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>