My reviewof this light is now done for anyone interested in reading. Let me know if you have any questions!
Update: I have a couple samples of the production light. These are one in SST-20 and one in XP-L HD I believe. I'll write up a review for everyone, but my initial impressions are great. Took them on a night hike just last night, and the beam with the SST-20 is a perfect blend of floody enough for trail walking, wiht more than enough throw to see where my dog runs off to in large clearings. It's an extremely versatile light, and Neal and Lumintop did a great job with the design.
As soon as I found out the FW3A was coming out, I was hoping a single emitter variant would be made. When I found out Lumintop was manufacturing the light I got super excited - if there's one thing I took away from the BLF GT, it's that Lumintop isn't shy about making variants of their lights. I've been pestering Neal and Lumintop ever since, and a few days ago Neal finally shared some pictures in his group, and announced this should be coming in the next month - so I think it's safe to share. Who else is excited for it?
The head is slightly lengthened to fit the reflector, but everything else is the same. The renders show an OP reflector. Now that the product page is listed, emitter options include SST-20, 219C, and XP-L Hi.
Well, I donât necessarily think thatâs fair. Cheaper, of course, but better depends on your needs. This certainly wonât have a rotary interface, and as well as my Lumintop lights have been built I have no doubt that HDS can manage somewhat better quality and warranty support for the prices they charge - so Iâm not sure about better.
I would be comfortable saying cheaper, brighter, and more modification-friendly, sure.
Yup, super excited for this one. Possibly more so than the FW3*. I think they need to add a bit of extra detail/knurling to the extended head though but thatâs nit-picking.
Aside from constantly annoying Neal, I have no inside information - but I would guess only as a complete light. To install it on the FW3A youâd have to drill new holes in the shelf for the leads, which is a bit silly to expect customers to do. Considering how few people will be willing to drill and solder their own lights together, I would be surprised to see a kit.
Thank you for the feedback. I assumed the same, just thought a question wouldnât hurt due to the strong modding community on here. I also believe the absolute number of people who are willing to âshareâ a FWxA host in order to run two different lights would be small.
You donât actually save that much time or money if you have to desolder the mcpcb in order to run a different head/reflector.
I donât think the extra length will be an issue at all - the current FW3A is one of the shortest 18650 lights ever, and a bit of length may even help with the ergonomics for some people with bigger hands. I can only think of Fenix thatâs using those strange ultra short TIR optics, are there others? Or more readily available options?
I need someone to describe why they prefer a single emitter light over the three. I donât understand, especially the one expressed desire that an optic was preferred? Just curious.
I just wrote this on reddit so Iâll paste it below:
Overtly floody beams are sort of a luxury. Indoors, or at very close distances, they take the guesswork and effort out of having to direct a light and choose where itâs pointed. Working under your sink? Perfect, the entire cabinet is daylight now. So whatâs not to like?
If Iâm carrying a single EDC light with me, I want it to be versatile, and I realized just how single-purpose floody beams were when we were walking the dog at night, and my wife saw a bird in the middle of the river and wanted to know what kind it was - so I put my Astrolux S43 on turbo, with well over 1000 lumens, and got a great look at⌠small particles in the air. The light wasnât able to get about 25 feet away effectively, even with the battery-draining excess of full FET - something that a simple Convoy S2+ could have easily done on most of the lower modes.
Take that same S2+, or this Unicorn, and it will get to the middle of the river and beyond with ease. If I find myself in the cupboard looking for a leak, it can do that just fine too. On the off chance that I find it too throwy, I can diffuse it or ceiling bounce - but thatâs almost never required.
Like I said earlier, thereâs a point where this isnât the case anymore. Something like a C8 really doesnât cut it for walking around at night, because the hot spot is too intense, and itâs nearly impossibe to see whatâs up ahead on the trail and watch my feet at the same time. But for me, even the Dobermann Pro with a 34 mm head and a domeless LED is perfectly fine for âgeneralâ use. And there are times when I want an extremely floody light - mainly for hands-free applications, like a headlamp. But for a straight-bodied light, a 1â reflector or optic is pretty much the sweet spot for me.
I find that sometimes to much flood an be a bad thing. If you are trying to focus on one thing in one general direction a little bit of focused light works very well. Small reflector lights have a decent amount of spill and generally a decent size hotspot, triples and quads just tend to blast light forward with no real aim⌠other than forward. I mentioned TIR because it will give you some control, measured in degrees, where the majority of the light will go. With a reflector, you do not gain that control.
OK, I asked. I find a TIR with some flood like the FW3A is more suited for most of my wants than any reflector light. I use other lights when I want less flood. Just my type of use, the way I like. Itâs a good thing there are lots of lights to choose from.
OP reflectors have been shown to have a pretty negligible impact on throw, while cleaning up any artifacts in the beam - so Iâm more than happy with OP.
Check out the Fireflies E01.
It is a single emitter. Not a flood, not a thrower, but the single emitter with the (TIR?) optic has a nice narrow beam that throws very well. And handles heat a lot better than the FW3 design.
I ran a test last night and put the E01 into turbo for 90 seconds. Never stepped down, temp was 46 C.
Totally different light. A 34 mm head is a bit large for EDC, and itâs 20% longer than the FW1A. Really itâs pushing the boundaries of an EDC, and closer in size to the Dobermann Pro - not to mention that I donât trust their build quality one bit.
Also, saying a FET light ânever stepped downâ doesnât really jive with me - of course it did. It stepped down just as fast as the cell voltage did which, on turbo, is not insignificant.
Itâs pretty clear from Maukkaâs review that the fireflies lights are in a different size class altogether.
