Surefire aluminium vs Fenix + LED question.

[LA OZ]

I have SF A2, L2, U2 (yes yes, all of them are "2"). I have noted that the stated material is aluminium and so is the Fenix. How come the SF aluminium looks goldish? A bit like mixing aluminium and copper. The Fenix and Gladius are pure white and that is what it should be.

Also, Fenix LED has smaller amount of yellow cake compared to the Luxeon V the U2 and L2 have. Why is my Fenix put out the same amount of light if not more? Is the Fenix over driven and hence shorter life expectancy to be expected?

 

[Led_Blind]

First point,
You will find the gold colour is not the aluminium, its a anti-corrosive coat on the inside of the light. That's part of the reason you spend more $$

2nd Point
The yellow 'cake' you refer to is the phosphor coat over the led die. You will find that each led manufacturer uses a different recipe and icing methods. Yes, think of the phosphor as icing on top of the led die.
The differences.
- Lumileds coats only the die. Their method and icing ingredients are patented.
- Seul and Cree tend to cover more than just the cake... i mean led die

Now, when you compare the lights mentioned you will probably find the U2 uses a LuxV, the fenix uses a cree led. These are vastly different beasts.
- The luxV is 4x lux1's in one package, seuls and crees all use a single die.
- Seul and Cree leds use the same led die. Lumileds use their own.

The efficency of the lux v's Cree (all driven at 350ma)
- LuxI is up to about 50lm per watt
- Lux3 is at around the same with higher current limit
- LuxV is about 40lm\w, at 700ma is closer to 20.
- Now the cree EZ100) die is around 90lm\w, at 700ma its 60-70lm\w



What all this means to you?
- any light source based on the EZ1000 die that is used in current cree XR-e and Seul SSC leds have 2x the output per watt input.

 

[jumpstat]

If you are referring to the insides of the barrel the goldish colour is infact a coating to minimise corrosion. Fenix are bare metal. The fenix are cree leds totally different form LuxV.

 

[LA OZ]

Ok, that is a very good summary. I have a greater understanding now. Looking at the number, it seems the LuxI get 50lm/w and LuxV get 40lm/w. Why did surefire opt for the LuxV? Also, I thought aluminium don't suffers from corrosion.

I was referring to the SS Civictor. I believed it has the LuxIII LED.

 

[greenLED]

Because back when the U2 was designed, the LuxV was the brightest LED available. The Cree XR-E is a fairly recent development compared to the U2.