anyone invented a good waterproof zoomable focus with adjustable modes yet?

[davictorschwarz79]

Looking for a light that has zoom features and also waterproof. The brighter the better. Needs to be carried on walks through town and spotting owls in the wilderness, etc... Waterproofness just needs to be moderate enough to fall out of a raft while doing some white water, take a swim a few minutes, and still get the light to turn on up stream.

 

[Kevin117]

I'm looking for the same. I've taken to trying to modify the small UltraFire/Cree (and other names) black single cell (AA or 16650) zoom lights to make them submersible. They have a few o-rings but they have a glaring problem. The zoom part slides on a metal ring that isn't even a full 360 degree circle. Besides the obvious gap the metal ring would keep water out. I'm experimenting with a o-ring, but I'm worried that will provide too much resistance for it to zoom easily.

 

[dc38]

Looking for a light that has zoom features and also waterproof. The brighter the better. Needs to be carried on walks through town and spotting owls in the wilderness, etc... Waterproofness just needs to be moderate enough to fall out of a raft while doing some white water, take a swim a few minutes, and still get the light to turn on up stream.

At the expense of lost lumens, you could take a cheap zoomie and affix an ultra clear lens to the inner housing of the flashlight's 'pill' with some silicone to turn it into a regular mule to use in conjunction with a zoomie outer housing. That way, you'd have a light you can drop into water and not worry about any water ingress into the internals while still having a zooming head at the loss of maybe 15% of your current lumens.

 

[PCC]

There's an inherent problem with zoomies that makes them difficult to make waterproof: the internal volume of the light increases and decreases as you zoom it. If you seal it enough to make it truly waterproof the air pressure inside will act like a spring and make adjustments difficult and it'll want to spring back to where the pressure inside the light is very close to the same pressure outside of it. MagLites zoom using a cam on the back of the reflector so the volume increase/decrease is kept at a minimum.

 

[TEEJ]

There's an inherent problem with zoomies that makes them difficult to make waterproof: the internal volume of the light increases and decreases as you zoom it. If you seal it enough to make it truly waterproof the air pressure inside will act like a spring and make adjustments difficult and it'll want to spring back to where the pressure inside the light is very close to the same pressure outside of it. MagLites zoom using a cam on the back of the reflector so the volume increase/decrease is kept at a minimum.

Mags don't actually zoom though, merely focus more or less sharply...a primary difference.