New lights!!

[JB]

Came across this site while surfing - http://www.nielsenlabs.com/

They have 2 new lights I've not seen elsewhere: (a) Lightwave 4000 (10 LED) and (b) the Photon Micro Light III. Both are expected in April.

Anybody know more about these lights?

 

[Badbeams3]

Well, we have known about the Photon III for some time. But I was not aware of the 10 LED Lightwave. Selling for the same price as a 7 LED Expedition it may become the new standard in the big boy class. "D" batts for long run time...push button switch...digital control (I assume to suck every millawatt of juice out before batt death)...sounds nice. I wonder what type of of led they are useing. You know, I have been very happy with the brightness of my Expedition and have felt no desire to buy one of the new 14 or 19 LED one`s as they have a shorter run time and mine seems bright enough to handle any task. Now I can feel that Flashaholism kicking in...damm. Is there no cure? I hope they send one to our reveiwers (Craig & Brock) so we can get the low-down on them. Thanks for bringing this to our attention JB...I think.

 

[Brock]

Oh man yet another light to buy

I think the lightwave 4000 will take over the market of the Trek 7, but then again with the Trek 14 and 19 who knows.

Brock

 

[SteveY]

Expedition used to be my brightest light but it is not my favourite light because it needs two hands to turn on as the turning is pretty tight.

Now to me, the 18 leds DB is the winner. Not only it is much brighter than the Expedition, it is easilier to turn on with a click. Craig's photo comparison of the beam of Expedition vs DB does not do justice to the latter. In my view, it is twice as bright and cover a bigger area than the former. It weight is also much lighter than the expedition.

If you are looking for a bright light, do consider the 18 leds DB.

 

[The_LED_Museum]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by SteveY:

Now to me, the 18 leds DB is the winner. Not only it is much brighter than the Expedition, it is easilier to turn on with a click. Craig's photo comparison of the beam of Expedition vs DB does not do justice to the latter. In my view, it is twice as bright and cover a bigger area than the former. It weight is also much lighter than the expedition.

If you are looking for a bright light, do consider the 18 leds DB.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

But as we all (should) know, the Double Barrel 18 is in very limited supply, and at last check, only about 30 of us out of 6,100,000,000 people on this planet will ever get to own one of these admittedly very nice flashlights. It's like winning the lottery.

My DB-18 spends a good portion of its time at my bedside, and gets used daily besides that. The one-handed operation is definitely a + over the twist-on style.

As for my photo... hmmm... maybe mine has higher value resistors than yours. I found it to be on par with a brand new Expedition, and considerably brighter than an older Expedition that uses older, not quite so bright LEDs as the new.

Let me grab the DB-18 and an Expedition right now and take another look...

Ok... they're fairly close in light output. The DB has a slightly wider beam and a slightly more bluish central area than the Expedition, and is just slightly brighter overall.

 

[Badbeams3]

One other thought about the DB...useing AA batts I don`t think the run time can compare to the competition...I would like one anyway

 

[SteveY]

KenB

Grab one at Ebay and you will be one of the 30 limited edition DB owners. As for battery life, if you put in 6 lithium AA, it would probably run as long if not longer than the Expedition.

And if you going to North pole, a light with lithium batteries would be a difinite advantage!

 

[JB]

DB-18?? What DB-18? Hey, how come nobody told me about this?

It's amazing what you learn here, no wonder it contributes to Flashaholism! Heh-heh.

Okay, so where do I go to look at this DB-18? Craig, do you have it on your site? Didn't see it the last time I was there (moments ago).

 

[The_LED_Museum]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by SteveY:
As for battery life, if you put in 6 lithium AA, it would probably run as long if not longer than the Expedition.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

...and brighter too...
I might have to try this myself, if I can find a local source for L91 cells.

For absolute blinding power though, I doubt there is any commercially made product that can beat a Trek 1900 with new batteries.

The only possible competition I can think of is one of those HDS Action Lights on "overdrive mode", but I seriously doubt I'll ever get to try one of those.

Speaking of Trek flashlights... for about the last ten days, I've had the single LED Trek 50 hanging from a hook on the bathroom ceiling, and running it 12-13 solid hours a day.
It's still going.

 

[The_LED_Museum]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by JB:
DB-18?? What DB-18? Hey, how come nobody told me about this?

It's amazing what you learn here, no wonder it contributes to Flashaholism! Heh-heh.

Okay, so where do I go to look at this DB-18? Craig, do you have it on your site? Didn't see it the last time I was there (moments ago).<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Sorry about that.
Between the big shake-up, the big clean-up, the big building inspections, and the big website disappearing act, I haven't had a lot of time to break flashlights lately.

The cleanup is nowhere near done, but it was good enough for the city government inspectors that showed up yesterday. The apparent file abductions on my website seem to have stopped for the time being as well. So I can finally start getting back in the business of flashlight breakage & testing. I'll see about getting a page done up about the DB-18 sometime this evening or tomorrow, but no promises.

 

[Badbeams3]

Steve, good point about the lithium batts. I just looked on E-bay and there are two double barrels for sale. They are around $100 now. As much as I would like one I`m afraid I should pass right now as my wallet needs to recover from an expensive weekend trip. JB go to E-bay and type in led flashlight. There`s one page of them.

 

[JB]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Now to me, the 18 leds DB is the winner. Not only it is much brighter than the Expedition, <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>I found it to be on par with a brand new Expedition, and considerably brighter than an older Expedition that uses older, not quite so bright LEDs as the new.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Sorry, one question: what is the Expedition model referenced above? Are you talking about the CC. Expedition (7 LEDs)?

If so, I would imagine an 18-LED light to be much brighter than 7 LEDs, unless the Expedition's LEDs are driven much harder.

 

[JB]

KenB,

Found it! Thanks. Here's a more direct link for those interested: http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1130785183

I'm curious, who makes (or made) these double barrel 18 LED lights? Why aren't they made anymore? The white version uses 5600mcd LEDs I think (yeah the maths work out: 100,000 mcd ÷ 18 LEDs). Are they driven harder?

What's the double barrel reference about? 2 rows of 3AA batteries?

The switch is definitely a good idea - I never really did like twist-on lights. The aluminium construction looks good too.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Between the big shake-up, the big clean-up, the big building inspections, and the big website disappearing act, I haven't had a lot of time to break flashlights lately.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Sorry to hear about that Craig. Hope things are back on track for you.

 

[The_LED_Museum]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by JB:
Okay, so where do I go to look at this DB-18? Craig, do you have it on your site? <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Try http://ledmuseum.home.att.net/db18.htm

This page is very preliminary, and isn't even linked off the main site yet. And there's one picture missing (you will see it "broken" near the top of the page).
Do not be concerned about that for the time being.

 

[JB]

Thanks Craig.

 

[JB]

Just visited your page Craig.

Ahhh... it's a retrofit. Not an ordinary production run. I wonder who did the retrofit. Looks well done. The light is quite handsome, but I'm disappointed that it isn't that much brighter than the CC Expedition.

I might just hold out for the Trek 1900.

 

[Badbeams3]

I have tried to contact Lightwave at Neilsons but all I get is an answering machine. Still very interested as this one sounds like a great bang for the buck. I want to know ...what type of led`s...how many amps per led...what does the digital curcuit do...how much is shipping? Any other questions I should be asking?