Old Faithful just turned 5.

I can't believe it either, but Old Faithful just turned 5 last Monday. I need to buy it a birthday cake and sing it a song. 12/07/2004.

Old Faithful is a low-serial-number, very early generation U2, LuxV, 18650, and the most unusual tint I have ever seen in the hundreds of LEDs that have passed through my hands. (I build, mod, and used to sell). It has the slightest hint of pink - I would call it a "WA" bin under the LumiLEDS binning system. And like the name implies, it has never let me down.

For a 5 year old light that has been to the ends of the world and dropped more times than I can remember it looks great. My favorite quote about it was "I drop it, and the floor breaks.". It has chipped both concrete and wood floors. It's what I call a working light, I don't baby it. The bezel is framed by a nice silver ring where the HA has been trashed. It is an EDC light and it sees a lot of action.

Even more amazing the 18650's, which I bought for it when it first came, are still working fine with at most, 10-15% loss in capacity as shown by my Hyperion EOS5i analyzer/charger. I still get most of a charge out of them, contrary to popular belief that Li-ions die after 3 years. Cheap LiCo, perhaps. These are LG Chem, A2 bin cells and they have been doing great. I have a pair and alternate them so I have a fresh one always charged and ready to go.

There are sexier lights. There are brighter lights. There are prettier lights. And this is the one light I'd take with me to the end of the world and harm's way if I was going there again. There is nothing like the U2 Digital ULTRA classic. Truly the Ultra.

Hats off to PK for coming up with this masterpiece, especially the rotating collar which is what the U2 is all about. I hate multi-click interfaces - the collar suits me perfectly.

Congrats on a good move! You saw the light 5 yeaars ago using the 18650 cell! The Lux V (FIVE WATT) and the floody wall of light made quite an impresion on me back in those days. It's still the floodiest light I own. My 5 Watt Amondotech taught me the meaning of a powerful floody beam.

Sounds like you replicated or even exceeded the $300+ SF U2.

5 years of state of the art technology is quite an accomplishment.

The U2's reflector is also unusual. It has this special combination of a great flood, yet a solid hotspot that combines the best of both flood and throw. Very hard act to follow. Again, there are many other lights I know and love, but have not yet seen this perfect mix of spill and throw.

How about some beamshots?

Thanks for the update, it's nice to see people using a proven 'old reliable' instead of the flavor-of-the-month.:thumbsup:

(I'm afraid I don't have any 'old reliables' yet, I hope I've settled down with my current EDCs but I'll need a few more years to be sure.)

My 1st Surefire was an E2D. It is still my most used Surefire!

+1. My old model U2 is awesome. 18650 too, LG's.

Bill l

It took me 4 years to finally pick up a Lux-V U2 (early 2009) I really love the selector ring. Seems to be a wave of new lights coming out with a similar ring.

Nice to hear your light served you well so far Kevin.

Great Looking Light. I keep waiting with anticipation for its replacement.

This belongs in the thread Who's broke a Surefire! Maybe the op would feel better.

Bill

Hitthespot said:

Great Looking Light. I keep waiting with anticipation for its replacement.

This belongs in the thread Who's broke a Surefire! Maybe the op would feel better.

Bill

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Great quote in your sig too. I would sum it up as "intrinsics matter". The U2 gets all the intrinsics right. I've gone through this experience before with some digital SLR cameras before - the spec sheet looks extremely 'blah' and I dismiss the product, usually with some scorn. Then I get to handle the product and I am blown away by how well it handles, all the little things that you cannot quantify on a spec sheet, and the dramatic improvements that only become possible when you shoot it. Then I end up buying it

Speaking of buying I just bought another U2 hours ago - with a MC-E in it

I notice some new lights with the ring yes, but none of them are as ridiculously overengineered as the U2's ring (that is a compliment to the U2 btw)

Also, not to pop the birthday celebrations, but I had a nagging feeling something was wrong with the date based on my recollection.

I wrote the date down, so I have a record, but it turns out that I wrote it in MM-DD-YYYY format and read it back in DD-MM-YYYY (not so surprising if you consider for a moment that my part of the world works in DD-MM while my spreadsheet is defaulted to MM-DD US date format) and I didn't pick up the discrepancy.

So it is 7th Dec 2004, not 12 Jul. I distinctly recall that my U2 arrived at the end of the year, that's why.

Fortunately photos, and EXIF data, do not lie. I took a shot of it when it got here

That makes Old Faithful about 4.5, not 5, but still that has been a long time, and now it has another U2 on the way

KevinL said:

Also, not to pop the birthday celebrations, but I had a nagging feeling something was wrong with the date based on my recollection.

I wrote the date down, so I have a record, but it turns out that I wrote it in MM-DD-YYYY format and read it back in DD-MM-YYYY (not so surprising if you consider for a moment that my part of the world works in DD-MM while my spreadsheet is defaulted to MM-DD US date format) and I didn't pick up the discrepancy.

So it is 7th Dec 2004, not 12 Jul. I distinctly recall that my U2 arrived at the end of the year, that's why.

Fortunately photos, and EXIF data, do not lie. I took a shot of it when it got here

That makes Old Faithful about 4.5, not 5, but still that has been a long time, and now it has another U2 on the way

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I knew 5 full years was too good to be true! You had us dupped didn't you. Obviously you can't be trusted...:nana:.
Still 4.5 years is still quite an achievement. I'll forgive you!

James....

Yeah exactly! In fact it was even too good for my memory....

The KL1/E1e is well over five though - I remember it arrived a year before the U2.

I'll buy the cake for the U2 at Christmas