Re: Cabela\'s 3 watt Luxeon
^Depends on the reflector. With proper texturing (like most Surefires and the Pelican M6 LED use), a reflector can kill optics in beam quality. I've NEVER seen an optic that can come close to the beam quality of a Surefire or Pelican M6 LED. Even a reflector that doesn't have lots of texturing can produce excellent beam, if designed well like the Arc 4. However, if the reflector is NOT well designed, it can produce terrible beam quality (like Gaglites). MOST stock reflectors on the market are NOT well designed, which is why they get a bad reputation for beam quality, IMO.
Optics will almost always produce a flawed beam, in my experience. The only optics that I would consider a "good" beam is that of the Arc LSH (but its still not a GREAT beam IMO), as the corona is relatively free of artifacts and there is a moderate hint wire magnification. Even popular optics like the 30mm optics Elektrolumens uses create rings all throughout the corona. They also magnify the wires (or whatever those lines are in the hotspot). Both my 3Ps have lines in the hotspot. Some optics are better than others, but I've NEVER seen optics that come close to a top notch reflector, like Surefire, Pelican M6 LED, and Arc 4 use, IMO. I'd say that on average, optics produce better beams than poor quality reflectors. However, optics as a whole only produce satisfactory beams IMO. To get the best beam, you really need a well designed reflector, preferably with orange peel texturing. Just IMO, YMMV.