Fauxton Vs. Photon, part 2....

After i did my original Lighthound .99¢ "Fauxton" Vs. Photon Freedom thread, i thought about it for a few days, and couldn't rationalize spending $15 on a keyring light with a few bells and whistles i was likely to never use, so i took it back to the shop and put the purchase price towards a really sweet little used Spyderco Dyad Jr pocketknife (great little knife BTW, it's discontinued and almost impossible to find....)

anyway, tonight i added another Spyderco knife to my lineup, the Jester, and the current Jester promotion ships with a LRI Photon 2 Microlight, so i had the Fauxton, and another Photon, so i figured, "why not perform another shootout".....

so, without further ado, here are the contenders;



in the Black corner, weighing in at .99¢, the Lighthound Photon Clone, a.k.a. "Fauxton"

in the Green corner, coming free with my Spyderco Jester (approx. light value around $7), the LRI Photon II Microlight;

Okay, i want a good, clean fight here, no hitting below the split-ring, and *no cutting!*, i'm looking at *you*, Jester/Photon combo....

okay, go to your corners and come out flashing (no, not *that* kind of flashing, geez, get your minds out of the gutter.....)

(Fauxton on the left, Photon on the right)


Fauxton, 2 stops underexposed;

Photon, 2 stops underexposed;


that little .99¢ Photon clone gets more and more impressive each time, although i *do* wonder how it was possible for them to copy the Photon's case almost *identically*, does LRI not have a patent on the "look and feel" of the Photon series of lights?....

There is no patent AFAIK but there is a trademark and that particular Fauxton is probably infringing. There's another type of Fauxton which looks a little different and might be on safer ground. Only a court could say for sure. But Chanik has mentioned LRI has stopped some of these imports. I'd prefer it if the manufacturer made a version with similar function but different styling in order to not look so much like a Photon. I think these Fauxtons could not be retailed in the US on any scale because of the trademark issue. The vendors way over in China might be safe but Lighthound might be taking chances, selling them here.

The most recent bunch of Fauxtons that I've bought have slide switches that are quite hard to operate, enough that I'm not entirely satisfied with them. Other ones I've had, and real Photons, have been better.

I really like the green-cased Photon II that came with the Jester and I bought mine when it wasn't on promotion (i.e. I paid around $10 extra for the Photon). It's on my keys now, replacing an Arc AAA (having the knife and the Arc on my keys was too much). LRI also made a batch of Photon Freedoms in yellow plastic specially for Equipped To Survive. I don't understand why they don't offer Photons in more case colors under their own logo. The only ones they have are those stupid wood-grained ones, designed to be impossible to find if you drop one while hiking, not a great idea. The green one to me looks just perfect.

Note that the Photon has a Nichia led with gold plated leads. It should flicker less, and is probably less susceptable to burnout or fading, than the fauxton (I've had a couple Countycomm leds burn out). On the other hand, if the fauxton flickers, just give it a squeeze.

I don't think China cares too much about patents.

Btw, how much did you pay for your Jester/Photon combo? That url now says $31.95 which is pretty close to what I paid for mine. If you buy the Jester without the light, it's less:

http://spyderco.com/catalog/details.php?product=70

that's what i paid as well, i wanted just the Jester originally, but i wanted the SpyderEdge version, which is out of stock at Spyderco, my local shop had the SpyderEdged Jester with the Photon light, so it was a case of supply-and-demand....