steve_vance
Enlightened
Just received an ASP Triad for evaluation. Very interesting light. Three Cree 7090-XRE in a fairly small head. Regulated. The Crees are underdriven, producing approx 80 lumens each at the source (engineer said if they drove them fully you'd need a silicone oven mitt to handle the light). Incredibly high quality- like nothing I've ever seen in a production light, except for Inova.
This thing is a photon hose- it produces SO MUCH light that it's mindblowing. The beam pattern is somewhat unusual. Most LED lights, even the new Cree and P4 lights, either have a central hotspot and little corona, like my D-
mini with the smooth reflector, or have a fairly bright hotspot with a usable but much dimmer corona. This thing produces what I would best describe as a CONE of light.... actually about the same shape as an ice cream cone. Instead of a central hotspot, it has an extremely bright cone-shaped area of light that has a width of about 15 feet at a distance of 30 yards, AND a very bright wider cone of light (not really describable as a corona) spreading to around 35-40 feet at 30 yards. THIS THING IS BRIGHT. It has a proprietary "hardcoat" finish that seems to be a thick HA-III finish. The switch is a little unusual- it is basically what amounts to a rotary switch oon the end of the light that presets modes for the clicky. Center position: light completely off, can't be activated. Clockwise position: clicky functions in on/off mode (it is a forward clicky). Counterclockwise position: clickty function as a momentary. Switch is completely silent.
Interesting also that ASP, in their lumen ratings, unlike most if not all manufacturers, uses the actual lumen output of the light as read by a lumisphere, not the output at the LED(s). So despite its 240-lumen output from 3 Cree XREs, on the following pdf you'll notice that the light is rated at 120 lumens. The engineer at ASP tells me that typically, a light's overall output (as measured by a lumisphere) is about half of its output at the led(s), he said this is due to reflector/optics efficiency, beam pattern, etc. This is something that we here at CPF have all observed: that the lumen ratings of lights seem to be "off". So if, for example, I measured my D-Mini in a lumisphere, despite 105-110 output at the LED, the lumisphere would probably measure about 55 lumens, depending on which reflector was installed. I found this to be very interesting.
It's still the brightest light I own, FAR outstripping anything I've seen.
pdf of ASP Triad
**just found out that a rechargeable version is coming fall 2007
This thing is a photon hose- it produces SO MUCH light that it's mindblowing. The beam pattern is somewhat unusual. Most LED lights, even the new Cree and P4 lights, either have a central hotspot and little corona, like my D-
mini with the smooth reflector, or have a fairly bright hotspot with a usable but much dimmer corona. This thing produces what I would best describe as a CONE of light.... actually about the same shape as an ice cream cone. Instead of a central hotspot, it has an extremely bright cone-shaped area of light that has a width of about 15 feet at a distance of 30 yards, AND a very bright wider cone of light (not really describable as a corona) spreading to around 35-40 feet at 30 yards. THIS THING IS BRIGHT. It has a proprietary "hardcoat" finish that seems to be a thick HA-III finish. The switch is a little unusual- it is basically what amounts to a rotary switch oon the end of the light that presets modes for the clicky. Center position: light completely off, can't be activated. Clockwise position: clicky functions in on/off mode (it is a forward clicky). Counterclockwise position: clickty function as a momentary. Switch is completely silent.
Interesting also that ASP, in their lumen ratings, unlike most if not all manufacturers, uses the actual lumen output of the light as read by a lumisphere, not the output at the LED(s). So despite its 240-lumen output from 3 Cree XREs, on the following pdf you'll notice that the light is rated at 120 lumens. The engineer at ASP tells me that typically, a light's overall output (as measured by a lumisphere) is about half of its output at the led(s), he said this is due to reflector/optics efficiency, beam pattern, etc. This is something that we here at CPF have all observed: that the lumen ratings of lights seem to be "off". So if, for example, I measured my D-Mini in a lumisphere, despite 105-110 output at the LED, the lumisphere would probably measure about 55 lumens, depending on which reflector was installed. I found this to be very interesting.
It's still the brightest light I own, FAR outstripping anything I've seen.
pdf of ASP Triad
**just found out that a rechargeable version is coming fall 2007
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