Are Photons worth it anymore?

Just random thoughts while eating my lunch and reading CPF. But are real Photons worth the extra price anymore? The latest crop of fauxtons(sp?) seem to be just as good. Sure the real Photons have many different modes, but honestly the only two modes I ever use are momentary and constant on.

I picked up a bunch of the fauxtons from Lighthound before Christmas to give to family members as stocking stuffers. They were very well received. Most of my family knows I am very much into lights, most of them aren't. But they did really appreciate the little lights and they fact that they fit on a keychain. I think a few of my older family members even thought it was great that these things were so affordable. I don't see anybody in my family going out to spend $10 or $15 on a Photon, but they probably would spend a dollar at the checkout to pick one up if offered.

I still have my Photon II and it stays in my BOB along with one of the Inova keychain lights. They both work really well. But in the future if I have to replace them, I will probably replace them with the dollar fauxtons.

hi newbie poster here long time reader tho. photons worth it??? in my opion yes even tho there are cheaper keychain lights on the market there cheaper for a reason the ones i have come across aint lasted long at all compared to my photons. brought my first photon1 in the late 90s and it had a tough life been through the washing machine on several different occasions and in tho pool on several too never failed to work after!!!! Only problem it seemed to cause was the batteries to rust!!!! still seems to b as bright as ever. as for the new freedom micro which u can dim think its just great.
so as far as i go its photon all the way!!!!!

I have one of those Lighthound fauxtons and mine died. The Fauxton's button action on mine was a bit too soft and eventually it just stayed on and killed my battery.

I guess my answer to your question is yes, I would pay the extra money. I have had several LRI Photosn and they all lasted years in my pocket until I lost them. $10-15 for a light that I will depend on (and expect to aways work every time) is not all that much as a one time cost.

Personally I say yes. I carry two on my keychain (red and white), have for as long as the Photon IIs have been out, same two. And everyone in my family has one, and they are ALL, every single one of the 20 I have bought, working as well as the day I got them and gave them out. Yes, I have been called upon to replace a couple of batteries for some who are afraid of the small screws, but they work great.

Thats about as good a testament as I can give anything.

I EDC a white Photon Freedom around my neck 24/7. Showers, swimming, sleeping , etc , like I said 24/7. My current one is 6 month old, change batts every other week or so. I have the lighthound lights as well but the switch is to fiddly and dont hold up. Also I use the dimming feature all the time. For every day use get the Photon.

I have thought all a long that they should make a $2.95 clone that would be of the same or better quality as the Photon II, rather than making a $.99 cheap clone. There is no doubt that Photon II is better than the clone, but I think that is over priced for what you get.

I have had a red Photon III for several years now on my keychain. I have replaced the battery once, but I really didn't need to. The light is pretty durable and works great.


The white Fauxton I have is already dim after very little use. And the body is kind of slippery.

That would depend on your definition of worth it. For the price of 1, $10 photon you could get 10, $1 clones.

I own both a photon and a number of clones. I got the clones for about 50 cents each so the cost made the clones worth it for me. None of my keychain lights are used in mission critical applications so failure/durability isn't a big issue to me. That said, all of my clones have easily survived 6 months so far. The mostly heavily used one that's on my daily keychain has performed faithfully while seeing almost daily use.

Photon Freedom yes, the other photons... not so much.
Although i believe they have better QC and superior overall quality.

If i'd carry only coincell-using lights, i'd get a Photon Freedom and one of those 10mm led lights.

Those worried about the Fauxton's reliability are concerned that it might fail at some crucial moment. Fauxton failures might be more frequent than Photon failures but they're still rather uncommon. Situations where you critically need a light are also uncommon. So for a Fauxton to fail at a critical moment needs TWO uncommon things to happen simultaneously. Overall I wouldn't worry about it. If your Fauxton flakes out it will probably be at a time you can do without it, so just replace it then.

All in all I think Fauxtons are just great, I buy a ton of them and hand them out like jelly beans to everyone I know. It happens that I have a Photon II on my keyring but that's mostly because of its styling (it's Spyderco branded and matches the Spyderco Jester that's on the keyring with it). I also have a red-led Fauxton on the keyring, so that's two lights in case one fails (in other regards the red comes in handy when the white is too much light).

I'm not that crazy about the Freedom although I do have one. Complicated to use, and more susceptable than the momentary-squeeze design to turning on by accident and draining its batteries. Apparently some other maker claims a government-enforced monopoly on making a light shut itself off after a few minutes--sheesh.

