My first LED flashlight. Cyan or white?

Hi,

I've been meaning to get a LED flashlight since I first heard about them almost 2 years ago but given their cost, the fact that I don't actually need one, and the chore of shipping to Australia I never got around to it.

Now I am ready. In a month I will be going on an overseas trip for about 9 weeks and I need a miniature flashlight, so it may as well be an LED one. I did my research and the Arc AAA came out as the winner. But then came the hard part. Do i want a brighter cyan or a dimmer white? Without actually using them I fear it's impossible to tell which I would prefer. I have no special requirements for color rendition or beam projection width or distance but I am an EXTREMELY picky ******* so whatever my choice I am likely to obsess about the relative downside rather than focus on merits.

Please help me decide. Argue one way or the other. Be devils advocate and argue against what you think is better. The more opinions and the more opinionated they are the better. I want to be damn certain before I choose as the cost is rather high by the time it gets here (Australia).

Approximately $30US for the light + $18US shipping + 10% or more duty and it suddenly becomes around $50US or $100AUS. If you can suggest the best place for a good price for an international order I would appreciate that too.

Anyway, this whole post was a bit of a rant but I know how obsessive people like myself like to argue the pros and cons of these things so I hope you'll all join in. Thanks in advance for any advice, opinions, and rants.

Hi Michal and welcome to the world of choices. The easy way to compare is to buy them all. Now on to the question and possible answers. I have Arc Whites and a Turquoise. The turq is rarely used. My reasons are that I am a picky person. For me the color rendition and blotchy, ringy and artifacts in the beam bother me. Yes it is bright but not by a wide enough margin to always use.
I vote for white.
Thats my $0.02

I'm voting in favour of the Arc AAA in white.
It is the most versatile. It never failed my needs... Of course you can find brighter incandescents... But the usability of a led light is much better than a regular bulb...

In case someone would ask me to choose between an AAA and a, (for instance) minimag... I'd choose the Arc !

This is just my opinion, and others may vary...

Get the white. Besides, if you haven't seen any other colors you won't even know what you might be missing.

Welcome to CPF!

Spend a little more and get a white Arc SLS.

Comparing an Arc AAA (white or turq) to an Arc SLS is like comparing the moon to the sun.

And at that brightness, color rendition is beautiful!

Hello fellow picky ..!

Buy a white AAA. Skip the SLS as it is a LOT more expensive, and you won't like the shipping costs when you have to send it back for repairs.

The Arc AAA is pretty much bombproof and all the kinks seem to have been worked out. We are up to version 3.1 after all. The SLS on the other hand has some known issues and while rare I have experienced them and I won't be buying another.

I have both the turq EV and white and I almost never use the turq. The only time I use it is when i think it would be cool to use that color. Im frankly thinking of getting rid of it. Because when the .. hits the fan I'm going to use the white.

Why, because the white is plenty bright. The difference is noticable but not all that great. Also if I'm looking at wires or maps or anything I want to be able to see what color they are. Also outside the green foliage eats up some of the green light and the difference in brigtness is less aparent. If I need something brighter than the arc AAA white I reach for the opalec not the Turq. If I need more than that I reach for an Incandescent. PT 40 is a favorite but the E2e does the trick too.

I can send you a turq, possibly a white if you can paypal. I assume this would cost less in shipping and you might avoid the tarrif if its labled gift?

After the Arc has bitten you and you get the LED bug I recommend the Opalec new beam as your second light. This is what I reach for when i need more light than the arc AAA white. It uses common AA batteries, great burn time with constant light output. This is assuming you already own a mag light. But I think its worth it even if you don't.

Thanks for all the info everyone! It's very liberating to have a decision such as this made by your own personal expert advisory committee

I see no reason to spend the crazy amount of money for an SLS. I'm certain that the cost of those high powered LEDs is going to drop sometime in the not too distant future and then so will the price of the SLS (or whatever comes after). I'm not willing to pay THAT much money for something I don't need just to be the first on the block with it

I can paypal cave dave. Would you be able to find out how much it would cost all up? Marking it as "gift" would likely avoid any problems and I would REALLY appreciate the help if it saved me some money BTW what is this "EV" everyone keeps mentioning? And would the white AAA you can get be the 3.1 model?

Is there any reason to even consider the LE? Brighter? Considerably whiter? How white is white in the first place? Same as fluorescent lighting?

I will consume any information given greedily. Thanks again to everyone who has already fed me some.

The white version I have are 3.0s but get this. I already added a roll crimp myself. They have been tested and don't display any flickering problems.

And the BEST part is the 3 I have have been hand selected by me out of a batch of 20 to be the brightest and have the best color rendition. The 3 of them are brighter and have a warmer color than my LE. One of them needs to have the foam put back on because i took it off to roll crimp it, but then I figured out you could roll crimp it with the foam on.

I can't remember if the Turq EV is a 3.0 or not. EV is a brighter turq LED than the regular but the availability of that particular LED was limited so Peter made as many as he could before he had to switch back (if he ever did)

Anyway i'm logging off now so will have to get back with you later.

I checked the USPS site:

http://ircalc.usps.gov/speed.asp?Country=Australia&Pounds=0&Ounces=4&cmdSubmit=Continue&Contents=0

and it looks like I could send you a small item like and arc for $5 in shipping. Uninsurred.
PM or e-mail if interested.

The Turq is also a 3.0 (chemkoted no roll crimp)

Originally posted by cave dave:
Hello fellow picky ..!

I have both the turq EV and white and I almost never use the turq. The only time I use it is when i think it would be cool to use that color. Im frankly thinking of getting rid of it. Because when the .. hits the fan I'm going to use the white.

if I'm looking at wires or maps or anything I want to be able to see what color they are. Also outside the green foliage eats up some of the green light and the difference in brigtness is less aparent.

Click to expand...

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Not to confuse the issue further, but it seems to me that with the turquoise vs the white it seems that the white is best for really close work, and with map reading (a good point you've made already), but outdoors the turquoise seems to do quite well. With green foliage, more light is reflected back with the turquoise (remember, the foliage is green because it REFLECTS, not ABSORBS, green light.) And at large distances, with the turquoise everything seems grey anyway, but at least I can see it farther out (that whole night vision cones/rods thing.)

I use both, quite a bit. The turquoise is on my keyring, the white is worn around my neck. Still, if I had to carry only ONE Arc AAA, I imagine it would be the white. Color rendition IS quite important, and suppose you were transported to an alternate universe where all the leaves were red? All the turquoise light would be absorbed!

I've the Arc AAA white 3.1, 3.1 LE, and two turq EV.

For sheer brightness, I'd go for the turq. Don't be fooled. There is a *huge* difference in brightness between the turq and the white.

Having said that, I use the 3.1 white LE more often because it is still plenty bright enough for most indoor tasks, and the white color is very nice.

You can see the comparative beam shots in this thread.

Welcome Michal, I have an old unused White Arc AAA (one without chemkote) that you can have if you want.

If you want one and don't mind it being an old version, drop me a line. Shipping from Melbourne to Brisbane (is that possible?) would probably be less than from the States.

YC

Thanks for the offer yclo!

Which version do you have?

Hmm.. I don't exactly know which verson it is, it could possibly be something like 2.xx.

The newer Arc AAA's have a gold coloured interior, this was implemented a while ago. Mine doesn't have that.

YC