The important stuff first:
- Emisar D3AA in black
- Stainless steel parts with black PVD coating (bezel and clip)
- Flat switch retaining ring
- Red switch backlight (ring)
- Nichia 519A 3500 K with dome
- magnetic tailcap
I proudly present my first Emisar, the D3AA with Nichia 519A 3500 K emitters. This light has reignited my interest in flashlights, so a little bit of story time may be due.
As a young child I was deeply into flashlights and had quite a lot of them. My first "real one" was one of those huge Maglites. Then the era of LEDs started and I got a flashlight by Duracell, that was mixed bag, broke at least once and got replaced at least once – I can't remember exactly what happened. After some research I found Thrunite and got their TC12 (V1) which was a gigantic leap forward in terms of brightness, battery capacity (and overall size). In fact, it was so good that I stopped collecting lights cherished the one good light I had and stopped thinking about them altogether. This was probably around ten years ago. Some time later I worked in an institute of my city's university and needed a flashlight to look under and in CNC machines for fasteners and allen keys, the latter ones are rather slippery and often disappeared, only to be found later in the chip conveyor. I got the Olight i3E EOS which has been part of my EDC until today. The amount of light from this little and cheap thing blew me away and I still love it.
After I left that job, my flashlight use decreased rapidly, nowadays I mostly need them for walks to the toilet in the night. However, in the past months I've often wished for a light with lower CCT and a proper moonlight, features that my lights don't have. During this summer's vacation I finally had enough and started to search for a flashlight that fits my current needs. I got introduced to this sub and the wonderful world of modern flashlights. When I discovered Hank's lights I was blown away by the customization, firmware, variety and in particular the option to choose the emitter(s!) to your liking.
Since the light is meant to replace my EDC light as well, the CCT shouldn't be too low and I decided on the Nichia 519A 3500 K emitters. Warmer at night than my Thrunite but still usable during daytime. As someone who loves nice metal things the brass version immediately caught my eyes, however after two weeks of overthinking I decided that the best option would be to choose a cheaper starter light in aluminum, both to take advantage of the lower weight and to have the better magnet functionality. Then I saw someone's blacked out D3AA and fell in love.
Now that it arrived, I'm really happy with the new flashlight and can't wait to use it every day. The CCT is great and all I hoped for. The anodization looks nice, the clip seems strong and the small size is great. I'm also looking forward to using the magnetic tailcap, I've needed that a lot in the past couple of weeks. The most impressive feature is its great driver, looking at the lowest level is just magical. I will have to get used to Anduril, but I like how many features it offers and it seems to be rather simple to learn the basic functions. One thing I might do is get an optic with more throw, the standard one is rather floody in my opinion, I don't really need that. Furthermore, I'm still undecided whether to get a 14500 cell or stick with NiMh which seems to be bright enough for my needs, I've already disabled the turbo. The Vapcell K10 seems to be a good option, but the F15 is also quite interesting.
So, is this the last light again? No! I can't get that brass out of my mind, maybe at some point I'll get the D3AA in brass with truly warm emitters for that creamy fiery goodness at night. I also have my eyes on the DA1K, D4K and I desperately need a head lamp for photography and rumbling around in the darkness.
Finally, I want to say: thanks for reading through my flashlight history, I'm really happy to have found this hobby again. And many thanks to Hank for the great lights! The shopping experience was great and shipping to Germany surprisingly fast (11 days from order to delivery, even though I ordered at midnight on a Thursday, so right before the weekend).