Out with SOS, In with Strobe Feature!

[Sub_Umbra]

I was actually thinking of a keychain light when I posted. I've been wringing out some different cell lots with my Photon Freedom. Even though I'm a noob with the Photon the SOS mode is pretty much out of the way. I had an old friend who was in a car wreck in the 1960s and was pinned in the car, off the road at night, in the dead of the Alaskan winter. He did not freeze to death only because he was able to signal from the position he was trapped in with a small penlight. He never left the house without one for the rest of his life.

My point is that the SOS mode (and other signal modes) on a light like the Photon will be there for you, with very little overhead, no matter what happens -- and you won't even have to be able to get to your trunk!

 

[Lunarmodule]

if an epileptic is coming at me with a knife or gun, screw him! I'd rather have him thrashing around on the ground than me bleeding out from a knife or gunshot wound.

Out of context, thats an absolutely hilarious statement. I think the reason for wanting to know the potential susceptibility to inducing seizures from exposure to rapid pulses of light was more out of concern for causing serious harm to those inadvertently or accidentally exposed to it instead of deliberately trying to affect a person by targeting them with it. Others may see it differently.

On the whole I really enjoy the novelty of the stop motion effect a strobe has. Its also extremely useful, I think moreso than even flashed SOS, for location signaling in emergency situations. The eye is naturally attracted to movement and rapid changes in light. I have found the strobe useful in locating people in a group that have been separated by significant distance and ever more so signalling to get attention in a crisis.

The very first night I got my brand new HDS U60XR I was bumbling my way through the user menu trying to commit the various options to memory. Maybe it was intentional that signal strobe comes up first. I had ventured out late at night on a drive to return in a pouring rainstorm, and a stranded stalled car was stuck in the road on a curvy two lane mountain road near my home. Out came the HDS, and the strobe got the attention of the (few) approaching cars that came by. Proved itself useful and really enamored me to it since then. In the case of the HDS I wish the frequency were higher, but it was very beneficial in that singular instance and I was grateful for it.

I've got 3 lights with a POP UI and wouldnt trade away the strobe function. If nothing else, its a fun stop motion diversion.