Inflection Points: LED Lights That Are Greater Than The Sum of Their Parts

This is kind of a kooky thread, but I've been thinking about this idea for a long time, about flashlights and about other things too.

A tiny bit of background... In mathematics (differential calculus, to be precise), there is the concept of inflection point: "a point on a curve at which the curvature changes sign." Like the horizontal line at 0 here:


In my head it has always been a point of alignment--where things converge briefly, come together in a powerful way. It always calls to mind a synergy, things coming together and being greater than the sum of their parts. That moment when you are folding the origami paper and one of them comes out JUST RIGHT... that instant that you realize the trick to getting the washer seated correctly and then boom--the project goes forward... the way they must have felt when the Honda Accord came together for the first time in a way that made everyone say: wow!

That out of the way, what I want to explore here are LED lights (ah! relevance finally!) that represent "inflection points" or, in short, greater than the sum of their parts. The special ones that just converge to be something great. It can be in design, function or both. Ideally both.

Okay, that was too long an introduction, so I'll start:

1. Fenix LD01 (SS in particular):
Simple design, elegant UI, insane efficiency, tiny size--it is something special when it comes together and really rises above the rest.

2. Chip's TiFli (see here: https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/231143):
Ultra-tiny, durable, dead-simple UI, beautiful--it's a wearable piece of art that doubles as a tool. (the original FireFli is also in the category though I fear it's durability is less)

Those are my top two... but what lights do you guys feel have this special twist of magic?

A few lights that might have it from what I've read but that I haven't personally experienced:
-The Legion II (with an insanely efficient system that gets more bang for buck and a wonderful control-ring)
-The Proton Pro (gets wonderful consistent love over many years despite not being the "best" in any one category)
-the Arc lights

What else? :thinking:

p.s. I know this is kooky and has been done in other forms before, but I just thought it was cool to think about this stuff and it hasn't come up in awhile. Also: Kevin Kelly who is a writer for Wired, keeps up a collection of "Cool Tools" that is very similar to this idea spiritually. Very cool to check it out, by the way.

My nominees for "Inflection Points" are:

1)Surefire 6p with Malkoff M30WF- It's such a simple design that put out a wall of smooth warm light. Everytime I turn it on I am amazed at the beam quality and color.

2)Gerber Infinity Ultra-Time tested design that operates off of cheap aa batteries and puts out a nice floody beam of light. Nothing new or fancy. It just keeps doing the job of a pocket light real well. Definitely not a retina scorcher.

3)Inova X-5- Same as above except it uses cr123. It can get anymore bomb proof than this.

As you can tell I tend to lean towards floody lights. :candle:

An interesting way to think about it. I like a lot of lights, but in line with this way of thinking....

For me most definetly the NovaTac 85/120P lights represent a sum greater than their parts. I remember my first one grew on me kind of slowly and then wham. I think this was because the light is greater than the sum of its parts, so initially you think ya this is OK, output's OK, it's not a real looker but it's nice, etc... then after use, maybe some customization, suddenly you realize how well the light works in your real applications and it's WOW!

I could probably think of a couple others (Fenix P1D comes to mind), and I agree on LD01-SS (but also on L0D). However the NovaTac is the first and strongest in my mind for this exact concept. However I believe it was pretty similar with my first L0D.

I agree this type of synergy is what makes a great product, when it all just comes together and makes something much bigger. In electronic or physics you might say everything is in phase and as such a higher level results. Out of phase design quickly kills a product. Good design is very much about synergy.

I also nominate the LRI Photon-Freedom.

The opposite of this thread reminds me of a statement about polititians :shakehead

The antonym of synergy is asynergy. It describes a condition where the collective intellect of a group is substantially dumber than the sum of the individual minds that make up that group. It is not necessarily a synonym for government policy and administration, but many have observed a very strong association between the two. But unlike private sector examples that invariably go out of business, the public sector examples, and their consequences, can linger for decades.

cheers

lightforce2 said:

The opposite of this thread reminds me of a statement about polititians :shakehead

The antonym of synergy is asynergy. It describes a condition where the collective intellect of a group is substantially dumber than the sum of the individual minds that make up that group. It is not necessarily a synonym for government policy and administration, but many have observed a very strong association between the two. But unlike private sector examples that invariably go out of business, the public sector examples, and their consequences, can linger for decades.

cheers

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BUT because it is so true it hurts

I think McGizmo's piston drive is worth mentioning. It really is a unique and useful way of activating a two level light. The PD's mechanical simplicity is one of the reason's they are my favourite lights to EDC.

top of my head i must vote for Lummi Raw (and Wee). custom made and really nice lights. great output per size and weight and also priced "right".

also in my mind the 5-mode R2 led Solarforce L2 for 25$ shipped it just is great deal.

-close runner up might be just because it is soooooo small and novel idea: the zebralight h501. small angle light that also could be used as a pocket light and flood only.

As soon as I read the topic, I was afraid this was going to be another "exhume the Arc" thread. Thankfully so far it hasn't been completely about that, but I'm still strongly of the "let the Arc die already" opinion.

