Shasta!

Okay, so now I have my hands on a few Shastas - white, snow (the white and snow don't look appreciably different to me! the snow perhaps a little more output - but i'd thought the white, a super, was supposed to be made w/ nichias, guess not), purple (not as uv reactive as my photon freedom purple, but a nice fun color to play with anyway), and red (very throwy, as opposed to my red photon freedom; they make a nice duo!).

I was impressed with the fit and finish of the lights (the haIII is great), and underwhelmed with the output. Thought it would be considerably brighter than my 3xLR44 cheapo 3led and 5led lights, but similar or less output! However one thing I like is that, b/c the led's are recessed, it shoots a soft-edged spot. I like spots. And it's a very even beam.

So, was wondering - what is it about the Shasta (and, I am guessing, the Matterhorn too) that induces people to pay the $50 mfr. suggested price? Build? Is it very well regulated (can't find anything about the Shasta on flashlightreviews, I think they should have left the old reviews up even if the light was discontinued!)? Long runtime? etc...

Final thing - heard the output is almost double w/ the 10280 Li-Ion cells, and so was planning on getting some from AW. Anyone have an idea on run-time, and also if I will eventually fry the led's? Gracias, all...

I don't see a price of $50 for the Shastas. They seem to be priced from $30 to $40, depending on which model you get. Do you have the 3-LED or single LED version? The new or old style? In the old style, each LED is recessed into its own individual cavity, whereas in the new style, the LEDs are not separated by metal anymore. See picture here.

I've got the 3-led in the old style (recessed cavities), in high power as well as normal...

mcmc said:

I've got the 3-led in the old style (recessed cavities), in high power as well as normal...

Click to expand...

Sometime early last year Peak upgraded their Snow LEDs. Standard power Peaks haven't been available regularly for quite some time, and the old 3-LED style has gone for a while, too. So what you probably got are pre-upgrade lights which may be considerably dimmer than current Shastas or Matterhorns.

My (current) 3-LED Matterhorn ultra has slightly higher overall output than my ARC AAA-P (current version as well, both lights on NiMH), of course with a very different beam shape. I can't comment on the lower power versions, but I suppose Shastas have comparable output, just shorter runtimes.

What made me buy it? A very even, very white beam in a small package with great build quality. I like it a lot for reading in bed, where the ARC's beam--as much as I like it on my keychain--is less than ideal for me. The tighter beam is also much less likely to disturb other people, e.g. when sharing a hotel room.

Edited to add: I would not put Li-Ion cells in there. I don't know about the older LEDs, but current Snow LEDs have one potential disadvantage: they tend to degrade relatively fast when overdriven. Link to lumen maintenance tests

My Shasta is the old style pre-Snow LED, 3 LED's HAIII. I got it at the same time as my Matterhorn and Kilimanjaro, mostly just because I liked the idea of having flashlights that could run on any battery available and I didn't have any to run on N cells.

The Shasta is still on my work keyring. I prefer to use the original head for runtime but the Baltic head fits on the Shasta if you really want more output.