SF KROMA: why don't they upgrade its led???

Title says it all... I cannot just convince myself of the fact that the SF Kroma, which is, IMHO, one of the best looking lights in the market today and one of the most useful, STILL uses an old LuxeonIII emitter.

Why don't they (Surefire) upgrade it to the new SSC P4 led? I mean, P4 is doing well in the new U2A, A2L, T1A, P60L... and if I'm not wrong, Milky already modded a Kroma with a P4, and the results were excellent.

If Surefire put a new P4 behind the Kroma TIR (or a R2 led...) they could set new light levels (for example, instead of 1.4 and 50 lumens, they could do 2 lumens and 80 lumens), and get much much much longer runtime on both levels (on the U2A, at 2 lumens you get more than 150hrs) and less heat!

Do you have any reasonable explanation of why SF is still using that "old" led?

:thinking:

Niche market perhaps.

Old stock and slow sales maybe:thinking:

There shouldn't be any reason for not putting something a lot better than a Luxeon III in it for future runs. K2 should be a lot better and they seem to have loads of them. XP-G or XP-E would also be nice options.

Sverre

I expect that they will have to upgrade it soon. The Luxeon III and K2 LEDS were discontinued, what, four months ago?

I think that the Kroma is not a big seller. I think Surefire is looking more towards other lights. They might come up with something new to replace the kroma.

Oh yeah you could always mod the light yourself. Or send it to Milky, but since you are in Italy that is kinda tough.

SF is a US military supplier (their biggest customer who accounts for the bulk of their annual sales revenue). They have strict regulations in regard to design changes.

I am sure there are several reasons.

Because they know that I have no discipline.

It is a beautiful light...and if they updated it to ....lets say two years ago's tech... I might be Seriously tempted to buy one. Right now it is the equivelent of a Corvette with a 120hp engine...that gets 16 mpg. Still goes arround the corners very well...and looks great at the light...but when it turns green....hope there is not a civic next to you wanting to race.

Don't get me wrong, it is a fantastic piece of art, just don't let you buddy pull out his $60 Fenix...or you will have to go into the same 20 minute discussion about how your light really is so much superrior....for the 30th time. All the while during this discussion, his light is putting out more and whiter photons than yours is...while his is on medium.

Thanks for helping me keep a my $$$ in my pocket with this light SF!

Corvette with a 120HP engine is not the right analogy. It's more like a Pentium II computer when everyone is running Core2 Duo and above. It ran with the best when it first came out and still does it job (for whatever you bought your PII computer to do) but is long in the tooth

GarageBoy said:

Corvette with a 120HP engine is not the right analogy. It's more like a Pentium II computer when everyone is running Core2 Duo and above. It ran with the best when it first came out and still does it job (for whatever you bought your PII computer to do) but is long in the tooth

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Beside the mil-spec issue, it's possible that the light is still doing everything SureFire wants it to do...though even at the same output, greater efficiency/longer runtime would be nice.

No doubt it is in need of an upgrade. Give it performance like the E2L on high and low and add the most efficient 3mm LED's in red and in white, and I would be all over it.

Runtime is important.

The 2 different style of beams would be quite the wonderful combination and the red option would make it even nicer.

I was really excited with the Kroma but after I got it, and I compared it's output and runtime to my PD, it lost some of its appeal to me.

I'll be honest ... the Kroma is a beautiful light and I would be kinda interested in it ... but I guess the lack of "forward" movement with Surefire in keeping up with led arms race has left me looking elsewhere. Continually.

The whole idea/argument of Surefire being primarily an industry-first supplier with consumers a distant second - thus - leaving little impetus to keep up with the consumer landscape ... is frustrating.

That's fine with me, if it's fine with Surefire.

Keeps more money in my pocket! :twothumbs I'm sure they won't miss my two bits to keep their ledger line afloat.

I honestly Would love to buy one... but when I am spending over $200 for a light (something I have done less than 10 times in my life) than I expect more than a brand name. The tint should not be blue or green or purple, and if it does not have the latest led in it, it should at least have a R2. I am sorry, but as a one time diehard SF fan who bought his first 6p back in arround 90-91 and who has spent a couple of grand on their lights... I no longer drink the coolaid. Until their lights are as cutting edge as their compitition... they will no longer get my $$$. When they make a light that is (like the E2DL) they will (and did )

To be honest, I wouldn't buy a regular Kroma. I bought and keep the K2-MS because of the YG LEDs.

I have wondered about this for a long time, and even spoken with some Surefire employees who agreed with me. The fact remains however that at the moment they are concentrating on other lights and that one is on a back burner. My guess is they still have a bit of stock that they are wanting to get rid of before they would try to upgrade anything. I don't suspect it was that great of a seller.

Is there anyone who can replace the main LED with an upgraded one, and would the be worth doing?

rebelproud said:

Is there anyone who can replace the main LED with an upgraded one, and would the be worth doing?

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If you read post #5, you'd have your answer. Run a search for his name and you'll get not only contact info but also copious examples of his work.