Just a heads up that we've added another product to the Doug Ritter Gear line of equipment.

I’ve long recommended Photon Micro-Lights®, but I have always thought that a few tweaks would make them even better. The latest Photon Freedom Micro® goes a long way towards meeting my requirements with simplified operation, variable light intensity and water-resistant construction, but my desire to tweak the light to make it better ratcheted up with the introduction of the latest technology Nichia white LED delivering twice the light with the same energy consumption.

More light with no decrease in battery life sounds almost too good to be true. Almost, but not quite; in this case, it really is true. However, brighter is not always better in every respect and the side scatter light from the brighter exposed LED is simply too bright, in my opinion, for comfortable use. Beyond the annoyance and discomfort, it presents a significant detriment to night vision adaptation. The conventional Covert style Photon Freedom Micro® solves the side scatter light problem, but results in too narrow a beam that in my opinion limits its practical usefulness. For most uses the wide area, very even flood illumination surrounding the bright spot of the LED is a significant advantage in finding your way in the dark, reading a map or similar tasks.Collaborating with the Photon’s manufacturer and Aeromedix.com, I have designed the Doug Ritter Special Edition Photon Freedom Micro® with two unique features:

The Doug Ritter Special Edition Photon Freedom Micro® has a protective LED tube that both eliminates sidescatter and protects the LED, while still allowing the general flood illumination that makes for a more practical and useful light. No more sidescatter and a wide area of usable light surrounding the twice as bright main beam. This tube is adapted from the standard covert tube, but is shorter, cut off even with the end of the LED.

The Doug Ritter Special Edition Photon Freedom Micro® is bright yellow colored, not black like the standard Photons, so it’s easy to locate. Whether in your purse, pocket, flight bag or if dropped, the bright yellow makes it a cinch to find. Please note that the yellow color is not integral with the plastic, but is applied in much the same manner as the camouflage coating is applied to the standard Photons. While this is durable, it will scratch if abused, but seems to wear just fine in the pocket with keys and change and the rest that we tend to carry.

The new Doug Ritter Special Edition Photon is available exclusively from Aeromedix.com at: http://www.aeromedix.com/?_siteid=aerome...p;sku=freedomdr

Price is $19.95 and as with all Doug Ritter Gear, part goes to support the Equipped To Survive Foundation.

Forgot to mention, as with all Doug Ritter gear, part of the sales price goes to support the Equipped To Survive Foundation.

Just as an FYI, aeromedix.com has now posted new, updated pictures of the new Photon Freedom Micro®-Light Special Edition by Doug Ritter and its accesories on-line.

I thought the split ring connector shown in the original pictures didn't look like the higher quality quick-clip used in the Freedom, so I contacted aeromedix.com to see what was really on the new light. They just e-mailed me telling me about the updated pics on-line.

Very cool light!!

I am SO ordering one of these next payday.

Pardon me while I mop the drool off my keyboard.

-- Craig

I just got mine yesterday- I ordered it from Aeromedix the day Doug announced it on this thread. I like it a lot! The clip it comes with seems particularly useful.

One thing surprised me though- it's not made with yellow plastic, it's made with black plastic and painted yellow. I'm worried about how well the yellow paint will hold up rattling around in my pocket.

Good observation. When they arrive I think mine will be securely tucked away in my PSPs, so it should do OK.

I've always been a real big fan of brightly colored stuff - especially small stuff - for camping. I think it started when I was a boy and my Dad painted all the tent stakes bright orange. Now I'm always looking for the bright yellow or orange versions of stuff (stakes, flashlights, tools, etc...), though to be real honest I just haven't gotten the courage to buy a brightly colored knife (I got the black mini-Rittergrip ... the full-size Rittergrip didn't have the option - whew!).

I like some things to be brightly colored, but the majority of my camping stuff is as neutral colored as I can make it. I think wearing bright colors in the wilderness is like littering. It destroys other people's sense of solitude. Plus, you can get closer to wildlife if you blend in. Even if they know you're there, they don't feel as threatened.

Obviously, for rescue purposes you want some bright stuff. I have disposable, blaze-orange fold-up ponchos for that. And it's nice to have bright tools, as long as you can keep them in your pocket. And if you spend any time outside during beer hunting season, gotta have more blaze orange to wear.

Black plastic painted yellow?! Wonder if Doug knows about this. I'd think the paint would wear off quickly.

-- Craig

According to Doug, the "yellow color is not integral with the plastic, but is applied in much the same manner as the camouflage coating is applied to the standard Photons."

So there we have it. The glass-filled nylon housing is NOT yellow. The yellow coloring is applied to the housing much like paint is applied.

It's funny how one's mind thinks. I was thinking the camouflage coloring was "painted" on, but that the other colors were the true colors of the glass-filled nylon.

-- Craig

GoatRider,

Tell us about the light. Doug clams the covert end is shorter than normal and you get more side light but are still not blinded by seeing the LED. Also, is the new LED in fact twice as bright as the old Photons? Do you think the blink mode is useful for signaling aircraft if you needed rescuing?

Thanks!

