Manufacturer:- www.theorb.co.uk
Purchase Price :- $91.79/£50 http://www.xe.com/ucc/
Size:-110.15mm long, 29.10mm Diameter
Weight (With Batteries):- 174g (6 1/8 oz)
Battery Type / Qty :- 2off 3V CR123A Lithium.
Battery Life :- Not Known Yet
LED Type :- 1off Luxeon III LED bin
Rated Output:- Not Known
Estimated LED Lifespan:- Over 100000 Hours
Colour :- Aluminium
Working Temperature :- Not Known
Lens Material :- Glass with antireflective coating
Optics :- 17mm Reflector
Electronics:- None
Body Material :- Aluminium
Finish :- Bare polished aluminium
Seal Type :- 1off O-Ring
Depth Rating :- Not Known but Rated Water proof
Manufacturers Guarantee:- 1 Year

This is a review of the the first official Candle Power Forums special edition light since the demise of ARC flashlight.

This is a relatively new torch design from amazingly enough a UK company! It contains several novel ideas and makes a unique collector item in this numbered candle power forums special edition. My light is number 002 out of 100 total lights.

The first thing that struck me was the tube the light was delivered in. What an excellent idea! I don't normally show the packaging. But this is so striking that I thought it was worth a few photos. Don't think this takes anything away from the light as you will see in a moment that this is also fantastic.

After carefully removing the staples and opening the shipping tube. I was delighted to find yet another container inside containing the actual light. This is a screw together design and is marked with the ORB logo. Unscrewing the tube give access to your new toy! It will also reveals the operating instructions printed on a label on the inside tube section.

I think this type of imaginative packaging should be adopted by more torch manufacturers. It certainly makes it seem like you have just bought something slightly out of the ordinary.

Finally we get to the torch. This is machined out of aluminium alloy and is left in a plain unanodised finish. This makes it silver and shiny. Well sort of shiny as it does not have a mirror finish, more of a brushed finish but very cool looking.

The ORB logo is machined into the body of the light near the front. The rear of the light is finished with a custom engraved disc with the letters CPF and the serial number 002.

The tail of the light unscrews to allow you the insert the batteries. This is not immediately obvious as the machining is so good on the two half's.

Once open the light will take two CR123 3V lithium batteries. These are inserted with the positive end towards the LED end of the light. The fit snugly into the tube and do not rattle when the light is reassembled. The light will take other types of batteries but this will require the resistor board on the LED end of the light to changed. See CPF for more information on this and suitable batteries.

I am quite happy to stick to CR123 cells as I have several other lights to use.

The lights operation is one of it's most unique features. There is no normal on/off switch as on other lights. Nor do you twist the head of the light to operate it.

On this light you insert the metal part of the lanyard into the hole on the tail of the light. This turns the light on. How does that work? Well the metal part of the lanyard contains a small magnet. When you insert this into the hole on the body of the light it actives a magnetic reed switch and completes the circuit, thus turning the light on. Seems like magic though.

The light uses a standard Luxeon III emitter, this version has bin code TWAK or TWOK I have not opened the light so not sure exactly which version I got. But needless to say the output is almost exactly the same as my VIP, so it's pretty excellent. The throw is particularly impressive and is due to the reflector used along with the small die size of the Luxeon III LED.

The other unique feature on this light is the tritium vial installed into the front if the reflector assembly. I initial thought this would make a big dent in the beam output but it is only slightly visible in the outer part of the corona so is not a problem. It the dark the tritium vial will glow and allow you to locate the light.

You can see how it looks on the pictures. Please not that these are long exposure photographs and make the vial look a lot brighter than it actually is. In pitch black conditions it is quite bright, but don't expect it to look like my pictures.

It is in my opinion a very worthwhile feature though. The Tritium is radioactive element (Don't worry though as it is perfectly safe and no unsafe radiation can pass though the glass of the vial). It should glow with half life of around ten years when its output will have diminished to about half of when it was new.

The only thing this light does not have is any sort of electronic regulation of the power to the LED. This is often found in similar sized lights to this but usually adds a considerable amount of complexity and cost to the product.

This light has a simple unregulated output which means as the batteries are used and the voltage drops so will the light output. Not such a bad thing as you will know when the batteries are wearing out due to the dimmer light. It is also more efficient than using as regulator as none of the power lost powering the electronics. That not to say that if there was a regulated version I wouldn't buy one though!

The version shown here is the CPF special edition. You can also buy the standard light without any serial number or CPF markings from the site listed below. You can also get a special all Titanium version if you are feeling flush as it costs over $369 or £200 ish. Maybe next time . LOL

UK Dealers

www.theorb.co.uk The Manufacturers website

More info this and other lights here

www.candlepowerforums.com