SF Millenium beam pattern elliptical?

Hey guys, I had a chat with the techs at SF, over the phone. I recently got a M3 head and MN10 bulb, for my M6. I call it my tactical lightsaber.

anyway I noticed that the beam pattern of the hotspot, is football shaped (I a refering to american football for those who play REAL football haha)

I called SF Tech and asked if the oval pattern is a defect in the bulb or possibly reflector. the Tech said that this is common in the millenium lights.

I think retorted with the fact that my M6 w/ MN21 (which stopped working) shot a perfect circle hotspot. The Tech said that is somewhat rare, as the elliptical pattern is more commonplace.

Is this true? millenium incans shoot elliptical patterns? that is somewhat dissapointing.

That's very normal with those M-series bulbs. The MN20 is often worse than the MN21 with regards to the football shape in the M6, but in my experience the MN11 tends to be more footballed than the MN10. Sometimes the glass envelope is set crooked to the aluminum base and this further amplifies the football shape and even turns it somewhat tear dropped in the worst cases.

Lumens Factory bulbs tend to be a little more symmetrical and even throw a little better partially due to their unfrosted tips...in case you're interested in that option.

http://www.lighthound.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=2848

Anything without an axial filament is going to throw a football. Fivemega's got some hotwire bulbs like that, if it's really an issue, you can get a bi-pin adapter and make a power solution to drive it.

I use the MN10, and it puts out a beautiful oval beam, most of the lumens in that area. Using the MN15 with two 18650's is a joy. The beam is still oval, but much tighter, a real night penetrator.

Bill

well it isnt really a huge issue. I guess I got spoiled with my near perfect MN21.

I had a slight suspicion that the tech might be blowing me off, just pure paranoia really.

If the filament isn't a point source (a 'dot') but the beam is round then some light is being lost that could be being used to form the central beam. SureFire worked very hard to ensure that their MN10 bulb and reflector combination got excellent use of every last drop of light whilst still ensuring the bulb and filament was robust and had a good lifespan.

The bulbs with the larger envelopes MN21, MN60, MN61 seem to have a rounder beam than the bulbs with the smaller envelopes MN10, MN11, MN15, MN16 and MN20. Sometimes the more oval beam is a good thing. Human eyes being side by side can see a wider range left to right. Widescreen TV's come to mind. Sometimes the oval beams bother me.

My MN21 is nice and round too. I really shouldn't mind oval beams, but for some reason, they annoy me somewhat. My P91 and EO-13 are ovular, but they're both bright enough for me to like them anyway...

Taboot said:

My MN21 is nice and round too. I really shouldn't mind oval beams, but for some reason, they annoy me somewhat. My P91 and EO-13 are ovular, but they're both bright enough for me to like them anyway...

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I like the oval beam as I can turn the light to project a horizontal beam for a broader view, or turn it to a vertical position for a different perspective.

Bill