I don't own this light, and I'm not sure if this qualifies as a "point of inflection" (is its second derivative equal to zero? How you take the derivative of a flashlight? :thinking, but I think the Eagletac T100C2 deserves a mention. It really delivers everything a light its size and form factor should have. It has 2 modes, a lot of throw, a good beam, and most importantly, full regulation with both an 18650 and 2 cr123. There are few other lights that can do this, let alone do it for $50. The T100C2 is also pretty unique in that it uses an XP-E, which few other manufacturers have used so far.

Gotta be the D10.

The piston drive is a great example of this inflection thingy - sufficiently different to anything else out there . . . and it works beautifully.

I nominate the L1 switch.Amazing and easy to use.

- Muyshondt Aeon and Nautilus
- SureFire A2 and L1
- McGizmo PD and Lunasol

Applevision, in terms of lighting, I see "inflexion" points more as those lights that open new and uncharted options/technology that others follow.

For example, the TiFli is entirely based on the Firefli, so I wouldn't call the former an inflexion point. I'd mention the latter instead.

Jedi Knife said:

As soon as I read the topic, I was afraid this was going to be another "exhume the Arc" thread. Thankfully so far it hasn't been completely about that, but I'm still strongly of the "let the Arc die already" opinion.

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Well... it was the first commercially available flashlight using a high-powered LED (talking about the Arc LS here). As such, it did spark the plethora of high-powered LED lights we have today.

The ArcAAA... well, that's another story. I'd say in the single-cell, keychain category, the CMG Infinity Task Light would take that spot. (OK, AA is too big for keychain use.)

...wait, there's more Arc! :nana: Arc4 - first iteration of the now better known Novatacs and other HDS-based lights with multiple modes, programmable options, etc.

How about the Photon coin-cell lights. There's TONS of fauxtons now, but the Photon was the pioneering one, offering convenient lighting, and even multiple modes when other lights only had on/off.

SF U2/DARPA lights. Variable output, selector ring... how many lights have that sound familiar?

+1 for the L1! Also, the Inova 24/7...and the E2L w/ F04 diffuser. Nice long runtimes at high or low, with a quality beam...yep...take an E2E and put a KX2 on it...that takes it above the "inflexion" point!

Nice!

I really like this! It's different than our "favorite lights" per se (though many of these are our faves, of course); it's more an appreciation for things coming together juuuuuuust right!

I am really enjoying what people are mentioning, a few things that struck a particular chord with me:

-Oddjob and Moonshadow: I totally agree that the piston drive is a great example of this and the D10 is such a nice incarnation of this concept!

-NonSenCe: Those who know me know that I'm a sucker for the small lights... I couldn't agree more that the Lummi lights (Wee in particular) are an incredible marriage of form + function.

-Jedi Knife: Hee hee! Me too! I've never had any Arc but man-oh-man do people seem to love them! May they rest in peace... but gosh they really ARE great examples of this concept!

-greenLED: I hear you, but I must beg to differ; the TiFli is pretty amazing in its own right: lighter, stronger, brighter and tougher but roughly the same size is an incredible achievement. I think later iterations of the same idea that somehow manage to bring it together even better than the initial attempt can truly be the inflection point as opposed to a "trailblazer". Many would argue that the Legend of Zelda the Ocarina of Time was like this--the perfect culmination of all the elements in the series which had been played out since the original Legend of Zelda. (Yep, I'm a video game nerd!)

You guys are awesome and I'm just enjoying thinking about the lights that I do know and looking up those I don't!

lovecpf

applevision said:

-greenLED: ... I think later iterations of the same idea that somehow manage to bring it together even better than the initial attempt can truly be the inflection point as opposed to a "trailblazer".

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I see what you're saying. Yup, agreed!

applevision said:

Many would argue that the Legend of Zelda the Ocarina of Time was like this--the perfect culmination of all the elements in the series which had been played out since the original Legend of Zelda.

lovecpf

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I'm afraid your going to lose some people with that analogy.

This is going to open the door for a lot of lights(especially Arc and Surefire) that aren't necessarily known for there high output so much as the culmination of their features.

By the way apple thanks for starting some truly unique threads.

For my money, I have to give a nod to Zebralight for giving us a headlamp/tasklight that is so versatile. Its not just the lights design but the accessories that they include with it to bring out its potential.

lightforce2 said:

The opposite of this thread reminds me of a statement about polititians :shakehead

The antonym of synergy is asynergy. It describes a condition where the collective intellect of a group is substantially dumber than the sum of the individual minds that make up that group. It is not necessarily a synonym for government policy and administration, but many have observed a very strong association between the two. But unlike private sector examples that invariably go out of business, the public sector examples, and their consequences, can linger for decades.

cheers

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But isn't the collective intellect of a corporation(private sector) a Sociopath?:tinfoil:

I forgot: SF A2 - regulated incandescent! and dual incan/LED output.

NonSenCe said:

also in my mind the 5-mode R2 led Solarforce L2 for 25$ shipped it just is great deal.

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Do tell where this deal is found? Very interested. Thanks.