Arc-AAA "Snow" Arrived

My (3) snow led Arc-AAA lights arrived today. I've only played with them for 10-minutes so far, but I like them. Much whiter than any other Arc-PPP ever produced. The entire lighting area is not as large as your normal Arc-AAA. I'd venture to guess that total output is overall less, but I have not confirmed this with any test. All (3) of these difference are no surprise and should be expected. We're talking about totally different LEDS is these puppies.

Nice job on these Peter. I think you'll find these to have a demand for those who would rather have whiter light over brightness and extreme flood.

OK, it's since gotten dark here, so I've had time to play with the Arc-Snow. By the way, what's the official name of this light, so I can reference it properly in the future? Anyway, I really like this light. As you probably know, I've had Arc-AAA lights for many years now and thru all my swapping of EDC, etc, I've never released the Arc-AAA from my possession and it's always with me while I'm dressed.

The Arc-Snow brings an entirely different level to those familiar with the Arc-AAA product line. It fills that void whereas you sometimes really do want or need something that's whiter, with better color renditioning. The Arc-Snow does just that and it keeps in-line with the familiar "KISS" concept that we've all come to love. Over the last couple of years, my addition to lights has lessened dramatically. However, throughout that time, you'd never see me without an Arc-AAA light on me. On occasion, I'd carry a Photon Proton as well, mostly because of it's AA-cell useage, but the Arc-AAA was always there too. With the Arc-Snow now being in the lineup, it will ride in my other pocket to serve not only as a backup, but to be used for those times that I want a narrower/whiter beam.

Thanks TIN for the info and opinions. I have never owned an Arc and I am currently waiting for a DS and a Snow. I am looking forward to their arrival (if and when they are cleared by FedEx :hairpull

thanks for the info TIN.

how much lower in output do you think it is compared to the regular Arc-P(CS)?

I'm not TIN but it's hard to judge output as the beams are so different. Not a bit of blue in the Snow, in fact I almost detect a bit of green in the outer fringe of the beam.
The Snow is very bright and I like it. I just got my DS so it's play time.

I just did an outside side by side. The hot spot is larger on the Snow but the CS has a larger overall beam.
As I have EDC'd an Arc for many years I'll need a bit more time with the Snow comparison.
I do believe that the Snow is a good product.

Now to try out the DS.

sunspot said:

I'm not TIN but it's hard to judge output as the beams are so different. Not a bit of blue in the Snow, in fact I almost detect a bit of green in the outer fringe of the beam.
The Snow is very bright and I like it. I just got my DS so it's play time.

I just did an outside side by side. The hot spot is larger on the Snow but the CS has a larger overall beam.
As I have EDC'd an Arc for many years I'll need a bit more time with the Snow comparison.
I do believe that the Snow is a good product.

Now to try out the DS.

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I totally agree and just did a dark outdoor side by side of my own comparing the snow with the CS and the DS. Very subjective and not the least bit scientific, but here it is: The Snow does have a larger hot spot than either of the others, but much less spill so I guess lower total output. In terms of throw (if that's important for such a tiny light) the Snow comes in last. Outdoors, imho, the color differences don't mean much if anything at all. And outdoors, the DS is just amazing, with plenty of spill, and a very bright hotspot - if you've got one of these, I see little need for any other light. How'd he do that? Indoors (just used the Snow on a menu in a dark restaurant) the Snow sure is pleasing to the eye and certainly more than adequate for any use I can imagine. Tested the three at close range indoors (dark) against some fine china with a lot of different colors. The Snow really brings out colors with a brilliance that's surprising, more so than the blue CS I like so much, and in this regard it's really a winner. So, I guess it all boils down to what it is the user wants most out of a little light. As for me, everytime I've received another ARC AAA, (over a dozen now) I've just been totally impressed. In the last week my DS has become a genuine EMC (every minute carry), but as long as I've got an ARC I won't be complaining.

