I am wanting to buy a deft but have a few questions
1. What is the difference between the original and the FTP(I think that is what it was called?)
2. Which one is brighter and has longer throw?
3. Are the originals still being produced? If so where do I order one?
4. Is it worth trying to get an original or should I just get the FTP?
The original DEFT had options for different tints. Some came with cases and diffused lenses that added some versatility. They also had an excellent thermal path with the LED either soldered or epoxied to solid copper. One of the most obvious things was the carbon fiber bezels which I must say were quite beautiful. They were very well balanced in the hand due to the lightness of the carbon fiber. The Enthusiast version(original) also all had glow powder around the LED(unless deleted by purchaser) that glowed quite brightly after the light was turned off. Performance varies light to light and through the production of the Enthusiast I did not test each light for it's specific lux output but they were around 150K-160K Lux. However some may have been a bit more than that still. The later ones especially.
Then came the FTP which featured a new shock resistant bezel in place of the carbon fiber. A change in the drivers started with the FTPs where the bulk of the power did not run through the switch. That made for a more reliable switch. In the interests of keeping costs down the LEDs were mounted to MCPCBs which also meant a reduction in allowable current. The FTP ran at 1.4A. The only options ever offered on the FTP was a few neutral white versions. Lux performance was in the 135K range.
Then there was a very few FTP bodied high output models that used the old, more powerful, drivers and the LEDs were also mounted directly to copper again to deal with the additional current. I was using up old stock drivers for these. Not sure of the lux range on the few of these sold.
There was a lot of desire for the HO's so I set about to make a more extreme version of the HO. These have a black leather lanyard, AR coated pre-collimator, and slightly better thermal path than the prior best. These also featured a more powerful version of the FTP driver which ran at 1.7A. These are probably the most powerful made to date. The lux for these run from 175K-200K.
I have 7 more HO's to sell and then I will have 10 hybrid FTP/HO's to finish off the DEFT production. After that I am done with the DEFT.
As I look back on all the ones I made my favorite was the ones I sold to Karlthev at number 6 of the original run. Although it was not the best performing the attention to detail on those was immense. I polished the copper internal pieces to a jewel finish. It was no way to make money however and the extreme delays meant I could not do that on every light.
