I had dinner and some great conversation with the master (PK) the other night. Some toys were bought out and the one I kept going back to was an A2. I finally got a chance to use this light in darkness as well as open it up. Certainly I am biased by the quality of SureFire as well as the high caliber of design and material usage called out by PK and his group but the following observations are relatively objective, I believe.
The A2 feels and handles like an E2e initially. When you slightly depress the tail switch, you get a beam of light very similar in pattern and brightness to the Opalec New Beam. I compared a New Beam I had to the A2 Low Beam (LED's) and the A2 was a bit brighter at 10 feet but very similar. No surprise here as both use 3 of the Nichia NSPW500BS LED's. The A2 has a simple resistive circuit whereas the NewBeam is constant current. At some point in battery depletion one would expect to see the New Beam's beam win out in brightness. However, since the A2 does have a reflector surrounding its LED's there may be a certain gain on photons making it out of the flashlight head over the New Beam.
Now if you depress the tail switch a little more, your beam goes from the blue-white low beam of the Nichias to a yellow-white high beam of a 60 lumen incandescent bulb. This transition is, subjectively speaking,WAY COOL!
The color temp on the beam is reminiscent of a typical SureFire incandescent on new batteries. However since the incandescent in the A2 is digitally controlled, this color will remain as well as the intensity of the beam for the useable life of the batteries. When the batteries are no longer capable off powering the incandescent, there is plenty of juice left to fire up the LED's. One aspect of the switch that I was curious about and finally got to test was the sequencing from momentary to full on. In addition to the "two" position low to high beam of the momentary, you can screw the tail cap through the same two positions; low to high. If the light is in the constant on, low beam mode, pushing the tail button will shift you into momentary high beam. This feature is likely to spoil us something fierce!
As a flashlight hobbyist and simple modder, the A2 blows me away! The miniature circuitry in all of the regulated lights is black box magic to me but the wonder and sophistication in the A2 goes well beyond the circuitry into mechanical and material issues where I am typically more comfortable. Beyond electronics, The A2 has to be the most sophisticated pocket flashlight I have ever seen. The bezel on the A2 is removable but you are not looking at the batteries once the bezel is off. You have access to the LED lamp ring assembly as well as the incandescent envelope on the bezel side and on the battery tube side you are looking at a very intricate, multiple contact, mating system for the electrical paths from the electronics within the battery tube to the light elements in the bezel. To remove the batteries, the tail switch is unscrewed and taken off. Within the tail switch is an unknown to me method of not only completing a power path from batteries to circuit but also a signal as to which mode, low or high beam, is to be in operation. Because of the need to provide more than a simple path for electrons through the battery tube to the electronics in front of the batteries, SureFire has installed a metal sleeve within the Al housing as a more dependable and consistant path for the electrons to follow. As an aid to screwing the tail switch in and out in a smooth and tight manner, an Acme lead screw type thread has been used on the cap to body thread. Longitudinal displacement per revolution (pitch) is increased in a very robust and dependable fashion with this choice of thread.
With the 10X and very soon the A2, SureFire is really raising the bar for other flashlight manufacturers! I think this is great but saddening in a way as well. As a modder looking at the A2 I probably have some of the same thoughts as one who grew up hopping up '57 Chevys now thinks when looking under the hood of a late model automobile.
No camera so no beam shots; sorry. Another surprise to me was the quality of the incandescents beam. I had expected some strong artifacts or irregularity in the beam due to the presense of the 3 LED's. From a couple of feet away, you could see a bit of a clover leaf pattern in the beam but from 10 feet, it is really negligible. The effected area is in the perimiter of the beam and not the center. In retrospect, I believe this is a good indication of how well the dimpled reflectors smooth the beam pattern.
There was no discussion or comment on the selling price of the A2 but I must say with all the tooling involved and multitude of components, this is not a simple light!
PK does feel that a November release date is still a go. I sure hope so!
- Don
The A2 feels and handles like an E2e initially. When you slightly depress the tail switch, you get a beam of light very similar in pattern and brightness to the Opalec New Beam. I compared a New Beam I had to the A2 Low Beam (LED's) and the A2 was a bit brighter at 10 feet but very similar. No surprise here as both use 3 of the Nichia NSPW500BS LED's. The A2 has a simple resistive circuit whereas the NewBeam is constant current. At some point in battery depletion one would expect to see the New Beam's beam win out in brightness. However, since the A2 does have a reflector surrounding its LED's there may be a certain gain on photons making it out of the flashlight head over the New Beam.
Now if you depress the tail switch a little more, your beam goes from the blue-white low beam of the Nichias to a yellow-white high beam of a 60 lumen incandescent bulb. This transition is, subjectively speaking,WAY COOL!
The color temp on the beam is reminiscent of a typical SureFire incandescent on new batteries. However since the incandescent in the A2 is digitally controlled, this color will remain as well as the intensity of the beam for the useable life of the batteries. When the batteries are no longer capable off powering the incandescent, there is plenty of juice left to fire up the LED's. One aspect of the switch that I was curious about and finally got to test was the sequencing from momentary to full on. In addition to the "two" position low to high beam of the momentary, you can screw the tail cap through the same two positions; low to high. If the light is in the constant on, low beam mode, pushing the tail button will shift you into momentary high beam. This feature is likely to spoil us something fierce!As a flashlight hobbyist and simple modder, the A2 blows me away! The miniature circuitry in all of the regulated lights is black box magic to me but the wonder and sophistication in the A2 goes well beyond the circuitry into mechanical and material issues where I am typically more comfortable. Beyond electronics, The A2 has to be the most sophisticated pocket flashlight I have ever seen. The bezel on the A2 is removable but you are not looking at the batteries once the bezel is off. You have access to the LED lamp ring assembly as well as the incandescent envelope on the bezel side and on the battery tube side you are looking at a very intricate, multiple contact, mating system for the electrical paths from the electronics within the battery tube to the light elements in the bezel. To remove the batteries, the tail switch is unscrewed and taken off. Within the tail switch is an unknown to me method of not only completing a power path from batteries to circuit but also a signal as to which mode, low or high beam, is to be in operation. Because of the need to provide more than a simple path for electrons through the battery tube to the electronics in front of the batteries, SureFire has installed a metal sleeve within the Al housing as a more dependable and consistant path for the electrons to follow. As an aid to screwing the tail switch in and out in a smooth and tight manner, an Acme lead screw type thread has been used on the cap to body thread. Longitudinal displacement per revolution (pitch) is increased in a very robust and dependable fashion with this choice of thread.
With the 10X and very soon the A2, SureFire is really raising the bar for other flashlight manufacturers! I think this is great but saddening in a way as well. As a modder looking at the A2 I probably have some of the same thoughts as one who grew up hopping up '57 Chevys now thinks when looking under the hood of a late model automobile.
No camera so no beam shots; sorry. Another surprise to me was the quality of the incandescents beam. I had expected some strong artifacts or irregularity in the beam due to the presense of the 3 LED's. From a couple of feet away, you could see a bit of a clover leaf pattern in the beam but from 10 feet, it is really negligible. The effected area is in the perimiter of the beam and not the center. In retrospect, I believe this is a good indication of how well the dimpled reflectors smooth the beam pattern.
There was no discussion or comment on the selling price of the A2 but I must say with all the tooling involved and multitude of components, this is not a simple light!
PK does feel that a November release date is still a go. I sure hope so!
- Don
