, outside of summertime. Also, when all you're seeing is marginal improvements in LED's for a while... but now, we've got so much going on, especially in the long thrower category. Unreal how more range is being achieved in such small form factors. But once I've gotten my lantern & LEP thrower, I'm probably going to fade off again... Can't see what more will be developed at this point. Anduril pretty much is the big kahuna of UI's. I don't see needing anything more save for a more sophisticated OLED in a more affordable flashlight.
He’s locked into Olight now…his m4d m4x site is still up, revamped, and has relatively recent deals posted, but only Olight. Here’s his youtube channel with recent videos…Olight of course. I can’t imagine that he lost interest in the world of flashlights and of course he’s working in it for a living, so he must have some extremely restrictive contractual terms to abide by.
There’s a regional Olight channel he’s doing as well (Austria, I think?).
It doesn’t look like they’re ever going to revisit the FW3A driver board and revert back to the earlier, superior design. It’s a real shame. At this point, I don’t trust any of the newer incarnations based on the FW3A design, save the early FWAA. I’d rather put my money towards Hank, who is doing things right.
I’ve become a bit more bleak about Lumintop in general. The downgrades and such, yes, absolutely, but the lack of support and parts (early discontinuation of many models) and difficulty in contacting them (or rather, receiving a response from them) are huge. Additionally - and I think this is something all BLFers should consider - they have repeatedly violated the simple and respectful terms of the open source software so freely given to them and which they profit from. It’s a slap in the face to many people on many levels. I don’t personally feel that they’re worth our respect or money anymore and there are plenty of other better companies to work with and support these days.