Arc Flashlight vs Photon II

20 inches from the wall


10 feet from the door




<UL TYPE=SQUARE>Bright
Small
Light
Easy to buy/replace 1AAA alkaline battery
[/list]

I like this flashlight!!!!

Peter.. why is it that Arclight turquoise has a square center beam with 2 smaller dark squares inside.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by 2d_edge:
20 inches from the wall[...]<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Nice pictures!! I can't do those 'hallway' shots with my cheap piece of $&@^%* Polaroid.


<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by 2d_edge:
Peter.. why is it that Arclight turquoise has a square center beam with 2 smaller dark squares inside.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I believe I can answer this ? for you.
Judging by the beam photo, the LED Peter used was a Nichia NSPE590S, which is Nichia's narrowest beam blue-green LED, rated at 20,800 beam candela typical.
While the white LED has a typical viewing angle of 20° to 22°; this unusual LED has a very narrow beam of approximately 3° by 6°.

If you don't care for the narrow beam & the "dog bone" beam profile, there are numerous people here who have concocted various 'fixes' for it and I'm sure they would be happy to help.

The beams of the white and turquoise seem identical to the Arc's that have. The turquoise seems between a bow-tie and a radioactive symbol. I don't mind it and I like the color.

Thanks for the great pic`s Edge, looks like the white Arc holds it`s own against the Photon very well..and murders it when it comes to batt replacement cost...and I`ll bet bright burn time too...I think these are nice lights indeed...I compared it against my best Infinity with a lithium batt and it isn`t even a contest

I wonder why the blue rings with the Arc and not the Photon. I thought someone said that the Arc uses the same LED as the Photon. I guess it must not from the looks of it.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by X-CalBR8:
I wonder why the blue rings with the Arc and not the Photon. I thought someone said that the Arc uses the same LED as the Photon. I guess it must not from the looks of it.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

These are a by-product of the Arc's reflector... remember the Photon doesn't have one.
The rings aren't nearly as obvious in my samples; the main 80% or so of the beam is brighter than it would be without the reflector.

telephony... I'm glad "fixes" are available for this 'dog-bone' beam of light. My "fix" probably is to return this for a white arclight.

K Horn... maybe I'll also try the "rum and coke" while doing the time-lapse photo of Arclight, of course also in the interest of science.

KenB... I was surprised when I first saw Arclight's beam of light and saw that it was brighter than Photon II. Both flashlights were installed with fresh batteries before the photo session.

X-CalBR8... I wonder too. telephony.. thanks much for the info.

I wish they'll come out with an Arclight with clear Lexan head (180 degree beam of light) for tent or room light.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by 2d_edge:
telephony... I'm glad "fixes" are available for this 'dog-bone' beam of light. My "fix" probably is to return this for a white arclight.

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> I must admit , I`m a little confused too...maybe Arclight was trying to have a longer projection beam...but to me the turquois Photon looks a lot nicer...I wonder if the Photon bulb is available and could be used in the Ark...if I want a long distance beam I would pick a 3-D incandesant Maglight-Streamlight-Tecktite- or something else (any other suggestions?) I say use the same bulb (as the photon) unless something brighter and smoother is available. Nothing wrong with letting other companies do some homework for you. You can be sure they will take advantage of yours.

for a long distance beam, i'll use ledcorps single led in a variety of 6volt flashlights! of course the incadescent versions are brighter, but your batteries/wallet will thank you for using leds, assuming the the light emitted is up to the task involved?

We will be offering a wider angle turquiose in the next shipment. Still deciding between the 15 and 30 degree Nichias (the one in there now is the 10 degree). We want to keep things simple, so it will be one or the other, not all three.

What do you prefer?

Peter Gransee

The one used on Photon II is nice. Arclight turquoise has a distracting dogbone center beam. It's like looking at animal branding iron.

I would also reccomend the 7600mcd turquoise ones as used by Photons. The 15 degree versions are the same as the Infinitys use and while being a slightly nicer bluer colour, they have quite a lot of distracting rings and distortions while the wider Photon one (I think it`s 45 degrees) is smoother and brighter.

Go with whatever the photon is using...everyone loves it...I think I heard 45 degrees as well...better ask our led pro...Telephony...can you help out with this one? Part# please

I asked Telephony first.

He said to try all three (10,15,30) to see which one we like the best.

I could post some beam images when they come in.

Peter

Peter, the big advantage of Arclight (white) over Photon is its small size, bright light, and "user-friendly" feature when replacing battery.

Brightness is at par if not better than Photon's small-size lights, if you compromise on quality of light (low-quality LED type) to save on manufacturing cost you defeat the total advantage of Arclight over its competition.

Make the Arclight a overall better flashlight than other small flashlights. Placing a low-quality LED on a better barrel than others is a self-defeating action, imho.

By the way sorry to be a bit off topic but if any DIY flashlight fans want to buy some of those impossible-to-find Photon turquoise LEDs without paying a fortune for them, I recently got some from Ebay from this guy....
http://cgi6.ebay.co.uk/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewListedItems&userid=kidnipomo&include=0&since=-1&sort=2&rows=25

who is the same person selling the DB18s. He was offering 50 lots of 10 of those turquoise LEDs in a dutch auction- I bought 3 and 2 other bidders bought one so I reckon he`ll be re-listing them in the future. Was $13 for each lot of 10...

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by 2d_edge:
Peter, the big advantage of Arclight (white) over Photon is its small size, bright light, and "user-friendly" feature when replacing battery.

Brightness is at par if not better than Photon's small-size lights, if you compromise on quality of light (low-quality LED type) to save on manufacturing cost you defeat the total advantage of Arclight over its competition.

Make the Arclight a overall better flashlight than other small flashlights. Placing a low-quality LED on a better barrel than others is a self-defeating action, imho.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I agree. We use the best LEDs money can buy. If there is something better out there, let us know.

Peter Gransee

Well, Nichia offer the blue green in differant angles and tint groups, just like the whites but even the 30 degree has rings. I suspect LRI might use one with a more blue tint...and polishish the led real quick to eliminate the rings (done by a machine of course). Ther are no returns with Nachia. You are stuck with what they send you...still you must reject those which are not up to company standards. Part of the cost of doing business. You can however resale those which don`t pass to recover some loss...maybe charge $1.00 apiece for them with a minimum order of perhaps 10. Plus some shipping. As long as it`s done honestly...why not...