This is a custom light. It is also my first custom light so is something of a benchmark for future custom purchases to live up to. Why buy a custom light? Well it may offer things that are not found in commercial products and it may also be made in small numbers so as a collector this makes it very appealing.

Well this light from Doug Speck inspired from an original design from tvodrd from CPF is an initial limited run of a small super high powered 1 watt Luxeon LED.This power is supplied by a single CR123 lithium cell. It is probably the brightest torch for its size that I have ever seen.

The light came supplied an fitted with the CR123 Lithium cell so to operate it all you have to do it turn the head. To replace the battery when flat you unscrew the head from the body then drop in a new battery and screw the head back on.

This shows an interesting feature of the light which is the - battery contact. This is an off centred socket head cap screw mounted in the base. This is purposely mounted off centre so that it wipes across the battery to ensure a good contact when the head is rotated thus turning the battery slightly against this screw.

One thing about the battery. As supplied the battery will rattle about in the light as there is no retaining ring as fitted to other lights of this type. No to worry though as a simple fix is to use a scholl corn ring or similar. This doesn't bother me though as soon as its turned on it stops rattling.

The output from this light is similar to an ARC LSH but quite a bit brighter. Colour is not as white as the ARC. It has a brighter hotspot and surrounding corona than the ARC as well.

The runtime for the Firefly is around an hour which is far less then nearly 2 hours for the ARC. So this is the trade off for the increased brightness.

The other trade off is HEAT. Hold this little innocent looking light in your hand for any length of time and you will realise what a good job all that copper is doing on heatsinking the LED. This light gets almost uncomfortably warm. This is not a real problem though as you are more likely to use this light in short bursts and lets face it it now doubles as a hand warmer for those cold dark winter nights (Well it does here in the UK anyway).

The electronics fitted to this light are another item available from the CPF members. They are available from the 'Sandwich Shop' and are called MadMax modules. These electronics will regulate the power from the battery to ensure a constant voltage output for the life of the battery. The light will then eventually drop out of regulation and run for about another hour or so at vastly reduced brightness. Some of these modules have an adjustable brightness setting other are set to maximum output. I think my light is fitted with one of the latter units but I have not removed the module yet to look at it. These modules can be bought to mod other lights and many people from CPF have done this to mod Maglights and stuff.

Construction of the light is excellent. All parts are CNC machined from aluminium and copper. The copper adds a nice coloured band around the light which really looks good against the black anodising. Not sure if this will tarnish with age , but it can be soon polished up again.

Light is sealed against water and dust with o-ring seals on the head around the glass lens and on the battery thread seals.

The lens is glass so should be pretty much scratch proof. Just don't drop the light from a great height onto a hard surface as it would probably shatter.

Firefly shown against the ARC LSH, ARC AA and ARC AAA for size comparison.

I have not put the manufacturers details here as normal as this is a custom light with limited availability. If you are interested in this and similar lights I suggest that the best thing to do is look on CPF and do a search in the Firefly. I think another run of lights is being considered for the future so keep a look out for them.

More info on the Firefly and other lights here

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