souptree
Flashlight Enthusiast
- Joined
- Dec 24, 2005
- Messages
- 1,175
LunaSoup!!!
I am VERY pleased to introduce what I consider to be the ultimate LunaSol (at least given the current state of electronics). This is a special one off light that Don offered to build for me after seeing my many posts extolling the virtues of the color orange as an excellent compromise between night vision protection and giving good rendition of what is being illuminated. I find red to be very poor in the latter category, and hours of hiking with red light to create significant eyestrain. Orange is a little worse in the night vision protection area, but significantly better in the rendition and eyestrain categories, so I find it to be an excellent compromise.
The Birth Of The Cool
Some of you may know that I have a SureFire A2 that was modded by milkyspit with Kingbright orange LEDs. I fall in love with that A2 every single time I use it. It's simply one of the most useful tools I own and possibly the light that has seen the most hours of use. It's my hiking partner's favorite light. You can read my review of the orange A2 here. When I first heard about the LunaSol program, I immediately started planning to have a LunaSol modded by milkyspit with orange LEDs. It was the natural progression. It seems that js has made a similar progression from the A2 to the LunaSol. I was actually looking for 3mm orange LEDs months before the production LunaSols ever hit the beach.
So everything was cool. Don would make a state of the art light that would push the boundaries of what had been done before. I'd get paler and paler dedicating my entire life to catching the wave. I'd promptly have a perfectly good state of the art light ripped apart and rebuilt. Hunky dory. But then tragedy struck. :mecry: :mecry: :mecry: Don warned us against taking the heads apart, stating they'd be nearly impossible to put back together!!
I did make a couple of posts lamenting the sad conclusion to this tale, went on EDC'ing my stock LunaSol 27 and hiking with my A2 (the horror!!). I pretty much accepted that it is what it is for now, and hoped to snag an extra LS27 reflector or two to have a custom light made with down the road.
And then out of the blue I got an email from Don saying he was intrigued by the request and was interested in building a one off light with red and yellow 3mm Nichias if I was interested in acquiring such a beast. I spent days AGONIZING over that decision, let me tell you.
Not!! :thumbsup: Originally, Don wanted to build a LS20, but I asked if a 27 was possible instead. I have been EDC'ing a LS27 since the first wave and I still carry it 7 days most weeks. I did score an LS20 on the first wave, but I sold it because I feel like the LS27 is so much better for my uses. I also prefer an S27-PD to a PD-S. That is an aside. What is NOT an aside is how humbled and honored I was (and am!) by Don's offer. If there's ever going to be a light that means more to me than this one, I can't imagine what it will be. I feel like I have truly made it as a flashaholic now! 
When Obsessions Collide
Some of you may know that as well as being a flashaholic hiker, I am one of the most dedicated collectors of the work of Peter Atwood. I have managed to put together a pretty special collection of Peter's creations over the past couple of years, and I have also been very fortunate to have stumbled into a friendship with Peter along the way. I asked him over a year ago if he would anodize one of Don's lights for me, and I had planned to have my S27-PD (my all time favorite light) disassembled for him at some point but hadn't gotten to it yet. This seemed like the perfect opportunity to avoid taking a perfectly good light apart by having the anodize done prior to first assembly, and to my surprise and joy both Don and Peter were game for the extra step on this build. As it turns out, this light went 12,500 miles between the first time leaving Don and arriving here. Anyone want to calculate the carbon footprint on that?
Tropical. Tropicool. Tropical Ice-Land. :rock:
And then the wait began. Did you know that it can, on occasion, require several MONTHS to acquire 3 yellow LEDs? :thinking: This project began in early May and it took until mid-July to get the LEDs. :candle: I am actually happy for the delay though. Some very special goodies came my way in the interim and it is nice to have special things out on the horizon to look forward to rather than having everything fall into your lap all at once.
Of course, it is only fitting that LunaSoup hosts an orange trit.
So What About The Light?
You mean you're still reading this? :sleepy:
I shipped the A2 to Don for him to use as a reference/target color and to just check out the light. The orange A2 is more red than the LunaSoup. According to Don's integrating sphere, the LunaSoup orange is 3.2 lumens to 1.8 for the orange on the A2:
LunaSoup is considerably more towards the yellow side of orange and places the A2 well to the red side of orange. Here is Don's comparison beamshot, which to both his and my eyes is skewed a bit too red. Both the LunaSoup and the A2 are slightly more yellow than seen here.
