The elusive Lamy AL-star "Lilac" captured!

[HDoug]

The review of my recently purchased Lamy AL-star in silverblue noted some weird quasi-hallucinogenic color variation in the pen. The pen itself is uniform in color, but would seemingly change color from day to night (cue Twilight Zone guitar doodle). At night, it was the color as in this official photo from Lamy:

 

http://www.lamy.com/productFragments/e34/e126/e125/027_gross_eng.jpg

 

But there have been reported sightings of a silver purple "lilac" version of the pen as shown in this FPN post, which shows this photo:

 

http://www.de.ufpe.br/~cribari/lamy_al_star.jpg

 

When a nice afternoon came around and I decided to take a photo of my silverblue AL-star, I noticed it had turned purple, or at least lilac. The photo evidence shows it to be silverblue. In other words, I was looking at a lilac AL-star and a fresh photo of it in silverblue at THE SAME TIME! What the...? Here's the silverblue photo:

 

http://homepage.mac.com/hdougmatsuoka/images/pen/LamyASB/LamyASBCappedC2.jpg

 

I just now pulled up the photo in the software that came with my scanner, and by messing with the "hue" slider was able to get the color very close to what my eyes are looking at:

 

http://homepage.mac.com/hdougmatsuoka/images/pen/LamyASB/LamyASBCappedCLilac.JPG

 

I swear this is the color of the pen I have in my hand at this very moment!

 

I'd appreciate if someone can explain this to me in terms of maybe color temperature or color perception, but it's really weird looking at the silverblue photo and holding a lilac one in the metal at the same time.

 

Anyway, the UFO really was a weather baloon in this case. This yeti has been solved: The "lilac" AL-star is the same one as the silverblue.

 

Doug

Edited January 13, 2008 by HDoug

[southpaw]

My wife's '97 Camry does the same thing.

[Hans-Peter Ording]

Great UFO (UFP?) report, HDoug, that's really interesting - now we can be sure that there is no lilac version.

 

Regards

Hans-Peter

[Wishfour]

I have exactly the same situation with my pen. It always appears to have a lilac tint to the eye, but when photographed is silver. Unfortunately, I don't have a lid for this pen, so I'd appreciate it if someone can tell me what colour pen it is officially, so I can order a replacement. It certainly doesn't look blue, but could be silver.. ?

[Hans-Peter Ording]

The color is called silverblue.

[Wishfour]

Thanks, I'll contact Lamy

[HDoug]

I have exactly the same situation with my pen. It always appears to have a lilac tint to the eye, but when photographed is silver. Unfortunately, I don't have a lid for this pen, so I'd appreciate it if someone can tell me what colour pen it is officially, so I can order a replacement. It certainly doesn't look blue, but could be silver.. ?

 

There are two "colorless" AL-stars. One is brighter and simply called, "aluminum." The other is darker and called "graphite." I have a graphite, and here it is pictured with the "silverblue" (called just "blue" in the US):

 

http://homepage.mac.com/hdougmatsuoka/images/pen/LamyASB/LamyASB2CappedC.JPG

 

Hope this helps.

 

Doug

 

 

[Wishfour]

Hi Doug,

I had a look in a shop today. It's not the same colour as the graphite ones, so it must be silverblue. Thanks for the info