The Blast is a cute little side by side 2AAA incandescent light with an integral pocket/hat clip. It was one of my favorite lights a few years ago (my review). I still have one in my belt pack, mainly as a spare AAA cell carrier for my Fenix L0D CE and my Sandisk M260 mp3 player that I listen to at work. The light itself (shell and lamp assembly) weighs almost nothing and a flashaholic can never have too many lights on hand.
Around the time I bought the Blast (2003 or so), I also got a couple of Arc LSL-P factory seconds. I better mention that was the heyday of the Luxeon Lottery, so a factory second means the led was lousy even by the standards of that era. My Arc leds in particular had a nasty purple cast. But my observation at that time was that the Blast and the Arcs were roughly equal in brightness, so aside from reliability advantages, it seemed to me that Luxeon lights were basically techno-gadgets. The Arc was 6x as expensive as the Blast, plus needed relatively exotic batteries, for about the same total output. I bought a bunch of extra Blasts for my brother, my mom, and my general flashlight pile.
So the other night I was working late and needed a light to find the restroom with. I reached into the belt pack for my L0D CE and my hand landed on the Blast and I figured I hadn't used that light in a while, might as well give it some love. Went to the restroom with it and came back, a bit amused by the lumpy yellow beam that I hadn't dealt with in a while. The Blast was perfectly functional, of course. But I'd gotten used to using the Fenix and more recently the Spy 005/Seoul, with their beautiful white beams (especially the Spy).
I decided to do an impromptu indoor comparison between the Blast and the Fenix L0D CE lighting up some photos that were on the wall 15 feet away or so. Result: the Blast (with two Titanium 900 mAH AAA NiMH cells) was about equal to the Fenix on "medium". The Blast (per my test of a couple years ago) maintains that brightness for about 90 min on two AAA's. The Fenix (per Chevrofreak) runs for close to 3 hours on medium on ONE cell (AAA NiMH) before reaching 50%. Or nearly an hour on its high mode which is about 2x as bright. I'll mention for fairness that the Blast with new alkalines (it's sold with a pair of them) is a bit brighter than with NiMH, though it doesn't stay that way for very long. However, for cost and environmental reasons I use rechargeables for just about all my AA/AAA devices.
Back when I got the Blast, my main EDC was an Arc AAA, and I said something like 5mm led lights were now (then) completely superior to tiny incans like the M*g Solitaire, but incans were still about equal once power got higher (Luxeon vs Blast). Now though, it seems to me that incans are just completely crushed at that medium power level too. Serious hotwires still beat leds, and mid-power incans still have a color rendition advantage outdoors, but otherwise Blast-like lights are near obsolete.
I still think maybe I'll drop my Tekna Splashlite (1x123, K222 screwbase incan bulb) into my pocket to use at work for the next few days, just so it won't get too lonely (I do occasionally use it at home for about the same reason).
Around the time I bought the Blast (2003 or so), I also got a couple of Arc LSL-P factory seconds. I better mention that was the heyday of the Luxeon Lottery, so a factory second means the led was lousy even by the standards of that era. My Arc leds in particular had a nasty purple cast. But my observation at that time was that the Blast and the Arcs were roughly equal in brightness, so aside from reliability advantages, it seemed to me that Luxeon lights were basically techno-gadgets. The Arc was 6x as expensive as the Blast, plus needed relatively exotic batteries, for about the same total output. I bought a bunch of extra Blasts for my brother, my mom, and my general flashlight pile.
So the other night I was working late and needed a light to find the restroom with. I reached into the belt pack for my L0D CE and my hand landed on the Blast and I figured I hadn't used that light in a while, might as well give it some love. Went to the restroom with it and came back, a bit amused by the lumpy yellow beam that I hadn't dealt with in a while. The Blast was perfectly functional, of course. But I'd gotten used to using the Fenix and more recently the Spy 005/Seoul, with their beautiful white beams (especially the Spy).
I decided to do an impromptu indoor comparison between the Blast and the Fenix L0D CE lighting up some photos that were on the wall 15 feet away or so. Result: the Blast (with two Titanium 900 mAH AAA NiMH cells) was about equal to the Fenix on "medium". The Blast (per my test of a couple years ago) maintains that brightness for about 90 min on two AAA's. The Fenix (per Chevrofreak) runs for close to 3 hours on medium on ONE cell (AAA NiMH) before reaching 50%. Or nearly an hour on its high mode which is about 2x as bright. I'll mention for fairness that the Blast with new alkalines (it's sold with a pair of them) is a bit brighter than with NiMH, though it doesn't stay that way for very long. However, for cost and environmental reasons I use rechargeables for just about all my AA/AAA devices.
Back when I got the Blast, my main EDC was an Arc AAA, and I said something like 5mm led lights were now (then) completely superior to tiny incans like the M*g Solitaire, but incans were still about equal once power got higher (Luxeon vs Blast). Now though, it seems to me that incans are just completely crushed at that medium power level too. Serious hotwires still beat leds, and mid-power incans still have a color rendition advantage outdoors, but otherwise Blast-like lights are near obsolete.
I still think maybe I'll drop my Tekna Splashlite (1x123, K222 screwbase incan bulb) into my pocket to use at work for the next few days, just so it won't get too lonely (I do occasionally use it at home for about the same reason).