Interestingly, Scott (milkyspit) described the orange A2 as "the only LEDs I have ever seen that are truly ORANGE." Don describes them as "red-orange". I was actually a little perplexed by the red-orange description because I have always agreed that the A2 pretty much defines "orange". But it's true that when comparing the A2 to the LunaSoup side by side, it does appear as what I would describe as red-orange. The A2 is closer to safety orange or the color of orange paracord. The LunaSoup is closer to scissor handle orange. If I was Crayola, I might choose "Tangerine" or "Apricot" as a name for the LunaSoup color. I would probably call the A2 "orange". I asked a third party here what they'd describe each color as and was told "orange" for the A2 and "kind of orangey-yellow" for the LunaSoup.
It was certainly a big question how the colors would blend using the red and yellow LEDs in lieu of actual orange LEDs. I am very sensitive to colors and I was a little worried about the effect of the alternating colors on the beam. But no problem. These LEDs are AMAZING. You have to take the light to within one inch of a white wall to see the alternating colors. There is virtually no issue with the blend. I am LOVING the low level beam on this light and I cannot wait to get it out on a trail for a night hike. Yep -- that's right. This light is a USER. U - S - E - R - ! In fact, I have a feeling it is going to wind up as my primary trail light. I do not own ANY shelf queens, and I certainly don't intend to start with what may be the most useful light I own just because it's also the most beautiful!
LunaSoup at 1/2 inch from a sheet of paper.
LunaSoup at 3 inches from a sheet of paper.
Orange SureFire A2 at 1 inch from a sheet of paper.
Snug As A Bug In A Rug
In synchronicity, my 2 LunaSol27 holsters from Matt at Art of the Hide arrived on the SAME DAY as LunaSoup.
LunaSoup will be living in the holster with the flap. My EDC is a stock LunaSol head on the Fatty McFatTail PD from my PD-S (blue lanyard, the Half Dome PD), which is riding in the flapless holster on my hip. I had to leave the recent group buy in order to have Matt do my holsters custom with a 4 way belt loop instead of a clip. I am really glad I went that route because these ride PERFECTLY on my belt and with the nice floody LunaSol beam will actually function quite well as a hands free "hiplamp". You just don't understand those hol(e)sters until you have one in hand. It's an amazing job Matt does, truly. His leather work is well beyond anything else I have experienced.
THANK YOU!!!!!!
What a group of amazing and talented craftsmen contributed their skills to this light. It is an honor and a privilege to carry their outstanding work. Believe me when I tell you that I am under no illusions as to what a special thing it is to be able to own and use this very special light. :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow:
I am VERY pleased to introduce what I consider to be the ultimate LunaSol (at least given the current state of electronics). This is a special one off light that Don offered to build for me after seeing my many posts extolling the virtues of the color orange as an excellent compromise between night vision protection and giving good rendition of what is being illuminated. I find red to be very poor in the latter category, and hours of hiking with red light to create significant eyestrain. Orange is a little worse in the night vision protection area, but significantly better in the rendition and eyestrain categories, so I find it to be an excellent compromise.
The Birth Of The Cool
Some of you may know that I have a SureFire A2 that was modded by milkyspit with Kingbright orange LEDs. I fall in love with that A2 every single time I use it. It's simply one of the most useful tools I own and possibly the light that has seen the most hours of use. It's my hiking partner's favorite light. You can read my review of the orange A2 here. When I first heard about the LunaSol program, I immediately started planning to have a LunaSol modded by milkyspit with orange LEDs. It was the natural progression. It seems that js has made a similar progression from the A2 to the LunaSol. I was actually looking for 3mm orange LEDs months before the production LunaSols ever hit the beach.
So everything was cool. Don would make a state of the art light that would push the boundaries of what had been done before. I'd get paler and paler dedicating my entire life to catching the wave. I'd promptly have a perfectly good state of the art light ripped apart and rebuilt. Hunky dory. But then tragedy struck. :mecry: :mecry: :mecry: Don warned us against taking the heads apart, stating they'd be nearly impossible to put back together!!
I did make a couple of posts lamenting the sad conclusion to this tale, went on EDC'ing my stock LunaSol 27 and hiking with my A2 (the horror!!). I pretty much accepted that it is what it is for now, and hoped to snag an extra LS27 reflector or two to have a custom light made with down the road.
And then out of the blue I got an email from Don saying he was intrigued by the request and was interested in building a one off light with red and yellow 3mm Nichias if I was interested in acquiring such a beast. I spent days AGONIZING over that decision, let me tell you.
Not!! :thumbsup: Originally, Don wanted to build a LS20, but I asked if a 27 was possible instead. I have been EDC'ing a LS27 since the first wave and I still carry it 7 days most weeks. I did score an LS20 on the first wave, but I sold it because I feel like the LS27 is so much better for my uses. I also prefer an S27-PD to a PD-S. That is an aside. What is NOT an aside is how humbled and honored I was (and am!) by Don's offer. If there's ever going to be a light that means more to me than this one, I can't imagine what it will be. I feel like I have truly made it as a flashaholic now!
