Just What We Needed Dept.: A $499 LED Flashlight
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto 
on 09. 5.07
OK, it is pretty and we do love our LEDs. It is an "Ultra compact (pinky-sized), mini flashlight that establishes a whole new class of illumination tools: luxury flashlights. The Titan is the world's only fully variable-output flashlight, with an operating range from zero to 65 lumens and all points in between. No preset levels; just total, seamless control—over 1,000 possible output levels. The Titan features an all-titanium body with an elegant satin finish, a no-look control bezel for precision operation, a virtually indestructible LED, a scratch-resistant sapphire window, an Acme-threaded tailcap, and a quick-connect/disconnect interface that easily attaches to its included lanyard or key ring."
But five hundred bucks? ::Surefire via ::ProductDose
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Must be to help you find the million-dollar toilet when you're in orbit and the lights go out. ;-)
Why would they claim it's "pinky-sized" and then show a hand for scale that makes it clear that it's actually "middle-finger-sized"?
So what does this have anything to do with treehugger'ing?
There's no mention of how green or not green it is. Hell, everything else that's fashionable and "green" is expensive, so what's wrong with the price?
This seems like such a pointless post. All you're doing is bitching about the price.
Wealth Per MegaJoule. Spending too much money on something is very green.
Pure flashlight porn. I want it! I don't like that $3.25 Li CR2 that it runs on, though. How come no rechargeable choices?
The smaller the object, the greater the likelihood it will be lost or misplaced, and thus unavailable when you need it. Hence, the makers might as well decorate it with diamonds and rubies and make it a personal adornment...expressing what it really is, a symbol of personal wealth.
For those that didn't notice, at the bottom of the post are some extra links, used as categories. The two that that are likely most pertinent to this post are "Untreehugger" and "Conspicuous Consumption". I know it's easy to miss them, but once you get in the habit when one of these "questionable" products/ideas is posted, just look there and that usually explains more than the poster did ;)
As for what also makes it untreehugger is the fact that titanium is an extremely hard metal. It takes a lot of energy to machine it. It cannot be extruded like aluminum and it takes special machining tools and bits just to machine it. And why the need for a sapphire for scratch-resistence? Aren't there other materials just as good for a fraction of the costs?
If it was still in use in 100 years....would that be treehuggerific?
65 Lumens is pretty weak for that much money. I'm guessing battery life of less than one hour at full power also.
Who uses flashlights anymore? It's all about headlamps these days.
Half a grand? That cheap?
I want it! a 65 lumen flashlight that is that small? Damn, the sapphire widow is so that you don't get imperfections in the beam design that could make for less than optimum power out put. Clearly this isn't meant for any of you. Surefire designs high power durable flash lights for the military and police. A flash light that is this small and powerful would be very useful to some one that is the the public eye to defend them selves from possible assailants at night. 65 lumens is bright enough to temporarily blind an attacker at night to make an escape.