I'll toss in my two bits - just got my Snow today.

Very bright - excellent output for what I was expecting. It won't be an EDC because something that small will disappear in my pockets within minutes.

I am, however, clipping it in my CLS bag as my non-tac light source. Between the size and output, this makes for an excellent gear light.

Thanks,

-Medina

Got my Arc Snow yesterday...

I was very impressed with the tint...it blows all of my other 5mm based lights away (mainly Photons, a Coast and a few others) and is about as bright as them.

The brightness is good, though obviously not in the ballpark as any of the crees. It's only marginally brighter than my Photon, but that is good enough for me.

All in all, I'm impressed.

Got mine today. It has "AAA-P" engraved near the front of the battery tube, but only the "AAA" has the white stuff in the engraving so the -P is fairly hard to see and you have to look carefully for it. Pretty cool. The knurling is a bit rougher than my old-style AAA (Arc LLC AAA-S, 3 lumens).

The LED comes a little closer to the front of the bezel than my AAA-S led did, similar to the brand P "Annameria Dallasandra" that I reviewed a while back. I guess this is due to the LED itself being differently shaped than the Nichia led. At the time of that review I figured it was because brand P was using different electronics. The AAA-Snow has more beam artifacts than the AAA-S maybe because of this. Largish hotspot with narrow but bright corona, not much spill after that, with a few weird rings. I'm fine with that.

I know this light is not about brightness but nonetheless, comparisons are irresistable. The AAA-Snow on a NiMH cell completely blows away my AAA-S in total output, hotspot brightness, corona brightness, and tint. The AAA-S beam also looks horrible (blue) by comparison even though its spill is smoother. Somewhat interestingly, the AAA-Snow also seems to be slightly beating my 3-led(!) brand P ultra-power Matterhorn (old style, I think with "snow23" leds) in output (wall bounce test) even though the 3-led unit supposedly runs at around 2x the total power. This may be because of the NiMH cells used in both of them. The Matterhorn's circuit is known to be less regulated than Arc's, i.e. output varies more with the input voltage. So the Matterhorn likely runs brighter with an L92 lithium AAA cell. I try to reserve those cells for special applications and so would normally run this type of light on a NiMH, therefore I'll stick with the NiMH comparison.

I do worry a little about the snow led's longevity at this high overdrive (I felt even the 3-led Matterhorn was pushing things at 35 mA per led, and the AAA-Snow is supposedly running 45 mA). TIN, is your measurement setup repeatable enough that you can do a new fresh-battery measurement on your AAA-Snow and compare it with the first such measurement you took, before your runtime tests? It's possible that the snow led has detectable fading already. FWIW, my 3-led Matterhorn has run maybe 20 hours or so (went through one L92 and an alkaline or two, plus a few NiMH cycles, plus a lot of shelf duty), so it might also have some fade.

Update: As measured with my DMM's 10A scale, the AAA-snow is drawing about 0.19 amps, but the 3-led matterhorn is drawing just 0.11 amps or so. The AAA-S draws about 0.17 amps. This is all with the same Titanium 1000mAH NiMH cell with 1.289V open circuit voltage, i.e. fairly well charged but not hot off the charger (in fact I charged it about 2 weeks ago). So I guess the 3-led light is running a bit more efficiently than the overdriven Arc. Update 2: On a somewhat used L91 AA lithium cell (1.694 OC voltage) the Matterhorn uses around 370 mA(!). That's a kludgy bench measurement with the battery outside the light, i.e. I can't easily do a brightness comparison. I may break down and put a new L92 cell into the Matterhorn just to see. The AAA-Snow and AAA-S on the L91 use 0.22 and 0.20 amps respectively.