I've had a Photon II fail (switch got softer and softer til the thing just stayed on all the time) but that was a slow failure.

You can always replace the leds in Fauxtons or similar lights. I bought a bunch of Nichia CS in one of the group buys for around 75 cents each, while the Fauxton-type leds are around 10 cents. But the Fauxton leds are remarkably bright, the recent ones at least as bright as the Nichias. Yeah maybe they fade after a while but who cares? These lights are basically disposable. Rather than replacing the batteries in Fauxtons I actually sometimes sacrifice brand new ones to scrounge the batteries for other lights or for wristwatches.

Or you can do like me and carry a red Photon AND and white Fauxton on your keychain.

I don't mind a company making a decent profit but, a Photon probably cost at most, seventy five cents to make. 17.00 dollars is a little too much. I will buy fauxtons from now on.
Mike

Those worried about the Fauxton's reliability are concerned that it might fail at some crucial moment. Fauxton failures might be more frequent than Photon failures but they're still rather uncommon. Situations where you critically need a light are also uncommon. So for a Fauxton to fail at a critical moment needs TWO uncommon things to happen simultaneously. Overall I wouldn't worry about it. If your Fauxton flakes out it will probably be at a time you can do without it, so just replace it then.

Click to expand...

This may sound a bit weird, but right now, I have replaced my one Photon Freedom (which apparently has some circuit problems -- It will not go above 4mA (very dim) even with fresh batteries and a brand new LED) with 2 Fauxtons that I dropped 50 Candela LEDs into. If one fails, I always still have the other, and 20 more at home in line to replace them for less than the cost of a regular Photon. I plan to load one with a 2032 for dimmer output/longer runtime, and leave the other with 2 2016s for burst. The lights cost $0.47 each, and the LEDs cost about $0.33 each. A replacement 2032 (should be here by tomorrow) cost me about $0.08. Not a bad deal at all for <$2 shipped plus about 5 minutes of my time for each LED swap.

I'm even considering dropping a red LED into one and using that for night vision preservation as well -- the lights are small enough that three on a keychain is not a problem at all IMO.

(Even though everything is so cheap, if you sum it all up, I have been spending a lot of money at Dealextreme...)

I had to throw my Turquoise Photon III when I tried to replace the 2032 battery. I put the cover back on and it wouldn't go back in place. I didn't have that problem with my red one when I replaced the 2032 battery.

vetkaw63 said:

I don't mind a company making a decent profit but, a Photon probably cost at most, seventy five cents to make. 17.00 dollars is a little too much. I will buy fauxtons from now on.
Mike

Click to expand...

Mike,

Who would be making the bigger profit, the company that designed, researched, and built the Photon or the chinese company that skipped all that and copied it?

Those little things are some of the greatest lights ever and I see the company also offers a less expensive version (still American made, I believe) as an alternative.

Spalding

They used to be worth the $$, but now there are cheaper smarter lights for a lot less $$

Hi All,

Well I carry both Photons and Fauxtons around with me, and guess which get the most use ?

The Fauxtons win, especially when you can get ten for the price of one Photon.

For general everyday use the Fauxtons are fine. They have no internal circuitary which can fail or discharge the battery when not in use.

I can recall two occasions when I really could have used the Photons, the battery had discharged in one and water had somehow got into the other which prevented it switching between modes correctly. With a few Fauxtons distributed around keyrings, backpacks and belt loops you are almost certain to find one which will work.

In a real last ditch emergency situation the Fauxton can be taken apart and the LED wires held onto the batteries to get some light. They also are a cheap supply of batteries for your Photon ! In fact I upgraded my old Photons using LEDs from Fauxtons.

Just my 50c worth.

I consider these form factor more or less disposable. They should not cost more than some tens of pennies to manufacture and I wouldn't pay more than a buck for one of them so IMO, the fauxtons (I like that term) do just fine.

Well a group I can admit to that I carry a red photon (freedom as soon as they were available) around my neck always. Have for years. It's worth it to me. I carry a white on my keychain. For me the extra co$t is well spent. Wouldn't consider the others I've seen. If something comes out that co$ts less and is every bit as good or better in terms of reliability and usability, I'm on it. Every one I've seen doesn't come close though.

So what it is sounding like is that both the Photon and fauxton each have their place. I am going to continue to use both. I can appreciate all the research and testing that has gone into the Photon. I may buy another Photon at some point. But for now, it sure is easy and I get a lot for my money if I buy a dozen fauxtons. And yes consuming these things like jellybeans, excellent comparison!