It would be cool to have a flashlight that had two modes - LEP or focused blue laser beam if you wanted to start a campfire or use it for a weapon
A laser that can start a fire can blind a person instantly for life. Lasers are cool but rather pointless and expensive which I why I’m into flashlight instead.
It seems like LEPs haven’t caught on widely enough to get the attention of regulatory agencies. I’m sure if they get popular they’ll have to classify and regulate them to try to prevent people from doing silly things with them.
To be clear the distinction between the two is one is portable by all counts while the other is generally housed inside of a PC. While true the laser beam itself does not leave the light due to how the older models are built it does have a possibility of leaving if the reflecting mirror that directs the beam towards the phosphor substrate is damaged due to unforeseen circumstances but that of a CD burner does not have the possibility at all as its completely housed in what is essentially a metal box.
I don’t think the class ratings take into account every possible failure mode of a device. For example, CD burners are rated Class 1 because the laser is typically contained within the device. You can modify the device or remove covers to expose it, just like in an LEP light.
If the mirror somehow did come detached and allow the laser to shine forward, the lens would likely significantly defocus the laser into a bright but broad blue spot. It would probably be less intense than the actual white LEP beam. Haven’t tested that for myself though.
Anyways my point was that calling an LEP light a “laser” is misleading. It’s a flashlight with a phosphor-based light source and an aspheric lens, unless some regulatory agency decides to reclassify it.
Even if one of the mirrors in a LEP-module is damaged, or in case of the back-illuminated version the phosfor disc is damaged/removed, the lasers are not parallel but are focused at short distance, namely on the phosfor, so the light will always leave the device as a highly divergent beam which is hardly harmful. The danger of laser pointers and such is the parallel beam that keeps the light highly concentrated at all distances.
That is possible but there are a huge number of other useful tools that can cause worse injuries if used improperly. I use wraparound safety glasses if I’m going to safely start a campfire or something. Some of my lasers were $20 or less although I have a few that were hundreds of dollars
Also fun for wood burning. I made a gift for my wife one year by burning her name into a piece of wood I found.
This explains the low throw but doesn’t explain the low Lumens does it? Does the light not filling a large portion of the optic mean some of it is blocked from existing the light, resulting in the low lumen count? I see why filling only a portion of the optic decreases throw, but I don’t understand why that would decrease the lumens.
Hey everyone,
I’m ready to get my first LEP light but in doing some research I found a very interesting comparison site that showed candela values that were monstrously different from BLF sources I checked.
Furthermore, the part that scared me is: within the interactive candela graph at the bottom of the page, it shows the Astrolux WP2 losing 59% of it’s initial candela after only 2m:45s which is extremely drastic considering that this was the front runner in my current purchase decision.
Results from chart WP2
initial - 1278kcd
drop after - 2:45 500kcd
final sustained candela after 14:00 - 388kcd
IIRRC I’ve seen lumen output charts putting the WP2 sustained at almost 2 hours but this is the first candela chart I’ve seen.
Does anyone have any insight?
Also: anyone have experience with this site to confirm if his results are trustable?
That site appears to be either associated with chibim… or stealing his graphs. Maybe he can tell us which. My guess is they’re stealing his work to try to get paid for referrals.
I certainly hope that’s not the case. I know Chibim puts in a ton of work and that would be brutal to have others poaching it
I’ve gone over that website, and I could not find anything that referrs to a particular company or person. So the jury is still out on that one.
Don't worry guys, same owner. 
I asked him about it some months back because I was concerned about that very thing, it’s his site.
Thanks for clarifying guys that the site is indeed Chibims
That means those numbers are indeed reliable and also means the numbers on the WP2 look terrible compared to the Weltool W4!
Well I guess I was wrong then. I couldn’t find any info linking it to him. I tend to be overly suspicious sometimes. I mean, after all we do have an entire thread of people ripping off Matt Smith’s videos to sell every knock off flashlight in the book…
Does anyone know of a deal thread or contact other than Martin on the W4?
Does anyone know if a deal thread or contact on the Xsword?
For the W4, I see Neal carries it so I would FB message and/or email Neal to ask him what's the best deal he can give me, saying I'm on BLF. It's worked for me every time (few times).
That’s a good call! Neal is well informed as to who I am. lol my wallet doesn’t think that’s anywhere near as funny as I do!
In fact I decided to punish my wallet even more today and pulled the trigger on the Xsword - Chibim has a code up that lasts until April 30th. lol one of those had to do it moments is how I sleep at night
Correct, it's my website!
The link to that website has been in the OP for a few months now... Probably not clear enough yet :D
I should probably make the text even bigger ;)