ARC AAA Standard vs. ARC AAA LE, beamshots!

Hi everyone,

My EDC is an ARC AAA LE. I recently got an AAA Standard v3.1 for backup duty. The Standard is brand new production and was picked from a group of nine as having the best/brightest/etc. beam.

When I lit up my LE and the Standard together I was a little disappointed by the Standard and quite pleased with the LE.

Have a look and see why:



Although it is hard to tell in the photo the lights are approximately the same brightness, with a slight edge going to the Standard. My digital camera is quite a bit more sensitive to the Standard's bluer light than the warmer output from the LE. Also that little blue spot in the LE beam's center is not nearly so noticeable when just looking at it.

The big disappointment however is not the brightness at all but rather the unevenness in the Standard's beam and the blotchy and very angry blue artifacts in the central hotspot.

You can see this a little clearer in this closer look at the just the Standard's beam:



Yuck!

Hmmm... I had expected the Standard to be brighter and whiter than this. I certainly won't be replacing the LE on my keychain with the Standard!

Is this typical with the Standards?

A.

Mine looks pretty much the same way, I just got it a few days ago.

I had a perfect LE that (like an idiot) I traded away to "Surefire M6". I wish I hadn't done that, because now they are impossible to get.

I had the batch of 10 that that one came from and they all looked like that beamwise, although this one and one other were brighter than the rest. Variances are expected in brightness and color but is that how they've always been beamwise?

Originally posted by Sean:
[QB]Mine looks pretty much the same way, I just got it a few days ago.

I had a perfect LE that (like an idiot) I traded away to "Surefire M6". I wish I hadn't done that, because now they are impossible to get.

QB]

Click to expand...

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial"> Oh, I was wondering where I got this ARC LE I EDC from

So......is that the normal beam for an ARC AAA. Inquiring minds want to know. tia

I have two regular AAAs with the same artifacts. they put out a lot of light though, and in practical use the artifacts are not an issue. I posted something about this and Peter repied that it was a run of LED with a different light distribution pattern.

Wish they were perfect, but I still love them and it is an excuse to get more!

Recently received an "unmarked" standard Arc AAA from Gadgetometry. This is my first standard AAA, as I have 4 other LE's. Comparing the standard to my Le's, I found very little difference in brightness. The main difference is in the tint, with the standard being more "bluish".

From L to R: LE ver. 3.1, standard AAA, LE ver. 1


They are all the same distance from the background. Notice how much more focused the older LE appears (the one on the right).

The artifacts do make a difference if you're using the light to read fine print in lieu of reading glasses. I use a turquoise one for that because the white one was too hard to read with. The white one is fine for looking for stuff, walking around at night etc.

Those beamshots look alot different than the other ones above.

Everyone,

I have several Arc AAA's and I really like them. I didn't at all mean to be negative to ARC or the AAA when I started this thread.

ARC is most certainly in my books!

That said, my beamshots were taken from quite a bit further away than bucken's. I also really choked down the exposure to bring out the details of the beams. If I were to retake the same shots from a 4" distance and open up the camera a little then they would look quite similar to bucken's.

The Standard v3.1 is not at all bad, in fact I think it's still totally superior to every other micro-sized flashlight on the market... with the exception of the ARC AAA LE.

A.

I like my ARC AAA's too, I always have one in my pocket.

The beams on mine do, however, look exactly like abohnen's and Sean's pictures, no matter what distance I eyeball them from, or how fast I blink.

It was just a question that needed to be asked and answered.

As Peter explained, the white Nichia's have changed for some reason, time will tell if it's permanent, intentional, a fluke, a test or a mystery.

It depends on the quality of LEDs we recieve. Earlier in the year, most of the LEDs from Nichia were smooth. The past 4 months, we have been getting them with more contrasting detail in the beam. Not sure if this is a yield issue or they have changed their phosphor to increase output.

So yes and no. Yes it is normal now, no it was not normal last year.

Peter Gransee

Another possibility...

They cross licensed with Lumileds. What would the beam look like if they made a HD equivilent of the NSPW500BS part? There would definately be more detail in the beam, tint would be more uniform and the beam brighter.

They are not doing this yet of course. But they may be tweaking the application because practically everything we receive from them now days has this beam character.

Peter

Originally posted by bucken:From L to R: LE ver. 3.1, standard AAA, LE ver. 1

They are all the same distance from the background. Notice how much more focused the older LE appears (the one on the right).

Click to expand...

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">I also have one of the first LE's made and a v3.1LE. My beams look the same as the picture. I prefer the old ones tighter beam. Don't get me wrong, I like them both but I'm glad I have a choice.