YOU said it ........ <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Yes, Doug knows. <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

This was the only economical way to accomplish this. The color is put on by the same company that does the camo dipping for LRI (Photon). In order to mold the units in yellow, the quantities are astronomical. Lots of zeros! As usual, Aeromedix is ahead of me in offering these for sale, Which I suppose isn't such a bad thing. <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> As a result, I've not yet completed the explanatory product page. That will hopefully be done in a day or two. On that page is the following explanation regarding the color coat::

While this is durable, it will scratch if abused. It seems to wear just fine in the pocket with keys and change and the rest that we tend to carry, but over time I think you can expect to see some degree of color wearing off as normal. Also, being a light color, it is bound to show dirt and wear more obviously that black. It will still serve for its primary purpose, making it easier to find.

IOW, if you expect it to stay flawlessly yellow, please don't bother purchasing it, you'll be disappointed. I am satisfied this is an adequate and reasonable way to go, if not perfect. We are still looking for an economical way to get a more abuse -resistant coating, but so far have not found anything

Hope this explains what's going on.

Thanks Doug. I wasn't really disappointed, just surprised. Thought maybe other people might be disappointed, which is why I mentioned it.

No, I don't expect something colored yellow to stay pristine in my pocket, no matter what it's made out of. My yellow mini-RSK has a thin coating of grey/brown something, and it doesn't bother me.

That's right, I'm fully ETS compliant- I have the PSP (given several to family also), an RSK, a mini-RSK, and now a couple DR photons. I'll probably buy the new fixed blade knife when it's available too.

I should have known you knew about it. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Flawless? I never expect flawless. I want one anyway. <img src="/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

Once you start offering them for sale from this site, I'll probably buy one then, too. <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

-- Craig

The product page is up on DougRitter.com. Still not proofed and some final tweaks needed, but mostly there. I'll port this over to ETS before the weekend, but other than minor changes, will be exactly the same
http://www.dougritter.com/dr_photon.htm

Holy Cow! I had no idea there was a DougRitter.com! <img src="/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

How cool is that! <img src="/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

I think I've been working way too hard. Too many 10-hour days, which have become my norm. <img src="/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

I will definitely buy from you. Natch. I shall return on payday or thereabouts.

-- Craig

Well, it's not as well known as ETS, for sure.

I have also now posted the DR Photon info at:

http://www.equipped.org/dr_photon.htm

Thanks for everyone's support!

Where's the black one? You know the one with the one with the exact same LED tube but only in the original black rather than with the yellow coating? I'll be waiting patiently. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Don't hold your breath... <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> OTOH, you never know...

Played around with one today and I'm sold. It's on the payday list, time to upgrade the EDC Photon.

Dave

I just saw this thread. Wow, cool.

I have a Photon II in green plastic, with a Spyderco logo sticker on it. It's sold with the forest-green Spyderco Jester, making a very nice combination. I have both the knife and light on my keyring.

I wonder how many of those they had to get made, to get LRI to use the green plastic. It really does seem to be green plastic and not a coating. It had always seemed odd to me that colored plastic wasn't available any other way. I also have few off-brand Photon clones in various colors, so colored plastic isn't rocket science.

For those who asked, yes, the new Nichia 500CS led really is around 2x as bright as the old led. There was extensive discussion about it on candlepowerforums.com (which is down for the weekend but should be back tonight). The revived Arc AAA also uses this new led in the premium version ( www.arcflashlight.com ).

I agree with the remark that brightly colored stuff in the forest is like littering. Normally you'd carry a light like this out of sight though, so it's not a problem.

I hope Doug can get the quantities of this light up enough to use yellow plastic instead of a coating. It would be great if LRI also sold a yellow version, both to increase availability and to lower the quantity that Doug would have to cover.

More than you can imagine <g> and they have said they won't do it again for that "small" amount at any price approaching reasonable. Enough money can get anything done, but then nobody could afford them.

It's apparently a lot more involved than you might expect and for lighter colors even more so due to the way the material acts differently with the coloring agent. Some materials lend themselves to molding multiple colors using the same dies better than others.

Would be nice, but I wouldn't hold my breath...

Hope this answers your questions, even if not the answer you'd like. <img src="/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

Hello Doug,

I'm curious; why did you choose the Freedom model over the Photon 3?

Personally, I like the auto-shutoff feature on the 3, and that it can be 'set' to go to your preferred setting immediately. (To be fair, though, I dislike the 'SOS' mode that replaces slow strobe on some colour choices.)

So...why did the Freedom model get your vote?

The 3's auto-shut off was a nice feature, but it also complicated things and the rest of the programing just didn't work for me. I really like the intuitive, practical and easy operation of the Freedom with the choice of ramp down or ramp up. I have never had a problem with the Freedom turning on in my rather overstuffed pocket, YMMV. If it's a real problem, try using the signaling mode. Changing back just means holding it for 4 seconds. For storage, there are a number of ways to prevent it from exhausting the battery inadvertently, linked at the www.dougritter.com/dr_photon.htm page, choose the one that works best for you. In the end, the Photon 3 is a dead end and the Freedom got the new twice as bright LED. As such, the Freedom was, to me, the best choice.

Ultimately, the products I am developing are products that I personally want, but are unavailable. If we're lucky, others find them appealing, but I don't pretend to be designing the perfect solution for everyone.

Hope this answers your question.

Thanks for your reply, Doug. It's always interesting to hear your insight as to why you choose certain items for your kits.

The Photon 3 a dead end already...*sigh*...are flashlights competing with computers to see which can become obsolete quicker? <g>