Of course the AAA-snow is much brighter than the Annameria Dallasandra which runs at a much lower power level (my review includes a 5+ day nonstop runtime test). It's also 1.5-2x brighter than my Kilimanjaro HP which also runs at a lower power level. The Kilimanjaro also has a smaller hotspot and smoother beam, I guess because of its bigger reflector. The AAA-snow and the Annameria Dallasandra are maybe a good pair since they could be seen as high and low powered versions of the same light. I'm not that crazy about the Kilimanjaro which has that kludgy screw-in lanyard post. The old AAA-S and the 3-led Matterhorn just seem obsolete . I don't have an AAA-CS to compare right now but I had one recently, and I think its total output is about the same as the Snow, but its beam may have been cleaner (except for the color). A DS comparison would be interesting but I'm spending way too much on these lights so I think I'll keep deferring a purchase.

Anyway this is a really qualitative improvement over the old AAA-S, a much nicer light because of its color rendition as well as output.

Nice report Paul. I actually have my Snow units on the meter as we speak. I'll include them in the graph of the DS version for a side-by-side comparision. While I like the whiteness and larger center spot of the Snow, I'm still finding the Arc-P CS and now the new Arc-P DS to suit me better, at night, on the trails. I just got back from a weekend camping trip. The DS and the Snow where the only lights I used while walking around the campground at night. I found the DS to be better for me to light up the trails/paths, etc. I still think there's a market and use for the Snow, but in that particular case, the DS worked better for me.

Thanks Ray. Do you like the DS better because of the brighter spill, or just because of the higher total output in general?

Btw I did a ceiling bounce test of my old AAA-S against a CMG Ultra-G last night. These were the first two lights I bought on joining CPF in 2003. I had done a similar test at that time with the CMG being possibly just a tad brighter than the Arc. This time the CMG was considerably brighter, like 50% or more. Could my Arc have faded over the years? Battery voltage again may have something to do with it so I'll do the test again later with more careful control over this.

I like the wider useful beam.

Paulr, you using a lightmeter with bounce?

Bill

Bullzeyebill said:

Paulr, you using a lightmeter with bounce?

Bill

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No, just the Mark 1 eyeball.

paulr, your Mark I eyeball is probably better than my Mark I eyeball. I didn't trust mine anymore so I went to a Mark X LM631 lightmeter. It killed my subjectivity forever. LOL

Bill

The way I do it is turn on both lights simultaneously, one in each hand. I block the light from one of them by covering the bezel with a finger. Then I flip back and forth between the two lights (uncovering one while covering the other) so I can compare the bounced illumination A vs B. It works pretty well. I've been into photography long enough to be able to estimate a 1/2 stop or 1 stop illumination difference reasonably well.

I found it easier to have both bouncing at the ceiling, then turn off and on one light back and forth, noting the change in brightness. Then turn them both on and do the same for the 2nd light, shutting it on/off. Then you see which makes a bigger difference when turning on/off. That way you don't have to be super accurate with your timing of turning one off and the other on at the same time.

paulr said:

The way I do it is turn on both lights simultaneously, one in each hand. I block the light from one of them by covering the bezel with a finger. Then I flip back and forth between the two lights (uncovering one while covering the other) so I can compare the bounced illumination A vs B. It works pretty well. I've been into photography long enough to be able to estimate a 1/2 stop or 1 stop illumination difference reasonably well.

Click to expand...

This method has served me well for quite some time. It will quickly give you an idea of brightness comparisions. With smaller lights, holding them in the hand, using the thumb as the blocker works well, holding the lights straight up to the ceiling.

We need pics! I'd like to see the emitter end of the 'snow' as well as beam shots of the AAA-P CS, DS and Snow, if anyone's willing.

FWIW, I've just acquired an AAA-CS from another CPF'er. It came with a slightly used Duracell alkaline AAA, open circuit voltage around 1.35V. Wall bounce test vs the AAA-snow running on a NiMH has the snow noticably brighter. The snow also has far more neutral color. On the other hand the snow's beam is more artifacty, with sudden jumps in brightness at several radii while the CS's beam is smoother. Maybe I'll try taking some photos. Overal I'd say I like the snow better than the CS.