etc wrote:
"I want to get a "white" Gerber Infinity (original or Ultra) - who has them on sale?
BAtterstation.com? with the new 5mm LED from (?) Nichia -- Exactly how bright are they compared to the original yellow?"
Use Froogle.com and search on "Gerber Infinity Ultra -sonic" - I found over a page at under $14.
I read here the latest Infinity Ultras are said to be Nichia CS - which in theory are supposed to be about 2x brighter than the previous generation of Nichia 5mm LEDs - sounds (and is) a lot - although the difference can be seen in a side-by-side comparison - in real practice to me there seems to be very little difference in use -
see the side-by-side comparison beamshots in these reviews -
Fenix E0 "Dart" - comparison review
compare the Fenix E0 (Nichia CS) vs. the classic ArcAAA (~2003) (previous generation Nichia 5mm LED)
Energizer LED HeadBeam - 2x Brighter
side-by-side comparison of the newer 2x brighter version vs. the older version.
It is however always worthwhile getting the newest latest brighter version -
if one is buying for the first time -
but probably not worth it to upgrade from an existing one.
There is still one more wrinkle - the Nichia CS is relatively "new" introduced by Nichia about March/2005 - and I don't know when Gerber started using the Nichia CS in the Infinity Ultra - which means there may well be lots of older stock (with non-CS LEDs) out there - there is no easy way to tell without using the lights and seeing - and this may vary with the body color too.
My guess is the black bodies probably has the highest turn-around - but then again there probably was the highest stock too..... there may be a higher chance of older stock with the green, then the silver (actually Gerber lists it as grey, so "silver" may well be older stock).
As for the tougher M- version - these were on limited production - and were available before the CS - so it really depends on when and if they sold out of the older version, and if Gerber actually produced a CS version......
The Inova X5 was much more clear cut - but there were enough questions about versions with the CS to cause people problems - see this review thread -
Inova X5 (white)
