Herewith, a duplicate of the bit I just put on the front page of Dan's Data, in accordance with my ancient tradition of slightly padding my PayPal account by pimping Photon sales:
Again with the Photon Light special offers. But there's something different about the current sale:
Shipping to the US or Canada is, until the end of this month, free. And shipping to anywhere else is only four bucks, this month only.
No matter how much stuff you buy.
And yes, this includes Photon's larger lights, batteries, chargers, and so on. Anything you like.
The price you pay for this is that the prices of the actual products aren't any cheaper than normal for the duration of this "sale". But you can still get Photon's standard volume discounts, which start from only five units and are obviously interesting when shipping's this cheap.
If you're in Australia like me, or in Europe, or in some other place that isn't North America, and have gotten as far as the shipping prices on previous Photon sales before deciding that you perhaps did not need a collection of funny-coloured key-ring lights quite that much: This is the sale for you.
And, as always, if you follow this link and then buy something, I'll get a cut!
Quote from front page ends.
My reviews of the mainstream Photon products are all a bit elderly now; I've had some newer Photons sitting on the to-review pile for lo, these many moons. It's not as if Photon have suddenly started making laser pointers or nose-hair trimmers, though; their key-ring lights remain rock solid and highly reliable, and just get newer, brighter models of LED from time to time.
(Although they have recently released a freaky rechargeable four-LED key-ring light; you charge it by clicking magnetic contacts onto the ends of any standard 1.5-volt cell!)
I continue to highly recommend the odd colours of Photon light, although I don't think they've actually got a lot of brightness advantage any more, since lots more development money has been poured into white LEDs than coloured ones. But you can still get a "turquoise" Photon II or Freedom Micro, and it'll still be surprisingly bright (from fresh batteries, at least), and make the world look like a cheap sci-fi movie.
16 August 2008 at 5:56 am
The Photon Rex you mention is quite interesting, but you have to consider that a Cree-powered AAA light from DealExtreme or QualityChinaGoods is 1) not much bigger, 2) far less fiddly when the battery dies, 3) brighter at full power, 4) with more runtime and 5) significantly cheaper.
To me, this makes the Rex something that I'd keep if given as a present, but that I'd never buy myself.
As for the keychain lights: the cheapest Photon is the X-Light, which costs about $9. It won't make anyone poor, but when you consider how much flashlight $9 can get you at the chinese sites, it still has an unremarkable price-performance ratio.
Photon clones (which, as you probably know, we call "Fauxtons" over at CPF), on the other hand, are great value. Sure, one or two out of a ten-pack might require you to reposition the LED in order to work, and the occasional dud does happen, but they cost something like twenty cents each. Beat that.
The only reason why I'd ever get a genuine Photon instead of a supercheap knockoff is if I thought my life might at some point depend on my keychain light coming on NOW; otherwise, I think fauxtons have far greater value for pretty much anyone.
16 August 2008 at 6:00 am
Oh yes, forgot to say that there are fauxtons with Nichia GX LEDs available for about $1 each. They are much brighter than ordinary fauxtons, and are great candidates for a CR2032 battery swap. The result is much dimmer, but the beefier battery and the lower current draw allow it to last for ages. And the light output is still fine for most keychain tasks, especially considering standard non-GX fauxtons normally get to the same output after only a few minutes, and plenty of people have no problem using them anyway.