When Obsessions Collide
Some of you may know that as well as being a flashaholic hiker, I am one of the most dedicated collectors of the work of Peter Atwood. I have managed to put together a pretty special collection of Peter's creations over the past couple of years, and I have also been very fortunate to have stumbled into a friendship with Peter along the way. I asked him over a year ago if he would anodize one of Don's lights for me, and I had planned to have my S27-PD (my all time favorite light) disassembled for him at some point but hadn't gotten to it yet. This seemed like the perfect opportunity to avoid taking a perfectly good light apart by having the anodize done prior to first assembly, and to my surprise and joy both Don and Peter were game for the extra step on this build. As it turns out, this light went 12,500 miles between the first time leaving Don and arriving here. Anyone want to calculate the carbon footprint on that?
Tropical. Tropicool. Tropical Ice-Land. :rock:
And then the wait began.
Did you know that it can, on occasion, require several MONTHS to acquire 3 yellow LEDs? :thinking: This project began in early May and it took until mid-July to get the LEDs. :candle: I am actually happy for the delay though. Some very special goodies came my way in the interim and it is nice to have special things out on the horizon to look forward to rather than having everything fall into your lap all at once.
Of course, it is only fitting that LunaSoup hosts an orange trit.
So What About The Light?
You mean you're still reading this? :sleepy:
I shipped the A2 to Don for him to use as a reference/target color and to just check out the light. The orange A2 is more red than the LunaSoup. According to Don's integrating sphere, the LunaSoup orange is 3.2 lumens to 1.8 for the orange on the A2:
LunaSoup is considerably more towards the yellow side of orange and places the A2 well to the red side of orange. Here is Don's comparison beamshot, which to both his and my eyes is skewed a bit too red. Both the LunaSoup and the A2 are slightly more yellow than seen here.
Interestingly, Scott (milkyspit) described the orange A2 as "the only LEDs I have ever seen that are truly ORANGE." Don describes them as "red-orange". I was actually a little perplexed by the red-orange description because I have always agreed that the A2 pretty much defines "orange". But it's true that when comparing the A2 to the LunaSoup side by side, it does appear as what I would describe as red-orange. The A2 is closer to safety orange or the color of orange paracord. The LunaSoup is closer to scissor handle orange. If I was Crayola, I might choose "Tangerine" or "Apricot" as a name for the LunaSoup color. I would probably call the A2 "orange". I asked a third party here what they'd describe each color as and was told "orange" for the A2 and "kind of orangey-yellow" for the LunaSoup.
It was certainly a big question how the colors would blend using the red and yellow LEDs in lieu of actual orange LEDs. I am very sensitive to colors and I was a little worried about the effect of the alternating colors on the beam. But no problem. These LEDs are AMAZING. You have to take the light to within one inch of a white wall to see the alternating colors. There is virtually no issue with the blend. I am LOVING the low level beam on this light and I cannot wait to get it out on a trail for a night hike. Yep -- that's right. This light is a USER. U - S - E - R - ! In fact, I have a feeling it is going to wind up as my primary trail light. I do not own ANY shelf queens, and I certainly don't intend to start with what may be the most useful light I own just because it's also the most beautiful!
LunaSoup at 1/2 inch from a sheet of paper.
LunaSoup at 3 inches from a sheet of paper.
Orange SureFire A2 at 1 inch from a sheet of paper.
Snug As A Bug In A Rug
In synchronicity, my 2 LunaSol27 holsters from Matt at Art of the Hide arrived on the SAME DAY as LunaSoup.
LunaSoup will be living in the holster with the flap. My EDC is a stock LunaSol head on the Fatty McFatTail PD from my PD-S (blue lanyard, the Half Dome PD), which is riding in the flapless holster on my hip. I had to leave the recent group buy in order to have Matt do my holsters custom with a 4 way belt loop instead of a clip. I am really glad I went that route because these ride PERFECTLY on my belt and with the nice floody LunaSol beam will actually function quite well as a hands free "hiplamp". You just don't understand those hol(e)sters until you have one in hand. It's an amazing job Matt does, truly. His leather work is well beyond anything else I have experienced.
THANK YOU!!!!!!
What a group of amazing and talented craftsmen contributed their skills to this light. It is an honor and a privilege to carry their outstanding work. Believe me when I tell you that I am under no illusions as to what a special thing it is to be able to own and use this very special light. :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow:
Oops too late! I'll have to play with some orange leds now! Congrats on a beautiful, and useful light!
Dude that's freaking Xmas right there...twice.. IM speechless.
